U.S. Oil companies fail to secure a single contract in Iraq

[Rasa Crazy]

Oh really? Then why do we have SOPA, the Patriot Act, and the National Defense Act? They think everybody is guilty of something already.

[queenhenide776]

I was thinking about energy earlier, and the lack of jobs in America and I have my own solution to this problem.

Build 100MW kite generating plants for small cities and re-equip transmission lines with higher efficiency transmission lines.

You'll create jobs through the construction of the plant, the designing of the plant, the operation of the plant, and the maintenance of the plant.

You'll also create jobs through the revamping of old and inefficient transmission lines.

It'd be a great thing to have sweet kite energy plants all over the US.
http://www.kitegen.com/pages/technology2.html

With these kites generating 100MW of power, you can start building efficient transportation systems too! That way we can have trains that utilize electro-magnetic propulsion systems running off of kite generated elctricity. Ah I can see it now, the days of energy independence and efficient clean transportation are near..

[ACF]

nukkas plan to fix the US:

"go fly a kite"

[take a]

Got to get back to our childish roots, sad thing is that it's really not a bad plan.

[kyle the fun kidd]

well besides the fact that I doubt the kite concept is at all viable at the levels claimed...

in other worRAB, despite the fact it doesnt work, yes its a great plan

I understand that some italian dude typed 100mw into html and posted it on the internet. I will file that somewhere between nuclear energy and cars that run on water. (closer to cars that run on water)

operating a 100mw coal plant for a year takes something like 10million pounRAB of coal. just based on common sense, I can tell this calim is off by at least an order of magnitude, and probably much more.

[~Hartig~]

Trains? frack trains, we got buses:

[swf]http://www.youtube.com/v/QNixDlRoMvA[/swf]

[Razieh A]

wouldn't these kites be a hazard for planes, because you would need so many? also what about storms?

[Caribou "QUIT" Barbieâ„¢]

or when its not windy?

power storage is the primary problem with most alternative energy sources. we need energy on demand, not when the weather happens to be a certain way.

in the case of wind power, we need to build enough traditional power plants to to supply the power when there is no wind (same as normal), then we need to build the wind power generation capacity at 100% additional cost. Then when its not windy we run traditional at full steam (same as normal). When it is windy, we scale back the traditional and run wind.

but the primary point is that something like wind where it is not on demand and there is no feasible storage cannot, as a matter of basic math, ever be even close to cost competitive. In essence, the ENTIRE cost of building wind power capacity is EXTRA cost. The danish undertook the largest wind power initiative in history and they have some of the highest energy costs in europe despite having tremendous fossil fuel reserves and being an oil exporter. They have cheap oil and still pay more, because they have wind.

i.e. read the book nukka. you will find it interesting. I promise.

[fauxfiala]

also, high spped rail is not all its cracked up to be. The costs are very high as anyone who has purchased a ticket on a high speed rail system can attest (as I have). Paris to london runs over $200 one way. paris to Rotterdam is just under $200, one way on the thalys. The only reason it makes any sense at all to europeans is cause gas is 11 bucks a gallon and france has about $70 bucks in tolls to get out of the north of the country from paris.

prices based on personal experience, purchased day of.

[*Blaze*]

When I went to Europe a couple of years ago it was much cheaper to fly from Schiphol to Rome than it was to take a train. Virgin Express was like a $75 ticket one way and the flight was about an hour, with some kick ass scenics of the Alps. Train would've been about $250 for a much longer trip plus food and drink. Not sure if its still the case, or why it was the case then, but it was a no-brainer.

And I now live two blocks from the local light rail. In the 6 years I've lived here I've used the train maybe 10 times, and its not for lack of wanting.