I have written about Ecotricity website: http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/ before. Dale Vince, the owner, is prone to a little hyperbole, but his talk of a "wind powered car" is nowhere near as untrustworthy as the lies that self-appointed "experts" seem to have come out with to tell the world that clean energy would never be profitable. This entry at Treehugger points out that Vince is one of Britain's richest men: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/uk-wind-entrepreneur-rich-list.php We have also seen, in past posts, that the electricity sold by his companies is, in fact, cheaper than that which is sold by the soot producers. So why the continued crap in the media about clean energy being more expensive? My feeling is that this is because some self-important jerks have a need to lie in order to get media-time. These are usually people who love the sound of their own voice, and they also love seeing their names in print. If terrorists need to be denied the "oxygen of publicity" as Ronald Reagan put it, then these pathological liars about Green Energy deserve to be denied this even more.
Which brings me to another big lie - that green energy is expensive. Check this link out from Instructables via Treehugger about making a solar cooker using defective CDs: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/build-a-solar-cooker.php
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
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5 comments:
"So why the continued crap in the media about clean energy being more expensive?". Because the media always leans towards the big bucks. Once green energy firms start doing a couple of billion dollars worth of business and run full page colour adverts regularly the media will sing paens to them. Until then keep hoping, keep wishing, keep dreaming.
Mehul
There was a piece in the Times of India a couple of days back about Indian Railways installing a mini wind turbine on one of their coaches on a experimental basis.Have you heard anything about this?
Mohan,
I would need to see more about this experiment before I can comment on it. What exactly the railways plan to achieve by mounting a wind turbine on one of their coaches - the extra weight would cause the train to use more fuel - I don't know. A better idea would be to use thin film solar cells on the compartments to power the lighting inside . . .
Mehul
I was thinking about your suggestion of sticking thin solar panels on the compartments. They would have to stick it on the sides. Putting it on top would not be a good idea since many of our people still hitch a ride by squatting on the roof. The simplest solution would be to have solar powered engines which could run on conventional fuel if required. Worldwide a lot of work is going into designing faster sleeker trains offering more comforts but I am yet to hear of any designs that run of solar power or wind power.
Mohan,
You cannot generate enough power using solar photovoltaics to run a train. WHat could be done would be to power airconditioning and lighting systems on trains in roder tor educe fuel consumption. In any case, the whole business of people riding on train roofs has to stop - this is exactly one of the many examples of why India is still a highly impoverished country and not, quite, the prosperous land that some idiots in the country delude themselves into believing it is. In such a poor place, saving money by NOT spending it on expensive fossil fuels which are sold at the whims of crooked sheikhs and mining companies needs to be a priority.
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