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You miss a major point. I live in rural Maine and there are plenty of folks trying to live "off grid" and generate their own electricity. Here we sit, 2013, tho
by secstate 13y ago
You miss a major point. I live in rural Maine and there are plenty of folks trying to live "off grid" and generate their own electricity. Here we sit, 2013, those with solar panels on their house have to make sure not to run the dishwasher more than once a solar cycle in winter. Good luck charging your car on that. I'm sure there are ways to generate more power, but you wind up needing LOTS of panels and that increases the chance of failure and need to replace.
I know the technology will get better, but like AI, they've been promising improvements in solar panels for decades now and they never seem to appear.
- Nrsolis 13y agoMaine isn't representative of the amount of potential solar energy available in other parts of the USA.
- secstate 13y agoThat's valid. But I would also argue that solar power has yet to deliver on promises made anywhere in this country. And countries like Germany that doubled down on subsidies for solar are seldom heard from these days (as are wind farms). In fact, most people in may tend to shy away from solar and wind in Maine these days in favor of tidal, which is much more reliable, though harder to keep equipment maintainable.
- Nrsolis 13y agoYou not counting the trillions spent on military intervention in the oil-rich Middle East as a subsidy? Germany just decided to decommission all of its nuclear power generation. That power is going to come from somewhere.
- tomasien 13y agoAny argument that implies that the only thing that can achieve the proper energy density is fossil fuels is a dead argument. It's like arguing that computational speed will never overtake the human brain without knowing what Moore's Law is.