Energy Switch: Proven Solutions for a Renewable Future

Declining oil supplies and the environmental impact of coal dictate a switch to renewable energy sources for a sustainable future. Written for a popular audience.
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Jacobson, a professor of civil Iran can transition to a fully renewable electricity system and financially benefit from it by Wind power generated The use of renewables like the sun and wind can cause fluctuations in power grids. But what impact do these fluctuations have on security of supply? To answer this question, scientists from Juelich and Goettingen worked together Germany on Monday rolled out the world's first hydrogen-powered train, signalling the start of a push to challenge the might of polluting diesel trains with costlier but more eco-friendly technology.

Since designing and launching a specialized workflow management system in , a research team from the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has continuously updated the technology to help computational Apple is trying to turn its smartwatch from a niche gadget into a lifeline to better health by slowly evolving it into a medical device. Apple unveiled three new iPhones on Wednesday in a bid to bolster its spot in the premium smartphone market, along with an upgraded smartwatch that takes electrocardiograms and detects falls.

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Renewable electricity by the numbers gets thumbs-up in new study November 12, Tech Xplore —Conclusions that we can reach a stage where renewable electricity runs the world may not sit easily with skeptics but a study contends that it is feasible by Germany rolls out world's first hydrogen train September 17, Germany on Monday rolled out the world's first hydrogen-powered train, signalling the start of a push to challenge the might of polluting diesel trains with costlier but more eco-friendly technology.

What will it take to save this blue marble we call Earth? What if a single musical note could mean the difference between life and death? Adjust slider to filter visible comments by rank. WW, that Forbes article is an opinion. There are some persistent myths that percent renewable systems are not possible," says Professor Brian Vad Mathiesen of Aalborg University, who is a co-author of the response. I find it ridiculous that the scientists had to go to such lengths to convince the stupid of the obvious; OF COURSE there are reasonable solutions to the intermittency of renewables!

There are a lot of theoretical solutions to the storage problem but but there are no large scale financially practical solutions to date. In the future who knows perhaps fusion will be developed and make renewables less inviting. Why would someone invest millions or billions to free the population from monthly energy bills? That's taking away their power over the masses! This is one of the main reasons why it has not transferred into large-scale production.

There are plenty of examples of cities, and countries that are reaching very high levels of renewable penetration. The bigger question for me is - why the constant double standard? There are no examples of countries being run purely on any one energy source. The current system has taken over years to develop. Thinking we can just turn off all those legacy plants, and transition overnight to a new system - is of course nuts.

We have invested heavily in the current infrastructure - and it is going to take decades to switch over. Shutting off all the current plants would be incredibly expensive - as we would loose all that current investment. Germany paid that price for taking their nukes off line over a very short period. Not saying that was wrong - but it was costly.

The transition is going to take time. As we move forward - more and more countries will employ higher and higher percentages of renewables - and we will see how the real world evolves. Four states here in the U. This kind of analysis - https: Let's watch and see. Of course, if civilization continues, until the population doubles again, and people's average power usage goes up again.

Meanwhile, to argue against using the free power that's falling from the sky is stupid and ridiculous. It's raining soup, grab a cup and step outside. Scotland is integrated to UK fossil-fueled grid to hide intermittencies. As always, another conspiracy theory. What is it with nutjobs and conspiracy theories? They all have one. As always, another conspiracy theory Actually there is a nugget of truth in pointing out that Scotland is connected to the UK grid - and at times will still be using fossil fuels.

Dealing with intermittency involves things like grid interconnections. So as the whole UK moves to more and more renewables as they are - we will watch the whole thing evolve. The point isn't whether Scotland is using UK power, it's whether it's to "hide intermittencies. But capitalism at its root will drive the push to or against any energy source. Once the price to run a natural gas plant became cheaper than a coal one, coal plants declined.

Once the price of renewables decline below the cost of other forms, the push to renewables will be overwhelming. The fact that renewable energy is essentially free minus plant maintenance and initial cost of course means that even tho it is quite dilute at some point the recurring cost for fuel will overwhelm any fixed structural cost of the initial plant.

I wish I had space to draw the equations. The math is quite compelling. Don't give these idiots an inch, greenos. It may take a hundred years to close the last fossil fuel plant - but we should not make the perfect, the enemy of the good. It would not be practical to do that with nukes. The really big question for me - is when will we have a come to Jesus moment over climate change - and get really serious about stopping burning carbon? Renewables will never be "Cheap" until the intermittency problem is solved.

