A friend of mine sent me a link to a piece by Steven Den Beste on alternative energy in which he sets forth his criteria for an energy source to be viable. He doesn’t use the word viable, but in the end this is what he’s looking for. A generator on a bicycle is an alternative energy source, it just isn’t viable unless that’s all the energy you need, and you have the spare time to do the pedaling.
A truly viable energy source is one that produces enough surplus energy, after supplying the surrounding society, to support the manufacture of its own replacement. Machines wear out, after all.
Always remember, when you hear someone going on about alternative energy, that the word they’re leaving out is “viable”.
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