Slashdot Mirror

Don't be too concerned about the loss of funding. Australia's Eastern seaboard is sitting on mountains of coal and the current gov. is pushing research into clean coal. So is China (the biggest user), so if the USA doesn't do it, then someone else will.
As for the comments I've read so far, it's not the CO2 only that is worrisome, but the fact that the waste heat generated from power plants (should read all heat exchange type power plants) is directly warming the Earth.
Not only should there be no CO2 from power plants, but there should also be no waste heat either.
So solar power/geothermal/hydro and to some extent, nuclear technologies have the clear edge.

Ideally, the model for future energy creation and use would be:
* non-heat producing energy creation and storage
* non-heat producing energy consumption

One system currently in focus by the Australian gov. are 1.5kw domestic solar roof installations feeding directly into the grid. If you have every house (excluding high rise) with an installation from Hobart (far South) towards the equator, then that would make a significant impact on all fossil fuel use. Currently, such an installation costs approx $15,000/household and the gov. pays for half.
Every country or geophysical region will have their own solutions, so I doubt that there will be a single technology that would be the panacea for everyone.
http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/rebates/index.html

It's easy to find info on the trend in Germany, but here's a link to a radio program I listened to recently.

I'm less aware of Australia's program, but that was announced in 2004 while for Germany "... in 2000, lawmakers committed the country to at least doubling the percentage of renewable energy in the overall supply by 2010."

Basically, Germany subsidizes the industry to a much larger degree and has been for a few years longer.

I'm sorry, but that simply isn't true. A quick search will produce hundreds of results like this that show that lighting usually lags behind space heating, refrigeration, and water heating. Photons (even with incandescents) are cheap compared to BTUs.

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/gwci/households.html Check out how little of a percentage lightbulbs are in an average Australian home. 5% is the amount. If they'd STOP spending http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867 ,21234235-2702,00.html/$19 BILLION on road improvements, and instead improve public transport and take away personal car use which accounts for 34% of household greenhouse gas emissions, then we'd be getting somewhere. (I'm lumping in the going to work, AND the personal use/transportation categories in that pie chart.

There are some energy effecient housing resources out there though, including:

www.greenhouse.gov.au which has a great section called Your Home (the technical manual being the best palce to start from).

There is also a page about a software packages (win32) called First Rate at http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/about/tools. htm, but you are better off going to the original site (which doesn't include acrobat reader) at http://www.seav.sustainability.vic.gov.au/building s/firstrate/index.asp. Or download direct from http://www.seav.sustainability.vic.gov.au/ftp/exe/ FRDEMO401.exe (about 7M in size).

In regards to solar power in .au, the max. government rebate is $4000 and the rebate program ends at the end of 2007 (I think), after which no rebate will be available. Try http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/renewable/pv/ for more details (including links to state websites).

There are some energy effecient housing resources out there though, including:

www.greenhouse.gov.au which has a great section called Your Home (the technical manual being the best palce to start from).

There is also a page about a software packages (win32) called First Rate at http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/about/tools. htm, but you are better off going to the original site (which doesn't include acrobat reader) at http://www.seav.sustainability.vic.gov.au/building s/firstrate/index.asp. Or download direct from http://www.seav.sustainability.vic.gov.au/ftp/exe/ FRDEMO401.exe (about 7M in size).

In regards to solar power in .au, the max. government rebate is $4000 and the rebate program ends at the end of 2007 (I think), after which no rebate will be available. Try http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/renewable/pv/ for more details (including links to state websites).

There are some energy effecient housing resources out there though, including:

www.greenhouse.gov.au which has a great section called Your Home (the technical manual being the best palce to start from).

There is also a page about a software packages (win32) called First Rate at http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/about/tools. htm, but you are better off going to the original site (which doesn't include acrobat reader) at http://www.seav.sustainability.vic.gov.au/building s/firstrate/index.asp. Or download direct from http://www.seav.sustainability.vic.gov.au/ftp/exe/ FRDEMO401.exe (about 7M in size).

