Wow, a whole hundred milliwatts? I could power my cell phone!

No, Rich has it right.

ETA: oh ok, partially.

This would be a fission reactor.

– First, drill a deep hole. 1km x 1m^2 should suffice.
– Fill the hole with water (sea water will do).
– Into the hole drop a small (1kT) thermonuclear bomb every 10 hours or so. Trigger it at…

Also, something that is producing 100MW of energetic…

As with a laptop, you might find the car and the detachable engine costs more than two comparable cars without such convenience. Most of the parts in a laptop cost a lot more, and simply won't deliver you anywhere near the…

I don't own a desktop and laptop computer, I own a laptop and occasionally connect it to screen and keyboard and mouse when I want. The same principle should be able to be applied with good design.

If I'm interpreting that correctly, then the tempering unit is highly recommended. The sun can get…

Why do you think prices would have gone up?

http://www.ioannes.com/2013/04/01/the-joy-of-global-warming/

ummm... wow....

Solar water heating alone?!

What we got was a very simple cylinder with an array of pipes angled to catch the sun and warm the water up, connected to the water supply with hoses running down to connect with the shower head. We could've paid a little…

And a couple of pics to match his comments on China.

PV and coal (and that power station is expanding, dammit). He seems to think it’s either renewable or fossil fuel, but China’s doing renewable, fossil fuel and nuclear all at the same time, keeping…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/car-manufacturers/volvo/9966686/Volvo-V60-Plug-in-Hybrid-review.html

What happens if you have one is that energy you generate with petrol is taxed and energy from the grid isn't. So you get a partial subsidy.

To "fairly" tax one would be hard and involve having the cars…

A cooperative monopoly that ruthlessly stifles all competition. So , all good then.

With competition you get winners and losers, with co-operation you only get winners.
This is something the current Government would have a big problem with, they need the losers to piss on.

At this stage I still think it's a…

Note: The electricity costs were not included in this calculation. For comparison, the current Prius Plug-in, that was produced (finally) in 2012 claims electric-only efficiency of around 61km/l of…

Plug-in doesn't have to be grid connected. Plug into your windmill.

It breaks down if you're doing long distances, but…

;- )

...and it's not like 'we'* haven't [[http://watchblogaotearoa.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/who-owns-south-island-power-grid.html|sold (or long term leased) bits…

Perhaps not, but the efficiency is still far greater in a plug-in, even if coal is being burned to charge it up. A coal fired power plant is…

Would be nice to collapse copy-paste chunks.

Yup, early adopters are righteous, but it's not usually a…

Go wash your mouth out!

Who can stop them, their Everyman appeal works somehow…

Oh! Phew! I see what you were saying…
1:…

GLOBAL warm­ing is a prob­lem for the future but a ben­e­fit now. Lots of peo­ple like to point out that global warm­ing means more deaths from heat­waves, but they for­get that fewer die from cold. In the…

Check out these links i posted:
http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-done-like-a-dinner/?i=50#replies

Essentially one shareholder is inflating the value of the company shortly before planning to sell it.

My point is simply that if the govt were say one of the many finance companies we've seen in recent times and said finance company was doing…

I think that's probably true, but what's really odd is to…

Um really? Yes it's a big industry and it does employ a number of folk in southland which is very important. But Rio Tinto get very very cheap electricity as it is. And we don't get many export dollars for aluminium, note…

Yes I'm having to fight my own pessimism here!

Well, you do have a point. Most of the deals Key does are secret, so it's too early to say if it's been done…

Yup and that would keep lawyers busy for a while – meanwhile if Meridian was a "real" company it would either reside at the bottom of the shharemarket or be suspended fro the duration. It simply is a very dodgy piece of business…

Of course. But the Government is not powerless before such threats. They have a huge power and resources at the negotiating table. It would be equally negligent for them not to use those. It's not like the smelter becomes a vacant lot if…

If the government were a big business that owned Meridian, a very viable option here would simply be shrugging at Tiwai Point, hoping they do decide to leave, and then buying the place on the cheap, thus…

I'd need to see proof of the "in order to..." bit. Because the alternative view is they entered negotations for a…

The govt is the shareholder of record for Meridian. Said shareholder then created a subsidy to a major client of Meridian in order to increase the book value (or share value) of Meridian (which they plan to sell).

If this was…

As far as I've seen, Meridian have independently held a commercial negotiation with their client which has, at this stage, failed. The Government have then, in…

A – To produce aluminium from bauxite the most climate friendly way is a modern plant powered by nearby non-emitting generation – for example: Tiwai Point.

B – Lowering the cost of power to a western consumer society has in a climate change context…

Look forward to more when you have time David. Along with many other Christchurch people who have to triumph over adversity on a daily…

I am gratified that a post containing the phrases "No shit, Sherlock" and "ass on a plate" can be considered elegant.

thirded.

And so pleased to hear you house is progressing well, David.

seconded....

Unfortunately, I'm still working to fix the gigantic fuck-up that one of the National Party's other big swinging dicks has created in Canterbury (and, more particularly, to my life).

I…

I read the Economist article, not the NBR article (paywalled), so it's not entirely clear which science you're referring to here. The journal article that…

I'm generally inclined to let these debates…

I suddenly realised who you remind me of, Farmer Green! Thank goodness, because it was driving me crazy. "Dammit, who ELSE obsessively refers to himself in the third person?"

Ah, a history. I have no time…

You might want to review the quality of the links in the last discussion that got derailed by this topic, particularly back when people where commenting about the links you were posting. I think it is still fresh in most other people's minds.

