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Saturday, March 31
Biodiesel from algae in solar collectors, over 10,000 gallons per acre per year.
by
amazngdrx
on Sat 31 Mar 2007 06:42 PM CDT
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/30/174742/372#9
Algae has its place
But the first big step ought to be plugin hybrids charged up with renewable electricity, mainly from large scale wind.
Then distributed solar and small and medium scale wind. And then the upgrade of the national grid with a high voltage DC system for balancing and eventually storing renewable power.
With plugin hybrid drivetrains liquid fuel use can be reduced to 10% of present requirements. Oil will then drop in price, rendering fuel farming bankrupt.
By the time domestic oil supplies run out at that lower rate of use (maybe 20 years), algae biodiesel combined with even better batteries that further reduce liquid fuel use, can step in to replace oil completely.
Work on algae, but build out large scale wind and mass production and conversion of vehicles to plugin hybrid immediately. These are the victory ships, jeeps, and bombers to win this world war against global climate disaster.
Stop subsidies for fuel farming now and divert those funds to these first necessary steps. Fuel farming is merely an effort to buy farm state votes with their own tax dollars.
Tax dollars wasted to boost the profits of agribizz corporations who kick back 1 dollar in campaign "contributions" for every 1000 tax dollars stolen (an aproximation of the usual ratio, halliburton is more like 100,000 stolen to 1 dollar in bribery).
Friday, March 30
Mirror neurons.
by
amazngdrx
on Fri 30 Mar 2007 07:22 AM CDT
http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/70/Double_the_Joy_Half_the_Sorrow_Neuroscience_Friendship.html
Scientific evidence of the mechanism of empathy, that basis for all civilization. All human progress. Now please let us all look in the same mirror, at all life everywhere on spaceship earth.
Economic health cost of GHG disaster.
by
amazngdrx
on Fri 30 Mar 2007 07:13 AM CDT
Too expensive to continue GHG disaster. Increased storm damage has already cost trillions in economic activity.
http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/70/Economists_Get_Stern_Warning.html
The administration solution? Hire halliburton type contractors to adapt to it. No problem, tax dollars will be doled out, campaign "contribution" kickbacks received. Bid (no bid) ness as usual.
Tuesday, March 27
Corporate military industrial utilitarianism
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 27 Mar 2007 09:03 PM CDT
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/26/152849/926/#7
The greatest good for the greatest number of shareholders? Or the greatest good for the greatest number of organisms on planet earth?
Of course, under corporate utilitarianism, the rest of the symbiotic ecosystem is there to serve human kind, none of those lesser entities figure into the utilitarian equation. Plankton and blue whales are not shareholders, screw 'em.
Quantity or quality? Hidden within utilitarian arguments is the mother earth killing concept of unlimited growth. Greatest good for the greatest number? Simply increase the numbers of humans, then maintain them at an adequate level of goodness.
For example: Let human population growth, steered by commercial and military concerns, proceed unchecked. When people suffer, claim that their suffering is due to a lack of DDT, or genetically engineered crops, or unregulated corporate expansion.
Blame the suffering on environmentalists, instead of the lack of reproductive rights for women, that caused the over population.
Make environmentalists look like a force for genocide in under developed areas. Unlimited growth, for human population and corporate profits. The greatest good for the greatest number.
On the other hand we have the spiritual/ethical sense informed by empathy. That sense that comes directly into us by natural example. The basis for all civilization. Empathy, symbiosis, quality of life.
Over quantity, over unlimited growth, over perpetual war and tyranny. The four horsemen ride over the land on horses made from corporate utilitarianism.
Monday, March 26
Faithbased morons. "Breath holes plugged with mud"
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 26 Mar 2007 10:12 AM CDT
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/23/125844/341#14
The 30% of faithbasers who are still proud of voting for a shaved ape?
We will never convince them, nor do we need them. Forget 'em, they are too stupid to live.
In a pre-nanny state, freemarketeerian frontier culture they would not survive. "Their breath-holes would get plugged with mud" (National Lampoon).
Like "Aunt Baby" (Seinfeld), they would not make it.
Illustrious NYT contributor notices something interesting!
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 26 Mar 2007 09:43 AM CDT
The question of climate change has finally moved on from is it happening? to what should we do about it?.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/24/2258/58671#1
If you had read some of the entries here and on related blogs, you would realize many of us have already moved on to solutions.
We actually advocate for specific technologies and economic and political strategies to get the job done. Just thought you main stream media-ites might want to know that.
Illustrious entities such as Hillary and Canada have employed one of them. Cutting subsidies for fossil fuel corporations and diverting the savings to tax credits for consumers who put part of their disposable income into renewable energy and conservation.
Raising taxes is political suicide. Trading carbon indulgencies doesn't seem to be cutting GHGs.
Wind energy stored as compressed air. Excellent technology.
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 26 Mar 2007 09:02 AM CDT
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/03/dispatchable_wi.html#comment-64391274
Excellent technology! My take on this principle is to run a power shaft to the ground and directly power a generator when the grid can accept the power.
