Alternate Energy

With all the talk of alternate energy development and government programs, it seems that new energy sources will soon sweep all that old "dirty" energy off the scene and we will live in a bright and dazzling and very clean energy future.

But here's the reality. From Wikipedia's page on "world energy sources and consumption", here is the current breakdown of sources of energy used:


Those itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny bits on the upper right get exploded, so they do look like they are something important. But this table from the same Wikipedia page makes it pretty clear they aren't very significant:

Fuel type	Average power in TW
	1980	2004	2006
Oil	4.38	5.58	5.74
Gas	1.80	3.45	3.61
Coal	2.34	3.87	4.27
Hydroelectric	0.60	0.93	1.00
Nuclear Power	0.25	0.91	0.93
Geothermal, wind, solar energy, wood	0.02	0.13	0.16
Total	9.48	15.0	15.8

I think the moral of the story is that alternate energy will take a generation or two before it plays any significant role in the energy supply of the world.

Meanwhile, I get quite bothered by the pandering of governments to pressure from fanatical environmentalists. The idea of paying farmers to turn crops that should be feeding people into energy so that yuppies can drive around with the consciences assuaged while the poor go hungry (and even starve during years of crop failure). It is mindless.

I don't mind money spent on generating usable energy from anaerobic digestion or algae fuel. These don't compete with food crops.

Solar and wind power are fine by me, but you first have to solve the problem of energy storage. That is a really tough nut to crack and environmentalists overlook it.

Here's an interesting post by Thomas Fuller on the current energy use situation from the Watts Up With That? web site.