Polywell update from May - sounds like things are going really well!

[OKIsItJustMe]

34. So, you propose to do nothing then? Is that it?

Last edited Fri Jun 22, 2012, 06:51 PM - Edit history (2)

Expecting our technological society to (voluntarily) shut down isn’t a realistic scenario.

I also feel that your demands of wind are not realistic. I sincerely doubt that wind turbines will replace all of our coal plants, and so long as net energy usage keeps increasing globally, we can expect carbon emissions to keep increasing as well (but not as fast as they would have, were it not for the use of wind and solar.)

You’ve fallen into the same trap as our friend Mr. Jevons, who concluded that since energy use did not go down as a response to more efficient steam engines, that somehow the steam engines were not successful in saving energy. (He neglected to take into account the fact that increasing energy usage was a long-standing trend, which more efficient engines could not reverse on their own, although they might lessen the rate of increase.)

To understand the impact of wind power, you shouldn’t look at whether total emissions have gone up or down, but look at emissions as a function of energy use. (i.e. How much CO[font size="1"]₂[/font] is being released per watt used?)



We need to do some work on our grid to take better advantage of wind:
http://www.anl.gov/articles/grid-realities-cancel-out-some-wind-power-s-carbon-savings

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Grid realities cancel out some of wind power’s carbon savings[/font]

By Louise Lerner • May 29, 2012

[font size=3]ARGONNE, Ill. — Wind energy lowers carbon emissions, but adding turbines to the current grid system does not eliminate emissions proportionally, according to a report by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

To test how wind energy affects carbon dioxide (CO[font size="1"]₂[/font]) emissions, Argonne scientists modeled the Illinois electric grid—power plants, production and demand—and tested how more wind power would affect the system. They found that adjusting for wind power adds inefficiencies that cancel out some of the CO[font size="1"]₂[/font] reduction.

It’s actually the older technology in the background that hampers wind. Because the wind doesn’t blow all the time, operators occasionally have to turn on extra fossil-burning plants to keep up with demand.

…

The study, “Systems-Wide Emissions Implications of Increased Wind Power Penetration”, a collaboration between researchers at Argonne and summer interns Valentino (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Viviana Valenzuela (Georgia Institute of Technology), was published in Environmental Science & Technology. Other Argonne co-authors are Zhi Zhou and Guenter Conzelmann.

…[/font][/font]