By transporting the mechanical energy to the base of the machine various generators and pumps can harvest the power. It lowers the weight at the top of the tower, drastically cutting the cost of the machine. And boosts the power output, lowering the cost per kwh for the device.
When excess wind power is available power the compressor to store the energy for later recovery. It combines the less efficient energy obtained from the storage feature with the efficiency of direct to grid electricity production.
Heat pumps or water pumps, as well as compressors, can also be used to store the excess wind energy. For instance, heat pumps could be used for industrial distillation, then the excess energy is stored in the distillation product.
Thursday, March 22
Wind power and a high voltage DC grid. Cheapest, cleanest electric power.
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 22 Mar 2007 08:16 AM CDT
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/12/63111/0928#31
The HVDC grid is very important. I think that high voltage capacitors, either built into the power lines or in separate facilities along the grid, would provide enough storage.
And then there is distributed generation from biogas digestion used in solid oxide fuel cell/turbines for backup power. The methane release prevented, waste water recycled, and organic fertilizer produced with systems like this are all great byproduct benefits.
And the fuel cells also run on natural gas. The ultimate fossil fuel backup energy supply. There is enough of this source for many decades converted underground from coal and oil.
And I think the cost of wind power will drop signifigantly with mass production and a switch to wind machines three times the size of the current largest multi-megawatt machines.
Mounted on the nearly deserted northern great plains and offshore on floating wind/wave power platforms. 50,000 of these larger scale machines could take over 25% of baseload power generation.
Conservation and distributed solar, small to medium wind, and biogas to fuel cell generation could take care of the rest, even with a massive shift to plugin vehicles.
Monday, March 19
Save the polar bears!! A crazy plan that just might work?
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 19 Mar 2007 09:24 AM CDT
Remote controlled floating polar bear rescue "islands". With satelite pictures used by volunteers to steer these platforms They could save polar bears from drowning.
A wacky idea from WW2 to build floating aircraft landing strips out of a slurry of sawdust and water, the whole thing frozen, could make frozen "islands" that would last through the arctic summer. Wind powered blowers could expand the island in winter by using very cold air to freeze more water, growing its size over the cold months.
During summer the island would melt down to it's sawdust/water base. The whole arctic could not be saved in this fashion of course. But maybe a number of floating ice islands could.
Enough to preserve the waning polar bear population until global climate disaster can be turned around? Maybe. Add a clever fish trap and the bears can be fed at least at a subsistence level too.
It's a worthy interim effort to redirect polar bears to more productive foraging and the publicity would highlight the global climate disaster and the whole area of floating renewable power generation from wind and wave power.
It's a crazy plan that would certainly capture the enthusiasm of the young and the young at heart who love wildlife. All the arctic and antarctic animals are very popular, great spokes animals against global climaste disaster! SAVE THE ICE!!!
Solar cogeneration.
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 19 Mar 2007 08:18 AM CDT
Friday, March 16
Organic design. Trees and wind machines.
by
amazngdrx
on Fri 16 Mar 2007 08:28 AM CDT
Tuesday, March 13
Halliburton flees the s(t)inking ship of state. Time to start trading the renewable energy bull market?
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 13 Mar 2007 07:40 AM CDT
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/03/atairnano_recei.html#comment-63095312
I think trading the same trends that worked in the 90s boom will work in this energy boom Jimmi.
Once the war is over and the only way to recover financially will be to reduce oil use. And the way to do that will be renewable energy and conservation.
Halliburton is spinning off KBR to limit Iraq war thieving liability. And moving to Dubai to protect from the government demanding the cash back. The biggest corpoRAT is fleeing the s(t)inking ship of state.
Almost time to fund the trading account! ALTI is a good one to watch and get a few 100 shares to get into trading mode, but the rush will be awhile down the road.
It's a thrill to wake up at 5 and check the market when the bull roars. But it will be much better this time around when the stocks you trade are saving the planet too.
Pay to get a US Attorney fired?
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 13 Mar 2007 07:11 AM CDT
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/washington/13attorneys.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
The real story behind this story?
Pay a campaign "contribution" to the GOP, Rove gets Gonzalez to fire the US attorney breathing down your neck.
Federal prosecutors who let the GOP connected slide get promoted, those who target corporate crime get fired. It's a powerful political tool for fundraising.
Business as usual for the Rove/Cheney team. And the chimp distracts by filling his diaper at press conferences with foreign leaders.
Once again, nice job voting Bush faithfilled.
And the mass delusional media helps cover it up and justify it.
Sunday, March 11
Nuclear disaster the fault of victims of those disasters?
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 11 Mar 2007 09:21 AM CDT
This is what you get along with nuclear power?
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/7/16145/25403#35
Blame the victim
"Every victim must get stoned" (paraphrasing bobby zimmerman)
Today, potential nuclear disaster victims have the options of living and working in secure, positive-pressure, HEPA-filtered, atmosphere-controlled buildings; and of placing themselves on radioprotective neutriceutical regimens. The more-widespread adoption of these precautionary measures become, the more nuclear would-be "disasters" will simply be non-events.
So any disaster is the fault of those who live near a plant? They can live and work in labratory grade hepa filtered environs? Who will pay to convert homes to this level of contamination security?
