"...a policy that anticipates the end of the age of mass energy consumption"

[kristopher]

EDITORIAL: Japan can learn from Nordic nations on using clean energy
2011/05/24


On a recent sunny day in Copenhagen, Denmark's capital, the blades of about a dozen wind turbines along the shore were rotating fast under a clear blue sky. In the distance, across the Baltic Sea, the black silhouette of a building was visible.

It was the Barseback Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden.

According to the Swedish government's policy of phasing out the country's nuclear power generation, the No. 1 reactor at the plant was shut down in 1999 and the No. 2 reactor ceased operations in 2005. The nuclear fuel has been...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105230156.html

[99th_Monkey]

1. I want the whole grid/infrastructure dissolved,

scale it all down to localized wind/solar where each structure (or at most each city block) has it's own means of energy production.

[yurbud]

2. that's why the rich love oil, coal, and nukes: they gotta be big and therefore can be monopolized.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. And each would have to have massive energy storage for the days of no wind

and little sun. You'd have to build far more capacity if you didn't have the means to direct it from areas with temporary excess power.

[99th_Monkey]

6. I'm no energy techy

but I know lots of people who can afford to, are getting off the grid, pretty much completely, so it's possible.

but I concede there will be challenges and obstacles, as there always is to improve our lot. so be it.
far better to spend our resources that way than giving subsidies to BIG OIL, nuclear energy, et. al..

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Ask them what they use for heating and hot water

It'll probably turn out to be wood - which can be fine in rural areas, but isn't practical for cities. You'd have to be bringing in huge amounts of it, which rather defeats the point of saying a city block should be self-sufficient.

Also, large wind turbines are far more efficient than small ones; you can build them taller, and catch the faster, more constant wind higher up, where friction with the ground doesn't slow it. And they can be positioned in areas with higher wind speeds (eg the Danish offshore wind projects mentioned in the article).

[99th_Monkey]

8. LIke I said, there will be challenges and such

I just think that the "grid" should be minimized and more localized smaller scale should be maximized, instead of the reverse, that's all.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kristopher.

[kristopher]

4. Thank you, and my pleasure...

I loved the phrase "the end of the age of mass energy consumption". It has such a wonderful ring to it.