The scientific…

I didn't exactly explain myself there. About a year ago we moved to an aging eco-house in a community, conveniently across the road from where we are planning to build. The power lines stop a couple of km away. The week before we moved…

This much I can confirm.

George Darroch:

In the last 15 years wind turbines have become massive, and there’s a great amount of engineering…

Because insisting the earth is flat just pisses off smart people. If you want dullards to impress, go elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwai_Point#Electricity

I believe there are still storage issues: Apparently a…

How is my accusation false?

All organisms alter their environment. It is therefore impossible that the sum total of humanity and everything that it does will not have an effect,…

The thing is, your posting links on climate change have been ones that consistently misuse the science and misinterpret the conclusions. And these have not been in a random pattern but a pretty consistent direction, which to any reader suggests…

No, we're talking about an expensive facility that turns it into electricity. But I'm interested to hear evidence that using dammed Manapouri water for other things is more valuable for the nation and the region.

That is very cool.…

Do…

You don't believe that anthropogenic climate change is real. In this you differ from accepted science, and when this…

What does your last sentence mean?

It buys us time. Time to make the adjustments in lifestyle (individual and collective) that will reduce our per capita energy use to levels that are long-term sustainable. Time to figure out what happens with industry,…

Someone suggested carbon fibre manufacture on Danyl's post. I'd like to hear more about the economics of that. But we either use this rare opportunity strategically,…

because we are tolerating people wasting our time

I am also very keen on the floor-vented fridge cupboard I have seen in some permaculture publications.

When I wrote that post (disclaimer!), I had to look pretty hard to find independent sources (most of which were Canadian). However, as you say, it does seem like low-hanging fruit, and…

I'm just back from travelling, so excuse the late comment, but has anyone seen a business plan for such a thing…

Let's be fair: NBR, not Herald. And written by an editor fond of recycling ropey talking-points.

The IPCC report says:

“Projected changes in climate extremes under different emissions scenarios generally do not strongly diverge in the coming two to three decades, but these signals are relatively small compared…

I wish to point out that you are copying and pasting a press release from the GWPF from 2011 which has little bearing on the current article. The bit you left off copying from the end was the quote from their scientific advisor who has…

This doesn't square with what can be found with a small amount of research. The [[http://www.riotintoalcan.com/ENG/whatweproduce/1804_nzas.asp|document…

Press Release

London: For many decades to come, and probably longer, mankind’s influence on the frequency of extreme weather events will be insignificant.

According to a preliminary report released by the IPCC, there will be no detectable influence of…

Yeah from my limited reading there does seem to be a gap. Also it seems like wind turbines are…

Eh? If you are talking about the Economist article the Herald hackery was based on, you had better go back and reread it. It cited one paper quoting that

"“the anthropogenic global-warming trends…

Do you mean the science which says that natural variability is far in excess of any anthropogenic climate signal? That point was made quite clearly.

And you are like most human beings? Hmmm.
That could be a problem.

At his press conference yesterday, even Prime Minister John Key confessed that he didn’t know how the possible closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter might affect the value of the state’s three other…

So how much does a data center use? Well the new IBM one in Auckland, which cost $80m, has backup generator capacity for “266 homes”. So to absorb Tiwai’s electricity use we’d need we’d…

Or, rather, to ignore partisan hackery that grossly misrepresents the science it's purporting to report.

Like most humans, I tend to judge whether something is worth engaging with by how it's presented and by whom. Life's too short to be 'debating' with flat-earthers.

And even more at the leading edge, I've read (sorry, can't recall where) of research into panels which don't use "solar" radiation at all but the background EM radiation which is pouring through us every second – they will generate power 24/7.

Yes, current PV…

Skeptical science has an interesting discussion of the Economist story.

No need for any noise. And it’s really not so ugly.

http://www.leviathanenergyinc.com/wind-tulip.html

Combined with one of these (from Powerco) with a bit less PV…

far more appealing than Gibson's foamy headlining, thanks.

Facebook and Apple have just opened giant data centres in Prineville, Oregon (population 9253), a town nobody has ever heard of.

The reason? It's cold, which helps keep the cost of air conditioning…

As the accompanying editorial in the Economist put it, having pointed out the low sensitivity levels of increase is still bad, "If the world has a bit more breathing space to deal with global warming, that will be good. But breathing space helps…

Two things make me hopeful.

First is the use of organic molecules to make PV cells rather than rare earths. They are some distance from reaching the same efficiencies but they have advantages that might make even a lower…

I think so. I really do think we aren't far from quite dramatic changes in solar cells. There are a lot of folks working on alternatives, if for no other reason than to avoiud depending on Chinese rare earth mines.

That Economist story is…

There's some really interesting stuff happening with using carbon nanotubes for solar cells. Does that start to become "green", or is the production of the nanotubes still dirty? And this is not a facetious question.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/more-global-warming-myths-exposed-ng-p-137955

The trouble with brightness is deeper shadows...
...and marked contrast...
oh,
penny drops...

However, for many people, **a $700 heat exchanger under their shower…

Some research I saw by colleagues of Bob Lloyd (which I'll try looking up a citation for in the morning...) suggested that hot water…

You sure about that? Vector put Auckland’s highest peak load in 2011 at 1722MW.

ETA: Never mind, I see your mistake was found.

Gee, an enlightened government might even do that.

What if the energy company you sold your excess power to was not the one…

You fail…

I think this is the reason why some ppl just have solar hot water heating.…