I simply wonder how much energy Europe (wherever its borders lie...;) could produce from a windmill every 2.5 km, but I 'm not good at maths...
And then, once we have that number, following the "from the ground up" model, what necessary services could we provide a bunch of humans with this energy--and to how many humans? Well, they're the same question the wrong way round, but those are the kinds of questions I'm intersted in...if not for Europe, why not Tanzania, or Mongolia? A part of the world free to do what it wants (within X, Y,Z limits--hence the questions) thanks to the HUGE nuclear reactor out there...in space (where nuclear belongs...)
R Buckminster Fuller
And more roads and more heavy vehicles to power. Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
How much infastructure do you currently need to supply/build/etc. the oil/gas/coal system? Let's say you need that much plus some more to implement a distributed wind-turbine structure. But you don't need the heaviness (or the width?) and you are talking about dropping (or dragging, or pulling etc.) a descrete number of mechanical parts plus cables to a specific number of locations once-in-X-years. Let's say X=25. For the other 24 years and 300 or so days...peace and quiet...the lanes can grow over, vegetable can be planted...the lack of ongoing intensive polluting activity... For a given area there could be one factory (very small scale) near a train track and connected via communications media to other centres...best practice passed along...ever better and lighter machines helping humans to build an ever better and lighter system...
Sommat like that? Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
Good point, but re rg, the idea of resurrecting field railways, e.g. temporary tracks, is attractive to me... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
How about field maglev tracks? Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
Apart from the structures (which I imagine can be made out of ever lighter materials) which components are going to necessitate all this heaviness? Even the heavist components could be transported to within a km or so of site via light-rail
In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
It looks very long, what is it, 60m? I can imagine that a track can be made in 60m-straight sections. Is it very heavy? Too heavy for a light-rail solution? Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