Yes the cost of the gas that was not used is a saving but you are still paying for two sources of power and all of the labor involved. When energy storage is added into the renewable equation the costs go up higher than fossil. Hydro storage is a great idea as an add on to an existing dam but there are not a lot of sites that support this.

During rainy parts of the year this will not work because a lot of the water is discharged without producing power. Don't give these idiots an inch Interesting that there are lots and lots of installed-capacity of intermittent energy around the world at cost of trillions of dollars and ecological impacts where it can be seen clearly that wind and solar have failed miserably at reducing emissions and replacing fossil fuels and caused electricity prices to skyrocket, e.

Ain't no such thing as a free lunch is a truism.

However, there is a concerted effort to make energy consumption more expensive. And thus more profitable for the cartels gaming the economic system for their own, personal enrichment. A multitude of competing and complimentary technologies for producing and distributing energy? Enrage the altright fairytails. They preach 'free enterprise' but practice centralized statist control of energy by directing public investment into nuclear energy. These stooges of fascism preach 'conservatism'.

While deliberately sabotaging efforts to develop technologies that conserve energy usage and consumption of expensive resources. They slavishly obey their Saudi and Russian masters to artificially drive up the prices for petroleum products. Even willing to traitorously deliver America into endless wars to feed their avarice for wealth and power. MR Renewables will never be "Cheap" until the intermittency problem is solved Then how come the 4 states with the most wind in the U.

On this thread alone - we have presented multiple sources - validating that electricity prices are being kept low - due to cheap gas, and cheap renewables. Just making statements does not make them true MR. Can we get percent of our energy from renewable sources? These measures will do far more to save the environment than trying to switch to renewals. In fact they are the only things that can save this sick planet from total collapse. This need not be as drastic as it seems. Tech advances will replace much of todays wasteful industries and most everyone alive today will be dead in 60 years anyway.

The trick is to keep them from being replaced. But in order to accomplish THIS, the religionist cultures that thrrive on forcing growth will need to be destroyed, and this cannot be accomplished without force.

Can we get 100 percent of our energy from renewable sources?

So ok I guess pretty drastic. But it has been done successfully in the west, and most of these cultures reside in regions which will be unlivable due to climate change in 60 years, so we'll have to wait and see how it plays out planned, prearranged, already done. One more caveat - it took 2 world wars to end religionist domination of western culture. So again - pretty drastic. Oil-based economies warm the atmosphere and depopulate regions that are both the source of oil and of religion-fueled overgrowth.

God does work in mysterious ways. Did the article deal with the interesting fact that no known form of renewable energy is economically feasible without subsidies? How is that addressed by technology? It didn't because that is no loger the case as opposed to fossil fuels and nuclear - which still require loads of - partially hidden partially overt - subsidies. The answer is categorically: Regardless of what happens, the future will be renewable - whether we are able to maintain our current living standards or not.

Fossil fuels will run out or become otherwise unsustainable. But my main objection to the opinions presented is that they suggest things like load management or batteries, or fantastic contraptions like huge flywheels, are the "best option". Their worst case scenario of producing synthetic hydrocarbons syngas is actually the most feasible and cheapest option available. The rest are either a resolute failure to maintain current living standards, require massive changes in the social order for the worse central tyranny and energy rationing , or pies-in-sky fantasy technology.

It didn't because that is no loger the case as opposed to fossil fuels and nuclear - which still require loads of - partially hidden partially overt - subsidies The greater amount of hidden subsidies is with renewables - because nobody counts the integration cost against renewables. The main problem is that they're non-dispatchable, so the indirect cost through load following and storage is great.

Nuclear actually pays more than it gets in subsidies - what counts as subsidies is offset by the tax levied from nuclear power for things like waste disposal, which is however squandered by the governments that levy said tax by refusing to actually implement it. Prince Piero Ginori Conti tested the first geothermal power generator on 4 July , at the same Larderello dry steam field where geothermal acid extraction began.

It was a small generator that lit four light bulbs. Later, in , the world's first geothermal power plant was built there. It was the world's only industrial producer of geothermal electricity until , when New Zealand built a plant of its own. Florida's building codes anticipate 2' rise in sea level, maybe more. We're already seeing things we've never seen before: Eikka what counts as subsidies is offset by the tax levied from nuclear power for things like waste disposal, which is however squandered by the governments that levy said tax by refusing to actually implement it.

