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From CNN:
The massive find of conventional oil on state land could bring relief to budget pains in Alaska brought on by slumping production in the state and the crash in oil prices.
The new discovery was made in just the past few days in Alaska's North Slope, which was previously viewed as an aging oil basin.
[...] "The interesting thing about this discovery is the North Slope was previously thought to be on its last legs. But this is a significant emerging find," Repsol spokesman Kristian Rix told CNNMoney.
Of course, this news won't ease rising concern among investors about the stubborn glut of oil in the U.S. There are increasing signs that shale oil producers are preparing to ramp up output after surviving a two-year price war with OPEC.
It's a gift from $DEITY! Who needs renewable energy when we just keep finding oil! Right?
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday March 13 2017, @11:10PM
So, the "solution" is to use MORE water to cool the damned things?
That's *a* solution, sure.
already-warm water (global warming again) has less and less capacity to absorb the heat from nukes.
I don't think that the additional cooling capacity that might be required by this is as much as you are thinking, but even so...
how much more REAL ESTATE would be used for the additional cooling apparatus
Some, sure, but orders of magnitude less than would be required for wind or solar installations of comparable generating capacity.
This is a problem that solar and wind need to address. Rooftop, as you pointed out, is a good start, but these installations are really huge if they have any notable generating capacity. The energy required by a typical building, whether residential, commercial, or industrial, is much more than can be supplied by that building's rooftop area worth of solar.
There are off-grid designs that go to extremes to use less energy, thereby working within the parameters of onsite wind and/or solar installations, and that approach might be another way to address the problem.
We will solve these problems because we have to, when the price of fossil fuels becomes out of reach, or because they are a good idea, or a combination of both. But they will have to be solved in order for civilization to keep using energy at anywhere near the rate it currently does.
How about the methods of generation which do NOT involve creating MORE heat?
So that's, what, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric. All with their own problems, sure, but good sustainable solutions. We need more of those.
Solar doesn't create more heat, but it captures and keeps earthbound more solar heat than would have been, so it's probably a net of the same thing.
But if clean nuclear were possible, I wouldn't be against using lots and lots of water to cool it. Heck we could use some of that heat for desalination in a double bonus configuration.