Reply #15: I'm a metalworker with CAD.

[Gregorian]

I just don't see the motor/generator side as being the weak link. Where the loss comes in, in my weak opinion, is the source. There has to be wind. And where is it windy all of the time? And where is it windy even half of the time? There is another aspect to the idea that is less than stellar, and that is the energy cost of manufacture. I like Nanotech's idea of printing solar cells. The minute we start laying up wind vanes, or machining them, we are moving away from the elegant and energy cheap process of simply printing photovoltaics.

But maybe this is part of the process of evolution. I suppose once we get off the petroleum, the cost of energy won't be so high, and we can begin to entertain more complicated ideas. Like geared transmission production.

The bottom line is, we have it easier than it's ever going to be. And that's why change is difficult. But we're on the verge of the new energy conversion sources.

It's going to take a multiplicity of overlapping processes to fill the void that petroleum leaves.

You know, there's one thing I don't think people realize. Petroleum, as a basic building block for products, is so important in our manufacturing of nearly everything in our lives, that even with alternative energy sources, we are still going to need great quantities of it. This is why I think people are just dreaming, when it comes to the reality of getting away from petroleum.

(Hey, I didn't say overpopulation. It took real strength.)