http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/4/21/17933/8186/#comment17

This just in.  Wind/wave power stations offshore that supply freshwater refined from ocean water by reverse osmosis pumps.

This could irrigate land in dry areas like the US southwest.  wind/wave electric powered pumps could reverse the usual flow of water from rivers into southern California's ag zones, providing water that is pumped inland, even as far as Arizona.

The vegetation enabled by this irrigation with refined sea water could sequester CO2 and provide huge amounts of water vapor. The resulting clouds reflect more sunlight. Just as rain forest in tropical zones produce extra clouds.

The double effect of more reflected sunlight from clouds and CO2 absorption by plants on the irrigated land provides the necessary cooling. A lot of areas like this exist across the planet.  In Africa and the middle east where food and clean water and energy production would create much needed jobs.  Now these regions are increasingly  drought stricken by global climate change from GHGs.

Stop the presses.  Branson, cough up the dough. These maybe the devices his 25 million dollar contest is looking for?

Oil rich nations even have the cash that would be better invested in this technology than the war machinery and jihad they now fund.

Coal state senators have blocked any effort at replacing it.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/4/21/103119/172#3

Switch that power plant to solid oxide fuel cell/turbine running on biogas from waste.  Plenty of that from bribery business as usual in the US government.  All the wasted food alone from 500 dollar lobbyist  funded lunches would do it.

And put a floating wind/wave power installation offshore to provide most off the power the coal used to.

That would be radical.

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/04/usa_today_had_a.html

Wave power is steadier than wind, river power is even better.

As hydroelectric dams come down and river current power comes on strong, what percentage of electric power will come from water power?

I think it will be 25%.  Another 25% from large wind power installations offshore and in high wind areas like the great plains.  The rest form conservation ( geothermal heating/cooling, direct solar heating/cooling, super efficient appliances, tvs, computers, ultra-efficient vehicles, mass transit and telecommunting for work, robotic organic agriculture)  and distributed renewable generation from rooftop solar, biomass to biogas, and small to medium local wind power.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/4/10/114819/769#9

Look for solid oxide fuel cell/turbofan plugin hybrid airplanes real soon.

The thing is that getting into the air takes a lot of power, cruising not as much.  Given a few more generations of batteries their weight will approach the weight of liquid fuel, for the equivalent amount of energy.

A hybrid turbofan engine would cruise on battery power.  The takeoff would use liquid fuel through solid oxide fuel cells that would generate electricity directly to power the hybrid turbofan.  That liquid fuel could be biodiesel from algae growen in solar collectors, almost pure solar fuel.

Then the very hot exhaust gases from the solid oxide fuel cell would provide additional power by expanding through the turbine in the turbofan engine.  This would yield very high efficiency, several times the efficiency of a normal turbofan aircraft engine.  On   biodiesel from algae grown in solar collectors, almost pure solar fuel.

When the aircraft got to cruising altitude the batteries, previously charged on the ground from renewable energy, would take over. 

Solar panels on the wings?  Still too heavy for actual passenger airliners, but who knows? 

Maybe with an almost lighter than air helium filled silicon bubble aircraft that uses solar heat to climb then glides/flys to it's destination on direct solar electric power?  By designing solar concentrators into the structure, solar cells could be 1/10nth the size and weight and operate at 39% efficiency.  This efficiency with concentration has been proven at the National Renewable Energy Labratory.

A lighter than air foam made from helium filled silicon bubbles has already been developed too.  And this silicon compound is extremely strong.

More cool solar flying!

http://www.blazingwings.org/entry/top-12-solar-powered-aircrafts/

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/4/8/23958/11859#14

As seen on the video of the incident, aired on "Count Down", duuhbya did not go for the hydrogen tank with the electric cord.  The Ford CEO did not rescue anyone.

Why did the Ford CEO "exaggerate" the incident?  Because he doesn't support the hydrogen plugin hybrid?  And wanted to create an incident that exposed the impracticality of consumers with the skill level of duuhbya filling up a car with hydrogen?

Or did he actually believe an extension cord could be plugged into a hydrogen tank?  That would mean he knew as much about his own company's product as duuhbya does.

Either way Ford needs a new CEO.  And a new board (they chose this CEO).  But that has been obvious for decades.  Does the buck stop nowhere in corporate america?

Metal hydride storage for hydrogen is actually a pretty good technology.  But of course batteries are still better than hydrogen fuel cells.  In total efficiency and overall safety.

Even with metal hydride there is still the huge problem of 3000 psi gas hoses, with "failsafe" triple backed up computer chip safety systems that only let the hydrogen flow when  the fuel nozzle is securely connected to the fuel tank in the car.

A 3000 psi hose with hydrogen coming out of it would whip through the air killing anyone if it hit them in the head.  Then the hydrogen might explode.

A serial plugin hybrid with a 25 mile range (that takes around 1000 dollars worth of batteries) will plugin safely to any extension cord and the backup generator will run on any liquid fuel from a normal gas station.  It will average 10 times the mileage of a normal car and last for 500,000 miles.  

If all vehicles had this drivetrain oil would last 10 times longer, enough time to develop better batteries that need no backup.

This technology is available to ford, gM, chrysler, toyota, honda, Subaru and every other automaker right now.  And would be even cheaper with mass production.  No dangerous, astronomically expensive, uninsurable  3000 psi gas stations needed.  NASA even has trouble filling up with hydrogen.

Now do you see why I think the ford CEO created this "incident" to discredit plugin hybrids?  10% of present oil consumption in vehicles would be very bad for the oil business. 

This car salesman masquerading as a CEO does not even realize that every vehicle ford Produces would run just fine with a serial plugin hybrid drivetrain.  All he knows is that these alternatives threaten gas guzzling as usual, and that is a threat to his kind. Never mind that a switch to serial plugin hybrid could save any auto company, even Ford.

These wing nuts would rather bankrupt their companies and the US economy than turn on the cause of gas guzzling.  It's the american way.  Vrooooom!

Cutting through the mass delusional media spin.  Someone needed to do it.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/4/5/214155/1020#8

Regular rail is great for freight, but not people.

Light rail is the ticket for people moving.  Put it in tubes and power it with renewable electric power.  It can go faster in a tube.  No cows, deer, or cars on the tracks.  The tracks can be electrified with no short circuting due to rain.

No ice or snow on the tracks.  Tracks on the sides and top of the tube for a tri-rail stability.  It could beat airplanes as far as speed over a lot longer range.  Could it beat the French train?  No doubt, and in a safe manner.

The tubes can go under roads and buildings and other obstacles.  Have the tubes in pairs, one for each direction, buried in the freeway median for instance.

Smaller trains from local areas could link up into larger ones for cross country travel.  Companies could lease their own train cars.   Just like they do jets.  Light rail stations could be like miniature airports, sized to fit the market, just like airports are.

With broadband inside the tubes the passengers would be connected.  For work or entertainment.

As local cars joined long distance trains the passengers would have access to food and sleeping cars.

Come to think of it, why not move some of the other cargo now sent by air in tubular trains?  Persihable foods, mail, fedex, and UPS stuff.  Regular rail can haul the heavy freight.  This would help the light rail pay its way.  As it helps air travel.  The first commercial airplanes carried mail.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=The%20Evil%20Lord%20Cheney%20Of%20Halliburton&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

Pure evil.  No redeeming qualities whatsoever.