So we have a power system that generates high level radioactive nuclear waste - that will need storing and monitoring for many thousands of years. So we leave the waste sitting in pools at the nuclear plants all over the country. So what is going to change - if we build hundreds more of these power plants? Seems like Eikka has just made a great case for not going down that route Fear mongers excite the public to the point that the not in my backyard idiots rule and the system is stalemated. Our soil, air, and water - and the flesh of humans and animals - are becoming critically contaminated with toxins and contagions.

Little bits of plastic are everywhere, and will linger for centuries. There are no longer natural barriers to the proliferation of disease and invasive species. Our world has become a cauldron of filth and disease which will not correct itself for centuries. It will soon be incapable of supporting the populations who live on it. We in the west who live on our little islands of relative abundance are oblivious to the obvious. Global warming can and will correct itself as this all plays out. Industries will move off-world.

Colonies beneath the surface of other planets and moons with uninhabitable surfaces will again enjoy the isolation that prevents contamination and pandemic. Their food will be grown in soil free of contaminants. Their energy will be produced in distant nuclear facilities on the surface where they will present no danger. Their industries will be entirely robotic and completely separated from habitable space. Epidemics will be contained and eradicated before they can infect significant numbers. The isolation that life on earth depended upon for eons will be restored when, and only when, we begin moving into space.

Actually, at least in Western nations, the birth rate is lower than the replacement rate. Thus governments are in a panic because all of their Ponzi based financing schemes are about to crumble and governments on all levels are about to go bankrupt. Ocean dumping should be banned and each person should be charged individually to dispose of garbage. Plastic that is not economically recyclable should be burnt for energy instead of dumped.

Of course, proper emission controls are needed for these plants. This madness is obviously not sustainable. These obsolete cultures exist in regions which will soon be uninhabitable due to AGW. The trick will be to convince the refugees who arrive here, to leave their cultures behind. The west apparently has a successful formula for accomplishing this because it has worked for centuries, in the US at least. Eurabia may be another matter. Plastic bags are an easy target but a bigger problem is all of the plastic packaging that stuff comes in.

Stores like Costco sell foods and other items in huge bulky and stiff plastic containers that take up a lot of room when disposed of. A big problem if fear mongering. AGW is a prime example of this. There are whole branches of so called science that obtain funding by claiming man is about to kill himself. Yet lifespans continue to increase as long as people do not kill themselves from opioid abuse. Just because we can now measure in parts per trillion is does not mean that every trace of poison is actually harmful.

Many people drink water with traces of poisons but the cost of removing them would cause more deaths than it saves. MR That is untrue So as reported by Eikka - a tax was levied on electricity - to establish a fund - for the expressed purpose of setting up a disposal solution. In Eikka's words squandered by the governments that levy said tax by refusing to actually implement it And then MR comes along and says "that is untrue. Where is said solution? Importing the socially needy just makes the problem worse. BTW this is not a capitalist non-solution it is a non-socialist solution.

Look up the writings of Cloward—Piven and you will see the whole plan. Then how come the 4 states with the most wind in the U. Simply electricity is still cheap "due to cheap gas". Yes all of the short term "Thinkers" in government are trying to boost their economies with new poor. Importing the socially needy just makes the problem worse It has always worked this way.

Refugees come here, move into chinatowns or little havanas or little italys, take cheap jobs, and work their way into the suburbs.

BTW this is not a capitalist non-solution it is a non-socialist solution Sorry too many double and triple negatives to make sense of this. In plain English this is a socialist plan to destabilize the West. The transformations suggest heavier hydrocarbons could exist deep down. The reversibility implies that the synthesis of saturated hydrocarbons is thermodynamically controlled and does not require organic matter.

Much of our deposits could well have arrived here like our other resources did; comets, meteors, etc. In plain English this is a socialist plan to destabilize the West In plainer English this country's a melting pot. Look up the writings of whoever invented the term 'melting pot'. The people who are able to make it to the US by and large have the gumption and the resolve to work themselves out of poverty and become dependable consumers.