In regards to solar power in .au, the max. government rebate is $4000 and the rebate program ends at the end of 2007 (I think), after which no rebate will be available. Try http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/renewable/pv/ for more details (including links to state websites).

There are some energy effecient housing resources out there though, including:

www.greenhouse.gov.au which has a great section called Your Home (the technical manual being the best palce to start from).

There is also a page about a software packages (win32) called First Rate at http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/about/tools. htm, but you are better off going to the original site (which doesn't include acrobat reader) at http://www.seav.sustainability.vic.gov.au/building s/firstrate/index.asp. Or download direct from http://www.seav.sustainability.vic.gov.au/ftp/exe/ FRDEMO401.exe (about 7M in size).

In regards to solar power in .au, the max. government rebate is $4000 and the rebate program ends at the end of 2007 (I think), after which no rebate will be available. Try http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/renewable/pv/ for more details (including links to state websites).

here ya go

My hometown is in the northwest of Germany (Emsland) and about half an hour drive from NL. The landscape is very similar to the Netherlands and therefore quite attratctive for windfarms.

About 15 years ago when the first windmills were being built nobody objected them and it was no problem to get a permit. So many farmers sold a bit of their land to some investor and windmills were built everywhere.

What we have now in my hometown is probably the perfect example for 'horizon pollution'. Anywhere you look, you see windmills.

Believe me, you really don't want this in your neighbourhood anymore than a nuclear power plant!!!

I think wind power is a great idea since it is a renewable technology. But wind farms shouldn't be built anywhere close to where people live. There is enough space in Germany (which is quite crowded!) to build wind farms where they don't bother anyone so I think it is possible in any country to find such places.

Off-Shore platforms are a great idea and are possible, even in tough environments as this article shows: Off-Shore platforms in the Baltic Sea

Tidal power plants are also an interisting renewable energy source.

Hardly. With the power management set up (including such things as monitor blanking and hard-drive spin down) and wake-on-LAN enabled, it doesn't really take a lot when not in use.

Yeah and to use Wake-On-LAN you need just another running computer... Very good energy saving indeed...

To quote http://wattwatchers.utep.edu/pages/PowerManagement .htm:
According to EPA Estimates, the average powered workstation costs $37/yr.: a computer with full Power Management configuration can cost only $16.40/yr. 75% of a workstation energy usage comes from the monitor.

Alright, this is more than I thought, but I don't think it justifies letting a computer run over night for 10 hours, just to save one minute boot time! That's you brushing your teeth in between and the computer again almost in screen saver state.

Now you're being foolish. Sharpen up the debating skills a bit - 'examples' like that are too easy to knock down

Well, your opinion seems to be, that if cars had power managment and such, just to say, they don't use so much energy (and money) any more, you wouldn't care.

Maybe you also take a look at:
http://standby.lbl.gov/

Or read http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/energyefficiency/appl iances/standby/

Recent research has revealed that standby power consumption accounts for 11.6% of Australia's household electricity usage, costing Australian households more than $500million and generating more than 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum. This is equivalent to the greenhouse impact of more than 1 million cars.

And believe me, Australia is nothing in comparison to the US.

See the Australian Greenhouse Office website.

a beowulf cluster of these things in a kiddie pool with thousands of Pillsbury dough boys jumping in and out of the water?

Seriously, I have been fascinated with the potential to tap into the energy of tides and waves for some time, even visited a Tidal Energy Project down east last year and this summer I was amazed to pass by one of the largest wind farms in Canada, I only wish our timing was such that I had been able to visit the site. I tell you, coming around a bend in the coastal highway to the site of these huge wind turbines seemingly marching across the hills beside the ocean was quite something!

I am glad to see things like this (and hybrid cars, etc) getting more and more attention. Here in Canada natural gas prices have skyrocketed in the last year. Why? Well, a banker buddy of mine tells me it is a matter of supply and demand (I knew I should taken at least one econimics course) and most of the demand is for electrical generation....can you beleive that? burning gas to make sparks...how ridiculous....now, if only I could find a link to that nutty idea of putting solar collectors on the moon, and microwaving it down to earth.


Going on means going far
Going far means returning