PV Gap

Alvin Said:

Do u agree? electric cars does not make earth cleaner.?

We Answered:

And we still get more than 80% of our fuel from Oil, and just less than 50% of our electricity from COAL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_t…

We are EXTRAORDINARILY inefficient in our energy use, nearly 60% of the energy produced is wasted - http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US… , meaning we are about 40% efficient with respect to having energy relative to getting efficient work out of it.6

So for me the notion isn't that electric cars are necessarily cleaner (although compared with a diesel) they are definitely cleaner from the consumer perspective. The big problem however, is OIL, electric cars, other than manufacturing and maintenance do not use oil.

We are using staggering amount of the stuff. The planet has roughly 3 trillion barrels of the stuff. It took us 100 years to use the first trillion, we're working our way through the second trillion now, (and have managed to finish that off in less than 35) , the remaining oil will be both MUCH harder to find , thus much less profitable to recover (deeper,farther), and will be of lesser quality (harder to refine, more sulfur and other impurities).

http://www.1000barrels.com/

The point is that from an energy perspective, while Europe, Japan and other nations have been VERY conscientious about getting their people to drive less, live in cities, etc. OUR nation was giving tax credits for Hummers, we have an archaic rail transport system relative to countries like Japan, England, Germany or France, and we are totally mispositioned to handle that economically.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sPDNR2YS…

So we get f*cked at the pump every time some refinery shuts down, or some nut-job blows up a pipeline, or there is an accident at an oil well somewhere.

While nuclear sounds better, there simply is no realistic way we are going to transition to nuclear in anything like the near future. Specifically, there is not enough uranium & thorium fuel to replace our oil use with nuclear, and secondly, it would take 40 years to build all the reactors , if we started today. As it happens, the United States has not built a new reactor in nearly 35 years (since 3 Mile Island).

Personally, I'd LOVE to see a Mr. Fusion or something similar - to Mr. Fusion -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLorean_ti… , I'm very pessimistic that our political leadership seems perfectly content to simply think happy thoughts that "something" wll come up, but it seems barring a crash program to develop practical Fusion, we are in SERIOUS trouble with respect to energy, not to mention fusion energy is not likely to be very practical or inexpensive and at the rate of discovery the first prototype reactor MIGHT be ready in 2050. As the running joke goes, "Fusion Energy is just a few years from being an engineering reality .... and always will be."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_powe…

Don Said:

What are the chances of the following succeeding?

We Answered:

It has a chance as long as the money holds out. Since their money comes from oil profits, they must count the ungreen of their money in all this. With that included, they will be no better than anyone else. That is how many groups claim green. In their calculations, the money to do it, grows on trees instead of coming from the real world. You have to look at the universal numbers, not the after money numbers.

Joe Said:

Is this letter correct stylistically?

We Answered:

"Dear Sirs

We obtained your details at the exhibition in Munich, Germany.

We are planning to purchase photovoltaic panels (1.2 MW) for a photovoltaic power plant by the end of 2009.

We are interested in polycrystalline panels, and at this point we are considering potential suppliers.

Since we are not limited by area, we are also considering a purchase of amphoteric panels.

Please send us a catalogue of types of solar panels and further information, as described above

Thank you for your quotation, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

Smith & Co."

Dear "Sirs" when writing to a company. Capital "S".
You don't really need to put "Germany" in because Munich is a major city there and everyone knows which country it's in.
MW stands for megawatts so there is no need to put "wattage" as well.
"Have a nice day" is inappropriate in a business letter.
"Yours faithfully" as the sign-off -- small "f".

You should ideally put a heading in bold under "Dear Sirs" -- perhaps something like "Supply of photovoltaic panels".