Spain in Nationwide Energy Conservation Push

Technocrat

Spain in Nationwide Energy Conservation Push

zogger

Fri Aug 01 11:08:00 -0700 2008

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Spain has to import more energy than any other European nation, so they are feeling the latest economic pinch the worst. To help address this, the government there has instituted what can only be called emergency measures to force energy conservation, such as mandated reduced speed limits and dimming street lights and placing thermostat settings for governmental buildings with an eye to save, and giving away millions of lower wattage light bulbs.

The (ed:Euro) 245m energy plan was unveiled by industry minister Miguel Sebastian, and in an effort to encourage Spaniards to be more energy conscious, the minister borrowed a phrase from JFK.

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." ed.z.: What he said, and it was neat to hear him say it, at least on TV at the time. Good for Spain, hope it works, they are getting hit with the double whammy of nasty energy price hikes plus running out of fresh water at the same time. I think not just Spain, but everyone, governments and corporations to joe sixpack, needs to do some radical restructuring from now until such a time as the $99.99 backyard Mr. Fusion gets developed.

Spain in Nationwide Energy Conservation Push

President4242

Fri Aug 01 18:35:09 -0700 2008
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Given their weather, I'd think that Thermal Solar combined with Wave Bouys would be a natural solution.

Spain in Nationwide Energy Conservation Push

Charles E Hill

Fri Aug 01 19:06:04 -0700 2008
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One of the things I remember about living in Spain was that the surfing absolutely sucked. Terribly small waves, at least on the Atlantic side.

I don't know how well wave buoys would work for them.

They did get a fair amount a wind coming from the Sahara, but it brought a lot of dust.

energy niche

zogger

Fri Aug 01 19:46:39 -0700 2008
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They are big time solar pv and thermal there now. Land they got, hot sun they got. Basically, there is a huge variety of alternative energy solutions, you just have to pick the ones that work the best at your x-y. In the US we are lucky, we have "all of the above" situations to exploit looking at the nation as a whole. Now all we need to do is get a few dozen rust belt factories working on turning out home sized, like 10-20 kw, Model A windchargers by the millions, and a lot more fabs built for solar PV, and more work on the inkjet printer PV. I think the biofuels will come no matter what, too easy, huge market, one million farmers all want to make a profit once in awhile, and hundreds of millions of vehicles already out there that take liquid fuels. No way are they going to stop that now, even if crude falls back under a hundred bucks, too much momentum now.. And the giant wind chargers are a gimme, they actually make money for the investors. If I was out west someplace with decent wind, I would look into getting just one of the megawatt or bigger units as a "job", using whatever creative financing I could come up with. What you could make off of one of them would pay all your juice, plus the land payments most likely, then profit after that, and you can still farm around the dang things.