[Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution II

[Paddy Apling]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Walters" <dave.walters at comcast.net>
To: <e.c.apling at btinternet.com>
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar 
Revolution II


> Les, the issue of 'storage' is *as important* as production of power.
> Literally 50% of the issues...the problems we have today.

David is absolutely right there Les - electricity is the main power usage 
for everything apart from transport. which for the immediate future is 
necessarily oil-based.  But electricity is required on demand 24/7.  It is 
the problem of electricity storage which really stymies all the ideas of 
"renewable" or "alternative" energy sources.

Wind power - only available when the wind is blowing within a range of 
sttrenths.
Solar power - only available during daylight hours
Tidal energy - not available for periods at high and  low tide. etc etc

Consequently ALL these alternative sources are of necessity backed up by 
traditional power sources (based on either coal, gas, oil, or nuclear) - and 
because demand is to a certin extent unpredictable the backup has to be 
sufficient to cope with demand when the "alternative" sources are 
unavailable, which to all intents and purposes means that the alternative 
sources in practice replace very little of the necessary available power 
supply.

If only a reliable (and efficient) source of electricity store was available 
then power based on "renewable" energy would be a really viable 
alternative - as it is we cannot do without coal, oil or nuclear....

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com