Posted on 06/04/2010 7:39:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
On Morning Joe this morning, Joe was going on and on about how we have to use alternative energy sources and that the president should order a 45 mpg CAFE. Most Americans don’t want to drive those little “Smart” cars. I know I don’t. This is a very good article. Thanks for posting.
He misses only one thing. Solar One, the tower thermal-based solar power plant, had a liquid sodium storage mechanism to provide power 24/7.
I still say we go nuclear as the stabilizer, with solar, wind and anything else to provide peak.
I’ll drive an electric car if :
1) The price can be brought down to the level of an ordinary sedan (e.g. Toyota Camry ).
2) If the infrastructure is in place similar to our gas stations for me to refill the juice the car needs.
3) If I don’t have to wait 8 hours every day to recharge my car.
4) if the maintenance cost is similar to or less than the ordinary petrol driven car.
Give me that technology and I’ll consider the electric car but not until.
Good article - thanks for posting.
The few times that I’ve seen windmill farms, most of them weren’t turning. Oops.
Michigan is a beautiful microcosm of the problems with renew ables.
First we have the legislature forcing electric and gas producers to reduce output.
Then we have the state refusing to grant permits to clean coal plants citing a lack of demand for the energy they would produce.
While we’re refusing the clean coal fired plants, we’re giving permits for wind farms despite the lack of demand that prevents the coal fired plants.
The wind farms are all at the low end of the 1 to 7 potential energy scale that the state has adopted.
Meanwhile we have some 300 unused dams in Michigan. Many of those could probably be fitted with turbines to produce energy to feed into the grid. They wouldn’t be huge producers but they would help. Instead we’re tearing the dams out as fast as we can.
Basically it all comes down to being forced to use wind at a much higher cost.
Very good article!!
Even an idiot like me could understand it!
And those are the small turbines. Not far from where I live there are windfarms with the larger 1.5Mw units - they provide power for Dallas which is over 300 miles away. Meanwhile, the city in which I live is powered by natural gas plants which are inside the city limits.
Let’s see that is 40 watts a square foot never happen!
Just the mining of iron ore for the steel, the mining of the rare earths for the generators in the turbines, and the petroleum-based lubricating oil inside the gearbox, the occasional blade falling off, or transmission lines catching fire on the prairies...
One suggestion for “storage” a teacher made to our class was to build reservoirs and pump water “up” to them during off peak hours using the excess power from windmills, solar, etc. During peak hours, the water can be used for hydroelectric power. Conversion efficiency is an issue, but if the power is just going to be wasted anyways... and of course it shares the hydroelectric issues.
Those clouds are water vapor.....the predominant greenhouse gas
My local nuke plant doesn’t use a cooling tower.
It has a warm water outflow that is friggin AWESOME for fishing, though.
http://www.greencar.com/articles/smart-car-offers-drivers-new-high-mpg-option-top-crash-rating.php
I’m surprised they did well in crash tests. Still, I wouldn’t want to drive one. I prefer SUVs or at least larger sedans. And as you said, not practical at all for families with kids.
That they are. Even from non-nuke plants. The LILCO plant in Northport LI provided me with great fishing throughout the winters when I lived in NY.
Currently gasoline and diesel are the preferred method. Ethanol and LP have some popularity. But a common problem they all have is that the method of converting the energy to usable power is horribly inefficient (the most efficient reciprocating engine in the world, a diesel ship engine, is around 50% efficient).
Electric as the final drive is extremely efficient (over 90% IIRC). It also has multiple methods of portability for its energy source. Batteries are the most famous, but I don't think battery power is going to get good enough and cheap enough any time soon.
Honda has been running some full-size hydrogen cars in California for a while in a limited release, and the drivers love them. The hydrogen goes through a fuel cell and produces electricity for the motors. Fill-up takes as long as a regular car and costs about the same as gas. They have the range and power that we're used to in a regular car. They also require a lot less maintenance than a regular car. They fit most of the criteria to become successful in the market on their own.
The problems: They're still expensive and the filling station infrastructure isn't there nation-wide (only a few in California for this limited release). Honda hopes to have the price down to decent retail levels and start mass production before 2020.
I'm also thinking that if hydrogen takes, off, a home fill-up would be great. It would be a small appliance that would take your household water and electricity to slowly produce hydrogen, and pump it into your tank overnight. You vent oxygen out to prevent fire hazard, and don't actully keep pressurized hydrogen in the appliance. Of course put an O2 and H sensor on it, with a mechanical interlock to turn it off if levels get high or the sensors die. With the car's almost 300 mile range, most people would never have to fill up at a station.
BTW, there's your prior art if anybody tries to patent something like that.
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