Posted on 05/17/2011 4:52:49 AM PDT by Normandy
Here are some key facts about Ampenergo , the private US company that has signed an agreement with Andrea Rossi’s Leonardo Corporation to commercialize his E-Cat technology, gathered from the recent NyTeknik interview with Craig Cassarino, Vice President of Ampenergo. Ampenergo will be selling E-Cat licenses and products, and in return will receive a portion of the royalties therefrom. Ampenergo has paid Leonardo Corporation an undisclosed amount of money as part of their agreement with him.
(Excerpt) Read more at e-catworld.com ...
Ping
Ampenergo will not initially be marketing home heating installations
and
The first products are projected to be available by late fall of this year or early next year. The first product is likely to be a 1 MW plant for heating or power generation.
I would think scammers would target the easiest audience (gullible individuals), and the small size/capacity of individual demo E-cats would support such a direction. Instead they are going with larger installations presumably for industrial/commercial operation.
They seem aggressive about the timing too, if they are serious about taking orders by the end of the year (I'll be really impressed if they are delivering within that timeframe). No sign of slippage in schedules, which is one of the key things I'm looking for as evidence that the E-cat is something less than it is purported to be. Interesting.
http://www.exportnh.org/nh-commercial-consuls.aspx
Hmmm... the bio link confirms this is the same Craig - at the end it affiliates him with Leonardo Corp. Seems to be a legit businessman.
Hmm, lots of other interesting details at the E-cat World link. $100 estimated for a 6 month charge of an E-cat running at 2.5 kW. A possible 2nd 1 MW reactor running in the US by November, and E-cats available for independent testing at the University of Bologna and University of Uppsala in the same timeframe.
http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/energi_miljo/energi/article3179019.ece
Beat me by three minutes ping.
I think these guys are on target with their approach. Rossi’s prototypes are very much the kind of relatively crude “engineering prototype platforms” I saw so often when I worked at “ye humongous chemical company”. Definitely needs lots of engineering yet.
ping....might be of interest...don’t know much about it myself.
2.5kW * 24 hrs * 182.5 days = 10,950 kWh for $100, or 0.9 cents per kWh, which is pretty good. And prices should go down as the technology gets improved, manufacturing gets sorted out, and economies of scale kick in.
If it works (still an if), it would be cost-effective enough to displace all other forms of power generation for new plants, and also be cost effective to retrofit existing plants.
Once 1MW is stable, they should work on 100MW class. (Utility-scale power turbine/generators are in the 50 to 600MW class. Larger power plants generally use multiple 600MW turbines)
The device reportedly occasionally emits small amounts of gamma, and needs shielding. Residential use will not happen for a while until it is proven safe for unattended home use.
If it needs an attendant to monitor it, then it needs to be industrial-scale (minimum multi-MW) for it to be cost-justifiable. This is a good sign, because trying to scam major corporations on something like this is not something a flim-flam guy would try.
Rats, yes, gamma radiation would be a problem for home use. I would expect the gov’t to basically outlaw home installation (and use in motor vehicles, etc.) if there is a gamma radiation risk, and with some justification. I wonder if the design can be refined and fail-safed to ensure that gamma radiation cannot be produced? Let’s hope so.
Put enough lead around it and it will be safe enough. Home use is not going to happen for at least a decade, until people get used to it and it's had some years to build a safety record in commercial and industrial use.
True enough. In which case we should be investing in lead, not nickel, to take advantage of the expected E-cat boom. ;-)
Not necessarily. It depends on what energy and "how much". There are various levels of "license" for nuclear materials. The lowest one is "general public license", which is the amount that anyone can buy and own. No training or significant safety precautions required. You can buy commercial sources all day at these levels.
"I wonder if the design can be refined and fail-safed to ensure that gamma radiation cannot be produced? Let’s hope so."
Not really necessary. Shielding is a real possibility, certainly for home power generation use. "For the most part" regulations are "mostly" science-based (unless some green idiot gets a media crusade going).
But once the physics community gets over having their noses put out of joint at all their pet theories being overthrown (and IMNSHO, physics is LONG overdue for this kind of thing), I think a lot will be clarified.
Concrete and packed soil also work, and are cheaper than lead. It depends on how much gamma is emitted. If it’s a few photons per hour, no big deal.
Or you could build it inside a "big" tank of water. Water from the tank serves as house hot water system. Think of LLOOONNNNNGGG showers!!!
>>And prices should go down..<<
I expect costs to go up as governments start adding in their taxes in an effort to balance their defective budgets.
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