well since my career has me involved in both heavy construction and manufacturing, i can say this-
im not seeing much green technology anywhere.
it seems that at this point in time, architects and designers are somewhat shying away from green stuff.
ive seen a few big manufactures switch over to what is known as a L.E.A.N/Kaizen style of production... but soalr panels and wind turbines... not a one.
I can truthfully say that both technologies simply do not provide enough
consistant available wattage for the justification of making such a major expendature financially viable.
Maybe in the private sector, i have seen a few solar rooftop panels, but the reality of those systems is that the massive batteries required to run your demand factor off of peak generation times often create a bigger carbon footprint than if you simply didnt have solar panels and used grid power....
Im all for green tech, but i think alot of people got suckered in by promising
developmental data.
like heres a factoid for you- the raw material required to build enough wind turbine generators to reduce 25% of the national demand factor would take approx 25 years to mine, with exponentially increasing production costs as current energy costs rise. it would also drive the cost of copper and raw malleable(soft) iron to the roof, and recycled copper(unfit for generation/electrical purposes) is averaging 3$ a lb right now. the raw copper cost is off the charts... go buy some wire if you dont believe me... bring a brinks truck to pay for it.
Solar panels are even worse, like electric cars, the energy used to both acquire the raw material and then produce the finished, installed product, often exceeds the amount of energy that the product would save over its entire
lifetime of operation.
So green tech is a
great idea on paper, or in a campaign speech, but implementing it in reality is a challenge few correctly foresaw.
This is not the first time this country has gone on a green power craze, im sure some old hippies and heads around here remember the late 70's early 80's, the whole earth day creation thing, blah blah blah. Everytime our precious energy supply is threatened, this green power craze comes out of nowhere and takes the center stage for a bit, then once the apparent threat is lost in media shuffle, you hear less about it. Not because people dont care about it, in fact alot of people are taking interest in green tech these days, but in fact because green tech is simply easier to talk about than to do. for the usa to run on a green system, americans would have to alter there lifestyles in a way that most people cannot imagine, and few would be prepared to undertake.
So in my opinion, i think green tech has simply hit a wall, the same wall that has kept it from becoming the prevailant energy source- it simply costs too much, and expends too much to make it viable, or else the country would have been switched over decades ago.
edit p/s-
It all comes down to physics, really. There can be no action without equal and opposite reaction. That applies to everything, power generation included. You cant pull electricity out of thin air... there is always an equal cost, somewhere in the equation, you will expend just as much as you recieve. In the case of todays energy crises, the cost is both to our enviroment and economy... Its like one of Solomons problems.