Cable Forum - View Single Post - Global warming 'past the point of no return'

meld51 · 18-03-2007, 18:15

Hello Shaun,

I completely agree with your last point. I don't think we should write off the fusion projects but we should definitely be looking at local generation of electricity and heat from renewable resources and the funding and strategic management of this large project has to lie with the government who can create the market.

We have to be sure that the system for local collection of energy is a low-carbon system though. Because of this I would like to know how much carbon is produced in the manufacture, installation, running and maintenance of a wind turbine, a photoelectric array and a solar panel. I am worried that it might actually be very carbon-high to do all this. I realise that the energy collection phase may be efficient but white vans will have to deliver this stuff, factories will have to manufacture them by the million and they will need to be maintained and disposed of at the end of their individual lives.

Has anyone got any thoughts on this?

By the way, here is a scan of the progress that has actually been made in the nuclear fusion world. Note that both of the scales are logarithmic. The point marked ITER is a point where 5:1 efficiency takes place (I am guessing that the scale along the bottom is efficiency and the vertical scale is in seconds). This chart comes from AERE Culham.

There has been an ongoing joke about the 30 year rule but it seems to me that there has been good progress and there is a sign that the obstacles are being overcome.

18-03-2007, 18:15	#203
meld51 Inactive Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 364	Re: Global warming 'past the point of no return' Hello Shaun, I completely agree with your last point. I don't think we should write off the fusion projects but we should definitely be looking at local generation of electricity and heat from renewable resources and the funding and strategic management of this large project has to lie with the government who can create the market. We have to be sure that the system for local collection of energy is a low-carbon system though. Because of this I would like to know how much carbon is produced in the manufacture, installation, running and maintenance of a wind turbine, a photoelectric array and a solar panel. I am worried that it might actually be very carbon-high to do all this. I realise that the energy collection phase may be efficient but white vans will have to deliver this stuff, factories will have to manufacture them by the million and they will need to be maintained and disposed of at the end of their individual lives. Has anyone got any thoughts on this? By the way, here is a scan of the progress that has actually been made in the nuclear fusion world. Note that both of the scales are logarithmic. The point marked ITER is a point where 5:1 efficiency takes place (I am guessing that the scale along the bottom is efficiency and the vertical scale is in seconds). This chart comes from AERE Culham. There has been an ongoing joke about the 30 year rule but it seems to me that there has been good progress and there is a sign that the obstacles are being overcome.