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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol's Dirty Little Secrets ---
  • Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 11:42:49 -0600


The vast majority of business and homes aren't anywhere near power plants.
And how far can you pump heat without losing all of it? Now Ken described
more liveable communities in his post, and maybe that's the way of the
future.

We will need local or home heat/electricity generation as a fallback, I
agree. But it means cutting our power and heating needs to the bone anyway,
right? If I'm putting all I can into food growing, where do I produce
biofuels? The wind here blows in the spring. Not a breath of air today, or
all month. PV costs too much for me to install. Waste motor oil? How much
will I have if my driving is reduced to almost nothing for lack of
gasoline? We don't throw away any vegetable oil because we don't use any.
And it's not produced locally either. Hydro? I'm an hour from the Rio
Grande but nobody dams that up for hydro. I'm afraid NONE of these
alternatives have a place here. They say they're funding a big wind farm in
eastern NM, so maybe we'll get some of that. Or not.

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all
our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to
foster its renewal is our only hope.
- Wendell Berry
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 7/14/2006 at 10:46 AM Greg and April wrote:

>That is what I have been wondering.
>
>Like Pat said, there is no single one replacement for fossil fuels, but
>that
>is not to say a combination of alternative fuels and energy sources and
>conservation can't do the job. Biodiesel for some applications, ethanol

>for others, wind for others, hydroelectric, solar, and even waste motor
>oil - they all have their place and uses.
>
>There are many cities with power plants, near by, that produce electricity

>for people in the city, and these power plants have tremendous amounts of
>waste heat. In the winter,why not heat nearby business and homes with
>this waste heat, that is otherwise just released to the air????? Since
>when what it economical to heat and cool the outside????
>
>Many remote farms need to produce there own electricity ( especially in
>the
>winter when storms knock down long range power lines ), so why not recover

>the heat from electrical generation to warm the buildings? It's not
>like
>the technology is unavailable, or that difficult to do on your own if your

>handy with tools. We saw something not to long ago, about a man that
>grows citrus in a Nebraska greenhouse, because he takes advantage of an
>heat
>source that would otherwise not be used.
>
>I'm on a list that discuses alternative and unconventional energy use, and

>several of the people are off the grid. They grow vegetables and heat
>their homes in the winter with the waste heat, that comes from generating
>electricity that their homes and shops need. For fuel they use waste
>motor and vegetable oil, that would otherwise end up in landfills and
>pollute the land. Many of them have built greenhouses and/or work shops

>from scrap wood, plastic, and other materials. This is sustainable
>living
>almost at it's best.
>
>Greg H.
>
>







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