While I look forward to the day that I can run my furnace using renewable energy, there is still much improvement to be made in this industry as it is still in its infancy. Hopefully there will be more efficient technology and processes in the near future!

My sentiments exactly because solar lends itself precisely to this personal use. We need to cover the earth with solar collectors from the new nano-full spectrum film to the present clunky panels. Couple that with energy miser technology. LCD/plasma screens are energy vampires. We must change not just our business model but the model of our lives. I don’t think we need sacrifice too much on how we live.

“reverse electrolysis” (i.e.. the hydrogen fuel cell) takes more energy, as input,
than what you get out of it in energy. Or, it has a negative EROEI (Energy return
on energy invested). Ever read the first law of thermodynamics?

Don’t get me wrong, I am planning on installing a PV system this year, but the
thing that is never talked about in AE is scaleability. This holds true for all the
other science fiction energy saviors “they” have come up with to date.

We can not scale up AE to anything close to what we currently use. Plus the rare
earth minerals needed to make these technologies work are in short supply
and, yes, is as finite as fossil fuels.

Yes we need to use energy more intelligently and continue research but at
some point, soon I believe, we all will have to trade in our Starbucks gift cards
for some heirloom seeds and a hoe.

They either need to come up with a non-polluting substitute for water, or generate their own through reverse electrolosis which can also generate electricity with that water!

We need to have solar collectors on every building so that we won’t need quite so many central solar-electric generating plants in the first place.

We need to stop with the idea of cleaner coal is a fools errand. Even if you do make it a small % cleaner it won’t be much good in the long run.

Whenever humans have tried to thwart nature the predictable occurs - nature adapts eventually and the humans either move on or perish.  The water problems in the west have been there from pre-history on; trying to build more and more cities in arid zones is futile.  As several have stated already, we need to use energy more intelligently instead of trying to get more of it.  e.g. swapping out incandescent bulbs and replacing with CFLs (and later LEDs), using more efficient devices in place of older inefficient ones. 
    But the cost to get smarter is expensive - totally worth it.

This article fails utterly to consider the fact that so-called “green energy” is in its infancy. The more we devote resources to the industry the more new technologies will be forthcoming.

I cannot help but suspect this article was written by, or at the behest of, the oil and coal folks.

I didn’t read the entire NYT article, but I can tell you, you don’t necessarily need water to cool something. The transmission in your car is cooled by oil. It serves a dual purpose; to lubricate, and cool. The radiator in your car is actually separated into two parts, one for anti-freeze (engine coolant), and one for transmission fluid (some cars have a separate trans fluid cooler). And oil is reusable (in this case, however, it does break down over time), it just needs to be filtered.

And, anyone who proposes a solar farm, that doesn’t take into consideration the cleaning of the “optics”, is a fool.

Mike is right. We have lived in a time where almost anything is possible. Possible because we live in an age cheap and abundant energy, an age of oil.

As oil production continues to fall and AE is finally presented in a reality based view, a view that even in very best case scenario it will not equal 1/10 of fossil fuel output, people of the industrial/consumption world will be forced step back. Not just single step back but many steps back. Back to a low energy, low consumption lifestyle where words like “Economic Growth” and “Profit” are considered extinct.

“GDP actually mesures the rate at which the economy is extracts useful natural resources running them through the econmic system and deposing of them as toxic waste in our air water and soil.” -David Korten