Tuesday, February 16, 2010

debate (at least rajeev's side) on twitter on energy, esp nuke vs solar

feb 16th, 2010

 i am a nuclear sceptic, but i am even more sceptical about nydrocarbons. one is quick death, the other lingering death :-)

 via Seesmic
 entertaining debate; come a long way from global warming scepticism, haven't we? ok, we'll give it a rest for now.
 i would say nuclear far dirtier than solar. half-life of waste in 1,000s of years. but we must get off hc, come what mayt
 total cost of ownership of nuclear far exceeds solar, must include radioactive waste cleanup, risk of chernobyls, terrorism
 thin films less energy-hungry for production. put the cells on desert/arid/marginal land, or heck, out at sea!
 most of all, uranium finite. total energy content in all uranium 2,000 terawatthrs. solar 30,000 tw PER YEAR!
 solar produces no co2 either. and uranium mining and processing costs lots of co2 producing energy too, and strip mining.
 and nuclear in india, with terrorists running around freely? how tempting to them!
 nuclear cleaner than solar (much, much, you said). how so?
 because nuclear cleanup costs will be 50x the capital costs, and will leave us dependent on oz, canada, russia, us for uranium
 politician-media nexus. you're right: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? media hides much, promotes other news based on payment
 i agree oil not used for elec in india, it's for transport, industry, agri. i am not saying go off oil cold-turkey either
 talking of new capital costs, india is planning to sink $45 billion into nuclear. that, surely, can be diverted to solar.
 via Seesmic
 i find those figures solar = 6x wind rather high
 but sunk cost doesn't mean you don't upgrade. sunk twisted wire costs for telecom didn't prevent migration to cellular
 full costs not accounted. take any country. US: iraq war costs? india: cost of patrolling gulf of aden? not in oil budget
 i doubt it is accounted for. the infra capital cost attributed to development. retail cost only reflects operational expenses.
 solar costs will fall with volume and tech progress in efficiency. today with subsidies, japan/germany solar is grid-neutral
 fully loaded cost of infra for oil/gas/coal: pipelines, ports, LNG terminals, rail lines, very high. hidden in other budgets
 not talking of india alone or OPEC alone. world must get off. oil is nasty, leads to: 1. co2 2. plastics 3. jihad
politician-media complex is instrument and US/vatican/china/saudi arabia are the financiers of manufactured consent. chomsky was right
 via Seesmic
 media is being used cynically to manufacture consent. led to slaughter pied-piper like. people actually believe what media says
 i am not a fan of biofuels. but solar, yes. capital cost high, but running cost low. fully loaded cost of oil/coal/gas high

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