Flying Wind Turbines – Energy for Heaven on Earth

What exactly is Heaven on Earth?

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/heaven-on-earth-the-rise-and/

The phrase “Heaven on Earth” in the context of the book is lifted from a phrase by Moses Hess who, in his Communist Confession of Faith, noted that while Christians imagine a heavenly joy “We, on the other hand, will have this heaven on earth.” It’s exactly this kind of religious fervor for the concepts of socialism (and communism – the terms are used interchangeably) that gave socialist regimes the license to do whatever it took to cram Paradise down people’s throats. And when people rejected the “freedom” offered to them, the results were horrific: Mussolini’s Italy, Stalin’s Soviet Republic, and Mao’s China. In total, Muravchik estimates that more than 100 million people were murdered in the name of socialism since 1917.

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Some people mistake it for State Run Fascism.

http://lis.net.au/marijonas/

BOOKS, EDITORIALS & NEWS REPORTS

DEATH FOR CONVENIENCE
The great en-masse deception

CONSCIENTIOUS
OBJECTIVE ACTION

WOLF & LAMB
Animal Free Cooking

APPLIED OPERATION CENTER

Unfolding History

The Heaven On Earth phrase well illustrates the aspirations of most humanity. It is the point at which all our individual and collective efforts from across the ages of humanity are fulfilled. It is the point at which we are freed by the truth.

As we proceed on our living journey, the words of Meister Johann Eckhart, a 14th century mystic, might help to re-focus our individual tasks: “Earth should become like heaven, so God can find a home here”. Herein are our individual and mutual tasks – to transform the things of ourselves which we sense in our heart are incompatible with heaven. When we make the change, we create a difference, which in turn becomes challenged. When we hold our ground, the world around us changes in consequence. By changing ourselves, we change the world.

The world is in extreme crisis and needs our individually unique care. The topics presented on this site are those which the author emphasizes for humanity’s healing.

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Some confuse it with theocracy.

 http://books.google.com/books?id=isWUqKBcb1QC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=heaven+on+earth+phrase&source=bl&ots=i7j2kItMfh&sig=gtBxdCX01G3Co8I4Ar6dewqc8qc&hl=en&ei=TqRcSrGNJ4fkNb6K_b8C&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8

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While others are simply obscure…

But Flying Turbines are much more practical:

http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2009/06/16/turbines-in-the-sky/

Turbines in the sky

June 16, 2009 11:44am

by Kate Mackenzie


 

Magenn’s MARS prototype

Wired takes a look at several companies working on high altitude wind turbines: ranging from floating, kite-like devices tethered to long power cables to quaint-looking power-generating flying machines.

The devices are very diverse. Magenn’s helium-filled devices resemble floating kites; Sky Windpower has a ‘controlled helicopter’ with four rotary blades keeping it suspended. Kite Gen’s devices describe a figure eight in the air.

There’s no doubt the wind is stronger at high altitudes, and the devices would take up less ground space, perhaps avoiding one key objection to wind turbines. The attractions are many:

Wind’s power — energy which can be used to do work like spinning magnets to generate electricity — varies with the cube of its speed. So, a small increase in wind speed can lead to a big increase in the amount of mechanical energy you can harvest. High-altitude wind blows fast, is spread nicely across the globe, and is easier to predict than terrestrial wind.

Companies also claim the devices would pose less of a threat to avian life, and emit lower noise pollution than regular wind turbines.

But they’re not without drawbacks.

High-altitude winds, although they are far stronger than terrestrial winds, don’t offer any solution to the ‘baseload’ problem, the inconsistency of supply affecting many renewables. In a article in Energies journal:

Because jet streams vary locally and seasonally, however, the high-altitude wind power resource is less steady than needed for baseload power without large amounts of storage or continental-scale transmission grids, due to the meandering and unsteady nature of the jet streams.

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Please see the rest of the article for more info

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmxB2BwVufA&feature=fvst

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Sealing A Continuous Ridge Vent – The method I used was not great

But it was the best I could come up with off the top of my head. Now that I think about it I probably should have used hardening spray foam from a can. Commonly referred to by the trade name Stuff.

http://building.dow.com/global/greatstuffpro.htm

As you can see from this question:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Roofing-1598/Icynene-Insulation-Sealing-Ridge.htm

Roofing – Icynene Insulation and Sealing Ridge Vents


Expert: Dan Merrill – 7/26/2007Question
I am having a home built and plan to have icynene foam insulation sprayed into the attic (exterior walls and the attic ceiling)as well as exterior walls.   My understanding is that with foam insulation, ridge vents are not needed and in fact defeat the purpose.   The house is now framed and the architectural shingles are being installed this week.   I noticed that the opening for the ridge vent has not been physically closed.    The builder uses a truss design rather than a stick built roof.    The tar paper and shingles are just being laid over the open ridge.Is this a problem?   It seems to me that there should be a more solid barrier at the ridge…like wood, rather than just foam, tar paper, then shingles.Any thoughts?   ThanksAnswer
It should not pose a problem.
The usage of conditioned attic space as you are building is fairly new to the building codes and not in general use.
It is likely that most roofing installers have never seen the specifications before, so they just did as they always do.
The foam will be sprayed under the whole roof deck, so it will act as a vapor barrier. The opening cut for a ridge vent should have no affect.

