Posted by NCWayne on November 24, 2013 at 16:06:14 from (173.188.169.54):
Just reading the posts below about alternative energy sources and many seem to feel that solar power isn't really viable. To some extent I agree as solar panels are largely inefficient when it comes to the ratio of size to power output. Why though are we restricting ourselves to harnessing the suns power through a solar panel? Granted solar panels seem to have the attention of the masses, so to speak, but there is another way.
I can't remember where I saw it, but there is supposed to be at least one power plant that harnesses the suns heat to create steam and make power through a turbine. Basically all it does is take a mirror array and direct the suns rays onto a target that heats a liquid that, in turn, heats the water, turning it to steam to turn the turbine and therefore a generator. It's been quite awhile since I saw the article about the plant, but the KW output vs the footprint of the plant was way smaller than the usual array of solar panels needed for a similar output.
Too, I have yet to see anyone mention the methane being recovered from landfills and burned for energy. I remember reading one article a while back about a sewage treatment plant somewhere that was being powered by a turbine generator burning methane harnessed off of a neighboring landfill. Maybe that power plant wasn't large enough to handle an entire city, but for every small plant like it, that's that much power not being drawn off the existing power grid.
Right down the road from me they are in the process of building a plant beside a sewer treatment plant that will bring in dried cakes of waste to burn. Can't say with 100% certainty as all I know is what I was told by the plant personnel, but the plan is supposed to be to burn the cakes to create steam and turn a turbine.
Along the same lines we once had a local plant that burned trash. In that case it supplied power to the grid, as well as supplying steam to a college for heating, etc. It was eventually shut down because it supposedly wasn't profitable to operate. Thing is less than 5 miles away is a transfer plant where all they do is bring in individual truck loads of trash and dump them. Once dumped the material is then loaded onto larger trucks/trailers for transport to the actual landfill.
Ultimately there are quite a few 'alternative' fuel sources. Thing is many aren't built because the initial cost is so high that modern companies looking for an instant return on their money aren't willing to put out the money upfront. Too, the EPA, which is supposed to be protecting out environment, is doing just as much harm as they are good. The technology is out there to keep the emissions from pretty much any type of power plant within 'regs' but often it's at a cost far to high for many companies to handle. I mean look at what the current administration has done to the coal industry. If the plants already in existence were going to 'pollute us out of existence' they already would have done so. In other words what's the use taxing them to death, forcing them to install machinery/technology to meet emission standards that take all the profit out of the equation, when all it's going to do is create even more demand for alternative technologies that are, in may respects, still in their infancy, or not invented yet?
Ultimately there are a lot of alternative energy sources out there. The problem is that until they reach a point that they are economically viable for the companies putting them into practice, we're going to be stuck using fossil fuels for a long time to come.
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