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The diary was getting rather long, so I left out a great many issues and details. Yes, 20% refers only to capacity. The 20% figure is a riff off of the speeches Bush gave - and Bush probably pulled 20% out of his butt hole, so I agree that 20% is a very weak goal. If I were leader of the free world, I would set a goal of 100%. At 100% of capacity right this minute, wind would provide about a third of electricity consumed - if there's no wind, or too much wind, you can't get electricity out of 'em. One of the speakers at the AWEA workshop mentioned that we can expect to get up to the mid-40s, with a theoretical upper limit of the high-40s or low-50s. The people in the wind industry are very forthright that wind is not an answer all by itself; there must be a portfolio of energy sources of which wind is only one.
by NBBooks on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 10:09:22 PM EST
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I'd like to see a combination of wind energy and encouragement for solar, especially for home use. Despite all the roadblocks in its way, the technology for that has continued to become more efficient, and there are now flat roof panels much less obtrusive than the old, sticking-up-in-air ones.

Given even a smidgen of the subsidies available to dirty technologies, solar could go a long way toward lighting a good portion of the U.S. And building all the components would, as with wind, help revitalize industries that have been sacked in recent years.

by Mnemosyne on Thu May 15th, 2008 at 12:24:26 AM EST
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