It is about 50% underdeveloped in the US
Bullshit.
Large-scale hydro is essentially DONE in the US. Why? Environmental impact.
And worse, in some regions, multi-state water rights issues and environmental change are all set to cause massive problems for hydro.
(Google up Colorado River Water Rights Issues)
Basically, unless storage technologies take a MASSIVE leap forward, nuclear will still make sense in 20 years. Or 100 years. Or 1000 years.
The reason is, without those storage technologies in place and functioning properly, the scale and complexity required of renewables-based energy go up a several orders of magnitude, past the point where actual implementation is feasible or economical.
If you are concerned about carbon in the environment and do not support fission for electrical generation, You Are Not Really Concerned About Carbon.
No, that is complete bollocks.
No. Actually it's not.
If you purport to be concerned about carbon in the environment, and you don't support modern fission for electrical generation?
You, quite simply, have NOT thought through the equation well enough.
While some of the renewables COULD be built to a point that you could use them, in conjunction, for base load, the main problem is that the power STORAGE technology for such an undertaking just doesn't exist.
Without that, the build-out for a complete system is several orders of magnitude LARGER and several more orders of magnitude more intricate. This makes them totally unfeasible from pretty much EVERY logistical standpoint.
Yes, granted, we COULD build enough nuclear capacity to cover energy consumption for the entire planet for years/decades/centuries to come (both base and peak).
That's uneconomical. We're better off building nuclear to cover base load in the truly foreseeable future (basically over the 50 year lifespan of a typical generator), and then augmenting with renewables for peaks.
Once that's done, LOTS of research (and MONEY) needs to be poured into two things.
1: Fusion
2: Improvement of storage technologies/methods.
Reduce human population to that which can be sustained without modern power generation
Any population reduction effort begins with education, unless the state of your education system is so abysmal that you have to start punishing people for having too many children.
Unfortunately, you still can't fix stupid. Even with education.
And stupid people will continue to breed like rabbits.
And, while they are still debating all this, nuclear has been and continues to be the single energy technology that has already offset huge amounts of carbon generation. Nobody seems to want to give nuclear credit for what its already done.
Of course not!
Noo-kyoo-luhr = BOMBZ!
BOMZ! = EVIL!
Good people don't like EVIL!
Therefore, the unthinking masses have turned power generation from a science and a business into a popularity contest.
Now think about how much is going up smokestacks throughout Asia, without all the "stringent" environmental controls that the US plants have to comply with.
That's great for SoCal in the summer.
Try applying that to Chicago in the middle of winter.
Or nobody could care?
I thought the real Dread Pirate Spartacus Montoya was living like a king in Patagonia.
I am the Dread Pirate Spartacus Montoya.
I am not left handed.
Prepare to die!
Inigo Montoya. You should be familiar with the rest of this by now.
*STAB!*
Because it's not about finding a more effective means of producing biofuel.
It's about being a subsidy to Big Corn industry.
That and having to replace engine seals frequently.
One of the main problems high-E engines is the Ethanol tends to eat the seals, even on engines designed to handle high-E fuel.
Try reading the ENTIRE post next time douchebag.
Well,
Considering that the first thing he does when thwarted is try to inflict harm on people he disagrees with?
And the fact that he openly associated himself with an international "hacktivist" network that was breaking into government-affiliated websites (among other forms of mischeif)?
That he's had a history of anti-government rhetoric that condones the use of violence?
All seems condemned in the long run to approximate a state akin to Gaussian noise. -- James Martin
