Several states and countries are begining to move more toward Solar and Wind power. Various governemtents have set initiatives to build houses with solar panels and put large solar panals and facilities in deserts. Windmills for wind energy is on the increase, although it has been met with opposition on initiatives in the US to put long lines of wind power mills along coastlines where there is the most wind due to complaints that it won't "look nice". There was rumors at some point also of a design for a large solar panal setup in one of the US deserts that could provide energy to supposedly half the nation (to which some say: Why not put two then?).

Now, personally, I think a move toward this form of energy is a great idea. It'll last us longer and can be made cheaper and with less envirnomental negatives. The windmill idea i think should be implemented along coastlines in a way that doesn't disturb, say, the dunes which have already been pretty well destroyed, as for the aesthetic side, well, live with it, and I think a massive line of nicely designed windmills if its so desired would look great and probably become a "wonder" and tourist attraction. As for the large solar plate in the desert, I'm a bit skeptical that it might not cause other problems to the desert enviornment and ecosystems. Is it worth it anyway? Hard to say with what I know about it.

So, what do you all think about these proposed advances? How do you think they may in turn effect the enviornment? Are they that needed? Do you even care?

Good Thread!

Solar Power and Wind Power are Great ideas, it would help not only with the Energy Problem the World has but it also would allow us to help slow, and possibly Stop Global Warming.

At one time Jimmy Carter Put Solar Panels on Top of the White House to help cut down on energey consumption from other sources, but Ronald Regan, being a Conservative took them off.

This obviously will have some negatives, but in the long run it is a good thing, and the long term is important not the short term.

The idea to use such energey would allow us tiime to find other sources of energey, that might be more reliable, and better for the enviornment, i'm not talking about hydrogen either because the possiblites of that working is almost nill.

But lets look towards the future right, and get out of the Grip of Saudi Arabia and the Oil Tycoon Giants lik Halliburton.

Shinsengumi89

I personally don't think windmills look ugly at all. I think they look really nice. I always go "Wow." when I see them up in the mountains and hills at places. I think they'll look pretty good too near the beaches. But if they really don't like them on the beaches, then we can put them 1-10 miles off shore. Right there I'm quiet sure there a decent amount of wind activity. Just gotta make then tough to destory and stuff.

Well anyways, I think to certain areas, they'll be great. Though I don't think those areas should completely rely on them for power. At least have a backup system in place in case of some disruptions in the supply of wind and sunlight.

I'm also skeptical on a solar array that can power half of the United States. At most I think it can go is it powers some states in the southwest like Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. They could also help power some parts of Mexico.

Enviornmental wise, wind mills shouldn't hurt too much at shore or off shore. Solar arrays might make the desert a bit cooler, if it is large enough. But overall, these two shouldn't hurt too much.

I have to add that i find Mind Mills and Solar Arrays a technical Marvel, and in that sense i find no uglyness in them.

Yea, I don't think they are ugly either, really i see a long line of them going for hundreds of miles a pretty cool concept.

On the desert panal though, Vinitachi mentioned it might make the desert a bit cooler, which in itself may actually be a problem for the ecosystems there. Also though, if it covers alot of space, it may block sunlight there or disrupt other activity there by being there over a large area. When you think of deserts you don't usually think about the many organisms and ecosytems that actually are there and have to be concidered in deciding to do anything on this scale as well, as it may in fact disrupt or destroy ecosystems, and in an extreme outcome, lead to the endangerment or extinction of some organisms that live there.

One thing that should be remembered is that building solar panel farms in the middle of the desert is good for public image, however soon the costs come into play: To generate that much electricity will need hundreds of acres of photovoltaic cells, and each one of these cells much be polished and be kept clean. In fields and in labs that's not a problem, but in the desert, there's naturally going to be a lot of dust. So each panel will need to be cleaned several times a day to remain at maximum output. Then there's the cost of the cells, getting all of the energy together and then getting it onto the grid and regulating it. And even deserts get cloudy, often for much longer periods than other areas depending on the geographic location. This means that battery farms will need to be built to store enough power to keep all our little PC's running during these cloudy periods. Lets also not forget that this will essentially destroy any wildlife habitats in the area. If anything, it would make much more sense to replace peoples roof's with solar panels and let them power their own houses, nevermind what high density populations living in apartments and office buildings will do for power.

Personally, I'd be putting the money from this into nuclear fusion research and get that off the ground ASAP, because not only will it be much cheaper to set up

Beats over 100 new nuclear plants... who gives a fuck what spews into your backyard? who cares if your kids die prematurely? what do you care about the silent killer that you voted for?

Great idea, the globe is already choking on all the pollutants casted out by uncaring humans. This project will definitely stop global warming and provide energy to everyone.

Wind and solar power are great ideas but wind power is only effective in certain areas and solar power's effectiveness has quite a few drawbacks. These are not really replacement technologies except in a few areas of the globe. they are more complementary technologies that will reduce our demand for power generated from fossil sources but they won't eliminate it. Fusion power systems (if they ever become viable) would be good replacement powr sources but they have drawbacks as well. Its really got to abe a concerted effort across the board to minimize the dependance on fossil fuels for power. Powered products need to become more efficient, we need to utlize more renewable power resources (wind, water, solar, tidal, geothermal, etc...), and everyone needs to do it. We won't stop global warming but we can reduce the human impact on that cycle.

Ok, wind power is great, but as already pointed out, a backup power supply is needed. This is how wind mills met power requirements. A wind mill will always produce the maximum power it can get from the wind. The grid ( everyone of your power sucking computers and more) won't always require the maximum power that the wind mill outputs. So any extra power is re-routed to a pump which pumps water up a very big hill into a reseavor. If for some reason, the grid is asking for more power than the windmills could provide at that moment, water is allowed to go down that big hill where the water will turn a turbine which will turn a generator to produce more power. For solar panels, its pretty much the same deal. I don't know if they would employ the same storage method, but they will have a storage method.

But good point about maintains issues in the desert.

Nucklear power right now is not neccessarily a great alternative. It lasts a certain amount of time, costs alot of time and energy (not to mention money) to make, and has to be dealt with for a long time after it is no longer useful. Fusion might be better, but we still havn't been able to achieve it practically (other than the one lab expirement that hasn't been reproduced). And, even if these power sources are more of supporters right now, thats still helping to ease the dependence on other power sources and slow the consumption of them. After all, we WILL run out of fossil fuels, regardless of their enviornmental impacts, so even if we don't find a replacement in solar and wind, if we can find a means of prolonging our ability to use fossil fuels that also helps, from an energy standpoint anyway.