daemon@decwrl.UUCP (11/04/83)
From: Ed Featherston HL01-1/P06 225-5241 <roll::featherston>
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Newsgroup : net.space
>From : DVINCI::FISHER
Organization : Digital Equipment Corp.
Subj: Re: powersats
The heat pollution problem is not really an argument against powersats.
It is an argument against increased energy usage in general. Let us ignore
the efficiency of power generation for the moment and consider only heat
pollution caused AFTER electricity has entered the distribution network.
If total energy usage is the same, it does not matter whether that energy
comes from atoms, from solar energy which fell on the earth eons ago and was
incorporated into fossil fuels, or from current solar energy which is collected
by a powersat, and would not have otherwise touched the earth. Now if you
add back in the waste energy caused by the power generation process, (as has
been stated before) powersats have a clear heat advantage.
I therefore contend that the heat pollution argument is valid against powersats
only if you say "Powersats will cause increased power usage compared to
terrestrially generated power, and therefore..." Personally, I feel that
that we will use what power we think we need no matter what the source, and that
powersats are the most environmentally sound method of supplying that power.
Burns
Mail address : ...decvax!decwrl!rhea!dvinci!fisher
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