Alternative Energy Market

Why the pessimism?

Alternative energy products available are few. Purchase a solar powered anything and you will find a lame product that produce little power, is undependable and made cheaply.

The biggest problem is batteries (storage). And although we have been working hard on alternative energies for more than thirty years we have not produced breakthroughs in storage. Perhaps it is why the McCain Campaign is promising rewards for battery breakthroughs.

Engineers have been working on the chemistry of batteries for years but nevertheless little has been forthcoming. We keep hearing that a much R&D is happening; we keep hearing the phrases "soon" and "within a decade – we keep hearing, and that is all. Companies like Firefly say they have breakthrough battery technology but the products are immensely expensive and have been disappointing in performance.

Thousands of pounds of batteries requiring frequent replacement present a disappointing prospect for electric vehicles. Ask yourself why Chevrolet has been promising the electric "Volt" for several years but still say it will be 2010 before production. And now they are complaining about storage being the hold up, production delayed again.

Wind has had great difficulties in public acceptance because of rotational noise, excessive maintenance and the need for towers - and you guessed it – storage issues. People reject wind power for aesthetic reasons. There are complaints from coastal states that offshore wind power stations will destroy tourism??? Even Ted Kennedy (King Democrat) opposed wind power in his own back yard.

It seems as if we are being channeled into dependence on our enemies for energy. Every excuse is given to excise every form of using our own natural resources and power production - drilling, refining, coal, or nuclear are all opposed by the "Greens" while at the same time alternatives are opposed as unacceptable in one's own back yard.

Americans are especially gluttonous with power using an average of nearly a thousand kilowatts per month in their residences. The guru of global warming - hypocrite Al Gore - is reported to use many times this in his mansion and tells us to use one sheet of toilet paper while flying around in his private jet.

Someone please give us the good news that alternatives are real. If the past three decades are any indication of the lack of invention, I do not see alternatives coming to fruition and replacing fossil fuels without a severe reduction in the quality of life any time soon.

By corneliusvansant of the CR4 forum