Monday, March 9, 2020

PERSPECTIVE

PERSPECTIVE. WE ALL HAVE ONE ON MOST THINGS. HERE IS ONE OF MINE ON A SUBJECT THAT IS MUCH IN THE NEWS, BUT RARELY REPORTED FROM THIS ONE.
Sustainable energy. Or should I say  renewable energy. AKA solar and wind.  Yep, we have a lot of sun and wind, especially here in the great Southwest. Plenty of sun most days and plenty of wind most every day. So, all we need to do is shut down the coal mines, and get our electricity from nature.  Easy.  Well, not really.  Yes, you can shut down the coal mines. but the more you rely on solar and wind, the more mining and oil drilling that will be needed. Um, no, you may say. Um yes, I will say. And here is why.
The materials that are needed to construct the wind chargers don't just fall from the sky like a sun beam. These materials are made from material mined from the ground.  And they use oil and grease to keep them turning in a manner that is needed to generate the electricity that we all have come to depend on.  And they have a life expectancy of around 20 years and then they need to be replaced by said materials.  And then the discarded materials wind up in a land fill or some thing like that. Maybe cut up to use for something else.  Maybe.
And solar. Same thing.  Solar panels have to be constructed from something. Again, while the sun can power them, they need material mined from the ground to construct them. And acres and acres and acres of land taken out of production for any thing else to put up these monstrosities called solar farms.  And when the solar panel's get bad, they go to a land fill, and the material that then deconstructs in the land fill is not good for the land or water table. And these solar panels and wind chargers takes banks and banks of batteries to hold and then distribute the generated electricity. And where do these batteries go when they go bad? As they will. I haven't heard that topic discussed any where, but it will be in a dumping ground somewhere.And I am not convinced that either of these methods will ever generate enough electricity to power the large cities that dot this land. Not like a coal fired power plant will.
AND THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK