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2008-07-03 Home Front Economy

BLM Reverses Moratorium On Solar Power Proposals

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Posted by Steve White 2008-07-03 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 If you are an animal or plant that lives in that desert, those solar panels will provide areas of permanent shade and completely change the environment. You are going to see the growth of non-native grasses, for example, living on the shade the panels provide and the water that is going to be used to wash the dust off of them.

It will absolutely destroy the natural desert environment under those panels. But destruction of environment is good if it is solar. An oil well pumping quietly away in the desert would not change the environment any more than a Joshua tree would.

What a bunch of morons. And by the time you get that power delivered someplace where it can be used from out there in the desert, you have lost a good bit of it in transmission losses. Expensive, inefficient, environmentally destructive to place and destructive to manufacture.

Put a fast neutron reactor out there that doesn't use water for coolant and get a gigawatt of power 24x7x365.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-07-03 02:16|| 2008-07-03 02:16|| Front Page Top

#2 if theres an environmental danger, then they can address that in the review process. No good reason for a moratorium.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-07-03 09:52|| 2008-07-03 09:52|| Front Page Top

#3 actually both proposed methods (the tilting plates and the collectors) have design templates that shade less than 50% of the surface; thus the ecological effects will be much less than a total shading

however, given the relatively small physical footprint of a nuclear reactor, it is logical that nukes be preferred on an ecological basis (of course a lot of enviros oppose nukes but that's because of other things)

Posted by mhw 2008-07-03 10:01|| 2008-07-03 10:01|| Front Page Top

#4 The desert ecosystem is easily harmed. Because it has the outward appearance of lifelessness, people think it is impervious to any disruption. This is total numbskullery, why do you need a million acres worth of solar panels? If you want solar energy, spend $20,000 and convert your house. These guys want to spend $200million to make a peaking station.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-07-03 10:51|| 2008-07-03 10:51|| Front Page Top

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