[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Solar power is a bad joke. It’s prohibitively expensive and could never possibly meet the energy requirements of an industrialised nation.[/quote]
I understand J.P. Morgan felt the same way about the light bulb. [/quote]
Well I guess if solar power is viable it shouldn’t need any government subsidies then.[/quote]
No it shouldn’t, but we are talking about infrastructure.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]kamui wrote:
No he wasn’t. Electricity in the home is hardly the reason we borrow from our great grand children. [/quote]
Well, the State(s) subsidizes the energy sector in more than a way.
federal R&D programs, welfare programs like LIHEAP, direct transfert to the 500+ companies of the energy sector, support to the generation and transportations infrastructures, tax incentives and preferential treatments, the “socializations” of environmental, health, energy-security risks, the whole bureaucracy of regulation, etc.
Granted, this is not exclusively about “electricity in the home”, and no explicit budget line will show you the total, but this add up quickly.
That, and the obvious fact that each fossil ressource we use won’t be used by our great grand children.
[quote]mbdix wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Sounds cool to me. Would be even better if energy could somehow be converted to fuel cars while driving.
And/or if the energy burned during travel could be converted into power for the local city or town. That’d be cool. [/quote]
There is already technology that would allow a road to charge an electric car while driving on it. I don’t know all the details, but it is already available.[/quote]
Slot Cars! Man, I had those corvettes that went 250 scale miles per hour. That would be awesome.
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
[quote]mbdix wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Sounds cool to me. Would be even better if energy could somehow be converted to fuel cars while driving.
And/or if the energy burned during travel could be converted into power for the local city or town. That’d be cool. [/quote]
There is already technology that would allow a road to charge an electric car while driving on it. I don’t know all the details, but it is already available.[/quote]
Slot Cars! Man, I had those corvettes that went 250 scale miles per hour. That would be awesome.
[/quote]
Those were fun. I think the roads use magnetic resonance couplng
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
[quote]mbdix wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Sounds cool to me. Would be even better if energy could somehow be converted to fuel cars while driving.
And/or if the energy burned during travel could be converted into power for the local city or town. That’d be cool. [/quote]
There is already technology that would allow a road to charge an electric car while driving on it. I don’t know all the details, but it is already available.[/quote]
Slot Cars! Man, I had those corvettes that went 250 scale miles per hour. That would be awesome.
[/quote]
Just as long as some kid like me wasn’t controlling my car and seeing how far he could shoot me off the road in every corner.
No one remembers the fun of maintaining segmented roadways? AKA brick roads? Year one it looks great. By year 5 you can go maybe 30 miles an hour tops without destroying your car.
Show me a highway that would work like this for 5 years. Impossible.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Solar power is a bad joke. It’s prohibitively expensive and could never possibly meet the energy requirements of an industrialised nation.[/quote]
I understand J.P. Morgan felt the same way about the light bulb. [/quote]
Well I guess if solar power is viable it shouldn’t need any government subsidies then.[/quote]
All energy sources are subsidized not just solar.
On an even playing field solar is now arguably cheaper than fossil fuel. The costs of solar have been dropping dramatically in recent years and the efficiency of solar cells continues to improve. Like Tesla, solar is becoming a disruptive industry that will reek havoc with the dinosaurs in the energy business. It will be a long up and down battle (up and down due to the strong connections utilities and big oil have with governments) but ultimately solar will win out and be a huge contributor to the worlds energy needs.
This:
[quote]kamui wrote:
Well, the State(s) subsidizes the energy sector in more than a way.
federal R&D programs, welfare programs like LIHEAP, direct transfert to the 500+ companies of the energy sector, support to the generation and transportations infrastructures, tax incentives and preferential treatments, the “socializations” of environmental, health, energy-security risks, the whole bureaucracy of regulation, etc.
Granted, this is not exclusively about “electricity in the home”, and no explicit budget line will show you the total, but this add up quickly.
That, and the obvious fact that each fossil ressource we use won’t be used by our great grand children. [/quote]
Is a far cry from this:
[quote]kamui wrote:
And he was right about it.
It IS prohibitively expensive.
That’s why we don’t actually pay for our modern lifestyle. We borrow it from our great grand children.
[/quote]
J.P. Morgan thought the light bulb was nothing more than a circus act and a poor investment. That is obviously not true.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Solar power is a bad joke. It’s prohibitively expensive and could never possibly meet the energy requirements of an industrialised nation.[/quote]
I understand J.P. Morgan felt the same way about the light bulb. [/quote]
No, that was Rockefeller. J.P. Morgan was Edison’s prime financier. Rockefeller was not interested in electricity, he wanted everybody to burn oil so he was against it and refused to light his own house with electric light bulbs.
