Thank the Ethanol Hoax for higher malt prices

[pjj2ba]

T The laws of thermodynamics(I think) say it is impossible to extract energy from a material without destroying that material! Energy within a closed system cannot be created or destroyed, only converted. Corn is just another vehicle for the net amount of energy available on Earth. How about solar power? The sun is free!

I'm not saying that solar is the end all solution, but it seems even partial utilization would lighten the burden on our constrained resources.

A little clarification. Corn is partial solar power. The carbon supply is limited and does operate in a closed cycle, but the energy used to change it's form comes from the sun. All of the fossil fuels were initially created with plant based solar energy. As energy is converted from one form to another, some of the energy is lost (order to disorder - or why rooms never clean themselves). Plants actually do take disorder (CO2 + water) and convert it into order (sugar), but it takes the energy of the sun. Without plants and the input of energy from the sun the world would run out of energy. NO plants, NO life.

 

[Jesse17]

You are going to be pretty disappointed when you find out it will be more like 20 years, maybe 10 if you are lucky and your government gives credits like here in the states. Oh and batteries are recyclable....

By the way the company I work for is the largest producer of solar power in the state of Wisconsin.....here is a news clip

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=621172

+1, When I was building my house about 5 years ago, I worked in the DC power industry. More exactly, I installed battery back up systems for a company that was a vendor to ALL the phone companies (that's why your phone works when the power is out). I was all for saving money, and being self reliant by going solar.

The problem was, in order to store enough energy to go 100% solar, the batteries (even with the discounts I could swing through my company) would take 20 years to break even. That wouldn't be a problem, except that the lifetime of the batteries is 20 years MAX.

The only advantage to solar that I can see (right now) is if you collect and sell every watt you can during the day back to the power company, and buy power at night. You could do this without any batteries, and I believe the laws right now would work out and you could basically get your power for free or close to it. But if enough people do this, then the power companies won't be making any money, and will have no reason to supply you power at night. Besides, my main point was to get off the grid, and be self sufficient, so I'll have power after WWIII, not just to get power for free.

I think a combination of solar, and personal power plants will be the answer in the future, but it will take a complete collapse of the current system to get to that point.

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

http://zeropollutionmotors.us/

 

[DUCCCC]

It ain't just corn in the states either...

 

[Willy Boner]

A very interesting article on the ethanol BS. Facts gleened from it are....

Ethanol contains water that distillation cannot remove.
It takes 450 pounds of corn to produce the ethanol to fill one SUV tank.
It takes more than one gallon of fossil fuel -- oil and natural gas -- to produce one gallon of ethanol.
It takes 1,700 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol.




I cannot believe we've been suckered into this BS and now are paying for it via taxes, higher food prices, higher malt prices, and higher gas prices.

So are you going to observe "Earth Hour"? What a show. How about if everyone in America doesn't buy gas for 1 week, See how the gas prices go then.

 

[Laurel]

So are you going to observe "Earth Hour"? What a show. How about if everyone in America doesn't buy gas for 1 week, See how the gas prices go then.

I hope you're kidding. Americans aren't going to change their habits, they'll just fill up RIGHT before the week starts and fill back up immediately after it's over. "Big Oil" will still get their money. Anyone who thinks otherwise clearly hasn't thought it through.

 

[PeteOz77]

Actually, that plan would work if everyone agreed not to CONSUME any gas for a week.

If everyone that possibly could, would walk, bike, take a bus or a train, or at least car pool every single day for one week... yeah, that would hurt.... until they arbitrarily all decide to charge and extra 20¢ a gallon for a week to make back the "loss"