The New Alternative

This is a response to a post and the subsequent comments about AL Gore’s plan for powering America with alternative energy in ten years.
First:
Al Gore is an idiot.
Second:
He is a promoter. He stands to get very rich if he can persuade Congress to implement his schemes.
Third:
Solar scientists are predicting a little ice age. How many solar scientists are on the IPCC? Hint: less than one.
Fourth:
Al is totally ignorant of logistics. Just making all the solar cells required in 10 years is not possible. The best place to put them is the desert. Not many power lines in the desert. What is the total world solar cell production capacity? We can make maybe 100 MW (peak electrical output) per year. We need to make 500 GW or so just for America (and that just covers the power when the sun is shining). Wind power is more promising and the upper Mid West is the best place. Problem? Power lines.
Fifth:
The longer we put off going solar the better the technology will be. So what should be done now is what is economically feasible. No subsidies or mandates. Same for wind.
Sixth:
The #1 problem with alternative energy is storage. Al says nothing about that.
Seventh:
To make all this come together we will need 2 MV DC power lines. How many 2 MV DC power lines are there any where in the world? Zero. Who is currently planning on building any? No one.
Did I mention Al Gore is an idiot?
Well maybe not so much. He has conned a lot of rubes after all.
Cross Posted at Power and Control


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6 responses to “The New Alternative”

  1. Hugh Avatar
    Hugh

    Al Gore is also a promoter and an opportunist, it is of little concern to him if what he is promoting is a con. Look at the money he has already made, Fraud anyone??
    Hugh

  2. syn Avatar
    syn

    The socialist affluent who made their welath through capitalism are not interested in saving the environment, they’re only interested in saving their environment. The affluent in Hollywood, in Hamptons, in Aspen don’t like the dirty little people in their eyesight.
    Disgusting pigs, they preserve their environment stealing from decent, honest people.
    Environmentalists are dirty, rotten scum of the earth.

  3. gattsuru Avatar
    gattsuru

    There are other methods like concentrated solar thermal that don’t quite have most of those issues. You can store molten graphite for a day or two, and mirrors and high temperature piping are a hell of a lot easier to make than solar panels.
    Of course, that doesn’t get around the ridiculous economic costs and lack of good transmission wiring and no way of replacing gasoline usage, but it’s just mostly impossible rather than complete impossibility.
    That would only help if Gore wasn’t addicted to unprepared technology, though.

  4. chuckR Avatar
    chuckR

    Thought I read that Texas is preparing to install power lines capable of transmitting 18GW of power to be obtained from wind in west Texas. It’s not a desert, but certainly is just as godforsaken. TX is #1 in wind power already and their grid is their own – no meddlesome Feds. BTW, the table was set for this to happen starting in the 90’s when guess who was governor. Same guy whose personal house is much more modest than any of Al’s and which has a cistern, gray water irrigation and geothermal heating/cooling. Come’on, bet you can guess.
    Al may be retarded, but he’s not an idiot. He’s on the cusp of the next two steps up on the classification – an imbecile verging on a moron. Either way he looks smart to the idiots who follow him.

  5. William Woody Avatar
    William Woody

    The one number I wish most people demanding we switch to renewable energy sources would remember is 3,350,000MW. This is, according to Wikipedia, the total energy consumption from all sources of the United States as of 2004.
    The other number, of course, is 15,000,000MW: that’s world energy consumption as of 2004.
    All the rest: transmission lines, solar cell manufacturing capacity, wind turbine efficiency, switch grass based fuel: all of it is meaningless until you have a real appreciation for the amount of energy we need to generate to meet current consumption rates. And that doesn’t even account for the fact that India and China will probably tip world-wide consumption into the 30,000,000MW range Real Soon Now.

  6. Heather Avatar

    Ten years?
    Three years ago, he said the Earth would be totally destroyed in ten years.
    At least one of his plans has to be wrong…