Reader comments
'Clean' energy sources pushed

Pragmatic Futurist | 9:59 a.m. Sept. 10, 2008

The DesNews continues its pulicy of propaganda before perspective with the padding on the end of theis piece devoted to the great electrical engineering genius Tim Wagner.

We can be confident in every word utterred by Herr Professor Doctor Wagner. For, he has personally researched every aspect of the economic and engineering viability of the concentrated solar installations and storage bunkers he has praised.

It is also comforting to know that Mr. Wagner has been cross trained and certified as Blackout Warden should things not go quite as fabulously as his professional opinion thinks it should.

Derek Monson | 9:21 p.m. Sept. 10, 2008

Renewable energy sources are a good thing. If we can develop them and make them commercially viable (i.e. cost competitive), we should do it.

However, we haven't reached that point yet. Mr. Wagner himself recognizes this point (despite his objection to the idea that renewable energy can't produce baseload power) when he told the DesNews that "scientists are working on" making solar power that could work 16 to 17 hour days (as paraphrased in the article).

If scientists are working on it, then it can't yet be done. In other words, renewable energy sources cannot yet produce baseload power.

This reinforces the point of the "critics of reducing coal use" that renewable energy can only supplement traditional sources of power. That may change in the future, but until it does we can't simply give up using fossil fuels to meet growing energy demands. The effect of doing so will simply be to hurt hard-working Utah families, particularly those of low income, who have to pay ever increasing bills to power their homes while scientists continue to work on solutions that have yet to show that they can work on a large scale.

EnergyRevolution | 5:01 a.m. Sept. 12, 2008

Solar Millenium!!! Google for Andasol ... base load utility scale solar power is being built today.

THIS IS THE FUTURE! ACCEPT IT and LIVE IT ï¿½

The Solar Millennium has eventually been unleashed, but not by Photovoltaics. The Future lies in the heat of the SUN.

Nuclear Fusion, Baby!!! JUST FAR AWAY RISING EVERY DAY !!!

Check Solar Millennium (S2M) Iï¿½m part of the Future ï¿½.

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