[TML] [Merchant Shipping] Some ideas I came up with to make merchant shipping more interesing

[Bruce Johnson]

On Apr 14, 2008, at 8:09 PM, Jerry W Barrington wrote:
> On 4/14/08 10:10 PM, "Timothy Little" <tim at little-possums.net> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 04:36:32AM -0400, Tom B wrote:
>>> There are still scale efficiencies.
>>
>> A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the cost of
>> maintaining a power grid between towns (or suburbs, in a larger city)
>> would probably exceed the cost of local generation even if the larger
>> power plant was *free*.
>
> Then why do we use centralized systems?  At least in part, because  
> people
> can't afford to run their own systems.

Actually not really. It's largely because economies of scale play a  
large part in the cost of electrical generation, or that the location  
is irrevocably fixed (can't easily decentralize hydro, for example)

> When it breaks, and it will,
> replacement cost is high (as measured by the individual) and  
> immediate.

Not of you lease the thing from the electric company. The primary  
consideration keeping such decentralization low is the actual ongoing  
cost of generating the electricity.

Some means of doing this (houisehold solar, houshold wind ) are going  
to become far more price-competitive as petroleum prices continue to  
climb.

-- 
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs