What’s So Bad About Big? (renewable energy, NYT)

[jpak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/business/businessspecial2/07big.html?em&ex=1173416400&en=216ab332ada15b23&ei=5087%0A

“SMALL is beautiful,” wrote the economist E. F. Schumacher almost 35 years ago. In most areas of the economy, he reasoned, production had become too big and too centralized.

But he might have been wrong about the subject he knew most about: energy. When it comes to alternative ways of generating power, big may be better.

Wind, solar and other renewable-energy technologies that were once considered more appropriate for single homes or small communities are reaching levels of scale and centralizing that were formerly the province of coal- and gas-fired plants and nuclear reactors. In other words, green is going giant.

The companies that are building or dreaming up large projects argue that there are economies of scale to be gained.

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[The2ndWheel]

1. You know what will be fun?

Protesting Big Wind and Big Solar. The bigger they get, and the more centralized they get, the more power will be concentrated in a smaller and smaller percentage of hands(or whatever corporations have). Yeah, yeah, we'll just regulate that. That works too, we don't have a handful of companies that own energy, media, and medicine. Oh wait, it isn't opposite day. Forget to check the calendar.

I know, I know, it's the people's energy. Yeah. The whole game is to make a commodity of every inch of life, and make you pay for the gift of it.

[unpossibles]

2. I know what you're saying, but the difference is

unless those companies can shut off the sun and wind, you could still put up your own turbines and panels, right? I mean, people around here (Ohio) have their own small oil wells sometimes, most likely for their own farming usage, so what is the difference?

[Nihil]

5. I know what you're saying too but ...

... you might recall that there is a slight licencing issue with
producing your own ethanol at home (for the car honestly officer!) ...?

I guess it's quite different out on the open plains but, in towns,
planning permission is an obstacle for many locations (especially for
wind generation). I'm also sure that a moderate bribe (sorry, sponsorship)
would be able to classify the materials used in solar cells (PV) as
"hazardous" (= "requiring licences, certification, maintenance, etc.").

That aside, I still think it would be a great move for every home to
have solar thermal arrays (if not PV arrays) to take advantage of the
"free" 1.35kW/m2 that is largely wasted at the moment.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. But ... but ... only NuKKKular is KKKorporate!

:evilgrin:

--p!

[Dead_Parrot]

4. It must be said...

...I look forward to at least four posters slamming large windfarms and/or PV arrays because they "allow the current consortium to maintain its stranglehold over production and distribution of energy"

:popcorn:

[Odin2005]

6. I find eco-anarchist notions annoying.

I don't see a problem with using whatever system, centralized or decentralized, works best in a particular situation.