And with the onset and growth of electricity, Standard Oil took a huge hit, until Rockefeller found out that this waste product of petroleum, gasoline, could actually be quite useful.
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Solar power is a bad joke. It’s prohibitively expensive and could never possibly meet the energy requirements of an industrialised nation.[/quote]
I understand J.P. Morgan felt the same way about the light bulb. [/quote]
No, that was Rockefeller. J.P. Morgan was Edison’s prime financier. Rockefeller was not interested in electricity, he wanted everybody to burn oil so he was against it and refused to light his own house with electric light bulbs.
And with the onset and growth of electricity, Standard Oil took a huge hit, until Rockefeller found out that this waste product of petroleum, gasoline, could actually be quite useful.[/quote]
I’m talking about J.P. Morgan Sr. not Jr. I remember part of documentary where Jr’s father was disappointed his son would make what he thought was such a poor investment.
(They might not be Sr. & Jr. I can’t remember)
[quote]ZJStrope wrote:
Article: Solar Roadways wants $1 million to turn the US' roads into an energy farm | Engadget
FAQ: http://www.solarroadways.com/faq.shtml
"Each interlocking hexagonal segment is covered with toughened and textured glass that’s capable of withstanding 250,000 pounds. Beneath that, you’ve got a solar panel, a series of LED lights and a heating element that’ll keep the ice and snow off the hardware in winter. The lights are used to replace conventional traffic lights, offering constantly updating safety warnings and guide lines that can adapt to traffic conditions on the fly.
The system would require a trench running down one side, which would hold the power cables, but could also be used as the backbone for a potential new high-speed data network. As each panel would also be connected, it’d instantly report a fault back to a maintenance engineer, and also track its location, should someone decide to steal one for their own nefarious uses."
Seems legit to me, just very expensive to implement. But we could save all that $$$ used to protect our energy interests in the rest of the world to make us independent of that.
Thoughts?[/quote]
I like everything but the potential for tracking. Otherwise it’s a great idea. The idea of being able to melt snow and ice and power the roads own resources would save a lot of dough. Of course, that depends on how long it take for the money saved to pay for the implementation of the technology.
So on the surface, I like it. It will be especially handy up north where the roads do get icy and they spend millions on clearing the streets, but of course they also get less sun.
I still am not switching to an EV. I hate them with a passion. I’ll gladly drive my internal combustion car on the solar road. Maybe I can create a 3000 Watt stereo system to be powered by the road, not using any of the car’s resources. That would be cool. Or if you can make a nuclear car, then I am interested.
I have long wanted to put solar panels on my house and reduce dependence on the grid, but right now it’s still to damn expensive. Last I checked for a whole house system, it was $100,000. That’s a lot of electric bills.
I think the idea of individual dwellings being able to power themselves is an idea long over due. If each house and building were able to have their own solar panels along with a backup natural gas turbine, you could come completely off the grid, except of course for the natural gas.
The benefits would be through the roof for consumers. The grid loses 50% of it’s energy in transfer. So every house requires double the energy it actually uses to power it. Powering you own home make so much more sense.
But like anything, there’s always people against it because they are making money of the centralize power setup. Rather than investing, they’ll bitch and moan.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
J.P. Morgan thought the light bulb was nothing more than a circus act and a poor investment. That is obviously not true. [/quote]
That was his dad. J. P. Morgan started General Electric. He was all about the light bulb. He was the first person to have his house converted to all electrical lights.
http://valuesandcapitalism.com/the-men-who-built-america-j-p-morgan/
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
J.P. Morgan thought the light bulb was nothing more than a circus act and a poor investment. That is obviously not true. [/quote]
That was his dad. J. P. Morgan started General Electric. He was all about the light bulb. He was the first person to have his house converted to all electrical lights.
http://valuesandcapitalism.com/the-men-who-built-america-j-p-morgan/[/quote]
Lol, yes it was…
His dad’s name is J.P. Morgan as well.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Solar power is a bad joke. It’s prohibitively expensive and could never possibly meet the energy requirements of an industrialised nation.[/quote]
I understand J.P. Morgan felt the same way about the light bulb. [/quote]
No, that was Rockefeller. J.P. Morgan was Edison’s prime financier. Rockefeller was not interested in electricity, he wanted everybody to burn oil so he was against it and refused to light his own house with electric light bulbs.
And with the onset and growth of electricity, Standard Oil took a huge hit, until Rockefeller found out that this waste product of petroleum, gasoline, could actually be quite useful.[/quote]
I’m talking about J.P. Morgan Sr. not Jr. I remember part of documentary where Jr’s father was disappointed his son would make what he thought was such a poor investment.
