Hi Amortiser, I agree the power station doesn't take up the whole table but the coal mines needed to feed it do. I also am trying not to be hypocritical because I support copper mining in particular Carnaby and its obvious that there is going to be a shortage of copper to achieve the massive amount of electrical transmission that is required, it doesn't end at copper there is a number of other critical minerals so there is going to be a need for a lot more table covering, probably a lot more than the coal mines take up. I also agree there is concern about covering vast tracks of land with solar panels particularly arable land. We don't want to try and preserve environment in one way and stuff it up by doing something else another way, there is also a problem of recycling panels and wind turbines.
The whole point to my last post is that nothing stays the same as today, science keeps improving efficiency, increased production and awareness and therefore demand reduces costs and infrastructure costs reduce, it becomes an inflation beater. The existing science in coal fired power stations is at a peak, costs are increasing, I don't know about you but the cost of my power bill just goes up in leaps and bounds from one year to another, that is all we have got to look forward to if we don't change. An electric vehicle is much more efficient than an ICE even if you didn't use renewables, that saves costs, charge up at home and what cost dollars before becomes cents that is an inflation beater. Use solar energy from your roof and the costs reduce more, more money then to educate and house your kids etc. Coal is about 40% efficient and solar about 20% the difference is the rest is lost as heat from the coal which gone forever. If you need more solar power you can put another panel or panels up eventually it pays for itself. The science is still in its infancy we should expect a lot more improvement as science evolves and is taken up by industry.
Finally it might surprise you how much energy you can still generate on a cloudy and rainy day. I live on the wet tropical coast of FNQ and believe me we get more rain here than the Amazon jungle. the neighbor down the road has no grid power it would cost over $100,000 to get it so he has gone solar with batteries cost $20,000 but no problem with power generation and storage and plenty to run his household, he needs very little sun to recharge his batteries, just radiation through the clouds is doing it. this will get better with time and improved science.
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