Nuclear government/industry has not even provided the minimum safety precautions, iodine pills and radiation suits for emergency personnel, firefighters, emergency medical teams, and hospitals. Thete are not even any evacuation plans!
Renewable energy installations will not force people living nearby to cower inside in hepa filtered skinner boxes like lab rats.
Keep talking buddy!! Great job fighting against nuclear power!!
Back to "Cape Wind", the debate continues.
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 11 Mar 2007 09:07 AM CDT
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/2/25/65336/7434#128
So Mass Audobon denies that they will get a contract worth millions?
Is there any proof that they will get a contract? Other than the assumption based upon the Altamont project? If funding for a monitering project went to individual scientists rather than Mass Audobon, would that cure any conflict of interest?
If not, how could monitering ever be acomplished without a conflict?
With modern GPS navigation and radar, why would Cape Wind be a navigational hazard?
Anyway, I remain in favor of moving wind power offshore out of sight and mind of NIMBYs and adding wave power to the floating platforms. planting them in the sea floor is just not a great idea. And as we have seen, it has delayed this project for a decade already.
We don't have time to litigate each offshore wind project for decades. The longer this environmental infighting continues the stronger the forces of the evil lord cheney of halliburton become.
They are assembling bribed legislators and officials to stop all offshore wind/wave power.
Long haul semis can use plugin serial hybrid technology too.
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 11 Mar 2007 08:42 AM CDT
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/03/the_need_for_bo.html#comment-62901932
Large trucks can be converted to plugin serial hybrid too. Railroad locomotives and mining equipment are serial hybrids already. They have diesel generators driving electric motors without transmissions.
For long haul trucks add induction pickups and charging lanes, that way an hour or so driving in the charge lane can recharge the batteries. Also fuel cell/turbines instead of diesel generators, 3 times more efficient.
Transitional technology to pure electric cars.
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 11 Mar 2007 08:22 AM CDT
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/10/122749/093#7
A transition to full EV is needed. Plugin serial hybrids are the perfect transition.
Present battery technology and lack of mass production make quick enough charging problematic and pure EVs very expensive.
But a 25 mile range battery pack is under 2 thousand bucks, and it will charge from a regular home electric system in a few hours. The lead acid foam battery might drop the price to 500 bucks soon!
Very efficient, light weight generators are already available at low mass production prices. And electric drivetrains replace inefficient transmissions, the battery, generator, motor combination does the job of a transmission with 25 miles of pure eV performance that will drop average gasoline consumption by 90%.
It's time to stop quibbling and back this technology with bloggerel and eventually capital. If we can get the mass delusional media to notice this technology, it may just get going. GM is paying it lipservice by touting the Volt.
That's a good start, the salesmen in the boardroom have evidently listened to some engineers. Communication, it's a good thing.
But where are Toyota and Honda? If they want to keep gaining market share they will need their own plugin serial hybrids.
And mass conversion of used cars will be needed also.
Saturday, March 10
GM "leapfrog"? Serial plugin hybrid "VOLT".
by
amazngdrx
on Sat 10 Mar 2007 07:52 AM CST
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/03/atairnano_recei.html#comment-62824560
ALTI earnings coming soon I believe?
How
low will it go? Back under 3 bucks?
Low energy density is the problem with this battery. And the quick charge option will be hard to use, not many charging stations.
It's like having a 3 meg internet hookup and the fastest download one can fine is less than 1 meg.
This is the reason that serial plugin hybrid is the better transition until battery technology improves even more. A serial plugin hybrid can charge quickly enough from many conventional sources (rather than special high amperage electric "gas" stations)because it has a much smaller battery. It only needs a 25 mile range to cover the average trip without gas.
In fact a slower charging, much cheaper lead acid foam battery would be fine for this design. Overnight charging would be ok, it wouldn't hurt the utility of the vehicle.
Charged up or not you can get in and hit the "gas", as long as the generator has enough liquid fuel. Filling up is the normal process at a gas station with the serial plugin hybrid. Except it will average over 200 mpg.
Kind of ironic that GM has announced the first mass produced serial plugin hybrid by a major automaker. The VOLT in 2010.
Maybe they decided to leapfrog Toyota and Honda as I have suggested for a year or so now? Are they reading this blog? Hehehey.
Friday, March 9
Blog Against Sexism Day, March 8!
by
amazngdrx
on Fri 09 Mar 2007 07:09 AM CST
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/8/12354/39404#7
Yes!!! Good call Kate!
Reproductive rights for women!!!
The most important environmental move for our planet!
Women in charge of population growth, one mother at a time. Trust them to make the right choice for themselves and mother earth.
The fact is that no amount of energy policy or any other reform can stave off eventual disaster with most women slaves to religious/commericial/warrior cultures that use them as baby making machines. To provide cannon fodder, cheap labor, and consumers to keep the corporate bottomline growing forever.
Until the earth rejects the human plague of vast overpopulation upon it.
Thursday, March 8
Nuclear powered Canadian tar sand processing? Use wind powered electric plasma drilling instead.
