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This planet is saying to us we have to produce base power without carbon and do it now!!! There is a way. Use natural flows. We have the know-how and technology to provide all our energy needs using solar and wind with integrated storage of the energy. In the case of solar using photo voltaic cells, storage can done by using flow batteries, and in the case of solar thermal it can be done thermo chemically, and in the case of wind also flow battery storage can be used. Base power for industry can be achieved 24/7 this way. Wind and photo voltaic cells also have the advantage of distribution so distribution of these adds to the capacity factor and or can allow for less storage requirement. In some countries geothermal energy can provide large amounts of power 24/7 and tidal and wave flows are possible in many countries. Combinations of all of these could provide for an extremely reliable power supply. Doing anything else e.g. building nuclear power stations or developing “clean coal” or CO2 geosequestration is wasting time and will in the long run result in more CO2 in the atmosphere and in the case of nuclear, is only continuing what should be wound down as a dangerous technology, not only because of it’s inherent safety requirements but because the world will never have a safe nuclear industry because the world is entrenched in crazy ideologies. And it can’t provide power without carbon because of the progression of the fuel from mining through to refining transport and disposal. The biggest uranium mine in the world Olympic Dam will be expanded to become the deepest and largest hole in the world emitting carbon on a grand scale! And carbon will be produced in construction and decommissioning. There is only one way to go to satisfy zero carbon now; it’s by using natural flows of renewable energy. For any success for renewable energy in the commercial world to happen it has to provide base power for industry 24/7. Storage of the sun’s energy together with competitive prices to the consumer is the key to this. We are at the crossroads of this happening now with employment of cheap construction materials, zero input energy cost and the utilization of already mature technologies and large-scale setups enabling solar power to enter the commercialization stage. See http://www.ausra.com/ and http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/index.htm but no nuclear or fossil fuel power will be able to provide cheap clean and safe power in time to address the impending crisis in global warming caused by the human species. Only renewable energy from natural flows will do that. Lets get on with it!!
More than ever before we need a safe power source to power this world. The latest report by the CSIRO and The Bureau of Meteorology in Australia that we have come to the threshold where global warming is going to go out of control demonstrates clearly that we must move immediately from CO2 polluting power production to non-CO2 power production. The only way to do this is to shut down all the fossil fuel burning industries. That’s a mad thing to do you say. I don’t think so given the fact that within the life of our present generation this may easily happen from disastrous weather changes. No food production will shut down anything!! It probably will not be quite that bad but pretty close to it. And now we have the Vatican, James Lovelock, Hans Blix and Green Peace and many other environmentalists advocating nuclear power to help prevent global warming. They don’t cite however nuclear proliferation and the fact that we will never have a safe nuclear industry because the world is entrenched in crazy ideologies or the huge amounts of CO2 to mine uranium, transport and refine it (Olympic Dam the largest hole in the world and uranium mine will produce millions of tons of CO2) or the CO2 produced in building nuclear power stations and their decommissioning. John Howard our prime minister has announced that elections will be held on November 24th. and nuclear power will not be on the agenda. But the Howard government will if it’s returned with the nuclear issue now tucked presently away bring that up to full bore. Basically the Australian Greens Party has the only published political policy to deal with the CO2 threat. The Labor Party has not said what it will do but has intimated that they have a number of renewable energy strategies. There is only one way to go. Don’t vote for the Howard Government!
To all those who think that solar thermal power or in fact any renewable power employing natural flows will still have limited 24/7 base power output- there are a number of storage options already in existence. A star performer in these is the disassociation of ammonia closed loop system. This enables power to be produced 24/7 even in the wintertime from a summer sun without any power loss from storage at ambient temperatures! Correct scaling with input, load and time enables this as with any storage system. And there is an explosion of promising technologies being developed. It’s worth keeping in mind that the mount of the sun’s energy falling on Australia in one day is equal to all the world’s requirements for 6 months 24/7. And wind, tidal and wave are equally of large scale and can be stored actually surprisingly cheaply. An explanation of the ammonia storage system is at, http://engnet.anu.edu.au/DEresearch/solarthermal/high_temp/thermochem/index.php
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