Actually I am a belt and suspenders kind of guy so I still have a coal stove in the kitchen in case the converter system goes TU again. Solar yes? But also occasionally a coal burner.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
The story concerns the invention of "light panels" - devices which turn electrical power directly into light (similar to LEDs, invented in 1962). In the course of their discovery, the inventors also discover that these panels can also be used to derive power from light. In attempting to bring their discovery to market, they encounter the active opposition of the Power Syndicate, a conglomeration of energy-producing companies dedicated to preserving their monopoly on power production. Rather than trying to maintain a patent on their invention, the scientists then publicly release the scientific details of their discovery for a small royalty, allowing anyone to obtain their own power, and thus outwitting the Power Syndicate. Douglas-Martin sunpower screens appear in several other Heinlein stories, such as "The Roads Must Roll".
The Roads Must Roll From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Roads Must Roll" is a 1940 science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. In the late 1960s, it was awarded a retrospective Nebula Award by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 in 1970.[1]
The story is set in the near future, when "roadtowns" (wide rapidly moving passenger platforms similar to moving sidewalks, but reaching speeds of 100 mph) have replaced highways and railways as the dominant transportation method in the United States.
"ST. LOUIS, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gregory H. Boyce today said the global supercycle for coal was “alive and well” with strong market trends related to rising electricity generation and steel demand in China and India, along with constrained global coal supplies.
Presenting at the Howard Weil 2012 Energy Conference in New Orleans, Boyce said, “Coal has been the fastest-growing major global fuel and is expected to become the world’s largest energy source. The seaborne coal market has exceeded 1 billion tonnes for the first time, and the cost of coal is just a fraction of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).”
“While concerns about the global economy make headlines, recent data support the coal supercycle thesis for both met and thermal coal,” said Boyce. “Chinese steel production is coming off of trough levels set in November 2011. China just announced 20 million tonnes of coal imports in February, and the last four months of coal imports are up more than 40 percent from prior-year levels. India’s thermal coal imports rose 35 percent in 2011, and last week the country moved to eliminate its coal import tariff.”
