Reply #2: Alternatives [View All]

[eclipsenow.org]

Too right mate. I love alternative energy / renewable energy. I wish we could fill the landscape with solar chimney's, wind farms, solar PV as a matter of "war time emergency" and scale back our communities to "Main street" walking distance and train fed cities.

I love renewable energy... but as you know, it ain't gonna run what we are currently running!

I'm no scientist, I just read the scientific conclusions for laypeople. And even I've been able to "get it". ;-)

So to help memorize a checklist to apply to renewable energy, I came up with the following...

http://eclipsenow.org/facts/service-checklist.html

It looks better on my website's page, but here it is just for you.

The SERVICE test for alternatives

This is a basic checklist to use in evaluating alternative energy. If a renewable energy fails just one of the tests below, it is not going to replace oil. The more tests it fails, the less it can help mitigate peak oil. The experts are telling us that no alternative energy matches all the tests below, so our lifestyles must change. It is that simple!
ÒAlternatives are not going to SERVICE our current energy needs after cheap oil.Ó

S.E.R.V.I.C.E.

Sustainability

Energy payback

Rare materials

Volumes

Implementing Infrastructure

Cheap

Even supply

Sustainability Ð is it sustainable for the long term?
Bio-diesel depletes the soil unless we put some NPK back (which is also difficult without accruing an energy loss).
Gas conversions to cars will just use up the LPG faster.
A "hydrogen economy" based on natural gas will just bring "peak gas" forward that much quicker, etc.

Energy Payback Ñ the EPR. Do you get more energy out of a device that went into making it in the first place? Have you counted all the energy costs that go into the new energy infrastructure?

Tar sands and shale oil are incredibly energy expensive means of producing fuels. (And would again contribute to the global warming crisis.)

Rare materials essential to some renewable schemes would limit the worldwide deployment of that scheme.
EG: Electric Vehicles (EVÕs) hold great promise, but what are the worldÕs current Lithium reserves and how many generations before we experienced Òpeak Lithium?Ó
EG: Fuel cells use plantinum, and after just a few years of a fuel cell transport system we would reach peak platinum.

Volumes Ñ are most often too low.
EG: All Australian wheat into ethanol = 9% of liquid fuels and no bread! This alarming statistic takes into account the fact that we grow enough wheat for roughly 100 million people (we only consume 20% of our wheat for our 20 million Australians.) This statistic comes from Bruce Robinson of the STC.

EG: Biodiesel... even if we managed to grow biodiesel crops without modern fertilizers and pesticides (through biofarming methods such as "crop and cow" rotation) there is just not enough arable land to grow the quantities we need. We would run out of land for food!

Some potential energy volumes are vast (just 40 km by 40 km of solar PV is all Australia's energy needs) but we have left it too little too late. In other words, our current volumes of energy from these sources are far too low... below 1% of worldwide electricity supply.

Even if there is a vast potential energy source such as solar, the following questions pretty much prevent it running what we are currently running.

Implementing the Infrastructure Ñ is the fuel compatible with the current infrastructure? What are the issues in implementing the new fuel at filling stations? Is it easy to transport? Can it be stored easily? How energy dense is the fuel Ñ and will you burn 90% of the fuel just to transport it to the filling station? How long will it take to implement? What other time factors are involved in converting filling stations over?

Cheap Ñ What is this alternative going to cost society? We are not running out of oil, we are running out of cheap oil and it is throwing us into a crisis.The costs for a solar to hydrogen fuel system would currently bankrupt any nation Ñ we may as well use the original solar electricity to charge EVÕs rather than bother wasting energy making Hydrogen. What the alternative costs is extremely important, and is the basis of the peak oil crisis.

Even supply of energy Ñ Is the energy supply constant?

The sun doesnÕt shine at night, and the wind does not blow for long periods. We need a system of energy that is reliable, or the power grids start to fail. How do we adapt to the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources? What backup energy mechanisms are there? How expensive is this, and how do we adapt society to live in the new realities of more expensive energy?