<DrumBeat: July 27, 2007The Oil Drum

442 comments on The Future is Solar

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crudedude on July 26, 2007 - 5:25pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Solar and other renwables are our only future but only for a very reduced stable population size. Regardless of how much energy we can produce there are is only so much space, water, air and soil. No matter how clever we are in providing for our energy we still have a very bumpy road ahead as we reduce our population levels.

Another thing I wonder about is when do we pass the point with technology that the majority of the population is required just to service the technology for an ever decreasing number of individuals who can afford not to be concerned about it breaking down.

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Big Gav on July 27, 2007 - 2:24am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

This is just ridiculous - the projected population of 9 odd billion people in 2050 will be perfectly capable of living prosperously once our energy and industrial production systems have been reconfigured.

Solar and wind aren't the only large scale clean energy options - there is a lot of power to be captured from ocean (tidal and wave) and geothermal sources as well.

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step back on July 27, 2007 - 2:56pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Big Gav,
Didn't know you were back from hibernation.
Some solidly good new posts on your web site:
http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/

p.s. IMHO, the movie, Children of Men is a religious piece, it was initially released last Christmas

p.p.s. How do you have time for doing all that research and posting?

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Prof. Goose on July 27, 2007 - 5:49pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Big Gav was very kind in the early days of The Oil Drum...hell of a thinker and aggregator that guy.

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Big Gav on July 27, 2007 - 11:28pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks guys - glad you still find time to keep track of what I'm up to.

I'm slowly re-emerging from hibernation, though I may take a week or two off this month to write a long post I promised the Alpha Male Chimp Who Can't Drive a long time ago...

As far as time taken to write my stuff goes, I usually find 2 hours a day is sufficient. Basically I don't watch much TV, so that is usually possible most evenings.

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step back on July 29, 2007 - 5:40am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

To do all that in 2 hours is remarkable.

I find it takes 2 hours for me just to read through the flame wars in a single TOD post, and then I find myself to be just like other humans and reptiles, merely having wasted another day without preparing for the coming apocalypse. :-)

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Big Gav on July 29, 2007 - 8:24am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Well - when I'm posting regularly I rarely have time to read through comments (at TOD or elsewhere) which is why I rarely comment here myself.

I certainly waste more time on the blog than I should - I've got lots of real world things to do as well, although I've decided its best to work towards avoiding the coming collapse of civilisation :-)

I should note some of my larger or more complex posts take a lot longer than 2 hours - something like "The Shockwave Rider" or "Bright Green Buildings and Dark Green Buildings" can take months to slowly assemble. Then some minion of big brother goes and bans it (The Shockwave Rider) anyway without even telling me which bit is annoying...

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Big Gav on July 27, 2007 - 11:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The idea that Children Of Men is a religious movie is an interesting one - I hadn't noticed it was a Christmas release, but given the prime spot occupied by the baby in the movie that makes a lot of sense...

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apsmith on July 27, 2007 - 10:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Well, probably not. I've been putting together the numbers on all the options, and tidal, wave, and geothermal are pretty limited -- see this on tides and geothermal, and the links there to previous summaries of hydro, solar, fission, etc. options.

Basically the only large scale options (more than 10 times present world energy use in total renewable resource - of which we could only ever harness a few percent globally, or hundreds of millions of years worth of non-renewables) are:

* "water" - hydro + if we could somehow capture the latent heat energy associated with water vapor in the atmosphere, total about 3000 times present use

* solar - total about 13,000 times world use, or more if we go off-planet

* fusion - about 150 billion years of present world energy use from D+D fusion

* fission - about 600 million years of present world energy use from U-235.

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OilcoEx on July 27, 2007 - 2:55am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

bah humbug. If we're all going to die, why are you wasting the last few years blogging?

I can buy enough solar panels to make my power bill prettymuch go away for roughly $30K. That's <5% of what we have invested in the house. Obviously that's a net metering system (no batteries) so we do have to solve the storage problem for night/cloudy days, but we'll find a way and it won't take 100 years for it to happen. $100/bbl+ oil will concentrate a lot of minds over the next decade or 2.

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tstreet on July 27, 2007 - 1:13pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Just curious. Are you? Installing panels, that is.

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OilcoEx on July 28, 2007 - 10:11am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

maybe next year. I'd prefer a windmill and want to get a small wind gauge to collect data for a year first.

we pay 30-35 cts/kwhr here.

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AlanfromBigEasy on July 28, 2007 - 11:52am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

May I suggest a mix, PV and small wind, if the economics of the two are close. Especially true if you plan to add batteries and develop off-grid capability.

Best Hopes for Renewable Energy,

Alan

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robert2734 on July 28, 2007 - 5:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

30-35 cents a kilowatt hour? Where's that, an oil platform in the north sea? Sun+Windmill have synergy. Most places, it is either sunny and clear, or cloudy and windy.

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