Jock's Place - Jock's energy review - Comments

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Gareth Doutch — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 10:42:10 +0000

Jock,
True, I think there's lots of things that can and certainly need to be done on both supply and demand sides of the equation. I guess the biggest hurdle is the inertia on the political side of things. At the moment it's looking highly unlikely that such reforms, be they money / LVT / whatever won't happen until the energy squeeze turns into a crisis and enough people wake up.

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Jock Coats — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 14:45:11 +0000

Oh yeah - I know Mobbsy from the diggers mailing list and other places.

I don't really think it's that simple. As I preach" elsewhere on this I rather more go for the notion expounded by the likes of Bill Dunster that housing, for example, is going to have to operate at just 10% of current external energy source levels.

I do think it's a particularly elegant solution though - the sun, burning hydrogern, send us heat, which we use to create our own hyrdrogen from the waters that surround us and give us an abundant source of fuel.

Further, as a monetary reformer, I do not really regard cost as a significant barrier - as Keynes said, sort of, if something is in demand and is within human capacity to produce and provide it should be affordable."

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Gareth Doutch — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 12:31:48 +0000

Jock,
If only it were really that simple. I know you've mentioned Peak Oil on here once or twice before, but to fully understand what the energy problem entails and what realistic options we have to deal with it, I'd recommend
by Paul Mobbs."

Jock's energy review

Jock — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 20:52:40 +0000

I've solved the world's energy problems. Well, to give due credit, my boss and I did out on our lunchtime "health walk" (yes me!).

And no, it doesn't involve harnessing the steam coming off my shirt after a quick perambulation round Headington Hill Park!

For a few years now I've been dimly aware of some statistic that the energy from the sun that reaches the planet's surface is so enormous overall that just a few hundred square miles of hot desert covered with the right kind of solar panels/collectors/converters could supply every drop of the world's current energy use from fossil, nuclear, and all other large commercial sources and a whole load more.

And I found this map at Wikipedia tonight:

Basically it shows in the orange areas the relative amounts of solar energy that hits the surface and the little black disks are the area required on each continent to between them supply the entire planet's energy needs.

But every time I've thought about it the nagging thought has come along, what about transmission loss? Just how do you get all that electricity from Mali to Manchester? And I mentioned it out walking today and the boss had an instant answer - you don't. If the solar potential is so great why not use it to power hydrogen extraction plants for fuel cells?

Bingo. What's wrong with that then? Sun, sea, sand and power cells...better than sex - well, at least all those exhibitionists amongst you will be able to keep the lights on still....:)

You could even use it, I suppose, to water the deserts. Surely the amount of money we are storing up in disposal costs for nuclear waste, current and future, could be well put to developing this sort of thing. These people seem to be doing a "Sterling" job developing the technology.

Failing that, personally, I would really love to live in one of these: