Useless information: a desalinization unit is essentially a 'still' (h.s. science fair project): heated feedstock = rising steam = condensation collected in copper pipes and 'dripping' down through a series of filters = a salt-free, potable liquid
This is a really good post. I agree with almost all of it. Except for the last part about the cost of installation. I'm on board with the numbers, but they're so skewed because of the first great point - the maturity of the technology. I could hire a few well-trained chimps and a licensed electrician and install a typical roof array. The problem is, people still THINK that's an elaborate operation, and because it has that earthy-crunchy greentech concept behind it, the over-inflated installation cost is one of the current barriers to a solar tipping point. This is where my friend Br4d needs to step in and tell me how - AHAH! - market forces distort the true measure of value. hehe j/k On another note - a lesser point, because I think the best point here is the grossly flawed notion of the maturity of the technology - we don't consider that most roadways and infrastructure is actually built through private investment. This is where Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama show their ignorance. I'm talking about the initial construction. With the exception of the state and federal highway system, most of our nation's roadways and infrastructure is built on private dollars. Real estate developers want to get consumers to market, homebuyers to homes, beachgoers to beaches, whores to NFL draft picks, and so on. They build infrastructure to do that. That infrastructure then gets accepted and maintained by the government/public once complete, but the initial construction is, more often than not, private. So, under this really cool concept (and it is), we're talking about rebuilding all roadways from scratch, and there's just no incentive to do that. The other great point about this post is how it points out one other huge inefficiency that people ignore, all in the name of being cutting edge. But, geezus, let's not stop the delicate geniuses trying to build a goddamn road that will tell me when a fucking moose is crossing. And there's value in that??!! The key point is, as the poster notes, there are peak times for solar collection, and there are useless times for collection. Like, for example, it's 11:00 pm in the northeast, and anyone who has solar panels on their roof would be better off if those panels were giant poptarts, because at least then they'd be delicious. If all the roads in the country were converted to this wonderful solar technology, you know what would happen? We'd all be standing in soup lines, because we lack the storage technology to take advantage of it all. Forget the fucking moose road. Think of my house. Where I leave early morning, before the sun is fully-risen; and return every night, after the sun has set. I'm using none of the energy I'm collecting. Ideally, there would be technology to store that power efficiently in a battery cell. There isn't. So, instead, we had to invent a process of netmetering, whereby all solar power that gets pumped back into the grid to offset stored fuels. Great. But (assuming this moose-road technology all works, and backing out the titanic expense) you're now talking about overhauling the entire power grid. All because we haven't figured out the REAL issue - storage. So, back to the poster's original (and great) point, the technology is just nowhere near where it needs to be to have an efficient moose road.
Never heard of the "broken window" before but at a quick glace it seems to be about destroying for the sake of rebuilding? I don't see how that applies here since the idea would be to upgrade something that we cannot afford to continue to maintain in it's current form. Maybe I'm missing something in the meaning?
One thing I've heard of being successful in "saving" power is using power during off-peak hours to pump water uphill and then creating hydro power during peak hours. That had nothing to do with solar but if there were a consistently large excess power supply I'd imagine that could be replicated. I wonder what your thoughts on that are.
There would not be large amounts of salt piling up, it comes out as brine and is mixed back in with the sea water. The brine output is generally going to be around 60 parts per thousand compared to 35 ppt on average for normal sea water. If they just pump it straight out it can have some effect on the crustaceans, sea grass and other such living organisms in the area but many desalinization plants are situated near power plants and the discharge is blended with the cooling water of the power plant lowering the ppt to around 40-44 ppt. Another alternative is longer discharge tubes with multiple smaller discharge opening which spreads out the discharge and it's impact on the environment.
