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Ian Mcewan

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Why can we not have cheap electricity?

If we can use wind power to separate oxygen and hydrogen from water why can this not be a sustainable energy for the planet???

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    Henk Mulder 10+

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    Aug 8 2012: I think that electricity is very cheap. We just use too much of it.

    • Ian Mcewan

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      Aug 8 2012: But don't you think it could be cheaper and more available?
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        Henk Mulder 10+

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        Aug 8 2012: Yes to both. But our consumption will increase in equal measures and therefore we gain nothing. We might do well to break that trend.

        It reminds of the memory and speed evolution of computers. When Digital Equipment Corporation (RIP) develop the Alpha chip at 250 MHZ many of us thought that the 4 fold increase in computer power would make us happy. All that happened was that we wrote bigger programs. My iPad is not faster in use than my 64k - 20MB PC from the 80's (should I have kept it). But in fairness, my computer runs my life now.

        Lessons learned: cost of modern commodities is inversely proportional to our usage. Or to put it differently: cost X usage = constant.

        Rather than bring electricity cost down, we should focus on the environmental cost. INCREASING cost of electricity could be a brilliant start.

        • Ian Mcewan

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          Aug 8 2012: But what if we could turn our electrical appliances into living things. Would that not be better than electricity.

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