tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9560953.post3374360732438751763..comments2023-12-31T19:34:14.853-05:00Comments on Dymaxion World: Just buy the damn thingsjohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09690430991814528863noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9560953.post-39842228839030452362008-02-27T09:44:00.000-05:002008-02-27T09:44:00.000-05:00The "expense" of solar is a red herring - much lik...The "expense" of solar is a red herring - much like the efficiency arguments for solar. Efficiency matters when you're putting work into extracting the fuel - if oil had efficiency rates like solar it wouldn't be worth the effort to pump it out of the ground.<BR/><BR/>Solar is different - you have to measure the efficiency ratings over the lifetime of the solar unit. And we passed the point where the efficiency argument was a stopping point decades ago - even low efficiency solar panels will crank out far more energy over their lifetime than it takes to make them - and that's the only energy we ever need to put into them beyond the "wasted" energy they collect from the sun.<BR/><BR/>The real "problem" with solar is that you make the units and you're done. There isn't a need for a workforce to provide anything beyond the production, installation and maintenance of the units themselves. Which means that there is no natural constituency for legislators to build on this. Coal producing states have pols who will go to bat for them to force regulations positive for coal miners and producers. Same for oil. As we're seeing now, the same goes for ethanol. Until there's a voting constituency for "sun jobs" we just aren't going to see the effort put into growing solar as an energy source as we do for protecting legacy energy jobs.<BR/><BR/>--NonyNonyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com