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 08 Mar 2007 07:55 AM CST
Just say NO! Canada. Do not add nuclear waste and probable disaster to the open pit mining mess in the Alberta tar sands region!
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/7/145944/8915#6
Wind power to process the tar sands makes total sense. As I have said for years. Plenty of wind up there.
Electric plasma drills bring up the crude in liquid form and leave the mess underground. No mining, no costly eco-remediation.
Hydrogen to add to the crude from electrolysis.
Normally steam is used, that means contaminating water too. Very little water use with wind powered plasma drilling.
Plus this uses capital twice. Once to setup wind machines to get the oil, twice as the oil is used up and wind machines feed the power grid instead.
Mass production of wind facilitated by this plan would lower costs and make wind our main baseload power. GHG climate change would slow and stop as wind takes over baseload.
Furthermore, plugin serial hybrids will make all the oil from every source last 10 times longer. Fuel farming will be history.
Wednesday, March 7
Pay up Branson, I win!
by
amazngdrx
on Wed 07 Mar 2007 07:40 AM CST
Fork over the $25 mill Branson. This thermoacoutic natural gas liquification process would liquefy CO2 also.. Once it is liquid it's very easy to sequester it.
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/03/thermoacoustic_.html#comment-62503904
Tuesday, March 6
Harvesting algae for energy production.
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 06 Mar 2007 09:10 PM CST
http://biopact.com/2007/03/harvesting-algae-blooms-from-ocean.html
Something I have talked about for awhile, capturing algae from the ocean, rivers, and lakes to get energy and remove fertilizer and manure runoff from the water.
This is an ethanol company, but I prefer biodiesel and biogas production with the residue from making the biodiesel. It also yields organic fertlizer, as well as preventing fertilizer run off from releasing methane from sediments. Cutting down a huge GHG source.
The biogas could be used as backup power for renewables, used in fuel cell/turbines at 75% efficiency. Floating biodigestors that collect and separate the biodiesel and process the rest into biogas. Powered by wind, wave, and solar power. The biogas sent ashore to fuel cell power stations.
The CO2 from the fuel cells sent back into solar collector algae systems that use it to enhance the growth of the algae. Then the cycle continues.
Friday, March 2
Why the US should abandon fuel farming.
by
amazngdrx
on Fri 02 Mar 2007 09:56 AM CST
Thursday, March 1
Trading curbs used twice!
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 01 Mar 2007 11:21 AM CST
What say you oh mighty "freemarketeeerians"?
This doesn't seem to be the kind of measures needed if your "free' markets were really free. Admit it, insider trading and manipulation are the norm on Wall Street.
The best part of this story is that the use of trading curbs went all but unoticed in the press until the second use, just today! Didn't want to cause a panic is my guess. Hehey.
Meanwhile stock touts for hedge fund scammers, like Jim Kramer, were screaming "BUYING OPPORTUNITY!"
What this all was actually designed to do was to keep the suckers in the market and even get them to buy more. Without plenty of suckers to lose money, the hedge fund folk won't make any. And they have been suffering of late. But a few are now making HUGE money by shorting into this precipitous drop. (Gotta support those wives, ex-wives and kids, and mistresses!!)
With a virtual news blackout on the serious step of imposing trading curbs, the public was not alerted to get their assets into safer places. that's the norm for inside, unregulated hedge fund traders and mass delusional media acting in concert.
Good news for small traders though. All the trading limits are off now. You can get an account to trade anything with hardly any cash or assets to back it up. No experience required, the rats need your cash again! After dissing you with huge obstacles after the 90s bubble burst was blamed on the little guys unsophisticated trading style.
Trading firm and Wall Street lobbyists decided that since funds from small traders had dried up due to obvious corruption, it was time to tell the crooked legislators and regulators they bought and payed for to deregulate? That's my guess.
The bottomline is: All these problems were supposed to be cured by busting the ring leader of Wall street insider trading!! The evil ..gasp!... Martha Stewart!!!
The Evil Lord Cheney Of Halliburton
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 01 Mar 2007 12:54 AM CST
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=The+Evil+Lord+Cheney+Of+Halliburton&btnG=Google+Search
I'm pretty proud of this, my erntries on "The Evil Lord Cheney Of Halliburton" are number one and two on google.
I expect this will be number three.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/2/25/65336/7434/#comment101
Yes the rumor is true, Cheney is so pure a form of evil he even got google earth to censor itself! His residence is almost the only spot on earth obscured for security reasons.
Saturday, February 24
Kelpie Wilson on Sir Richard's 25 million dollar prize.
by
amazngdrx
on Sat 24 Feb 2007 10:27 AM CST
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/2/22/17152/5926#5
The real winning "device"? Conservation land and organic farming. Mega-devices.
Prairie National Park (and windfarm). And biogas digestion to make organic fertilizer.
7 million square miles of prairie would sequester all present uS CO2. Too big?! Yes, but using organic farming and conservation land could still sequester one third. And plugin cars, wind/wave power, solar,biogas, and conservation could eliminate most of present cO2.
So the sequestration land could actually remove CO2 already in the atmosphere on a net basis.
