Tikib wrote:Here's something that's always interested me. How big does a renewable plant need to be to be sustainable.
For instance the huge dams in China and South America are probably sustainable because the power from them could be used to make concrete metal etc to repair them.
How big would a csp plant have to be to be sustainable?
To be sustainable you would not just need to repair them over their lifetime, you would also need the energy to replace them at the end of their lifetime. If that is 20 or 30 years in the future, it will not be considered in investment decisions.dashster wrote:From the standpoint of just producing excess power over it's lifetime that could be used for the energy required in repairs over its lifetime, it would seem that we are now at the cost point where they all do that. If it took more energy to repair them than they could put out then none of them would make any economic sense no matter what the tax subsidy was to build them.
Keith_McClary wrote:To be sustainable you would not just need to repair them over their lifetime, you would also need the energy to replace them at the end of their lifetime. If that is 20 or 30 years in the future, it will not be considered in investment decisions.dashster wrote:From the standpoint of just producing excess power over it's lifetime that could be used for the energy required in repairs over its lifetime, it would seem that we are now at the cost point where they all do that. If it took more energy to repair them than they could put out then none of them would make any economic sense no matter what the tax subsidy was to build them.
Newfie wrote:That's right, over billions of years of evolution nature has perfected the best solar power storage system possible. Trees.
You think you can do better!
Harrumph!
Look, sorry to be such a downer. You are a new guy. Looks around, you will find kindred hopeful spirits. But there are a few hard core realist also.
Not everyone is as grumpy as I. Welcome aboard.
Tikib wrote:Newfie wrote:That's right, over billions of years of evolution nature has perfected the best solar power storage system possible. Trees.
You think you can do better!
Harrumph!
Look, sorry to be such a downer. You are a new guy. Looks around, you will find kindred hopeful spirits. But there are a few hard core realist also.
Not everyone is as grumpy as I. Welcome aboard.
Well as I said before its far too late to save our society with solar power. But you might be able to save some sort of civilization if you did it now.
Trees are a good storage mechanism but actually the best storage mechanism is to use the energy there and then to make something. Like grinding corn is far more efficient than storing wind energy in a battery.
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