The most noticeable thing I notice about your scenarios is electricity is not the biggest problem. And the most common is 1 in a 1000 years,
Given the wind is now one of the cheapest forms of power, using wind to power CO2 sequesters is probably a good match. Especially because you do not need base load for it. If you can turn the sequesters off quickly it is even better.
Or you use the wind electricity to make hydrocarbons.
Interesting you say volcanic dust could shut down solar. Despite at least two volcanoes shutting down a large part of air travel I have not seen any indication of solar panels being affected
How can they be sure the sun reduction will not lead to an Ice age?
They have looked at how much the reduction is predicted (in the worse case) to be and how much the CO2 increase is predicted to be.
And months of storage does not mean much compared with 70-300 years.
What happens when the remote mines get hit by the elements?
The value of gold and platinum due to their utility other than as currency is insignificant. In fact part of what makes them such good currency candidates is their lack of utility.
Platinum is used in fuel cells and catalytic converts.
The thing I most notice is when the temperature is below the co2 line the sunspots are also low.
For temperature driving CO2 I would point out a chemical reaction Nitrogen dioxide and Dinitrogen tetroxide. Those two gases are in equilibrium. If you change the concentration of one the other will follow. Proving A follows B does not disprove B follows A.
On that graph a temperature reading below CO2 levels that could not be explained by the sunspots would cause me to look for another explanation.
Another thing that would cause me to question the science would be a explanation for the less IR radiated by the earth in the bands that CO2 absorbs.
Slashdot Mirror
The most noticeable thing I notice about your scenarios is electricity is not the biggest problem. And the most common is 1 in a 1000 years,
Given the wind is now one of the cheapest forms of power, using wind to power CO2 sequesters is probably a good match. Especially because you do not need base load for it. If you can turn the sequesters off quickly it is even better.
Or you use the wind electricity to make hydrocarbons.
Interesting you say volcanic dust could shut down solar. Despite at least two volcanoes shutting down a large part of air travel I have not seen any indication of solar panels being affected
How can they be sure the sun reduction will not lead to an Ice age?
They have looked at how much the reduction is predicted (in the worse case) to be and how much the CO2 increase is predicted to be.
And months of storage does not mean much compared with 70-300 years.
What happens when the remote mines get hit by the elements?
I think he is saying, if the sun was to drop to the lowest output on record we do not think it would lead to a Little Ice Age.
Now the sun may not drop to the lowest output which means his statement would not happen.
The value of gold and platinum due to their utility other than as currency is insignificant. In fact part of what makes them such good currency candidates is their lack of utility.
Platinum is used in fuel cells and catalytic converts.
you mean like these eletric tractors?
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3847
or if you want a commercial company.
http://www.electrictractor.com/
12 million 1MW wind turbines would be needed to power the US ((25,776 TWh / (365 days) / 1MW) * 4) (25% capacity factor)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States#Current_consumption
With the area of the US being 9,826,675 km . Your looking at 1.5 wind turbines/km^2
Solar ((25,776 TWh / (4 hours * 365)) / 250 watts) * 1640mm * 992mm = 114,888.928 km^2 or about 1% of the us area.
Your nuclear example
3.3 gigawatts * 1300 * 365days = 37,580.4 terawatt hours
Try 4.5% and that is assuming all the people in the USA are richer then everyone else on the planet.
So assuming you can make it free for $500 . You will get a payback of less then two years?
Even if it cost $1000 and you would otherwise get 10% on that. You still are ahead after 6 years.
Do the crashed planes cause an area to be a no go zone?
How many of the 125 million dwellings actually can mount 6KW on them?
What about large scale solar farms like Nevada One?
I hear they are shipping it using aluminum.
Aluminum ore comes in. Aluminum comes out.
http://www.fujitsugeneral.com.au/product/183/art90tuaj/#features
26400 KWh cooling capacity. Or presuming all of the sun goes into the house 264m^2.
To run it requires 10Kwh or 44 of http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/Solar-Panel-230-Watt-24V-Polycrystalline
That equals 72m^2 of the 264m^2 house.
This is presuming the air conditioner actually runs 100% during the day too.
on your black swan theory.
If I was trying to prove a dice was fair and I got 8 ones in a row from 1,679,616 trails would the dice be fair?
The thing I most notice is when the temperature is below the co2 line the sunspots are also low.
For temperature driving CO2 I would point out a chemical reaction Nitrogen dioxide and Dinitrogen tetroxide. Those two gases are in equilibrium. If you change the concentration of one the other will follow. Proving A follows B does not disprove B follows A.
On that graph a temperature reading below CO2 levels that could not be explained by the sunspots would cause me to look for another explanation.
Another thing that would cause me to question the science would be a explanation for the less IR radiated by the earth in the bands that CO2 absorbs.
And if we add in some sun for the variation from the co2 line
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/wti/from:1970/to:2013/mean:30/normalise/plot/esrl-co2/from:1970/to:2013/normalise/plot/sidc-ssn/from:1970/to:2013/normalise
First let's normalize both graphs
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/wti/from:1995/to:2013/normalise/plot/esrl-co2/from:1995/to:2013/normalise
Lets remove some of the noise and look at a longer term graph
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/wti/from:1970/to:2013/mean:30/normalise/plot/esrl-co2/from:1970/to:2013/normalise
One observation would be nearly every trend except CO2 indicating cooling and it actually cooling instead of just reaming stable.
And both 18 and 16 years show an upward trend.
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/wti/from:1995/to:2013/trend
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/wti/from:1997/to:2013/trend
Encrypted means the terrorists can't watch in fear as we come and get them. (One explanation I have heard.)
http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2010/update87
250 million cars
if only one in 10 thousand catches fire then their would be 25 thousand car fires.
http://www.nfpa.org/research/fire-statistics/the-us-fire-problem/highway-vehicle-fires
187 thousand fires on the highway alone.
or nearly 1 in 2000 petrol cars catch fire each year.
It used to be but now most of the Pokemon content has been deleted.
15% tax here -10% tax already paid = 5% tax to pay here
7.117 billion * 1% = seventy-one million
If all the richest 1% lived in the us
313.9 million / seventy-one million = ~22% of the usa.
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Smartphone-Ownership-2013/Findings.aspx 56% of American adults are now smartphone owners
If all the rich lived in the usa then 3-4% would be able to read the web on their phones.
----
using a more worldwide view
http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/smartphone/
There are already more than 1.08 billion smartphone users in the world
1.08 billion )/ 7.117 billion = 15%
Yeah unsubsidized prices are hard to find for any power station.
2. AFAIK there's one solar-thermal plant that managed 24 hours of energy output... Once.
It's not really possible.
You mean this plant?
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/solar-storage-plant-gemasolar-sets-36-day-record-247-output-12586
Can't the solar panel use the air-cooled condenser as well?
Does the land area include the gas wells?
http://www.windustry.org/resources/how-much-do-wind-turbines-cost
2 milllion per MW of wind = 6 million per MW(With 33% capacity)
http://www.synapse-energy.com/Downloads/SynapsePaper.2008-07.0.Coal-Plant-Construction-Costs.A0021.pdf
This would mean a cost of well over $2 billion for a new 600 MW coal plant when financing costs are included.
2 billion / 600 = 3 million per MWh
Cost of coal to power the coal station for 10 years
24*365*10/1.870 * 90 = roughly 4 million
6 billion per MW for 10 years of coal + building a new one
Also wind turbines are now actually hitting 50% not 33%
http://cleantechnica.com/2012/07/27/wind-turbine-net-capacity-factor-50-the-new-normal/