The Myth of Renewable Energy

Harperdog writes to this "Excellent piece by Dawn Stover about what renewables can and can't do. The sun and wind may be practically inexhaustible, but 'renewable' energy isn't. Solar, wind, and geothermal power are not fundamentally different from other energy technologies that consume finite natural resources. Good reading for anyone who thinks they know how to combat climate change."

Re:Real Question

[buglista]

If all the axes of all the wind turbines line up at once, it will act as a giant gyroscope and throw the earth out of orbit.

Or were you actually serious?

Re:Steam

[Gordonjcp]

It's not really "lost", though. It just gets out of your local closed system and back into the global environment. If you just let all the steam go, it will float off into the atmosphere until it gets cold and all the little molecules start to miss their friends.

There's currently about 5cm an hour of the result coming down all over NW Scotland.

Re:So want to conserve energy?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think most of Slashdot is well ahead of the curve in this department, albeit not necessarily by choice.

source website is bunk

[Anonymous Coward]

I checked that atomic website thebulletin, they dont have very many scientists, and are not a scientific
agency. their board of directors is pure PR experience, Corporate directorship experience, banking etc....

one of the more qualified members of the board is an MD..... remember the discussion material
is regarding engineering and biological sciences....

seriously check out the qualifications of the people who run the organization....

propaganda and misdirection.

Re:600 acre-feet, WHAT?

[ballpoint]

It's about 0.091 cubic furlongs, which you can easily convert to osp (olympic swimming pools) yourself.

Re:Renewable or infinite?

[Dexter Herbivore]

So GP didn't RTFA, you didn't RTFA. I guess everybody wins! :)

Re:Renewable or infinite?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's very true, it's the second top reason on my list of why I don't drive a car with an explosion engine. The top reason is still that a modern internal combustion engine is much safer than an explosion engine.

Re:Renewable or infinite?

[Adriax]

Till you get a plant manager who feels inadequate as a man, who chops off the catalyzer to put in glasspacks instead.

Re:Renewable or infinite?

[drb226]

If I know anything about the Human Race, it's that we can grossly mismanage things.

Well, in our defense, we're better at managing nuclear power than any other species in the known animal kingdom.

Re:Renewable or infinite?

[symbolset]

Bikes consume even more fossil fuels than a Hummer. It turns out you're a really inefficient engine for propulsion, and while you don't consume fossil fuels, the things you consume do.