71–80 of 132 posts
In terms of renewables, i think Norway and Brazil are higher up there, with 85% and 95% of their energy coming from renewable sources such as hydroelectic plants. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Brazil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Norway
Hydroelectric power is not something all countries are lucky enough to have.
Years ago, people said renewables wouldn't ever amount to much. Sure, it's growing exponentially, but look at how small it is! And yes, costs keep going down but it will take forever before it's competitive with coal and nuclear.
Forever's come and gone. Oil and gas went up in price. Exponential growth generated a nice experience curve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_curve_effects
Now some critics and skeptics will go around saying no one could have predicted how quickly wind and solar took over. They'll say it was due to the rapid increase in oil prices (no one saw that coming either) or subsidies (German feed-in tariffs were very generous, though not as much as tax breaks for oil co's).
So the lesson: humans are really bad at forecasting the results exponential growth. If you can find one that people are ignoring and time it well, you can entrench yourself in a market before most people even realize it exists.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because biomass will naturally released CO2 when decomposing Add that biomass usually releases CH4 (methane) which is a considered a much more potent greenhouse gas. Even simply burning the methane to CO2 -- ignoring energy recapture -- is an environmentally beneficial action, which is why landfills sometimes have flares.
Methane does not last all long and 'quickly' degrades into CO2 which is vary stable. (2xO2 + CH4 => 2xH20 + C02)
This article describes the power Germany produced, but doesn't mention the power Germany consumed. Does Germany import a lot of power? If so, that would be a good way to tweak the numbers, just import more non-renewables, and produce less non-renewables at home.
Germany has been a consistent net exporter of electrical energy since 2003. The circumstances have changed, though: In addition to two nuclear plants which were dormant since 2007 and 2009, six plants were shut down in mid-May 2011, and all of them are now gone for good. The balance was still positive in 2011, and I suspect it will be this year as well, but it might be a close thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing#Global_elec...
In related news, German electricity is 30% more expensive than French, and 300% more expensive than American. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing#Global_elec...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And you would get..? Nothing? So instead of forest and some energy you get just nothing.
Forest? It's not forest, it's an endless plain of monoculture - no insects, no birds, no ecosystem.
There's a lesson here for startup folks. Years ago, people said renewables wouldn't ever amount to much. Sure, it's growing exponentially, but look at how small it is! And yes, costs keep going down but it will take forever before it's competitive with coal and nuclear. Forever's come and gone. Oil and gas went up in price. Exponential growth generated a nice experience curve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_c…
I have another lesson.
15 years ago before anyone knew it existed. Denmark invested heavily in wind. It created one of the biggest windmill companies in the world.
It did all the right things. Took it to the stock market allowed normal people to invest in it, created lots of new jobs and the stock surged in the early zeros.
Today stock is struggling and most of the jobs have been outsourced to other countries much less expensive to produce in.
The windmill technology in itself is not hi-tech but "low-tech" so there isn't even som IP that the Danes benefit from.
The only customers worth talking about is countries and there is no revolution in efficiency happening.
My guess is that wind will be surpassed by other more beneficial technologies.
So the lesson: Alternative energy as we know it right now is far from being a solution to the problems we have. The politicians should not pick the winners but instead set goals that can be won.
Also, keep in mind, most of the countries being referenced are smaller Scandinavian countries. Getting proper delivery of resources is a major hurdle for US companies and their customers.
In related news, German electricity is 30% more expensive than French, and 300% more expensive than American. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing#Global_elec...
In related news: American electricity is artificially cheap.
[1]http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/05/americas-f...