Friday, February 23
Boeing fuel cell/microturbine backup generator.
by
amazngdrx
on Fri 23 Feb 2007 11:12 AM CST
http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2004/july/ts_sf7a.html
A precursor to fuel cell/turbine aircraft engines? The turbofan engine would be part electric motor and part turbine. Also opening up the possibility of using batteries or ultracapacitors to plugin the aircraft before a flight, producing even greater mileage gains for air travel.
Battery and ultracapacitor energy storage are theoretically approaching the energy density of liquid fuel. If/when they get close enough, hybrid plugin airliners will be possible.
This backup power device pictured in the boeing article could also make any electric car a serial plugin hybrid, just what we need to halt GHG global climate disaster. But will it ever be mass produced? Not with the auto companies now in control. Too bad.
Thursday, February 22
Energy storing high voltage direct current, buried or underwater power lines.
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 22 Feb 2007 08:12 AM CST
A new take on a very old technology is about to beat batteries all hollow in terms of energy storage density and cost. Its aimed at powering plugin cars. EEstore, a leading startup in this area is mysterious, but news that does leak out indicates maybe...
" EESU is projected to offer up to 10x the energy density (volumetric and gravimetric) of lead-acid batteries at the same cost. In addition, the ESU is projected to store up to 1.5 to 2.5 times the energy of Li-Ion batteries at 12 to 25% of the cost."
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/01/eestor_in_techn.html
Ben Franklin used one of the first capacitors, the leyden jar, in his lightning experimentation. The new ultracapacitors use a nanotech insulsating material between two metal sheets rolled up to boost this simple technology beyond the energy storage capability of batteriers.
My wild speculation is that the power transmission technology used right now, namely 500,000 volt direct current transmission, could be used for energy storage employing a nanotech ultracapacitor thousands of miles long that doubles as transmission line. Another beautiful aspect is that unlike alternating current transmission lines, that lose too much power to ground when buried or running underwater, direct current transmission does not have this loss problem.
It can be buried out of sight and mind of NIMBYs. Plus ( this is a big plus), it does not emit electromagnmetic radiation like alternating current transmission, no stray voltage. No problems with real or imagined health effects.
Using the principles of the basic physics of capacitors a rough estimate of storage available per mile of this proposed transmission/storage can be made. The ultracapacitor in development by EEstore is purported to have aproximately 2 times the electrical storage density of lithium ion batteries.
And the energy storage of a capacitor is directly proportional to voltage, the 500,000 volt ultracapacitor would store maybe 1000 times the power per area of metal plates rolled up into the device. but of course the insulator would need to be thicker for 500,000 volts operating voltage than 500 volts. The density would probably be 100 times the storage potential of the EEstore device, due to the much higher voltage. depending upon the performance of nanotech materials.
I'll use 100 times for this guesstimate. An EEstore electric car ultracapacitor could store around 70 kwh for the same size as the Altairnano li-ion plugin car battery. About 7 kwh per cubic foot. So I'm guessing around 500 kwh per foot of this transmission/storage line. Around 2.5 million kwh per mile. So in a thousand mile transmission loop that is 2.5 billion kwh.
The total power generation capacity of the US is around 1 billion kw. That would mean that 50 of these 1000 mile loops, one per state on average, would store enough electricity to power the US for 125 hours with no generation input. That would more than do the complete job of backing up renewables.
This is all wild speculation at this point. Any utility engineers have any critique of this analysis? Please be frank.
Monday, February 19
In wheel electric car. Convert your back wheels? Budget plugin hybrid.
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 19 Feb 2007 11:13 AM CST
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/mits_stackable.php#comments
The interesting part about this MIT design, at least to me, is the potential to mass produce electric plugin conversions for front wheel drive internal combustion cars.
A kit could include two of these wheel/motor combinations that bolt on in place of the regular rear wheels and a charger/controller/battery pack that goes in the trunk. Quick, economical conversion of your used economy car to plugin hybrid. The first 25 miles of your drive on battery power, before you need your gasoline engine.
That's a way to convert the world's cars to plugin hybrid without the huge expense. A 5000 dollar kit would pay it's way in only a few years of gasoline savings.
Sunday, February 18
Why click here? More corporatarian asskicking for your bloggerel reading (time)budget
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 18 Feb 2007 06:05 PM CST
I can't believe it, but thanks to Grist I am kicking the ass (rhetorically)of one of the most infamous climate disaster deniers! Robert Pielke, Jr.
Reproductive rights for women pielke? That would stop the exponential growth of human populations.
You could feed, clothe, house, and medicate everyone in poverty, but without those rights, the rise in population will make it physically impossible to continue. It's the power of compound growth.
Besides the libertarian corporate freemarketeer political faction is more interested in killing as many people in poverty with wars over oil and other resources than really helping them.
The sudden interest in the well being of those in the under developed world is really all about that infamous talking point. Your comment being simply a repitition of it. It's we environmentalists that are killing the poverty stricken by opposing unlimited growth, pollution, use of toxins like DDT, chemical agribizz, nuclear power, unregulated corporate power, genetically engineered crops, and all of your other pet causes? Right?
