Comments on: Dark days for renewable energy

By: Alternative Energy

Alternative Energy — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:52:16 +0000

The reason for this drop is the economy, but I think renewable energy is the key to the future. Wind energy will continue to be expensive, but we have to think long term. It may not be profitable for investors for decades and decades to come.

By: Ariana

Ariana — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:15:46 +0000

There isn’t any more Environmentally-Sound Technology than Nuclear. It’s 100% clean and emits nothing—except for water vapors. The mythology of nuclear “Waste” is just that—mythology. The 80,000 tons of Spent Fuel Rods (SFR’s), accumulated in the US over the last 50 years, translate into 3,500 cubic meters, m^3, (specific gravity of Uranium about 20). For comparison, that’s the volume of a school gym (say, 40×20 m^2 of area and 4.4 m of height). This amount of SFR’s can easily be buried—-not for a million years, but forever—under the sea floor next to an existing nuclear power station such as the Diablo Canyon one which sits on the Pacific ocean coast. I suggest burying the SFR’s, enclosed in concrete container, say, 100 meters under the sea floor. The sarcophaguses they have been stored in, are currently kept ABOVE ground level in the plant’s backyard. As far as radiation, ten meters of water are enough to block ANY residual radiation.If we bother to process/renew these SFR’s, like France, Japan, and Britain, do, we’ll end up with about 50 times less waste (this is real waste), which I volunteer to bury in my backyard.As far as Fossil Fuels go, these have been storing the sun’s energy AND CO2 for us over the last 500 million years—since the Carboniferous geological era. That’s when the earth atmosphere contained 10-15 times more CO2 than it does today, which caused vegetation to grow explosively. As we should all know, CO2 is plants’ number-1 fertilizer; Photosynthesis converts CO2+water+sunshine energy into fossil fuels, such as Coal, Oil, and Gas. By the way, humans/animals can’t tell the difference until CO2 air concentration is above 12 times (1200%) of what it is today (0.05%). Our atmosphere is nowadays CO2-deprived. The more we recycle (burn) fossil fuels today and release their stored CO2, the GREENER the earth will become!!!

By: Al Reaud

Al Reaud — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:08:41 +0000

You couldn’t tell that from new business startups where I live in Colorado, USA. All kinds of technologies are represented, from wind energy (Vesta) to fuel efficient vehicles getting 43 kilometers per liter (LightningHybrids in Loveland). There’s a methane power plant at the old Saint Vrain reactor site, down by Denver, to help out the cow dung power plant. There’s green buildings going up everywhere. So there’s patches of growth here and there in the industry.Sure, we’re feeling the pinch, but IMHO, I believe it’s good for society to tighten the belt and get a bit hungry, especially here in the West. Things aren’t as they used to be that’s for sure.

By: Gamini Gunasekera - Mendis

Gamini Gunasekera - Mendis — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:26:12 +0000

What I think truely, we the whole world should take the ongoing Global Economic Recession as an advantage to redefine our behaviour to diminish the dependancy over Fossil Fuel driven technologies and adopt more and more Environmentally Sound Technologis, so called ESTs, using renewable energies as Biomass, Geothermal, Solar, Wind, Hydro, and so forth. EST driven manufacturies and service industries is the only sustainable way to overcome the thinking pattern of the bubble growth in the fast lane.If the entire world, the developed and the developing countries implement a universal protocol to bare the cost in a collective manner and share the know how of those ESTs without any prejudice, I have no doubt that the Mother Earth will be safer and cleener place to be.