Thread: Oil Dependency

Originally Posted by gwahir

sorry, pardon? i'm not calling you a liar, but you'll need to expand on this.

My belief is that the rests mostly in solar and not wind technology. Further, the argument rests over the creation of the technology, not its generation. I find it would be difficult to argue against the negative impact of PV arrays in terms of the electricity produced unless you wanted to complain about the pain a photon may undergo bashing into and energizing an electron with enough energy to pass that fermi level. (or the pitiful efficiencies that are not up to par with what we need... )

In sense, there's some truth when looking at the chemical composition of solar panels, their creation, and the excess waste. The composition of new and upcoming thin-films contains elements like Cadmium and Arsenide which are heavily toxic. My girlfriend monitors a PV company's production as an EH&S consultant, but it only shows that these residual chemicals and their disposal are heavily regulated. Probably the same as, if not more than, an oil company.

As for turbines, I don't see the argument but it probably will take some level of abstraction/extraction. Some say eyesore, but there's something called the Tehachapi pass in California that I've driven through multiple times. that has a windfarm nestled in its hills. Quite beautiful if you ask me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehachapi_Pass_Wind_Farm