Saturday, June 28, 2008

Solar Freeze is the worst idea this year

I usually try to keep weekends light, but I am still furious about the announcement yesterday to suspend all solar power building for two years on Federal Lands. Some have said to me "Well, that does not affect private land, so it is no big deal." Here is an article showing exactly how much land is tied up in the Bureau of Land Management which would be PRIME for Solar Power building.

Let me say it again. If the Bush administration or Congress does not reverse this decision by July 4, they ALL deserve to be thrown out of office. I include in that evaluation Barack Obama and John McCain. Supporting or ignoring this move displays complete incompetence at best, or simple corruption at worst.

2 comments:

quizwedge said...

I think solar power is great. Someday when the cost comes down and they can make then not so ugly, I'd love to go solar. Still, I do have a concern. I know I read somewhere (I think here on Mod-Blog) that if we switched completely to wind-power, it would cause a 3 degree increase in temperature. Would using massive amounts of solar energy lead to a world-wide decrease since the energy wouldn't be there to heat the earth?

Nomad said...

Wedge, The second law of thermodynamics states that all systems tend toward an increasing level of disorder. This means that highly ordered energy tends to become highly disordered energy. What that means in this case is in the process of turning sunlight into electricity, we inevitably produce a net output of heat (heat being the most disordered state of energy). Thus, if we WERE to decrease the amount of sunlight heating the ground, we'd still be increasing the amount not escaping back out of the atmosphere. So, it is most likely to be a net gain of heat, and at worst no gain or loss.

Thus ends your physics lesson of the day.

Besides, this really is not a physics problem at this point. It is a POLICY problem. This is the equivalent of banning gasoline just as Henry Ford is trying to open his factory.