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From: jbn@wdl1.UUCP (jbn )
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Re: more on alternate energy sources
Message-ID: <402@wdl1.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Sep-84 21:22:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: wdl1.402
Posted: Fri Sep  7 21:22:08 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Sep-84 19:08:17 EDT
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Nf-ID: #R:sun:-164000:wdl1:5800001:000:3586
Nf-From: wdl1!jbn    Sep  7 15:14:00 1984


     A brief summary of the problems with alternative energy sources:

SOLAR POWER

     PASSIVE HOUSE HEATING

	Very feasible, if the house is designed with it in mind.  You
	still need a backup heating system, but it doesn't get used often.

     SWIMMNG POOL HEATING

	Best known application.  That big pool of water is just what you
	want for heat storage.  Less popular since CA turned off the tax
	incentive.

     ACTIVE HOUSE HEATING / HOT WATER HEATING

	Often useful.  System must be engineered properly; there have been
	bad designs that used more power to drive the pumps than the system
	delivered as output.  The heat storage problem is moderatly tough;
	somewhere there needs to be a big tank of water, or rocks, or
	something.

     ACTIVE AIR CONDITIONING

        It can be done, but usually isn't worth the trouble.  One installation
	that works is in the Santa Clara, CA, recreation center, a nice place
	to visit during hot weather energy crunches.  But there is a LOT of
	machinery making it work.

     PHOTOVOLTAICS

	Coming along; up to 7-9% efficiency now.  Still expensive, but may
	get better.  Useful for power in remote areas; my favorite is the
	solar-powered fence charger for electric fences (see Sears Farm
	and Ranch Catalog).  The big problem remains batteries.

	Kirby's photovoltaic system (Kirby is the inventor of the IC, and
	works for (and owns a big piece of) Texas Instruments), seems
	promising, but pumping hot hydrobromic acid around is not my idea
	of appropriate technology for the home.  (Sure you can make it work
	with stainless steel pipe and 100% X-ray inspected welds, just like
	the nuclear plants, but it costs).  But maybe they will develop a
	better chemistry.

WIND POWER

	It now appears that medium-sized windmills (about 50' blade diameter)
	are the best size; the giant units are down too much and the small ones
	aren't worth the trouble.  There are some really great tax incentives
	to own a share of a wind farm in CA; see your broker (Merril Lynch
	has a scheme) for details.  But it isn't economic compared to
	even oil power, and it only works when you have other sources to 
	take up the slack during low-wind periods.  Again, the storage problem.

SMALL HYDRO

	Efficient when producing, the problem is finding good sites.  Plants
	that produce juice only during spring runoff aren't enormously useful.
	But if you can tap into a non-seasonal watercourse, you can have a
	nice little power source, plus some extra income during peak periods.

WAVE POWER

	This has been tried on and off for centuries; the elaborate mechanisms
	with lots of floats and machinery keep breaking in storms and need lots
	of maintenance.  And again, sometimes there are no waves.

----------------

	The basic problem with all these technologies is that none of them are
	good base load power sources that you can rely on; all must be backed
	up by some other technology.  Even multiple units of the same 
	technology don't help; all the windmills stop in a calm.  None of
	these technologies can power an energy-intensive industry like, say,
	aluminum refining, or even a large city.  And when you add in the
	cost of the energy storage facilities, these technologies look a
	lot worse.

	Personally, I like deep natural gas as an energy solution, followed by
	fusion if we can ever make it work.  Knowing that the SPS is possible
	is nice in case we can't, but it seems like a lot of work just to get
	an energy source.  Fission power is too messy, and I don't really
	approve of any reactor you can't just scram and walk away from.