Germany To Close 49 Power Stations

[ProDave]

You missed the point Binky.

MMGW gives the government a licence to tax anything remotely linked to "consumption" while reducing income tax.

Then they can claim they have lowered taxes, and most are so gullible, they believe that.

 

[binky]

the offset of taxation from wages to a myriad of inefficient systems has not gone unnoticed, by me at least. Taxing insurance FFS

 

[Apache]

Knowing how hard it is to get any government to do anything, let alone the EU, and many other governments from around the world, doesn't that point out to our 'denyers' how strong the scientific evidence must be, that mankind is causing problems. It's not a vote winner to tell the public not to drive big cars, they will have wind turbines in their view, you can't go fishing every day, we need to spend millions on green tech that could be spent buying votes etc etc - to convince politiicans to do that, the evidence must be overwhelming :slap :slap :slap :slap

And yet so much of industry has got cleaner. Look at the emission of modern cars compared to those made 30-40 years ago.

No-one ever talks about the CO2 production of a windmill or solar power array. Made half way around the world, from God knows what. with a short finite lifespan.

No-one wants nuclear, but the power is very clean. Very reliable. Works in the dark and on still days.

If you want to make your own electricity because it makes you feel good on the inside then that is great. If you think it is the long term solution to our energy needs, people need their heads looking at.

The 'evidence' that exists is of poor quality and almost all biased. Finding genuine impartial work out there looking at the technology is impossible.

I don't blame you sparks for 'exploiting' the interest in the technology.

 

[binky]

Poor quality, not sure where you are getting that from Apache - pv is very reliable, but is suffering from a poor reputation caused by fly by night outfits and double glazing salesmen types. Carbon footprint of Chinese product is around a year, Euorpean stuff around 6 months - it's all been studied. (Not looked at wind turbines, but probably similar). Lifespan is around 40 years - so that's pretty bloody reliable! Better than anything else I can think of with minimal maintenance.

As much as many technologies have vastly improved, you can't get away from the fact that there's so many more people than there used to be, and they are all energy hungry!! Population of the UK around WW2 was 30 million, and we still couldn't feed ourselves (or only just). If we all lived the American lifestyle, we would need 3planets. With regard to vehicles - if you applied todays tech to a Morris Minor but without the overkill silencing and particle filters, you would probably get 150mpg - vehciles suffer from 'its too expensive to completely redesign so we will stick with what we got' but that's another discussion. I used to get 60mpg from my old Kawasaki Z200 (W reg), I didn't get more than 40mpg from any bike I've had since, but they were a lot faster. Personal opinion, we should aim for fuel cells with hydrogen split from water using solar electric - every house should have one.

Renewables will never be the whole answer to the problem, unless people completely re-arrange their lifestyles, but it is tipping the balance to being more sustainable, and eeking out the dwindling fossil fuel supplies, keeping energy costs down. The other option is do nothing - appealing to some, but as irresponsible as a kid in a sweet shop told to help themselves.

Biggest problem is a true lack of co-ordination from government - oh for some forward thinking, effective and comprehensive policies on energy (oh look a pig flying past a blue moon :slap )

 

[kme]

I remember one of the biggest issues when " non polluting electric vehicles" were being rallied around fifteen or so years back...... The problem is that you have NOT created a non polluting vehicle - you`ve just relocated the pollution to the power station where its generated ( most of our leccy still comes from fossils.....)

I must admit to some ambivalence regarding GW - be it man made or "natural". On the one hand, the planet has its own cycles - it gets hot then cold - ( why else give nature a female gender :slap ) - but I believe that one of the biggest man made contributory factors is going to be the loss of rainforest - Eighty Thousand acres are cut down every DAY!!!!!

Although rainforests cover less than 6 percent of Earth’s surface, they contain approximately 50 percent of the world’s plant and animal species. At the current rate of deforestation, it is estimated that roughly 135 different species of plants, animals and insects go extinct each day. This equates to a total loss of approximately 50,000 species every year. If the current trends in deforestation continue, many experts believe that the rainforests will vanish in less than 40 years.

 I, personally, find that much scarier than the burning of fossils, and the resultant CO2 expulsion - until such times as someone realises that our relationship with ALL aspects of the planets flora, fauna & ecological systems is a symbiotic one, things aren`t going to improve - IMHO

 

[binky]

totally agree KME - green energy is only one part of the overall equation. We need the trees to convert CO2 back to 02, but climate change also threatens the rainforest and many other eco-systems, which in turn could lead to further species extinction, the issue being 'rate of change' rather than change itself

 

[Harvey]

And yet so much of industry has got cleaner. Look at the emission of modern cars compared to those made 30-40 years ago.

No-one ever talks about the CO2 production of a windmill or solar power array. Made half way around the world, from God knows what. with a short finite lifespan.

And yet so much of industry has got cleaner. Look at the emission of modern cars compared to those made 30-40 years ago.

No-one ever talks about the CO2 production of a windmill or solar power array. Made half way around the world, from God knows what. with a short finite lifespan.

No-one wants nuclear, but the power is very clean. Very reliable. Works in the dark and on still days.

If you want to make your own electricity because it makes you feel good on the inside then that is great. If you think it is the long term solution to our energy needs, people need their heads looking at.

The 'evidence' that exists is of poor quality and almost all biased. Finding genuine impartial work out there looking at the technology is impossible.

I don't blame you sparks for 'exploiting' the interest in the technology.

I really do agree with you Apache on nuclear its the way to stop black outs

No-one wants nuclear, but the power is very clean. Very reliable. Works in the dark and on still days.

If you want to make your own electricity because it makes you feel good on the inside then that is great. If you think it is the long term solution to our energy needs, people need their heads looking at.

The 'evidence' that exists is of poor quality and almost all biased. Finding genuine impartial work out there looking at the technology is impossible.

I don't blame you sparks for 'exploiting' the interest in the technology

 

[Sharpend]

Perhaps you should read up on Nicola tesla and free electric?

 

[Blue Duck]

What about thorium?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor

 

[binky]

Nuclear fusion is the only real way forward - just making it work is a bit of a problem :^O

Nuclear fusion is the only real way forward - just making it work is a bit of a problem :^O

 Incidentally I seriuosly object to the suggestion that I exploit people - this is a real issue, it offers some real solutions, it really helps people save money (with and without panels) it's doing something to help save the planet, and I can make a resonable living from it for once.

It is less exploitative than so is selling flea treatments / pet toys / pet foods at inflated prices like vets seem to like doing ehhhh Apache

 

[Blue Duck]

I think a lot of people were conned into putting PV in hopefully these days are gone!?Thorium sound s like a good alternative to plutonium? Thorium: Kirk Sorensen at TEDxYYC:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/N2vzotsvvkw?feature=oembed