Home power plants project unveiled in Germany

Agence France-Presse via grist.org ^ | 9-9-09 | unattributed

[dynachrome]

I dunno. If you receive rent income for having the thing, why do you have to pay $7,250 for it?

[DonaldC]

I don’t see how this can be more green.

[George from New England]

What am I missing? Can I see a show of hands? How many want a 2 megawatt power plant underneath where they live and sleep at night? Me! Me!

[the long march]

Oh yeah this is going to be perfect. Have that mini GAS fired generator in your basement and then have the GOVERNMENT tell you when you need to fire it. WHAT COULD GO WRONG????

[IrishCatholic]

I’ll bet they employ a boatload of technicians running from house to house servicing all those mini plants.

[LOC1]

Methane gas, ie natural gas, contains more hydrogen per atom of carbon than any other hydrocarbon fuel. That is why burning natural gas generates less carbon dioxide per unit of energy delivered than burning other hydrocarbons.

[Nathan Zachary]

"An ambitious project was unveiled in Germany on Wednesday to install mini gas-fired power plants in people’s basements and produce as much electricity as two nuclear reactors within a year."

It's not. it's just spreading emissions out so no one sees a smoke stack.

It saves infrastructure costs though, and the need for giant electric companies and all those employees.

I wonder where they are going to get all the cheap NG from though, or are they planning on some sort of Ballard fuel cell thing?

[Nathan Zachary]

"Methane gas, ie natural gas, contains more hydrogen per atom of carbon than any other hydrocarbon fuel. That is why burning natural gas generates less carbon dioxide per unit of energy delivered than burning other hydrocarbons."

So why not convert their coal fired plants to NG?

[taxcontrol]

What you are missing is the heat recovery currently absent from the centralized model. Small amounts of heat from small generators can still keep a house warm enough to reduce demand for heating.

[Nathan Zachary]

"Gas plants have an advantage over nuclear power stations in that the heat produced by the latter is wasted, the DIW energy expert said."

Doesn't have to be. High temp steam can be used to make clean diesel out of coal. Hitler used to do that.

[maine-iac7]

Although the generators are not a new concept, the project is novel in that Lichtblick would retain control over the plants after their installation. Households would pay around $7,250 to have the generators set up along with an appropriate heating system.

Fine, right up to the last statement.

Get your own generators and other 'off the grid' power suppliers and control your own energy supply...

The biggest problem across this globe has been, in the past 60 years, people have become totally dependent on that power wire from the house to the street. The other side of dependency is control.

[shorty_harris]

The Hamburg-based renewable energy group Lichtblick and its automaker partner Volkswagen say the plants would produce not only heating and hot water but also electricity...

Well, Volkswagen already has the experience...they used to produce a smaller version called the Eurovan...

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Thomas Edison makes a comeback.

[MSF BU]

Shale fracture technology will help finding new fields and renewing old ones. It has the Russians really worried. I’d be interested to see what some of our resident FR engineers have to say about this system.

[Maringa]

So what happens when Putin threatens to shut off gas to Germany in order to get what he wants at any time (such as incorporating East Germany back into the steel curtain?)

[SteamShovel]

That is why burning natural gas generates less carbon dioxide per unit of energy delivered than burning other hydrocarbons.

I think the question is, how is this more green than building a real NG fired turbine power station? Since they both burn NG, and would presumably have similar efficiency, there should be no "green" difference.

That is, unless you count the gasoline spent driving all over creation to maintain all of these distributed generators. I think then the "green" difference leans in favor of a larger centralized NG power generator. So does the other green.....money for maintenance and operation.

[SteamShovel]

So why not convert their coal fired plants to NG?

NG fired conversions of coal boiler plants are much less efficient.

[Scanian]

The German government is butting in but the idea came from private business, which is where 95% of new ideas arise.

[Nathan Zachary]

"Get your own generators and other 'off the grid' power suppliers and control your own energy supply..."

Absolutely. These are excellent. I have a single cylinder 8 hp one that makes all the electricity I need when my windmills aren't keeping up, or I need to do laundry or some welding. Cost you about $1800 and will last a lifetime, burning about a gallon a days running. (I burn about 2 gallons a month on average with my setup)

Lister engines

[mbarker12474]

Mao Tse Tung tried this in China. Didn’t work.