Nope. Not only is geothermal location-specific but it's also quite diffuse.

The Geysers, the geothermal plant that's been operated by Calpines - mostly - and first came on line in 1960. The whole system, which is distributed across 30 square miles and consists of 22 power plants only produces about 955 MW. Having your production facilities spread across a wide area adds a not-insignificant component of cost.

That's a fair amount less than any single base load coal, natural gas or nuclear plant and they can be sited pretty much anywhere obviating the need for HVDC power lines.

...the story doesn't mention anything about subsidies and/or tariffed rates. Is this that rarest of beasts, unique in all the world, a commercial wind turbine installation built for the purpose of generating a profit?

Of course not! https://www.theguardian.com/en...

"The Scottish government warned this week that if Westminster ruled out allowing onshore windfarms in the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland to compete for subsidies, £2.5bn of investment would be put at risk."

Anyone who's worried that wind and solar power will have their morally elevated "sustainability" marred by fiscal sustainability can relax.

By the way, I wonder what wind and solar (and tidal in the case of the Orkenys) has done to the cost of electricity?

...that says climate is warming and humans are the cause than that just cinches things up.

We don't need no steenkin' scientific method when we've got massive government reports. Everybody had damned well better fall in line now because a massive government report means the science is settled and anyone who doesn't immediately begin nodding their heads in agreement is the proper target of invective and threats.

People have to understand that in the twenty-first century science is no longer encumbered by the need for a demonstration of the validity of a hypothesis. If enough scientists decide a hypothesis is verified than by God, it's verified.

...opens up for organized labor.

The history of CARB has been to set unrealistic goals because they can than quietly retrench.

What's changed, at least from the point of view of the irresponsible people who run CARB is that now there are real electric cars on the roads.

Never mind they require huge subsidies to eke out a microscopic slice of the market, they're real so CARB can once again flex its muscles and hope not to end up with egg on its face.

The irony is CARB may actually get what it wants although not via a mighty mandate. Technology and the free market will, as usual, deliver the solution that government's incapable of providing in the form of autonomous electric cabs.

Cripes, it's not all that big a secret. Here you go - https://www.wired.com/2007/06/...

What doesn't make much sense is why it's being done. Keeping the embassy staff on edge must look like a good idea to someone of significant power in Cuba because putting the requisite technology together isn't something that average Cuban could do.

Hunter-gatherers live at pretty low density so when the population of an area hits some critical mass the kids find out mom and dad would rather they get their own place. So you pack up your stone tools, shelters, clothes and preserved foods and go where you're pretty sure there aren't any other folks to dispute your desire to settle down.

If you're in Siberia that means going north and east until you get to where the land curves due east and you end up in Alaska. Getting there's no problem because you use boats to move along shore just like mom and dad do. If Alaska's free of folks who got there ahead of you well, you just keep going. Unless you can kill them of course and take the land they owned.

is how Skynet begins.

is the bite taken out of the brain thus proving the long-dismissed hypothesis of dinosaur zombies.

I'm wondering if humans will ever shake off their extremely violent ancestry and wind down the war and militarism.

A question offered from the prospective of a non-human?

No, probably not. Rather more likely the question issues from a superior human being who's beyond such primitive reflexes.

Ah, right. You're linking to The Nation so your intellectual superiority and evolved status have been properly signaled.

First off, if the engineers designing this thing are remotely competent there won't be any out-gassing.

Uncontrolled out-gassing is, and has since the beginning of the space age, been a really obvious problem. So it'll be designed from the get-go to avoid uncontrolled out-gassing.

It also doesn't have to be brought back to Earth to be weighed. Acceleration, if any occurs, can be measured pretty precisely. The degree of acceleration is a product of the mass and velocity of out-gassing.

If there is any observed acceleration you just have to wait until the amount of reaction mass necessary to account for that acceleration exceeds some reasonable amount and we're done - it works. No tour of the solar system necessary.

...and plan to get rid of all my hockey sticks.

You need Old Glory robot insurance. For when the metal ones come....for you!

...the public education system's spent the last fifty or so years frittering away the faith of the public so something's going to result. Testing's one the results but there are more then a few others.

Charter schools, now in forty-four states are probably the most widespread result but testing is right up there. Coming up pretty quickly is vouchers/education savings accounts.

The days of the school district as the one solution to the problem of educating the next generation are coming to an end.

Get used to it.

Well sure. Phil Plaitt assures us that the sun has essentially no effect on the Earth's climate and hey, that's good enough for me!

I understand that 98% of climate scientists also agree that the sun has essentially no effect on the Earth's climate so there you are. Case closed.