Biofuels and renewable energy creating more problems than they solve?

[gregory house]

Mandatory 10% ethanol blending?

Everybody dislikes coal, petrol etc. They are obvious causes of pollution. Renewable energy sources (wind power, solar power, ethanol and other biofuels) appear cleaner. But are they really?

BBC had some news on ethanol causing problems a few weeks back. Here are some news pieces (via google news. Search for ethanol food problems) related to the same.

Fuel for thought - Good Living - Entertainment - smh.com.au
Ethanol blends oil and food economies
Political Affairs Magazine - Let Them Eat Gas: Problems with Ethanol

There have been anecdotes of solar panels needing to cover an area the size of Texas to produce enough electricity to run a small town. What about the effect of windmills on birds and rains? I have heard about farmers in Satara blaming reduction in rainfall on windmills installed. Apparently (according to the farmers), the windmills blow the rainclouds away.

Some links that present the other side of the debate.
Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds (TreeHugger)
BioDiesel Technologies & Jatropha in Brazil (TreeHugger)

The most important problem is that ecofuel and other renewable energy projects have been heavily subsidised worldwide and therefore the effect of large scale implementation on pricing is yet to be seen.

Renewable energy must be truly renewable. We can't afford to jump into something and then find that the original problem was better than the alternative solution.

 

[Sushubh]

ok. the petrol pump i use gives the 10% blended petrol. its an Indian Oil owned company operated pump. and the delivery guy told me that the new fuel is killing their machines as it has some fumes problem which mess up with the delivery machine.

 

[gregory house]

Saw a news piece on CNBC a few minutes ago. It is about a company called Nanosolar which is about to revolutionise the solar energy market (so they say). The google guys and a few others have invested about USD 100 million in the company. The news seems to be about one year old though. Never heard of it.

Nanosolar - Home Page
Nanosolar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Forecast for solar power: Sunny - USATODAY.com

 

[vebk]

I like the fact that you brought this topic up. But I hate the fact that scientists and legislators don't. We all automatically assume that anything that appears prima facie to be environmentally friendly, is such.We all believe that recycling is a great thing to do - but very few people have asked the question as to whether or not it's worth it, considering that the recycling process itself requires energy and resources, and not to mention it causes pollution. I am not saying that it's not worth it, but rather that too many people assume it is good and don't ask the questions they need to ask.

 

[gregory house]

Michael Crichton presented the alternate view in his book State of Fear and he was universally criticized for the same. Scientists working on finding alternative theories for global warming etc. are criticized for being on the payroll of big corporations.

The problem is that too many people talk too soon without considering the issue at length, and take important decisions based on assumptions that will be blown away by the next gust of wind.