Check out the thread here.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/2/16/104655/313/#34
Anti-wind power wing nut talking point, "capacity factor".
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 18 Feb 2007 04:09 AM CST
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/2/16/104655/313#30
On dealing with the "capacity factor" talking point.
This is a widely used talking point against wind power. The way to deal with it is to compare kwh produced instead of capacity factors.
There is a convenient graph on the GE wind power site that provides the necessary data.
http://www.gepower.com/prod_serv/products/wind_turbines/en/36mw/36mw_data.htm
It's the "Average energy yield: 3.6 mw" graph.
Find the average windspeed for the area. For example 8.5 m/s on an offshore platform in the gulf. That would correspond to 12 million kwh for this 3.6 mw machine.
A 1.37 mw generator operating continuously for one year (8760 hours) would produce 12 million kwh.
A source that runs for 80% of the time, like a coal or nuclear plant (they have downtime for maintenance), would have to be somewhat larger, 1.71 mw.
So to equal the annual kwh output of a standard 1000 mw coal or nuclear plant would take 585 of these 3.6 mw GE machines mounted on the offshore platforms.
1000 wind machines of this size would equal the output of 1700 mw of coal or nuclear generating capacity.
To get to the 3000 mw generating capacity that was mentioned in Laurence's link would take slightly larger wind machines than the 3.6 mw GE model. The blade diameter would need to go from the 104 meters of the 3.6 mw model to around 136 meters.
Not that diificult a task given mass production and installation.
Increasing the scale of the wind machines to around 312 meters would increase the power output to equal 25,000 mw of coal or nuclear generating capacity.
Adding wave power could double that output.
Electric power equivalent to 50 nuclear reactors or coal plants from 1000 offshore wind/wave power installations. It's sci-fi now, but it doesn't have to remain so. Communications satelites were sci-fi a few decades back too.
Hurricane protection can be obtained by mounting the wind/wave power installations on floating platforms that are submersible during severe storm conditions.
The whole electric generating capacity of the US is around 1 million mw. That would take 20,000 wind/wave power systems of the 312 meter scale.
With conservation saving 40% of current power use, plugin vehicles could be supplied as well, with that same generating capacity.
A mix of offshore wind/wave power, say 5000 installations, and large scale wind on the great plains, say 10,000 units, biogas generation from manure,waste, and garbage used in fuel cell/turbines, and solar cogeneration on every suitable roof space and over parking lots, and natural gas from coal and tar sand reserves used in the same fuel cell/turbines as the fossil fuel emergency backup of last resort.
I think it's becoming clear that this really is a practical way to go.
Saturday, February 17
Beautiful. practical, natural art.
by
amazngdrx
on Sat 17 Feb 2007 11:03 AM CST
http://www.jillsfloorcloths.com/index.html
Check out the natural themes in these great paintings that can withstand the rigors of family footwork!
And check out this letter to the editor that the artist wrote:
A friend recently asked me, "What is it you Democrats want?" I had to stop and think a bit. "Well," I said, "to grow the Party, to elect Democrats, to reverse the course George Bush and company have led us on."
In November, I showed up at a Party function wearing a campaign pin to which I had affixed a picture of my grandson. I realized that I wasn't working for a particular candidate or party, so much as I was FIGHTING for this child, for all the generations to come, and more than that even, for this planet to which we all cling in fear and hope.
But to answer my friend, in concrete terms; this, in part, is what we want.
1) Fairness. Corporations and the wealthy should have to pay the same tax rate as the rest of us. They don't. Everyone knows this. It is inexcusable.
2) A health care system that includes everyone.
3) Energy independence. No more subsidies for oil companies. That money should go to innovation in alternative energy. Our idle factories could be producing wind and solar, and other systems, providing new technology and good jobs.
4) New thinking in education. Our kids aren't dropping out because they're stupid. It's because they don't believe in the future. Our society raises them to be mindless consumers instead of problem solvers. We need to challenge them, involve them, invite them to participate politically and otherwise. Education needs to be about ideas, innovation, meeting the challenges of an increasingly crowded and complicated world. Education needs to be RELEVANT.
5) A government of the people. At the very least, average citizens deserve representation equal to that the corporations enjoy. Until that happens, nothing will change. They will just keep getting away with it.
6) We need an acknowledgement from government and the private sector of our responsibility to the planet and all of its inhabitants. We must accept our part in the degradation of our world and join the many nations already working to make changes, and we need to influence those who are not, to begin to do so. This is not a political issue. It's a matter of survival.
7) We must demand a renewed commitment to international diplomacy. America must lead by example, not by bullying. We cannot afford the Neanderthal attitudes of the current occupants of the Whitehouse. NEVER AGAIN should we allow our brave troops, our sons and daughters, to be sent into harm's way on the basis of faulty information or downright lies.
8) After 9/11, George Bush asked us to keep shopping, keep traveling. For the challenges we face, we must ask more of ourselves and our leaders. During Word War II, the public sacrificed proudly. We need leadership that represents the best we can be. Until that happens, we will continue to be ignored and exploited by the scoundrels in Washington.
I will close with the words of Bob Marley, "Get up. Stand up. Stand up for your rights...."