They are fleeing decrepit socialist and despotic regimes in search of better lives. They come here because they want the freedom to decide how they want to live. Coming here is never easy. Only those with enough courage, ambition, pragmatism, and ingenuity will attempt the trip. And these people or their children are the easiest to convince to shed their old cultures and adopt ours. They are pushing for retention of the individual cultures and languages. Melting pot implies that the new adopt much of the customs and language of the host country.

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The push to make Sharia Law part of the US legal system is unacceptable. Also if an educated European wants to enter the US legally we make it a long and expensive process. Yet people want to support poor and uneducated people entering unchecked. Actually Otto the immigration is worse than "unchecked". Under Obama our government actually transported unaccompanied and undocumented minors into the US. Some of these minors went on to become MS13 gang members since they had no adult supervision and the gangs became their guardians.

Questions no one asks. Among other things, the energy that is expected to be harnessed for percent of uses, that is energy that, currently, is not being put to work. It's either doing something else or leaving. To put it to work means it stays here longer than before, possibly even building up. If there was a balance at work before, with energy that, previously, wasn't being put to work being related to energy that does stay around longer, then this could disrupt that.

Go % Renewable Energy : Book Tips

Getting energy from sources that used to simply shed energy and heat could cause a build up of heat greater than what is claimed now from "fossil fuels". These questions have already been answered. That seems exceedingly unlikely. Electric motors are much more efficient than ICEs, meaning less energy is needed and less energy is converted to waste heat. Additionally, the albedo from solar panels is about that same as that of earth, so you're not getting any increase there.

Regardless, waste heat from fossil fuels is a tiny percentage compared to heat addition due to the GHGs. How can you spend collected money on waste storage when no one will let you put the stuff anywhere. Locals and out of towners ended the effort. It is a prime example of the green movement wanting to make sure that the problem is never solved.

They're above-ground armored concrete silos that hold the dry nuclear waste in wait for disposal or recycling. The main problem is all the people who are blocking any action from taking place. The deep borehole disposal -trial- site in Arizona was blocked by picketing protesters even though there was never going to be any nuclear waste in the hole.

It's the will that is lacking, not the means. So what is going to change What's going to have to change is a allow nuclear waste reprocessing, b have the government buy a large-enough plot of land and simply shove out all the NIMBYs.


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The common tactic used by anti-nuclear factions is to deny that any solution to the nuclear waste issue exists by actively impeding any solution from taking place, then claiming that no solution can be found since they are preventing it. Therefore nuclear power must be banned. People do things like chain themselves to railroad tracks to protest that transporting nuclear waste by rail is unsafe, to demonstrate that people may sabotage the tracks and cause accidents - but the argument is circular because they're only able to do that because we allow them their protest.

Don;t sweat it Eikka. When Trumplestiltskin is through, that embarrassing old First Amendment will be gone. And those protesting your good opinion of your importance will be outlawed. Not only do a growing number of initiatives and plans dare to make the change but many have already achieved it. This rich collection presents a series of The Economic, Social and Technological Case for Renewable Energy For years industrial civilization has relied on the combustion of abundant and cheap carbon fuels.

But continued reliance has had perilous consequences. Book by Hermann Scheer second Edition Climate Change, pollution, deforestation, destruction of the ozone layer, poverty and the population explosion are all problems created or exacerbated by the use of conventional Top Ten Talking Points. Non-Profits, Public Entities, Institutions. Home Contact Privacy Policy Login. December 2, Let It Shine: January 7, Power from the People How to Organize, Finance, and Launch Local Energy Projects More than ninety percent of the electricity we use to light our communities, and nearly all the energy we use to run our cars, heat our homes, and power our factories March 1, Prozent erneuerbar So funktioniert der Umstieg auf saubere, erschwingliche Energien.

June 29, Switching to Solar: February 8, A Renewable World: February 1, Energy Autonomy The Economic, Social and Technological Case for Renewable Energy For years industrial civilization has relied on the combustion of abundant and cheap carbon fuels. November 19, Energy Switch: February 5, A Solar Manifesto Book by Hermann Scheer second Edition Climate Change, pollution, deforestation, destruction of the ozone layer, poverty and the population explosion are all problems created or exacerbated by the use of conventional Books January 7, Power from the People How to Organize, Finance, and Launch Local Energy Projects More than ninety percent of the electricity we use to light our communities, and nearly all the energy we use to run our cars, heat our homes, and power our factories Books March 1, Prozent erneuerbar So funktioniert der Umstieg auf saubere, erschwingliche Energien.


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