Landscape of the future

Hi All,

Modern Windmills are somewhat more gracefull to my eye than a Corn Silo, and/or Grain Elevator. And as one who has on occaision actually driven past the front gate of oil refinery (Mobil south of Joliet, IL), I can tell you they are a whole lot LESS stinky. And as one who has coal trains running through his backyard to feed powerplants in Chicago, I can tell you that Wind Turbines are a whole lot LESS noisey than the trains as well! Let alone much nicer looking.

As far as large domes go, Fuller estimated that a dome more than 1 KM in diameter would have enough enclosed heat that it would support itself, and the structure would only be needed to deflect wind and support rain and snow loads. This would probably not be economical till cars are all electric drive, due to ventilation costs with ICE cars.

Widklow - how much did Hurricane Katrina cost? Let alone the Category 5 that went into Homestead Florida?

The scrubbers make for another proffit center on the same structure as the Wind Mill. Fossil Fuel power plants would buy carbon credits from the Windmill/scrubber operators.

As far as Lackner's CO2 Storage idea, was there not a volcanic lake in Africa that burped up CO2 and killed everybody that lived on the shores of the caldera lake? The burp was triggered by an eruption that drove a portion of the CO2 saturated water layer upwared, which then effervesed, creating a current that pulled the rest of the layer upward, until a good portion of the naturally stored CO2 had been gasified and emitted from the lake.

Solid storage is the only safe way.

 

Turbines really are pretty quiet. I stood beneath the 1.65MW Vestas V82 that my alma mater commissioned back in SEP of 04. As the rotors whizzed by (the tips were moving at speeds over 100 mph!) there was just a low whistling noise as the rotor tip came by. I doubt you could hear the thing at all at a distance of 200m. It stands out in a corn field and generates electricity about 98% of the time (though the amount varies quite a bit). It's really neat. Certainly compared to a refinery it's infinitely better.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(etyler88 @ Apr 19 2007, 11:18 AM) [snapback]425989[/snapback]</div>

I grew up in the middle of West Texas oil country. I'll take windmills and carbon scrubbers over the stench of sulfur and petroleum, the mile after mile of pumping jacks and miles of pipeline any day.