>Bud, my father was an energy consultant and worked in the nuclear, steam,
>and solar energy fields. He was leery of nuclear (too high maintenance)
>loved steam for it's simplicity (but required a fuel source, usually fossil
>fuel, or too dirty coal or wood), and found his joy in the huge solar arrays
>out near Barstow California. He was responsible for rebuilding the system
>out there, and to the end of his days, said THAT was the way to produce
>clean, useable power for the masses.
>In an automotive sense, the technology could be transferred in some ways,
>but not directly. The huge Barstow arrays heated oil in large pipelines
>which in turn heated water into steam. These drove huge turbines/generators
>which of course produced electricity. All in a closed system.
>This is not directly related to your comments, but I thought you might find
>it interesting. My father was a mechanical wizard, he rose to the top of his
>field yet never completed Grade 12. :-) The Second World War got in his way,
>so he joined the Canadian Army. Afterwards he got into the energy field. He
>figured if you had an open mind and were curious, that was the best
>university there was. He loved the U.S. and spent the last 20 yrs of his
>working life down there, where the attitude was "Well let's just get the
>damn thing built", instead of up here where committees struck by engineers
>would argue for weeks as the job slowly plodded along. :-)

There ain't no free lunch. Solar power is incredibly inefficient as
collector technology stands, and huge tracts of land need to be
stripped for solar "farms". NOT the answer. Roll on genuine nuclear
(fusion) power!!
--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin, New Zealand
64 (3) 473-8863
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh & VW/Toyota van nut