His Energy Bill Is $0.00
March 19th, 2007Let’s look at another bitter Red Pill lesson on the opportunity cost of the war in Iraq.
While this solar hydrogen system doesn’t seem like a good idea for mainstream deployment, Mike Strizki, the man behind the project accurately notes, “No one has said what I’m doing doesn’t work.”
So, why isn’t this a good idea?
Well, the cost! It’s too expensive. Right?
Yeah. All beancounters are great at explaining to newspaper reporters how expensive clean energy technologies are, but I don’t see anyone comparing the cost of these technologies to the stupid and illegal war in Iraq. Except me.
So, how many $500,000 solar hydrogen systems (like the one described below) could be built with the funds currently being allocated to the sinkhole war in Iraq?
Remember, the Iraq war is costing $208,333 per minute.
So, for every 2.4 minutes that the U.S. spends in Iraq, one of these emission free solar hydrogen systems could be built. That’s 25 per hour. That’s 600 per day. That’s 4200 per week. That’s 16,800 per month.
Of course, this is retail pricing. What would the cost be if the the buildouts were done on a massive scale? An order of magnitude less probably isn’t out of the question.
I’m not advocating the system described in this article. (Watch, someone will accuse me of falling for the hydrogen scam in comments.) The point is that we don’t have a clean-energy-technology-is-expensive problem. We have a diabolical-misappropriation-of-public-funds problem.
Some combination of large scale wave, solar and wind (in that order) power generation, plus simple conservation technologies, plus individuals feeding the grid with their excess wind and solar power would be the way to go. How close to that goal could we get if $208,333 per minute was spent trying to reach it?
We’ll never know because, “They hate us for our freedom.”
Via: Christian Science Monitor:
Mike Strizki lives in the nation’s first solar-hydrogen house. The technology this civil engineer has been able to string together – solar panels, a hydrogen fuel cell, storage tanks, and a piece of equipment called an electrolyzer – provides electricity to his home year-round, even on the cloudiest of winter days.
Mr. Strizki’s monthly utility bill is zero – he’s off the power grid – and his system creates no carbon-dioxide emissions. Neither does the fuel-cell car parked in his garage, which runs off the hydrogen his system creates.
It sounds promising, even utopian: homemade, storable energy that doesn’t contribute to global warming. But does Strizki’s method – converting electricity generated from renewable sources into hydrogen – make sense for widespread adoption?
According to some renewable-energy experts, the answer is “no,” at least not anytime soon. The system is too expensive, they say, and the process of creating hydrogen from clean sources is itself laced with inefficiency – the numbers just don’t add up.
Strizki’s response: “Nothing is as wildly expensive as destroying the whole planet.”
The problem you are not dealing with is a very different one from cost of production of alternative energy sources. If you do not examine the “total energy in to energy out ratio”, you are not doing your homework. Yes, technology exists to make such an effort, but, until you know what that ratio is, you are looking at just another enviroment eater.
Kevin,
I agree with your premise that “we don’t have a clean-energy-technology-is-expensive problem.” That is the “party line,” and has been since Carter. No technology is given a chance against the energy cost of oil (always lower).
By the way, you had my shoe up earlier. Mother of Shoes – I have never spent so much money on a pair of shoes in my life. But I hope that for the rest of my days, I can afford to buy the El Natura Lista brand. Gold. Made in Spain. Thank GAWD.Even a tiny leather frog on the top. Glad to contribute to your site through my purchase.
E
They will never give us free energy. They cannot free us, perhaps even if they wanted to. Only we can free ourselves. That truth is self-evident. So, if you want free energy, make it for yourself.
But, you might want to keep it under your hat. They might not appreciate a shift in the balance of power.
In any case, what WOULD happen if everyone decided to make their “free” energy system? An uncontrollable population explosion, probably.
They would REALLY lose control in that case. It would make what happened with P2P and the Music Cartels look like small potatoes.
And then, someone could start the imperial process all over again by making a death ray with their free energy.
I personally think the problems arise from people not being able to control their urges, emotions, and feelings. I mean, They are nothing more than slaves to Their “Will to Power.” And They will never win, They will always be frustrated.
And I think Their Will to Power comes from fear. They are afraid of what will happen if they don’t seize power and exercise control.
I suppose it’s ultimately the fear of death, even if it manifests as death of the entire human species by some sort of cataclysm a collectivized NWO could allegedly prevent.
Well, it’s getting late.
How about Sugar-Fueled gadgets?
http://www.physorg.com/news94043039.html
“Juicing up your cell phone or iPod may take on a whole new meaning in the future. Researchers at Saint Louis University in Missouri have developed a fuel cell battery that runs on virtually any sugar source — from soft drinks to tree sap — and has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium ion batteries, they say.”