[ExI] Energy Defeatism

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Mckee
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 12:09 AM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [ExI] Energy Defeatism

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:58:23 +1300, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

>> about: going off-grid is a compromise.  I can imagine getting to 70% 
> renewables in 20 yrs if we get on it, spend a ton of money and 
> tolerate spot shortages.

>...Excuse me while I smirk a little, here in New Zealand we used to be
around 85% hydro and geothermal power production, since then we've
de-comissioned at least one coal fired powerplant I know of and setup some
wind farms,  and there is talk of trialling an undersea tidal generator...

Excellent, good work New Zealand.  The USA is a huge energy consumer and we
have very little geothermal resources that are not already being exploited.
Regarding falling water, we have harnessed most of the available hydro
power, and our conservatives complain loudly about even that, urging that we
take out the currently existing hydro power, so we can have wild rivers
again.


>...So 90%+ renewable power generation here looks more like being inevitable
rather than a struggle to achieve.

>...YMMV ;-)
_______________________________________________

True, and good work Kiwis.  But New Zealand doesn't have near the population
densities and growth pressure we yanks have, nor nearly the hordes of
immigrants willing and eager to break the law to come here and breed like
crazy, making our energy problems worse every day.  Not only have we not
stabilized our population as New Zealand has done, we cannot.  So we need to
get going on energy solutions.

spike