[quote author=JohnRoberts]I am not sure what/who you are contradicting. [/quote]
Let's call it a rhetorical stunt. It's the kind of thing politicians use -- not very honorable. I (have to) apologize. Still it's good to read (in this entire thread) that there is little contradicting going on.
The drag on the economy from using conventional (NG? Oil?) energy sources had to be significant.
Yes, but luckily price for oil has been/is dropping. Yet electric bills in Japan got more expensive, still affordable though. Price for gas (cooking, heating water, gas heater) has gone up a lot (different reason though). And we pay about $1 extra per bill for the cleanup in Fukushima (literally 'the island of happiness').
In hindsight we can point to many flaws in the design and management of Fukushima.
Design, I don't know. State-of-the-art at the time, I guess. Built by Toshiba and General Electric. Maintenance, absolutely. It had been criminally neglected!
The problem with too much reliance on wind/solar is that the wind doesn't always blow, and the sun doesn't always shine, so conventional power plants must be used to keep the grid up.
...
We should not discount how much energy we still waste.
Absolutely. Saving energy (much like environmental friendliness and concerns about climate change) and I hate to say it, is a luxury. But one that we should indulge -- not because somebody says so, but to do ourselves a favour (starting with electric bills).
As for wind/solar: I agree, and the emphasis is on "too much". I propagate a healthy mix -- the more renewable, the better, and sure it depends on geography etc etc. Surprisingly, Japan has not had power shortages for the last three years at all. Mainly due to burning coal/oil, of course. However, what's not generally reported on is this:
- Today, solar has become ten time more widespread in Japan since 2011. Very useful, especially in summer when people tend to crank up their aircons to preceived fridge-freezer temperatures.
- In the summers of 2011 and 2012 people were asked to cool to no lower than 27 degrees Celcius. Works fine, even in offices. Impossible to wear a tie though -- how cool is that!
- In Tokyo they switched off every second underground lamp in 2011. Today, every third lamp is still not used, yet it's bright enough, so that you no longer need to wear sunglasses when riding on the subway -- how (un)cool is that!
- Street lighting is going LED nationwide
- Since 2011 private consumer energy usage went down 10%.
- Japan also switched back on old thermal plants after 2011 (if Japan has one ressource in abundance, it's hot water, much like Iceland) -- BUT they are not considering building new plants.
More safety is always good, but a purely emotional response like we get from politicians is not always the best path.
Yeah, and more importantly, from
the media. The psychological effects of megafear-inducing coverage (mainly by nuclear skeptics and opponents) is so much more damaging psychologically than direct exposure to radiation due to nuclear accidents has ever been. Ingestion of radioactive substances is different though. In Japan it has been minimal cos legal standards for food are among the strictest in the world. Actually so strict that Japan was pressured to raise domestic limits in 2011 so that "contaminated" food -- food that was illegal to sell in Japan, but could be exported and sold
legally in other countries -- would disappear at the source.
... serious solar collector in orbit
I like the idea -- but maintenance might be difficult/expensive. A lot of man-made debris up there that needs clean-up first, I guess, or meticulous orbit planning. And what about rock flying towards earth? Maybe we could build (General Dynamics and others, listen up!) a solar-powered search-and-destroy laser defense mechanism to pulverize it before impact. Let's start with automatic detection/activation, remote control capability and medium-distance reach.