Don:

Sounds interesting. I'm curious of a couple of things. There are movements for windmill farms in several areas I'm familiar with. There are environmentalists who insist it is dangerous for various species of birds, in particular, raptors.

I went online and the figures I saw for Denmark showed currently 15% actual, 20% normalized (not 32%) of Denmark's energy from windpower. It was a wind-energy site so even if they were not on track they were on the high side. That figure alone is effin' awesome. The 50% figure is an aggressive target for the year 2025.

Danish Windpower

I really really doubt that there is a useful electric car that can go 500 miles on charge alone. It would need a massive capacitor bank to recover all its braking action or a massive battery, or both. The most efficient locomotion going is railroads, bicycles, and hybrids.

The use of cooling water from generation plants (it's actually very hot water utilized to heat nearby buildings) is increasingly common in the US and industrialized world. It's called cogeneration. It uses what would normally be a waste product, heat created by generation facilities. To make it work calls for generation plants to be located near a major energy user which also has heating needs. It's been used in several Alaska locations to good effect.

And as I said in an earlier post, what is required to motivate this kind of progress? $$. Denmark generates the bulk of their power from imported coal. So it is the almighty kroner which is driving their very impressive efficiency.

I can't remember that SF author with the comment about wasting crude by burning it. I heard it long ago and believed it until I actually got to work in a refinery. Crude is a natural product. When it is refined it is broken out into various products of varying volatilities, some of which are sold to be burned, others which are turned into chemicals and solids. So when you are burning gasoline you are burning what was a waste product until the internal combustion engine came along. A lot of plastics are made from natural gas, however, and I have no idea if that is removed from the burnable part, or if indeed you are burning potential chemical goodies when you heat your home with NG. On the other hand, it is way more efficient than heating your home from electricity that was itself generated by combustion.

But these are quibbles. The major point I'd make in cooperation with your excellent post, Don: There are more potential ways to get alternative energy and create efficienty than will really work. The government should be involved in promoting change, not telling us in advance what will work, because no one really knows. A tax on consumption would be helpful. A big handout to GM to promote their version of a fuel cell vehicle will be wasted. But given the kind of government we are experiencing, I'm afraid that that's what's going to happen.