Something that nobody in the world (except--perhaps--for
the late Pol Pot) has ever proposed.
>
>"Electricity can be stored"
>...I think you're confusing electricity with energy. Not
>even the most utopian environmentalists are suggesting
>that we can store electricity for general use. Hence the
>Californian shortage...
Only a banker could say that. Everyone else knows there was and is no "shortage"--just market manipulation by the banker-controlled energy conglomerates (Enron et.al.) and politicians (Davis et. al.)
>...Electricity...can be used to make hydrogen to be burned
>in fuel cells...
What ignorance! Fuel cells do not generate energy by "burning" (rapidly oxidizing) hydrogen. A fuel cell works by stripping electrons (electricity in its purest available state) from hydrogen atoms to produce electric current. The remaining nuclei combine (4/1) with oxygen--producing water but virtually no heat. Hydrogen, when produced by electrolysis, stores *electricity*. This is how:
Wind turbine->Electricity->Electrolysis->Hydrogen->Fuel Cell->Electricity
>"A tiny fraction of our planet's aeolian resources would
>be sufficient"
>...Animal farts would provide a lot of energy too. But at
>present we don't have the ability to harness either
>efficiently...
Wind farms right now are efficiently producing substantial
amounts of electricity in many European countries--including the UK.
>
>"The transition to the hydrogen economy needs to be
>begun right away with massive publically financed
>programs"
>This makes sense to me, as part of an approach based
>around long-term planning. But the technology needs to
>be developed further before this can be a practical
>alternative.
As with every technology, development proceeds pari passu with practical application. Add in 21st-century research methodology, and the immediate practicality of massive "Manhattan Project" initiation of the hydrogen economy should be recognized by everyone except the apologists for vested petroleum-connected interests.
Shane Mage
"Thunderbolt steers all things...It consents and does not consent to be called Zeus."
Herakleitos of Ephesos
>