Friday, February 16
Germans shuttering nukes and going to wind power.
by
amazngdrx
on Fri 16 Feb 2007 01:46 PM CST
Wednesday, February 14
McCain and Lieberman counsel "courage" on nuclear power.
by
amazngdrx
on Wed 14 Feb 2007 12:57 PM CST
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/2/13/17311/9218#3
"...lawmakers must also have the courage to promote safe climate-friendly nuclear energy."
Yep, that's the right word for the people who live or work near a nuclear plant. Courage!!
If there's an accident it might not be as bad as Chernobyl.
Actually a government study found that each one of over 100 "swimming pool" used nuclear fuel rod storage facilities (located at nuclear plants all over the US, some on earthquake fault lines)could release 8 to 17 times the contamination of the Chernobyl incident.
Or it might be the deadly silent (covered up by nuclear contractors/regulators)contamination in your groundwater that gets you.
Or the yellowcake dust in the air from uranium mining.
Or nuclear proliferation of weapons made possible by nuclear power plants, like those in Iran. And N Korea, and Pakistan, and on and on.
Or nuclear winter caused by nuclear weapons "exchanges" in the middle east.
Let's take the chicken's way out instead. Forget " the courage to promote safe climate-friendly nuclear energy".
Wind power, wave power, solar power, conservation, plugin vehicles.... cowardly yes. But a lot better for the planet.
Sunday, February 4
7 billion tons of CO2, current US emissions
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 04 Feb 2007 11:28 AM CST
Doom and gloom! Hard to maintain a sense of humor in the face of that figure. It would take 7 million square miles of prairie grass to sequester all that! Contrary to my optimistic estimates.
But a prairie national park and windfarm could still do the job. If plugin hybrid drivetrains took over transportation energy and conservation in the form of geothermal heat pump heating/cooling took over from standard heating and air conditioning.
Another promising source of GHG reversal is manure, sewage, garbage,and farm waste biogas digestion. It would prevent the massive amount of natural gas released by nitrogen runnoff into wetlands, rivers, and lakes. By both directly preventing the runoff and also providing organic fertilizer for farming. This would stop fossil fuel fertilizer runoff.
This whole comprehensive plan is a very tall order though. Political will to do this just does not exist at this time. I fear that only a series of natural disasters, like huge icecap melting and/or several Katrina sized hurricanes in one hurricane season would galvanize the mass media and the public into forcing politicians to actually agree to a comprehensive plan.
Right now scientists are afraid themselves. Afraid to even connect more severe storms and catastrophic ice melting with global climate change. It could very well kill their careers if they come out and tell the truth. The sad state of the IPCC report tells the tale. Intimidation and censorship have us all waiting another two years for the next report to verify what we already know.
Meanwhile the ice proceeds to melt at an exponentially increasing rate. And subsidies keep on going to fossil fuel, nuclear power, and fuel farming. With huge kickbacks to political parties to keep the status quo cash flow going.
Only two areas provide very slight hope.
First: Wind power has been given the green light from The Audobon Society (as far as danger to birds) and a recent windfarm study confirms that wind could provide most of our baseload power without a lot of expensive storage or backup power plants.
Second: there appears to be a race heating up between many automakers to produce plugin hybrid vehicles.
These provide very little hope though since the resistance to actual capital for mass production for these efforts is very strong. The really large investment funds and banks that hold very large stakes in the status quo energy systems, fossil fuel, nuclear, and now fuel farming see only financial disaster in any energy revolution.
They don't see the much larger financial disaster coming from massive global climate disaster. Bottomline corporate group think only considers the upcoming quarterly profits. So it goes. It really is a hopeless fight.
But hopeless causes are the only ones worth fightinmg for.
Friday, February 2
NYT op/ed on funding renewable energy.
by
amazngdrx
on Fri 02 Feb 2007 11:36 AM CST
Thursday, February 1
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 01 Feb 2007 07:22 AM CST
Number one in the hood G!
http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2007/02/01/aqua_teen_hunge.php
Perhaps homeland security needs to hire at least a few people who watch cartoons, maybe that would be more helpful.
These packages were attached to a bridge for WEEKS before being discovered? What does this tell US about the performance of homeland security?
Has it improved since Katrina or since that plane flew into the Manhattan building a few months ago?
How many 100 billion has Chertoff (the whitewater assistant prosecutor, great credentials to oversee homeland security?) squandered. 1.2 trillion doled out to Halliburton and friends in Iraq.
How is that going?
Better send those cartoon promotion guys to gitmo. That'll secure the homeland.
And better hope that real teens don't get the idea that pranking homeland security is just good clean (whistleblowing) fun. Exposing the sorry state of contract on america homeland security before Condi's mushroom clouds sprout.
Maybe the only way to get any of our country back from corporate kleptocracy is by waking up the public to the complete lack of any competence or honesty in the brand new homeland security agency. It's like that police "academy" in Baghdad.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092702134.html
Looks good from a satellite in geostationary orbit, but on closer inspection the whole structure has been gutted by looters and is dripping sewage. And that's the police "academy"! Imagine what the rest of the Halliburton Iraq reconstruction looks like?
