In the preceding section, Dr. Ballard commented on wind turbines and solar cells, noting "But, environmentally desirable as these sources of energy are, they are unlikely to provide the vast amounts of primary energy that social progress will demand."

Wind turbines and solar photovoltatics are not consistent producers of electricity. The wind and sunshine is intermittent, changing on an hour to hour and a day to day basis. In addition, the quantities are seasonal – the sun shines much less in the winter and with less force, limiting the amount of electricity that can be produced. Winds change their patterns. Thus the electricity produced fluctuates constantly. This is one of the arguments for hydrogen – it serves as a form of battery to store electricity.

The two main questions about renewables are site availability and storage capacity.

Hydroelectric dams are an example. There are very few available sites remaining for building new dams. The sites are limited by the number of rivers and the limited topological sites available on each river. Similarly, sites for renewables are also limited. In California, a large percentage of wind turbines have been placed in only two locations – Tehachapi Pass in Southern California east of Los Angeles and Altamont Pass in Northern California east of San Francisco. One cannot simply place wind turbines on a grid laid out on the country, the spaces of the grid being based on the total need for energy. Capital costs of turbines are high, in the range of $1,000,000 each. Nor do they scale easily. A $1,000,000 turbine with blades 60 feet in the air is not the same as 100 turbines costing $10,000 each with blades 20 feet in the air. Wind turbine history shows that the larger, more expensive turbines are more efficient in electricity production relative to manufacturing costs than smaller turbines.

This suggests that, like dams, there are a limited number of sites available for wind power. Proponents argue that the average wind and sunlight blowing or shining on the land that forms our country is sufficient to provide power in amounts far greater than what we are using. A parallel argument would be that there is sufficient water falling on the land that flows through rivers, streams, and channels, which, if dammed, could provide the desired energy for all our needs. A quick comparison of water falling on the land to that part of the falling water flowing through dam turbines would make the point.

A popular place proposed for solar photovolatics is the Sahara desert in North Africa. The energy required to move the electricity across the Mediterranean sea to Europe has as yet not been reported.

The second question, energy storage, addresses the question about hydrogen and the fuel cell in their joint role as a battery. If the sun is shining during the day on photovoltaic cells, some of the energy generated would be used immediately and some would be stored either in batteries on in the form of hydrogen to power lights, water heaters and furnaces during the night. The amount stored would hopefully be balanced so that the battery or hydrogen would be exhausted just as the sun comes up and begins shining on the PV cells again.

The number of batteries (or tanks of hydrogen) needed (assuming a single size) is based on the number of cloudy days. If every other day is cloudy, then twice as many batteries or tanks are needed to provide additional storage. Expand this concept to seasons and one can imagine the huge size of the batteries and tanks needed to provide winter energy for a single home.

The renewable proponents have not to date provided a model of a system that would deal with the situation. No verifying data from the years of operation of the wind farms at Altamont Pass and Tehachapi Pass is available to illustrate the possibility of an easy transition to wind energy as the major provided of fuel for the country.

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