All of the above - Alternative Energy Options

[Buffy]

Wind farms do change the ecology on the ground, making it warmer because it disturbs the air. I'm not sure any particular negative side effects have been documented outside of slightly warmer temperatures on the ground.

Having said that, i see no reason why we can't have hundreds of miles of wind and solar farms in the middle of the freaking desert.

[Plow]

Pretty sure every wind farm combined creates less air disturbance than, say, the Sears Tower.


Regardless, the effects that are assumed to be related to wind farms are far less than, say, a town. They're also pretty much only at night, and extremely localized. It's literally a matter of miniscule quantities of warmer high air getting caught up in the turbulence and slowing the rate the ground itself cools at night.

[archibaldcrane]

Minor noise and bat/bird deaths are the only negative effects of wind power that deserve any sort of consideration, and even those are generally blown out of proportion.

[Acevalefor]

Minor noise and bat/bird deaths are the only negative effects of wind power that deserve any sort of consideration, and even those are generally blown out of proportion.

Never underestimate the power of the vocal minority! We have environmentalists blocking roads to wind farm construction projects, slashing tires and generally being a huge nuisance to contractors that are installing the turbines. All in the name of saving a supposedly endangered species of bats and stopping the "dangerous rise in ground temperatures" as alluded to in another post.

[Waraji]

I could give a shit about Bats or Wildlife, shit has gone extinct on earth before, and it will continue to happen long after we're gone. Personally, I think Wind Farms take up way too much real estate that would otherwise be used in the future for land development. Add to that the nuisance of noise pollution once said development begins to creep on the farms. Similarly to photovoltaic technology, I think it takes way too much to get a sizable return to make a difference in the energy grid.

[archibaldcrane]

Similarly to photovoltaic technology, I think it takes way too much to get a sizable return to make a difference in the energy grid.

Fortunately for people interested in solar panels, they get to make their own cost/value determination.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Wind Farms degrade radar capabilities, but only directly above them, and in a predictable enough pattern that you can edit out the interference with computers. that creates dead spots, though. One of my friends tried to get all "Thanks Obama" about it but as it happens I'd read the same article he did... but paid more attention. It was amusing.

anyway, since dead spots by their very nature don't exist in a vacuum, it's not a big deal. But the military has obstructed quite a few wind farms anyway because they (Perhaps justifiably) are paranoid.

[Jaybar]

Alternative energies coupled with a reduction in building energy costs is what makes alt. energy so awesome. Oil is/was so cheap that we could build however we wanted and slap on some massive energy-sucking HVAC systems to compensate for a shitty indoor climate.

Now we got architects and firms that are devoted to reducing energy consumption of buildings (which makes up ~30% of all total energy consumed), making alternative energies more appealing. As archi said, too, building codes are changing to require energy saving construction (mostly in Cali but other cities have started to adopt similar policies akin to LEED).

[Waraji]

Fortunately for people interested in solar panels, they get to make their own cost/value determination.

Don't get me wrong, I'm specifically talking about Solar Farms. I'm all for slapping photovoltaic panels on homes, businesses, integrating them into high rise buildings. There's plenty of room for architectural uses and integration of solar panels into building design. Investing into producing a whole solar farm, meh.

[Callisto]

What about a mass farm of hamster wheels?

[Waraji]

Hmm, I'm to too versed on Hamster Wheel energy technology, specifically the type of waste associated with it.

[hey]

Fuck all of the above, let's just go to pure nuclear.

[quannum]

Fuck all of the above, let's just go to pure nuclear.

[Stanislaw]

In terms of a bigger source of power, Fusion holds my interest the most, although we probably won't be seeing any practical uses for it for quite a whiles.

My hopes were raised a bit when I read somewhere that Japan's became somewhat more invested in Fusion research after Fukushima, as they've been looking for non-nuclear ways to generate power after the disaster, but can't seem to find that source.

[Outlaw]

Meant to post last night. Anyway responding to the OP..

Ethanol and other plant based fuel sources are hyped so much but they are not feasible. I heard a statistic one time that it would take more farm land than the US has to grow crops to produce enough ethanol for it to be more widely available. I know you were talking about multiple sources though. About foreign oil. I agree. Not only do we need to reduce imports on foreign oil I think we need to cease altogether. I'm talking about the Middle East here. I'm not saying we should suddenly stop using oil one day.. that's not realistic either. In the short term it will have to remain a major fuel source. There is another place we can get it though.. Our friendly neighbor to the north.



That's not the whole report. The rest just talks about how unstable the Middle East is and how Alberta hasn't had a civil war recently (lol) I guess it's still technically "foreign" oil but I think I would rather give our money to them instead of countries that hack people's heads off for saying bad things about religion.

More info from wikapedia:

The Athabasca oil sands (also called the Athabasca tar sands) are large deposits of bitumen or extremely heavy crude oil, located in northeastern Alberta, Canada – roughly centred on the boomtown of Fort McMurray. These oil sands, hosted in the McMurray Formation, consist of a mixture of crude bitumen (a semi-solid form of crude oil), silica sand, clay minerals, and water. The Athabasca deposit is the largest known reservoir of crude bitumen in the world and the largest of three major oil sands deposits in Alberta, along with the nearby Peace River and Cold Lake deposits.[3]

Together, these oil sand deposits lie under 141,000 square kilometres (54,000 sq mi) of boreal forest and muskeg (peat bogs) and contain about 1.7 trillion barrels (270×109 m3) of bitumen in-place, comparable in magnitude to the world's total proven reserves of conventional petroleum. Although the former CEO of Shell Canada, Clive Mather, estimated Canada's reserves to be 2 trillion barrels (320 km3) or more, the International Energy Agency (IEA) lists Canada's reserves as being 178 billion barrels (2.83×1010 m3).[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sands

And remember the Keystone pipeline? The one that Obama blocked. It was suppose to transport oil from the sands to the US.

I believe in alternate energy replacing oil someday don't let all I said fool you. I think humans are smart enough now to stop burning dead plants and animals for energy.

[archibaldcrane]

The US is now the #1 petroleum producer in the world.

[Helm]

You know the keystone pipeline already exists, aye? Only thing that's been blocked so far (that I know of) is the Keystone XL: a large shortcut that goes over a rather massive aquifer and through wetlands. The pipeline is already moving oil, but the objection is to making a route through that particular area.

[Mazmaz]

Outlaw, are you aware that the oilsands are the worst human created pollution in the world?

[Tarage]

Really, we should just stop being pussies and use Nuclear. It's a fuckton cleaner than pretty much everything else.

People are just fucking stupid about it. I mean look at Japan. They got hit by a fucking tidal wave and most of their other power infrastructure went to shit. Only like a handful of people got a harmful dose of radiation. And these were shitty Russian designed units.

If we actually put effort into making safe nuclear there would be next to no problems.

[Plow]

that kid is fucking amazing btw, haven't watched the video yet but I'm guessing it's pretty fucking cool...

dude has literally been refining yellow cake in his garage since he was like 8