Sunday, January 21
Biogas to fuel cell, now add turbines.
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 21 Jan 2007 01:07 AM CST
http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=fcel&script=412&item_id=913867
Biogas from brewery waste digestion is being used in direct fuel cells, and the waste heat is used to generate steam for the plant.
Turbines can be added to harvest the waste heat as well, generating extra power. Then the heat from the turbine exhaust can heat hot water.
By using the cO2 in the exhaust to enhance the growth of algae in solar collectors, biodisel and biomass to put back through the fuel cell can be produced. Putting all these systems together would provide liquid transportation fuel as well as a backup distributed generation source for wind, solar, and water power.
The same biogas cycle can be initiated with manure, sewage, garbage, or farm waste as well. Lots of small distributed systems at landfills, farms, sewage plants. and even skyscrapers would provide a great renewable biomass "battery" for the renewable grid.
Dig the green skyscraper with microturbines.
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/01/zero_energy_chi.html#comment-28026046
Saturday, January 13
URGE2, revolutionary energy policy!
by
amazngdrx
on Sat 13 Jan 2007 11:32 AM CST
It stands for "use renewably generated electricity, efficiently", invented by David roberts of "Grist" magazine.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/1/12/151559/034#5
Now add tax credits for using and investing in CO2 saving renwable energy, distributed storage, and conservation. Tax credits to be determined by actual CO2 savings. That way the difficulty of predicting which technologies are the best is left to science and the market place.
A pure electric plugin vehicle would get the highest tax credit, a standard hybrid the lowest, regular gas guzzlers no credit at all. Solar and wind systems would be credited by how many kwh they generate. Conservation devices like geothermal heating/cooling systems by how much CO2 or kwh they save.
Long term tax policies that we can all count on for about 10 years. Then sunset all subdsidies, because they won't be needed by then. As mass production takes hold, costs will come down and the early adopters will have payed for their solar panels, plugin hybrids, and biogas systems in energy savings and actual income.
The actual income part comes from reforming utility regulation like the Engineer pointed out is happening in your state and others. Paying for renewable distributed generation and storage so customers will invest in it.
Great bumpersticker, "URGE2"!! I'll borrow some of your language for referendum writing, if you don't mind.
Habeas Corpus? Cancelled.
by
amazngdrx
on Sat 13 Jan 2007 09:02 AM CST
A political digression on "The Energy Blog". A proud patriot hadn't heard about this? Hehey.
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/01/catching_up.html#comment-27687090
Ever hear of habeus corpus? The Bush administration canceled it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus
They kidnapped a Canadian citizen from a NYC airport where he was changing planes. They took him to Syria where he was tortured for months. He is now suing.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050214fa_fact6?050214fa_fact6
Point taken Harvey, the US constitution has been effectively suspended since the 2000 "appointment" fiasco. this administration does not represent anything "decent" and certainly not any kind of "democracy".
Tuesday, December 26
Victory! Audubon endorses wind power!!
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 26 Dec 2006 09:11 AM CST
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/12/audubon_society.html#comment-26959488
We win! Game over dood!
And this seals the deal! 95% of our power from wind? Yep.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/12/17/212637/60
With almost no backup power! It's due to the fact that the wind is always blowing somewhere. Nature's own design, creative chaos! Go with the flow. Wind wins hands down for clean, cheap, easy to use power.
Backed up with water power that harvests power all the way down a river with no dams, no propellers. Stay tuned!! (more on this as it develops...)
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http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/03/solarmission_so.html#comment-63664110
I think solar cogeneration is the best technology. Use trough concentration to boost solar PV to 40% efficiency, this happens at only 10 suns.
Then collect the heat for heating/cooling or to run a turbine generator on refrigerant.
I think road surface solar is better with heat tubing running through the asphalt. The heat collected could be used to run turbine generators. The efficiency would be less than cogeneration, but considering the huge road surface available it would still be a huge source of power.
The space on rooftops alone would provide more than enough power in sunny climes, a survey of San Diego rooftop solar locations proves it. Adding space over parking areas would power all serial plugin hybrids even if every internal combustion vehicle were converted.
Mass production of concentrating solar cogeneration would bring the cost down right around the current cost of wind power. The increased efficiency and the fact that only about 1/8th the amount of solar PV cells would be needed to provide twice the power compared to flat plate PV cells does the cost reduction.
Not to mention using the waste heat too. Total efficiency of electricity and heat collection could get up around 70% with this technology.
Then there is the other cogeneration element of algae grown in solar collectors, it sequesters cO2, produces biodiesel and powdered cellulose biofuel (that runs in solid oxide fuel cell/turbines), and recycles and cleans waste water. This can be combined with concentrating solar PV. the whole system mouted on rooftops or over parking lots.
Solar furnaces systems that concentrate sunlight with fields of mirrors can be used for manufacturing and recycling, with the waste heat stored in the molten silicon, glass, or metal (for instance) driving turbine generators to provide grid power after the sun goes down. molten heat storage salt or wax could be added to extend the power generation all night long. Another form of solar cogeneration.