[ExI] A Nobel laureate and climate change

[Eugen Leitl]

You're top-posting and not trimming your replies (message
unchanged below).

On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 01:30:32PM -0700, Dennis May wrote:
> Every cent redistributed from productive enterprises into
> "green" energy further damages the economy.  The numbers
> don't add up for solar or wind except in niche applications.
> More and more government investment into losing enterprises
> with the money being pocketed by political patrons isn't
> going to change the simple physics and economics that solar
> and wind will never amount to much.  If Germany wants to
> go broke like Spain chasing green energy there is no reason
> to follow their foolish path.
>  
> Once you move outside of the U235 path into other
> nuclear energies there is enough to power civilization
> until well after the sun itself becomes a problem.
>  
> Dennis May
> 
> From: BillK <pharos at gmail.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2011 2:03 PM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] A Nobel laureate and climate change
> 
> 2011/9/18 john clark wrote:
> > And that's why wind farms and solar panel companies don't need huge subsidies. Oh wait they do.
> > Tax benefits are the only reason wind farms exist and Solyndra just went under taking over half a
> > billion dollars of taxpayers money with it; they found out that selling solar panels for half of what it
> > cost to make them was not a good business model. Maybe we'll need more than moonbeams and
> > lollipops to power the world economy after all. Maybe its time to get serious.
> >
> >
> 
> Solyndra failed, as you say, because they didn't reduce production
> costs like other solar companies were doing.
> See:
> <http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/solyndra-solar-failed-poor-cost-structure-not-china>
> 
> But solar power is a new booming industry. There are always lots of
> failures at the start of a new industry. (Remember all the failed
> Internet startups?).  The government made a failed investment in the
> case of Solyndra, but other investments are doing nicely.  Nobody can
> pick winners every time. Even venture funds make mistakes sometimes.
> ;)
> 
> I think all western governments decided to encourage investments in
> renewable energy industries because private industry won't invest
> until they see a near-term profit. Governments need renewable energy
> in the near future and they don't want to wait until fuel is $20 USD
> per gallon.
> 
> Germany (where Eugen is) is doing very nicely in the renewable energy races.
> 
> 
> BillK
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-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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