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Can we not go there? Just because she's on the 'opposite' side of this issue shouldn't open her up to stereotyping.

You'd be comfortable with the laws creating an environment where you feel the need to carry your passport while your fellow US citizens of paler complexions do not feel the same need? If that's something you'd be ok with it, I guess there's really not much else to discuss, is there.

Bearings have friction. Less, yes, but it's still there.
There is a big difference between the amount of energy required to operate a punch or a car and the amount of energy required to be a significant portion of the electricity consumption of even a small area. In any case, flywheels are not used for punches because of their efficiency as energy storage. They are used to provide a sort of charge and release function where energy is collected in the flywheel and then released all at once. The driving factor is not efficiency but rather the ability to deliver a lot of force quickly that is stored more slowly.
But how are you going to maintain the vacuum or get magnets powerful enough to hold a flywheel large enough to make a difference?
The main problem with the flywheel approach is that it simply has a disconnect with the scope of power distribution. In order to store even 1 Megawatt-hour, you would need a flywheel 20 meters in diameter that weighs 13 metric tonnes (with the weight all on the perimeter of the flywheel to simplify calculations), rotating at a dizzying speed of 1000 rpm. And a megawatt hour is hardly a dent in power generation. A large city consumes thousands of megawatts, so we're talking a small fraction of the energy that a city uses in an hour.
The energy stored goes up as the square of the rotational speed and proportional to the weight of the flywheel as long as it is stored in the perimeter of the wheel. But friction also increase dramatically as speed increases.
I think you would have much better success solving this problem by investing in transmission infrastructure. We don't have surplus power everywhere. If we could get it where we need it, the problem would be solved. Building more power lines is much more efficient and cost effective than gigantic fly wheels would be.

There is always a loss of some energy when we try to store energy... the loss due tofriction could be small compared to other alternatives...
The pumping water to use as a hydraulic storage method is a great idea.... its a shame we could not come up with a similar concept pumping seawater to an inland basin and if there were that much leftover energy it could be used to desalinate some of the salt water...

I have seen a lot of designs for storing kinetic energy as potential energy. Besides flywheels, there are accumulators to store liquids under pressure, and another possibility was using long vertical mine shafts. If you think friction is too big a culprit to allow you to store the energy long enough, you can always build the thing in space, and beam the energy back and forth using microwaves, or just build the solar array in space period.
For earth bound systems, if the flywheel is big enough, then air friction would be less of a factor in relation to the mass. A lot depends just how long you have to store the energy. I have seen flywheel prototype vehicles that could hold a usable charge for hours.
I am thinking that storage dams and pumping may not be feasible in many areas, for instance California, where water use and land use are in constant competition among the various users, environmental concerns set aside. Hydroelectric plants have already been closed down in may area for concerns over the impact to Coho Salmon.

A flywheel in a vaccuum chamber using magnetic bearings would be almost perfect I would think....

What friction? Ever heard of bearings? Anyways, flywheels are used in industry all the time to store energy slowly that is needed to be delivered quickly, such as in punches and shears. Even your car uses a flywheel to store energy.

Millions were inoculated and the flu season ended.

This was a great post until you mentioned flywheels. Do you really think that is a good way to store energy? Unfortunately, friction says no.

I have good reason to believe things are getting better too, I have often believed the natural up cycle would begin and I hope this is it.

You might want to try an English lesson yourself. Just saying.

If you can find a way to store all the excess energy, which is, unfortunately, a draw back for both wind and solar, requiring some sort of back-up energy source. Some sort of potential energy storage is probably the answer, like flywheels, for instance.

Prop 16 in California is a fine example:
(from California’s Prop 16 is Worst Measure on June Ballot)
Prop 16 – a thinly veiled power grab by PG&E to shut down competition to keeps its monopoly. As more California cities consider providing their own energy through Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), PG&E feels threatened that consumers will finally have a choice. Prop 16 would require that local governments get a two-thirds vote of the electorate before entering into CCA agreements – efforts that PG&E will surely throw millions into defeating. Ironically, Prop 16 only needs a bare majority to pass – to mandate a two-thirds threshold before consumers can quit PG&E. And while CCA efforts would then face impossible odds at prevailing, it’s not like PG&E needs two-thirds approval before it becomes your energy provider. Just like health insurance companies fear the “public option” because it would keep them honest, PG&E is bankrolling the Prop 16 campaign to block competition. And with an expected conservative voter turnout in June, Prop 16 could very well pass.

I agree.
Some would rather create artificial energy shortages (along the lines of the brownouts in California, thanks to profit gouging by Enron) if it means corporations make money, than actually have people in general pay less for energy than they are now.
I imagine these are the same people (can these soulless cretins really be called 'people'?) who would rather protect UHC profits than sick people.

Frankly, producing more power than we need sounds like a good problem to have (for everybody but the investors of said power companies).

Frankly, producing more power than we need sounds like a good problem to have (for everybody but the investors of said power companies).

One solution is more investment in transmission systems to move power from northern Germany wind farms to heavy industry in the south, he said. “Power transmission is the bottleneck.”
....
I just watched a program on California's wind power. The power generated is connected to the Western Grid, which serves 11 states as well as Canada and Mexico.

That's why public utilities, IMO, are the way to go.

It was ruined by the likes of people like you.

Apparently the best way to hire and retain good teachers is to pay them peanuts, treat them like #######, show them little to no support or respect, always take the child's word over theirs and inevitably fire their azzes.

29 Feb? Of which year? We haven't had a leap-year since 2008.

most cops are dicks with ears...

Do what they did to the railroad workers, take all the remaining pension funds and buy into SSI. Screw 'em.