Christophe wrote:Jancovici evokes problems very well but offers little solution except parsimony via taxation ...
Hello everybody,
Strongly agree: he is kind Janco
. I generally like JMJ's views, but here I totally disagree. We are going to saw each other's legs by overtaxing a little more petroleum products whose consumption cannot be significantly reduced for transport and heating (ESSENTIAL!) And we will not create any wealth, and even certainly poverty. In any case, if we continue, the price of a barrel will take care of itself exceeding our purchasing power without the help of any tax. Peak oil is 40 years away, and if the Americans are going to drag their rangers to Iran, that will give us a taste very quickly (> $ 200 per barrel, € 2 / L of SP95 in France).
Taxing is never in itself a solution. What is needed is massively develop the generation of decentralized or centralized renewable energies: solar, hydro, wind, swell, tides ... There are Gigawattheures !!
In other words: a few years of R&D are still missing.
Again, I think all technologies are ready, although some are far from optimal. Think first of all that the sun brings 10 000 each year human consumption.
Now a small calculation: in the African desert (for example), the average annual solar flux is 300 W / m². PV cells that have a frank yield (10%) will extract 30 W / m² electric.
The average power consumed in France is 54 GW. This would therefore represent a square of 42,4 km on the side lined with PV cells (ie 1800 km²). In the Sahara, it's easy, right? And in France ... in the Mediterranean, flows are 200 W / m²: a large platform at the seaside 400 km² (20x20) is 8 GW, 8 nuclear power stations ...
Smoothing of production can be done by simple thermal storage directly in sand or water surrounded by insulating walls to turn turbines at night (but the overall yield drops to 10% x 50% = 5%)
Of course, the vision is a little (very ...) simplistic. But that's well worth the nonsense of the systematic surcharge, the decay, the climatic apocalypse, etc ... There is energy, it falls on the head and apparently, it engulfs our neurons, or Well, we have the flora to collect it ...
See you soon.