Ed Ring

In an earlier post "Power the World with Photovoltaics," we demonstrate that the entire energy requirements of the human race could be fulfilled by a photovoltaic array 143,872 square miles in size. Insofar as this is only about one-quarter of one percent of the earth's surface, or 668 square feet per person, there is no shortage of available space for photovoltaics. With biofuel, however, there is a question as to whether or not there is enough land available to grow biofuel and also preserve farms and wilderness. For example, some of the best biofuel crops - biodiesel from jatropha and bioethanol from sugar cane - are able to produce about 6,000 barrels of fuel per square mile per year. This equates to about 55 million Btu's of energy per square mile per year. This means that using the best biofuel crops we've got today, to produce enough fuel to fulfill entire energy requirements of the human race (400...

If solar power is the purest form of renewable energy known, then how much solar power have we got? The answer to this question, when considered alongside how efficiently we can convert raw sunshine into usable power, helps determine whether or not it is realistic to consider solar energy as a viable alternative to conventional energy sources. In full sun, you can safely assume about 100 watts of solar energy per square foot. If you assume 12 hours of sun per day, this equates to 438,000 watt-hours per square foot per year. Based on 27,878,400 square feet per square mile, sunlight bestows a whopping 12.2 trillion watt-hours per square mile per year. With these assumptions, figuring...

In a repeat of what happened last year, immediately prior to the 4th of July recess the US Senate will take up the debate as to whether or not to ratify the proposed anti-flag burning amendment. If the proposal is passed this time around, this amendment is sure to be ratified by 35 states in short order, and will become enshrined as part of the US Constitution. This amendment must be stopped. The unintended consequences of the proposed 28th amendment, banning flag burning, will be far reaching. An amendment banning flag burning cannot possibly be interpreted in terms as narrow as its proponents may believe. The 28th amendment will stand in direct conflict with the 1st amendment, the right to free speech. Imagine the interpretation and enforcement of the 28th amendment. What if a protester burns an American flag that has an extra stripe, or just one star, or is red, white and black...

Based on reputable estimates, as of 2006, total world energy consumption has just topped 400 quadrillion BTU's. Check the Infoplease website for a good summary of world energy consumption by region and by decade, including forecasts. If it takes 3,413 BTUs to equal one kilowatt-hour (it does), and if you assume all energy consumption in the world is electrical, this would mean that in 2006 the world will consume about 13,370 gigawatt-years of electricity. There are many critics of photovoltaic power, and one of their claims is you couldn't possibly squeeze enough of these panels onto the planet to fulfill humanity's energy needs. The purpose of this entry is to prove that criticism dead wrong. How much panel area would be necessary to power the entire world with nothing but photovoltaic energy? How large a panel would it take to generate 13,370 gigawatts of electric power, all year...

Everyone seems to agree mass transit is the solution to everything. But what the mass transit advocates don't tell you is that our freeways don't have to be clogged up all the time, and that they are deliberately neglecting freeway upgrades while they pour money into mass transit that doesn't work. Light rail only works in very high density urban centers, and if the anti-freeway people have their way in California, you are going to be "in-filled" into a world of high rises and stucco canyons. Let's not go any further without noting the cause of congestion is not freeways. That's right. You heard that right. The anti-freeway folks have got us thinking freeways CAUSE congestion. They say the more roads we build, the more "bad development" occurs, and the more cars get stuck on the freeway. This is nonsense - population growth causes congestion, and more freeways alleviates...

ORGANIC FARMING FINDS ITS ROOTS ON A VINEYARD IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jim Fetzer owns a winery called Ceago del Lago in a fine place in California where the hills meet the northern shore of a lake. In the winter the sun shines directly onto the slopes beyond the water and bathes the land in light, allowing a sheltered microclimate where grapes grow warmer. Vineyards march up the low hillsides, and on the shore, a mission-nouveau chateau rises in the misty flats just off the lake. In this pristine spot, where the air is cleaner than anywhere else in the USA, this winery and vineyards have arisen that emulate the vision of the pioneer of organic farming, Rudolf Steiner. His...

One of the favorite quotes of conservatives comes from none other than the great statesman Winston Churchill, who said "a young person who isn't a liberal has no heart, and an old person who isn't a conservative has no brain." This quote has become an interesting but perhaps underexamined truism. Perhaps Churchill was dead wrong about this. First of all, for Churchill to declare such a dichotomy at all is suspect. It implies that liberalism is all heart and conservatism is all brain. Wouldn't one think both heart and brain are necessary to weigh ethical issues and the public policies that might support them? But Churchill's quote is even more problematic than this - because even if one accepts his dichotomy, it should be turned on its head. It is the young who are smart, and the old who have heart. When you are young, being a conservative is easy. A young person is invulnerable...

Environmentalists have touted hydrogen as the panacea for world energy challenges for decades, and as is common with populist environmentalist causes, their focus on hydrogen has caused more harm than good. This isn't the first time thoughtful critics inside and outside the environmentalist movement have called the hydrogen future a hoax, but unfortunately the hydrogen zealots still aren't listening. First of all, hydrogen isn't a primary fuel. It has to be produced from something else, either from electricity via electrolysis, or refined from fossil fuel, or distilled from biomass. In all these cases, using the source fuel directly would be far more efficient than converting this energy into hydrogen. Obviously refining hydrogen from fossil fuel isn't going to solve any energy shortages. Distilling hydrogen from biomass is equally problematic; it has the same problems all biofuels...

Around 8 a.m. on Sunday, December 11th, 2005, in open water just east of the California's Farallon Islands, a crab fisherman spotted a large female humpback whale entangled in crab lines. The 45 foot, 50 ton whale was exhausted from attempts to free herself, and barely had strength enough to keep her blowhole above water. What followed is an inspiring story of how quickly people were able to rescue this animal. By early afternoon, a team of rescue divers from Sausalito's Marine Mammal Center were already beginning to treat the animal, which was being strangled and slowly dragged under by over 20 crab-pot ropes, which are 240 feet long with weights every 60 feet. Eight divers surrounded the animal, using curved...

There is an excellent website on the business of photovoltaics, SolarBuzz (http://www.solarbuzz.com/) which provides information on corporations, products, and people associated with the photovoltaic industry. On their home page they have a perpetually updated report on the price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of photovoltaic electricity. Currently they show the price for photovoltaic electricity to be 21.7 cents per kWh. If you compare this price to the cost of electricity from many conventional sources, especially coal, but even natural gas and oil burning power plants - even at today's higher energy prices - at 21.6 cents per kWh, photovoltaic electricity isn't even close. Coal generated electric power can be sold retail for $.04 per kWh, if not less. As shown by the table in "Photovoltaics, the Ultimate Renewable," however, it may be a fallacy to base kWh prices of photovoltaic electricity on the installation price. This is because the...