Our World and Everything in It

I was watching Planet Green about solar energy, specifically residential solar panels, and found out answers to a lot of questions. An average 2000 sq. ft. home would need to use 24–3 X 5 ft. solar panels to supply 90 to 95 percent of all electricity to the home. The panels sit on a rail and install within hours. The current produced from the solar panels goes to an inverter box hooked to the home’s main electrical box. The inverter converts the direct current into the U.S. alternating current and that’s about it.

Now for the cost. Depending on the size of the house it would cost 15 to 25 thousand dollars for the solar panels. With federal rebates the cost is lowered to 12 to 20 thousand dollars. This is very affordable for many people, and for those that can’t afford to eat, let alone put panels on their roof, I don’t see why the U.S. doesn’t just supply the darn things.

I figure if there are 300 million people in the U.S., then there are more than likely 100 million homes. The average cost of 12 to 20 thousand dollars for solar panels is 16 thousand dollars. If the government can get trillions in debt over a made up war, and keep pork barrel spending in the millions, not to mention earmarks on bills that amount to millions, then why doesn’t Uncle Sam just bite the bullet and supply 100 million homes with solar panels? The total cost would be 1.6 billion dollars but over a 4 year time period, it would come to a paltry 400 million per year.

I say paltry because of all the stupid waste I’ve read about. If you read, you know. It’s as if there are two alternate worlds. One world is where our officials come from regarding the environment, which is totally disconnected from anything I’m watching on Planet Green lately. I’ve actually written to the offices of senators, the governor, and reps asking whether they have someone on the payroll to just watch all the latest innovations that are available because our leaders seem completely out of touch, and keep trying to feed us a bunch of bunk that we must drill for more gas, drill for more oil, fossil fuel, fossil fuel, fossil fuel. They’ve had their blinders on so long they fail to realize it’s the 21^st century, and we’re able to watch and see for ourselves that there are an awful lot of alternatives out there besides the same ole, same ole. I think it’s criminal the way we are blatantly lied to.

Just yesterday I watched as Gerald Brown, Great Britain’s new prime minister, and President Bush agreed that 1000 new nuclear plants will be built world wide in order to meet energy demands. This is the big alternative we’re being fed now. But why? Furnishing homes with solar panels is so much cheaper, and immediate. There is no 5 years of building a nuke plant, with the end result being no reduction in energy costs at all. Instead of paying big oil, we pay the nuclear industry, and still end up with radioactive waste that doesn’t dissipate for 1000 years.

Evidently helping consumers deal with global warming is one thing. Helping consumers deal realistically with global warming once and for all by getting homes off the grid will never happen because big utilities won’t be able to get a piece of the action. Heaven forbid we affect the monopolies of America in such a way they would no longer be viable, and therefore unable to gouge us at every turn. We should be feeling more and more like pawns everyday. 

There is a race to find new and innovative means of energy production and it looks like the U.S. may be in line along with China to construct Pebble Bed Reactors. There are also Par’s that are modular in design called PBMR’s. I’m used to knowing the basics of the standard type of nuclear reactor in this country so this was an extremely interesting read of which I found several websites and articles.

I’m not so sure that this is a good idea, but hey we don’t ever seem to be in on the decision making in this country anymore. By time we find out about things, they are almost a done deal. I’m listing the websites that provided technical expertise on the subject that everyone should read because it looks like we are heading in this direction no matter what. There will be a need for thousands of construction workers across many states to build these facilities so we might as well get acquainted with this new technology early.

I’ve also included a website called “The Three Mile Island Alert” that brings up all the problems with PBR plants. So far what I’ve read, Par’s exist mainly on the continent of Africa. So settle in and put on your science cap, especially if you are not very well attuned to how a nuclear plant works to begin with. Maybe reading about Par’s will give you some idea about the cooling towers and that it’s not radioactive smoke of any kind that we see coming up out them but pure steam. They are what they claim to be, Water Cooling Towers. As with all nuclear power, the spent fuel is still the biggest problem, PBR or not.

There is also an article that compares coal fired facilities with the residual trapped CO2 and that by combining this CO2 with the spent fuel from one of these PBR plants, we might be able to create new types of biofuels not unlike ethanol or methane for use. Happy reading. Let me know what you think.

About PBR technology: http://www.eskom.co.za/nuclear_energy/pebble_bed/pebble_bed.html.
Don’t forget to click on “Future of Waste” on the same website.

The cons of PBR’s: http://www.tmia.com/industry/pebbles.html.

About coal vs. PBR’s: http://pebblebedreactor.blogspot.com/2007/03/compare-coal-power-to-pbr-nuclear-power.html.