(They might not be Sr. & Jr. I can’t remember)[/quote]
His dad was just another millionaire, J.S. Morgan. J.P. Morgan is why we have electric lights in all our houses.
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Solar power is a bad joke. It’s prohibitively expensive and could never possibly meet the energy requirements of an industrialised nation.[/quote]
I understand J.P. Morgan felt the same way about the light bulb. [/quote]
No, that was Rockefeller. J.P. Morgan was Edison’s prime financier. Rockefeller was not interested in electricity, he wanted everybody to burn oil so he was against it and refused to light his own house with electric light bulbs.
And with the onset and growth of electricity, Standard Oil took a huge hit, until Rockefeller found out that this waste product of petroleum, gasoline, could actually be quite useful.[/quote]
I’m talking about J.P. Morgan Sr. not Jr. I remember part of documentary where Jr’s father was disappointed his son would make what he thought was such a poor investment.
(They might not be Sr. & Jr. I can’t remember)[/quote]
His dad was just another millionaire, J.S. Morgan. J.P. Morgan is why we have electric lights in all our houses.
[/quote]
I don’t think I’d go so far as to call him “just another millionaire” and I’m pretty sure he was also J.P. Morgan. I could be wrong though.
I’ll be damned, that’s my bad. I thought he and his dad shared a name.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Solar power is a bad joke. It’s prohibitively expensive and could never possibly meet the energy requirements of an industrialised nation.[/quote]
I understand J.P. Morgan felt the same way about the light bulb. [/quote]
No, that was Rockefeller. J.P. Morgan was Edison’s prime financier. Rockefeller was not interested in electricity, he wanted everybody to burn oil so he was against it and refused to light his own house with electric light bulbs.
And with the onset and growth of electricity, Standard Oil took a huge hit, until Rockefeller found out that this waste product of petroleum, gasoline, could actually be quite useful.[/quote]
I’m talking about J.P. Morgan Sr. not Jr. I remember part of documentary where Jr’s father was disappointed his son would make what he thought was such a poor investment.
(They might not be Sr. & Jr. I can’t remember)[/quote]
His dad was just another millionaire, J.S. Morgan. J.P. Morgan is why we have electric lights in all our houses.
[/quote]
I don’t think I’d go so far as to call him “just another millionaire” and I’m pretty sure he was also J.P. Morgan. I could be wrong though. [/quote]
Well Junius Spencer did think electric lights were the stuff of circuses and side shows. My understanding is that J.P. pretty much hated his dad who was an asshole. A lot of people think J.P. was an asshole too. They probably all were, but they made our world modern. The big 3, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie changed the world. If it wasn’t for them, our ladies would probably still have hairy arm pits.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
I’ll be damned, that’s my bad. I thought he and his dad shared a name. [/quote]
Eh, no biggie. Those dudes were so rich that even without converting into today’s money, they’d still be really, really rich. That’s real money right there.
And without them, we probably wouldn’t have one of my favorite games ‘Monopoly’. I still enjoy that stupid game, I just can’t find people to play with. But my phone is always willing to play me.
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Solar power is a bad joke. It’s prohibitively expensive and could never possibly meet the energy requirements of an industrialised nation.[/quote]
I understand J.P. Morgan felt the same way about the light bulb. [/quote]
No, that was Rockefeller. J.P. Morgan was Edison’s prime financier. Rockefeller was not interested in electricity, he wanted everybody to burn oil so he was against it and refused to light his own house with electric light bulbs.
And with the onset and growth of electricity, Standard Oil took a huge hit, until Rockefeller found out that this waste product of petroleum, gasoline, could actually be quite useful.[/quote]
I’m talking about J.P. Morgan Sr. not Jr. I remember part of documentary where Jr’s father was disappointed his son would make what he thought was such a poor investment.
(They might not be Sr. & Jr. I can’t remember)[/quote]
His dad was just another millionaire, J.S. Morgan. J.P. Morgan is why we have electric lights in all our houses.
[/quote]
I don’t think I’d go so far as to call him “just another millionaire” and I’m pretty sure he was also J.P. Morgan. I could be wrong though. [/quote]
Well Junius Spencer did think electric lights were the stuff of circuses and side shows. My understanding is that J.P. pretty much hated his dad who was an asshole. A lot of people think J.P. was an asshole too. They probably all were, but they made our world modern. The big 3, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie changed the world. If it wasn’t for them, our ladies would probably still have hairy arm pits.[/quote]
Ya, I was mistaken. I was talking about Junuis in my original post.