Spod Reed wrote:
Rod Speed wrote:
Bob wrote
Shaun Eli wrote

The green power option is there probably by law, but in
any case if it costs them more to buy solar/hydro/wind
then they're passing along the extra cost.

Actually, I heard today that with the expected increase in oil and
gas prices expected this winter, wind and other alternative power
would become as cheap as the current sources.

Its complete pig ignorant drivel.

Oh yes, look into your crystal ball, that is if you haven't sold it to
buy some more meth.

Alternative power will not get cheap; oil will get expensive. But, even at
$3/gallon, gasoline is still a bargain. Not only is it cheaper than designer
water, gasoline is about 1/6th as "expensive" (as a percentage of take-home
pay) as it was in the '70s.

It's not a crystal ball - it's math. The sunlight that falls on the earth is
745 watts/meter^2. At noon. On the equator. With no clouds. The only way to
increase that number is to move the orbit of the earth closer to the sun.

Assuming 50% efficiency, and accounting for latitude and weather, it would
take a solar collector the size of the Los Angeles basin to provide
California with the power the state now consumes (~50Gw). This would pretty
much render Los Angeles uninhabitable.

Which, when you think on it, might not be so bad.

Otherwise, there are areas of the country where there's only enough wind to
power one windmill, so that idea's out.