Posts by Steven Marsh 7 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Aug 2008
Stacking some panels, ok, stacking THREE panels, adding a mirror, and redirecting excess light to a FOURTH panel does not seem like a 40 percent capture rate.
Its more like ( 40 / 4 ) = 10 percent capture rate....
Because the reason the capture rate matters is because of the cost of the silicon, and in this case, you have 4 'effing panels!!!
So, thats four times the cost, plus the cost of the mirrors...
This is a non-story....
Yes, I know, Politics is just an extension of Economics, but our democratic systems should be designed in a way that minimizes the negative effects of these natural "Monarchic" tendencies.
Therefore, HP, Microsoft, and ALL big companies need to stop F**King with the political systems.
No more PACs, Citizen Uniteds, Personhoods, the list goes on.
Quite frankly the likes of Microsoft and HP just HOLD BACK innovation, the are "milkers" not inventors, they don't create, they MILK.
HP has a PAC, a Political Action Committee, and given the fact that their CEO spent $100 million of her own dollars trying to get elected to political office, we can see that there are obvious reasons to want to have all that INFLUENCE.
Well, folks, its time to rid ourselves of the "Parasitic Class" "Elites" who contribute nothing and take all the profits.
When we do this, and we are just getting underway, there will be an explosion of prosperity.
If we don't then our civilization won't last.
Nice try Mr. Worstall, you almost pulled it off with this piece but there's a few problems. First let me address some of the comments.
Why didn't Oil companies do something back in the 80's and 90's when prices were $10 a barrel?
Short Answer: Because Bill Clinton was in office!!
In 2000, the oil lobby and its unholy alliance with the Christian Reich got an Oil Man (Dick Cheney), and his bumbling sidekick (Dubya Bush) into office!
Dick Cheney for those who don't was the CEO of the larget Oil field services company in the world, Halliburton, right before his VP duties.
The Oil lobby is huge and powerful, it was able to put Bush/Cheney into office, that was prerequisite to todays state of affairs.
As someone who lived in the West Texas Oil Patch during the 1980's I can tell you all about the complaints of those in the Oil Business at that time. Following the oil bust of the 1980's prices were TOO LOW to merit drilling anywhere in the US or offshore for that matter.
Today there is a market environment that is VERY conducive drilling in the US and the Iraq war is nothing more than a resource grab that will allow US oil companies to stay in the game in the middle east as well. Ask yourself if there were no Oil in Iraq would a single US Soldier be there?
Now, back to your article Mr. Worstall, you try to make it sound like Mr. Obama wants a windfall profits tax purely for the sake of "pandering" to the populace. But I ask this: Have you or anyone else read the actual legislation that hasn't yet been proposed? Perhaps you would find that Mr. Obama proposes taxing profits that aren't reinvested, or perhaps you would find that there is much more benefit for the American people as well as our energy future to have Oil profits invested rather than giving the already superwealthy top management a bunch of gimmes.
Lastly, Big Oil is the root cause of much of the conflict, pollution, and other problems in the world. The Oil lobby has very successfully stifled the quest for alternatives in the US. Todays high gasoline prices are really the only thing that has caused Americans to curb their insatiable demand for gasoline and is going to spur the shift to alternatives. By my reckoning the Oil industry is vastly oversubsidized by the American taxpayer and all it produces is more headaches in terms of traffic, high food prices, and geopolitical conflict.
For Americans much of the problems associated with Oil and energy are "new" but these are problems that have been in the making for a long time and no one can say that they really expected for the finite reserves to last forever when the demand curve has been steadily upwards and even accelerating.
If we look at our current situation as a WAKE UP call then the time to seriously invest in alternatives to Oil is now. A windfall profit tax with exemptions for alternative energy investments will really help, so thanks for bringing some sanity to the debate MR. OBAMA
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