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Kite Power: The Latest In Green Technology (thebulletin.org)
New submitter Dan Drollette writes: The solution to producing energy without contributing to global warming may be to go fly a kite. Literally. Researchers in Switzerland and Italy — high-altitude places where the winds are strong, steady and predictable — have been working on ways to generate electricity from kites that fly hundreds or thousands of meters high. The scientists already have a prototype cranking out 27 megawatts; they expect to have a 100-megawatt plant big enough to power 86,000 households. And they say that they can produce electricity for less that 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is better than fossil fuel. Plus, the kites look really cool (as does the "Darrieus rotor vertical axis wind turbine" at the base of the St Bernard Pass, on the Swiss side, which I've seen in operation in person).
I think they forgot to google for the technology first: https://www.google.com/makani/
Thus back to airbombing people with the condom: It won't affect the birth rate. Birth rates decline in all countries with rising female education levels and better health care, wether you carpet bomb them with condoms or not.
Not much? Seriously?
In the 2006-2010 five year plan the real improvements in China's energy usage came from two programs.
Firstly, in the Thousand Enterprises Program the government forced China's top 1000 companies to completely rethink their energy use. They were told to monitor energy efficiency, and redesign, upgrade, and / or replace industrial equipment and software with the aim of becoming more energy efficient, reducing the amount of power they used without denting their productivity. The other program was even more drastic. Thousands of small, inefficient, factory units and assembly lines across the country were simply closed down.
The above programs were so successful (a roughly 19% cut in their energy intensity) that they were extended and expanded for the current five year plan: smaller, inefficient units are continuing to close down, and the Thousand Enterprises Program has become the Ten Thousand Enterprise Program. Current indications suggest that China has met its target of a further 16% cut in their energy intensity.
In addition, China has more installed wind power than any other country in the world, and has the second largest installed solar power capacity. I've also read that they (the Chinese government) are actively looking at new nuclear power plant designs as well as thorium salt reactor designs, which is a direct contrast to pretty much every single western government.
If all this qualifies as "not much" I'm not sure what it would take to impress...
The global wind resource is 72TW. You're going to have a hard time denting that. You might alter things locally - might - but not globally.
And besides that... if any evil greedy megacorp wants to move into my valley and setup something that will rob the wind of its energy... Please Do! Seriously, someone should really work on wind turbines specifically designed to act as windbreaks, in a manner that can be affordably mass produced and deployed in lieu of traditional manufactured windbreak systems.
(Before anyone says "just plant some trees..." I do, every year. They usually get killed by the weather, sometimes outright uprooted. I may have to start spending more time on each tree individually, encasing each one in its own individual PVC windbreak in addition to the broad rows of pallet windbreaks)
He's the sort of person who would sell the Red Cross to Dracula.
We increased forcing from CO2 50%. The power didn't come from our putting energy into the system, it came from stopping the sunlight leaving so quick. Hence your comparison is ridiculous and moronic.
But it was the "best" you had, so you went with it.