We pay taxes, lots of it at that, and we have plenty of money to produce enough electricity to power great portions of the country just by building a massive solar grid. It may be expensive, but when we buy in bulk, the materials are cheaper. Plus that would cut are carbon foot print by large numbers just by using free energy from the sun. We have miles and miles of space to put this type of system, why doesn't the government make this type of investment as far as infrastructure? I can see this happening, does anyone else?
It is an interesting phenomena that most of the countries around the world are too busy extracting fossil fuel and still not working on renewal energy sources such as bio gas, solar energy, and wind power. Our home country has a lot of potential for hydro power. It is estimated that 83 thousand megawatt power can be generated from hydro power, however, a small fraction of that potential has only been explored. Since couple of years, the government is trying to promote solar power, however, it is just on small scale, the sole purpose of the solar power promoted by the government is to light houses.
This is my theory on the matter of solar energy. If indeed the claims on solar energy is true then the power generation system would have been revised already. But now they admit that power generators are still the primary source of electricity because solar power is only a hype - it is not cost effective so even for house use in the rural areas, it is not practicable and not affordable. Our country is composed of more than 7,000 islands so it is easy to imagine that we are the ones who would benefit most from solar panels because of the portability. But since solar power is not cost effective hence they are pushing the solar panels in the metropolis. It is really silly.
The problem is not the lack of capacity for the development of alternative power generating grids. There are many areas where there are huge amounts of potential to produce energy from wind farms and solar power on a very large scale. The only significant problem that may arise is that the wind turbines may be a danger to some birds. But I don't believe it would decimate the bird population. It's often said that the oil producers have used their influence to maintain the suppression of the of the development of alternative energy on any large scale because it would negatively impact the revenue from the production of oil.
America is very forthcoming and innovative when it comes of developing new technologies and applications. But its actual infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired. Think about it: You have the tech and money for building a bullet train yet you don't actually have one, you have Google which is attempting to offer greater internet speed with fiber optics yet the major service providers of telecommunications are Verizon and AT&T, that provides the already obsolete technology of copper wiring internet connection and cable Your nuclear programs are actually using outdated old war tech and several other examples.
Money, plain and simple reason for not building it. Do you know how many people got their utility bill jacked up in California last winter? They went from eight bucks the previous month to over four hundred, because the company decided to 'estimate' their bill. The government isn't going to give up the cash cow while it's trillions in debt.
I wish that they would have a national solar grid that is also backed up by power generated from prisons. Can't they put some solar panels on prisons? There are so many of them in the US.
No, because the inmates would just take it over and hold the nation's energy supply hostage. Though the idea isn't bad. I personally thought the road that cuts through Las Vegas and heads straight to California would be perfect. If you put it over the road, it would act like shade without cutting into the desert environment. It would help cars not overheat as they make it up that stupid hill.
