awesome <22 minute talk on the topic of clean energy

MitchJi

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Hi,

An awesome talk given by Envision Solar CEO Desmond Wheatley (…3 years ago). It is one of the best talks on the topic of energy that I’ve ever heard.
[youtube]FL864c4gqC0 [/youtube]
 
When he talks about "we" having the money, who is he talking about? The Governments have no money unless they take it from the citizens. So, Who is "we"?

It was a pretty speech but if it was really that simple, efficient and cost effective, a person or entity would do it.

He does bring up an excellent point about permitting though. In California, "development" is a dirty word and the the permitting process is a nightmare. Other than that, he really said a lot of nothing. It was all rainbows and ponies. Typical utopia-speak.

He also did not mention any environmental trade-offs of putting solar over "every parking space". For instance, the heat reflected from them would make it impossible for birds to fly over all of San Diego. So, do you eliminate birds from your ecosystem simple to power electric cars?

Although there were some good points in the video, it was really just another pie in the sky lecture with very little basis in reality. It is a nice theory but the speaker did not think much of it through very carefully. Too much focus on the possible benefits but the consequences were completely ignored.

Kinda typical of this type of speech.
 
MitchJi said:
An awesome talk given by Envision Solar CEO Desmond Wheatley (…3 years ago). It is one of the best talks on the topic of energy that I’ve ever heard.
  • Peak oil per capita happened in 1979. Its already over.
  • For the first time in history, we have the capability of having energy without accelerated entropy, without destroying stuff.
  • We have the money, we have the technology, but do we have the will?
  • The electrification of transportation is the greatest thing going on.
  • Solar tree charging those cars.
  • 800 million parking spaces. That's enough clean renewable energy to power all the USA's transportation needs three times over.
  • Its so obvious. Are we doing it? No.
  • We need that Kennedy moment. We could do it in 10 years. It just takes the will.
SolarTreeCharging.png
The goat-sucker strikes again! said:
Although there were some good points in the video, it was really just another pie in the sky lecture with very little basis in reality. It is a nice theory but the speaker did not think much of it through very carefully. Too much focus on the possible benefits but the consequences were completely ignored.
YOUR reality... you keep making that mistake, the ego-maniacal view that what you perceive is THE reality and everyone else is deluded. Too bad this interesting thread is about to be polluted with another long rant.
 
Priceless. Opps, let me rephrase that.
 
On a more serious note, California is well on its way to meet its goal of 33% of our electricity from renewable resources, by 2020. The governor has stated a goal of 50% by 2030. Legislation has been introduced to make that the law. Beyond 50% things get a little tricky. California already gets a little more than 10% each from large hydro and nuclear. Right now the state uses gas fired units to balance generation with load. Different people have different opinions on how much gas is required to do that.... Lots of folks are counting on "demand response". No one has made that work yet, but California has made several things work for the first.

The price for 20 year utility scale solar, 2017 start date, hit the same price as brown power last year in California. There are different opinions as to what will happen if tax credits aren't renewed beyond 2016. Of course rooftop solar and solar over a parking lot are quite a bit more expensive. Depending on who you ask desert lands in California have increased 2 to 10 fold, price wise. I would expect parking lot owners will want their share as well. Roof leasing is already happening here.

Our governor has also proposed to get 50% of our transportation from non petroleum sources, by 2030. Current electric cars can get that done. Future electric cars will be better. As long as the charging is done off peak, the current electric system can handle it. What the public will be willing to do is yet to be seen, but I get nervous when SUV sales still take off when gas prices drop.

Of course, as in all great changes there will be winners and losers. Expect the winners to declare everything is a" no brainer" and for the losers to say "the sky is falling". I predict the truth to be somewhere between those two extremes.
 
I generally don't pay much attention to folks like Arkmundi anymore. They are so far out in left field that there is actually no way to have a conversation with him. He is amusing though, but in the way that it is amusing to watch stupid people do stupid things on Youtube.

As far as the speech was concerned, my main question was who is this "we" that he keeps talking about. What he was really saying is: "Let's get the government to steal money from people and give it to me."

I just generally don't like people like that. I don't think the Government should give money to Solar and Wind and I also don't think the government should give it to Big oil, Big Pharma, big Sugar, etc. etc. etc. Just imagine if all that money was in the pockets of individuals. That would increase buying power and then if someone wanted solar, they might be able afford it on their own. I have stated many times that if I had a decent southern and western exposure on my house, I would definitely have solar.

When I said that the CEO did not get into specifics, I meant that he did not do any cost analysis in his speech.

How much does it cost to build one of those charging stations over 6 or 8 parking spaces?
How much does he have to charge for an EV to power up?
What are some of the other costs involved?
How long will it take to pay off building one.
What are the economies of scale?
How are you going to deal with pissed of drivers that can't afford an electric car and now have no where to park?
Obviously, there are not enough electric vehicles to support this so how do you start and what is the timeline for you to Ramp up?

These are very rudimentary questions for a business person. Business people are not stupid and he did not "forget" to include this information. The reason that it was not included in the speech is that it was not favorable and he did not have answers to those questions that would paint his ideas in a positive light.

When he showed the aerial photo of the stadium, it was quite dramatic. But, does he not know that that is private property? So does he imply that the Government should force the private owners of that property to do his bidding? The bottom line is that nothing that was said in the video is new. Those solar charging stations in parking lots can be built already. But other business men have already considered these applications and answered those questions above. The general conclusion is that it simply is not worth it at this point in time. I hope that in the future, costs come down to the point where it is viable.

So, when Armundi talks about my reality not being everyone's reality, there may be some truth to it. However, If you google arkmundi you will quickly see by his participation in childish sites like the Game of Thrones wiki that he is generally averse to any "reality" and would just rather partake of a fantasy.
 
I think there are several areas that most people agree require government action.

- Common defense
- police & fire protection
- roads
- air quality?

This last one doesn't have 100% agreement as to all aspects of air quality. Most would probably now support stopping of acid rain in New England caused by coal plants in the Midwest, but many more didn't agree as it was being proposed. Of course the elephant in the room is the so called greenhouses. While the scientific community seams to have reached agreement, the general population is still divided. A divided public always put governments in an awkward position.

In California, which has been discussing climate change for quite some time, there also is still not total agreement. But as I once heard California Governor Schwarzenegger's chief of staff say while discussing AB 32 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Warming_Solutions_Act_of_2006) "It doesn't mater what you think. Its the law."

So here is a different purpose of government, setting (some might say forcing) public policy. I think most people fail to understand the cost to business when future policy is unclear. When a new electric generator might cost a billion dollars its pretty important to know the rules.
 
Funny one. Public divided. :lol: Yes, two groups, those that watch and those that don't.
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