ERRORS in rebuttal to "Pandora's Promise"

[PamW]

11. Lack of understanding of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics...

Once again, kristopher demonstrates his lack of understanding of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics with the above "apples and oranges" comparison.

Scientists who DO understand the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics realize that when we discuss energy; we have to divide energy into two different types of energy as the 2nd Law says different things about the two types.

The first type is called "work" - work is "high quality energy" and is characterized by being free of entropy. Rotational / Translational motion and electric energy are examples of "work".

The second type is "heat" - heat is "low quality energy" and is characterized by the fact that it DOES contain entropy.

The 2nd Law forces us to consider these two types of energy separately and not conflate them as kristopher has done in the above "apples and oranges" comparison.

If we examine the summary chart from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; electrical energy which is work comprises 38.1 units of energy.

Nuclear power is ONLY used to provide electric power or work and as a percentage of the total electric energy nuclear provides ( as per the LLNL chart ):

Nuclear power % = 8.05 / 38.1 = 21.13%

So contrary to kristopher's ill-informed contention above; nuclear is over 21% of the type of energy that we use nuclear energy to produce. Additionally, there is no reason why nuclear can not be a larger percentage. After all, France is over 80% nuclear power. We just need to build more nuclear plants.

Let's look at kristopher's favorite energy forms wind and solar as how they relate to producing electric energy. In order to do an "apples to apples" comparison, and not the "apples to oranges" that kristopher did; we shall consider only the part of solar and wind that go into providing high quality "work" or electric power.

As per the LLNL chart; solar gives us 0.0408 units of energy for electric power.

As per the LLNL chart: wind gives us 1.36 units of energy for electric power.

So the sum of wind and solar for electric energy gives us 1.40 units or 3.68% of our electric power.

So far from being "trivial", nuclear which is only used to provide high quality "work" in the form of electric energy provides nearly 5.74 TIMES as much high quality work or electric energy as do renewables.

Because he doesn't understand the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics; kristopher failed to take into account the difference in energy QUALITY.

It would be like comparing two sources of metal; source A and source B.

Source A gives you 6 times as much metal by weight as does Source B. So Source A is more valuable? Right?

Not necessarily.

Suppose the metal you get from Source A is Iron.

Suppose the metal you get from Source B is Gold and Platinum.

The fact that you only get 1/6-th the mass of metal is OVERWHELMED by the fact that Source B's metal is valuable Gold and Platinum.

It's an "apples and oranges" comparison to compare "Iron" on one hand to "Gold and Platinum" on the other.

That's the ERROR that kristopher essentially makes in FAILING to account for the difference in energy quality dictated by the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics; that he can't comprehend.

The good thing about science is that it is true, whether or not you believe in it.
--Neil deGrasse Tyson

PamW