aemeijers wrote:
On 10/22/2010 4:11 PM, HeyBub wrote:
wrote:
I can be persuaded otherwise - just gimme the facts (I know maths
is hard, but try).
Your problem is not math. Your problem is how you dishonestly
approach the entirety of the issue.
Please explain why you insist that solar photo voltaics must provide
all of our electricity in order to be a viable supplier of some of
our electricity.
I don't insist that that anything be a sole source of electricity. I
never said I did, nor do I believe it.
To repeat what I said:
"My argument is it is impossible to run this [entire]
country/state/city off of sunbeams."
For those applications where it is possible to run some piddly thing
off of sunbeams, most of the time so doing is roughly equivalent to
using mahogany to toast marshmallows.
You ain't listening, Bub. Not all applications require electricity.
Just as a trivial example, a coil of black pipe on a garage roof
makes a dandy pool or house water pre-heater, so the regular water
heater doesn't have to work so hard. Yes, you do have to remember to
take it out of the circuit and drain it when winter comes, but that
can be as simple as turning a couple of valves if you do it right.
Very popular up here in frozen north, to extend pool season a couple
of weeks. No, solar will never replace all other energy sources,
especially those that require the very convenient but luxurious form
of energy known as electricity. But there is low hanging fruit out
there, for people who will open their eyes.
Your trivial example is, indeed, trivial. Millions of trivials add up to
(let me think, mumble-mumble, carry-the-three) ah, here it is... trivial.
I agree there are applications that nibble at the margins. But thinking in
terms of solar water heaters and walkway lighting and kitchen sunlights is
extremely parochial. Just ONE Aluminum foundry on the edge of a town of
50,000 homes uses more electricity than the rest of the town! Even if no one
in the town had solar water heating!