Renewable Energy??

Is anyone else concerned about the world blindly moving towards “renewable” energy sources?

Don’t get me wrong; I understand that burning stuff to get energy is not panning out too well fer Mother Earth. And Nuclear Energy is WAY worse (we still don’t have any place to store nuclear waste long enough to guarantee that it will never be a danger to life on earth).

But, is anyone thinking seriously about possible consequences about rushing headlong into alternatives.

Some of the Energy Resources that people are thinking will give us near Free Energy have potential negative consequences.

Think about Wind Power? Sure, put up a whole mess of wind power turbines and tap thermal energy. But, have we considered the possibility that the extra load all those windmills would put on the flow of wind? You put enough extra load on natural airflow patterns and the probability is very high that you will alter those airflow patterns. Do that and you can alter local climates. This could have the potential to alter our ability to grow crops (FOOD) among other possible problems.

And how about tapping the energy of the sun. 65% of the heat in the atmosphere at ground level comes from the ground. Well, more accurately, the ground re-radiates that heat after being absorbed from energy provided by the sun. What happens if we prevent a large amount of the energy from the sun from reaching the ground by blocking it with solar cells? Where is that heat that previously was re-radiated from the ground going to come from? And how will that, again, affect weather patterns? ‘Course, someone could argue that this would be a perfect way to slow down the effects of greenhouse gasses that humans love to spew.

How about Geo-Thermal Energy? Sure, suck all the heat out of the earth, cool the core down, turn off the earths magnetic field, have no protection from high-energy particles coming from the sun. SFP 47,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 anyone?

I was whining about this to a friend a few years ago and He countered that it would be impossible for us to suck all the heat out of the core of the earth. Well, I know that would be hard for us to pull off. However, during the early days of the Industrial Revolution, did anyone dream that would could spew enough sulfur into the atmosphere that we could cause our rain to become acidic enough to eat away at rock?

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be moving away from more destructive forms of energy. But maybe we should be putting a lot more effort into becoming a LOT more energy efficient at the same time that we are looking to alternative forms of energy.

I doubt that the wind farms are capable of destroying weather patterns. The tap a very thin (comparatively speaking) layer of the atmosphere.

Likewise, if we collect solar energy (and indeed shield the ground in the process) this energy will nevertheless be released in lower atmosphere after the energy is used in hairdriers, TV sets and electric cars. So yes, maybe some rocks will be not as hot somewhere, but the total solar energy balance in Arizona will still be intact.

---I doubt that the wind farms are capable of destroying weather patterns. The tap a very thin (comparatively speaking) layer of the atmosphere. ---

During the early days of the Industrial Revolution, did anyone dream that would could spew enough sulfur into the atmosphere that we could cause our rain to become acidic enough to eat away at rock?

As far as wind power, the biggest environmental concern is birds hitting blades. They don't provide enough air resistance to signifiantly alter the flow. What about covering wind generators with solar panels? Putting them out at sea would also allow you to extract energy from wave/tide/current action also.

Overall, we need to reduce our total energy requrements for anything to be feasible. That's the big problem, we simply can't cover every avaialble spot with solar panels and keep consuming energy as we have been, and are doing right now, of course that won't work, and will have an environmental impact.

Originally posted by DezertSkies
That's the big problem, we simply can't cover every avaialble spot with solar panels

We are spending 6 billion a month on Iraq. Trust me, this money could buy a sh*tload of solar panels and eventually pave Arizona with them.