Surprisingly enough China is pretty forward thinking, they are in the process of building a rather large wind turbine, not the normal run of the mill one, one thats being built to last a couple of hundred years. It's called a maglev turbine, sucker is HUGE
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/11/26/super-powered-magnetic-wind-turbine-maglev/ I like what I am reading about it, no parts to wear out and pretty cool but then Japan has been playing with maglev super trains for a while now.
WE have well over 20 million unemployed. Thats a pretty big workforce, now how about we take $100 BILLION bucks that they are giving away for executive bonuses, build 2 or more solar cell manufacturing plants in every state to manufacture solar panels and solar shingles, then set a goal of replacing every shingled roof with solar shingles, sure they are inefficient but no more inefficient than an internal combustion engine in your cars, 50 million homes which is a conservative number, putting out 2-3KW with a medium sized array would put about 8-10 million people back to work manufacturing, selling, installing and servicing those installations, that does not even count all the commercial buildings. The closed automotive and idle automotive plants could provide the buildings to do the production.
Until hydrogen fuel cells come down in price and make them practical in automotive use thats the only real practical thing we can do RIGHT NOW.
Coming down the pike right now is what are we going to do with all those hybrid battery packs that are going to start dying in another 3 years, it's a toss up as to which is less dangerous, recycling batteries or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, they are both pretty nasty environmentally wise.
I just see the solar solution as a pretty quick and simple solution to a problem and it could work pretty fast not to mention the companies that manufacture the machines to produce the cells, they would also have to ramp up production of the machines to make the machines, it would have a cascade effect, a win win situation.
There are better, and a wider array of options out there other than just solar cells, but you have the right idea. The founders of Google are behind a private company that is ramping up production of a proven, new thin solar cell product that is printed on a special printing press, at a production cost of 3% of silicon solar cells.
It is Nanosolar, in California. (Previously won 2 USDOE R & D grants, you tax money at work, and Goolgle founders tax money at work!!!!!
http://www.google.com/search?q="goo...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
China has been working on a mini, mass producible nuclear power plants, called a pebble bed reactor, that could be used in every home. China is also making major commitments to switch from building any new coal fired plants to building new nuclear power plants. And they are making major infrastructure changes to enable and accelerate a switch from coal power to natural gas powered power plants. Coal is about 10 times worse (I forget the exact number), than natural gas when burned as far as CO2 emissions are concerned.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ina+nuclear+reactors+pebble+bed&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/china.htm
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf63.html
http://www.physorg.com/news145561984.html
Wind....., geothermal, hydroelectric Dams, offshore water wave (under water currents, flows, power plants, etc., Here are some of the new energy tech stocks I already own that I hope will replace stocks like Exxon someday.
AXPW (new US technology that is breathing new life into lead acid battery technology, uses a new carbon electrodes and converts old lead acid battery tech into an ass kicker battery tech that leaves lithium ion in the dust). Oh and China and Japan control something like 90 % of the worlds lithium supply. Previously funded by the USDOE! Batteries are one way of storing wind, and other solar power for peak loads when the wind is not blowing, or the sun is not shining.
APWR (building next generation power plants, and building waste food/organic scrap digesters that produce natural gas and feed natural gas power plants. The design and build the digesters and the power plants)
COIN - They collect waste food (spoiled) and convert it into organic fertilizer with a high tech energy efficient digester process. Does not burn the waste, so it is carbon neutral.
HTM (operating and building geothermal power plants in the USA)
CABN (they are working on commercializing a biotechnology, reactor that coverts concentrated CO2 from a power plant directly into liquid fuels)!!!!
Another very promising technology, already being deployed here is solar heat, large mirrors that track the sun in the desert, and focus the reflected sun onto a thin tube that contains a super heated fluid that is stored in bulk, and used as needed to heat water to steam for steam generator operation.
SO, Southern Energy (another stock I bought) is at the forefront of doing CO2 sequestration research in a DOE partially funded, SO and other companies partially funded, co-op R & D effort to evaluate coal fired power plant CO2 capture and sequestration options.