Dan

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However what I did  was cut a rectangular piece of black 4 mill. plastic:

http://hardware.hardwarestore.com/27-112-polyethylene-film/4-mil-plastic-black-poly-film-637465.aspx

Big enough to cover the exposed vent space between the rafters and allow some “drape” over all of the exposed surfaces, approximately 2 ft. by anywhere from 20 inches to 30 inches. I made a continuous bead of 30 year silicon caulk in a square configuration much smaller than the piece of plastic:

http://www.easy2diy.com/cm/easy/diy_ht_3d_index.asp?page_id=35783013

http://www.onlinetips.org/caulk-types

I pushed this up to the peak of the roof, making sure to make complete contact between all of the wood surfaces and the caulk. I then smoothed the plastic out and popped in  5 or 6 staples with my PowerShot staple gun.

http://www.shopping.com/xPO-Black-Decker-Black-Decker-5700-Powershot-Forward-Action-Stapler

Then I put the insulation back up. I bought a cool new product for cheap; plastic wrapped r-17 insulation for 16 bucks. Kinda like insulation in a tube.

http://www.askthebuilder.com/B54_Fiberglass_-_Newest_Improvements.shtml

And I dragged it across the artificial ceiling studs.

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A reader could rightfully ask, why didn’t you make the roofing company come and fix it?

The answer is 2 fold. One, I ordered the roof and I should have been aware that it came with a continuous ridge vent. It is not up to the roofer to go into the attic to determine if you ordered the right roof before he or she installs it.

Second I always fight the battles I want to fight. I have expertise in this area and though I wish I would have thought of the foam solution earlier, it did not take much longer to fix the problem the way I fixed it. Another homeowner might have thought that this was a fight to take to the roofing company.

It turned out when we finally got around to stripping out the paneling to remodel the attic that they had done the same thing to the dormer…man was it hot up there!

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There Is Something In The Attic And It’s Alive II – Roof Leaks are so much fun

I ended up where I started off. I started with a badly leaking roof in the big shed. I moved on to a leaky basement. Finally I paid 11,000 $$$ for a leaky roof.

It’s Jam Band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo_0UXRY_rY

Now a traditional home owner would have been calling their lawyer and loading their shotguns, Cathy is an electrician and I am a carpenter so on the second leak we called Dean our roof guy and expressed our displeasure. In the mean time I had been trying to figure out what was going on. I had to take out a bunch of wet insulation. The more I tracked the water up the roof, the more it veered toward the gable vent that I had assumed was sealed and insulated.

http://www.customcopperdesigns.com/Product_Catgs/Gables/index.html

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yGCHPmfqT0&feature=related

Our 2 eve vents were the  triangular ones listed at the bottom of the page. I got this horrible feeling in my gut. Slowly the horror grew. I had an energy monster living in my attic! Me an energy expert had the equivalent of a 4 x 4 ft. hole in my wall in my attic. I knew I had to kill it but the previous owners of the house (who should be shot) had presented me with serious problems. I tried to take the ceiling panel down to get a quick look and discovered that the panels were all beveled. That is the ceiling panel was trapped by the sloping panel which was trapped by the knee wall panel which was trapped by the carpet tack strips from the old carpet…%$&#@*! Is what I said over and over again..

http://mtlcontracting.com/finished_attics.htm

www.hunnewellhomes.com/remodeling.asp

http://s93883215.onlinehome.us/adamjaneiro/2007_09_01_archive.html

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORAvMk-iXec

YOU know exactly what I mean. Everyone has a friend that grew up in the attic. So by the time I basically got 2 whole 4 ft wall and side panels off I was a mixture of pissed, curious and freaked. But it got worse. I made the mistake of pulling the roof panel down with the slope pointing towards me and when I got about half the panel down I was hit in the face with dirt and dust like I had never seen. I let go of the panel and dashed downstairs to wash my face. Then I went out on the front porch, shook my clothes off and brushed my hair out. Now I was nearly out of my mind. I dashed back upstairs to see what in the world had just happened to me. There on the floor were thousands of hornets nests! I looked up at the open unscreened gable vent in disbelief. I mean open to the outside world and only stoppered by an 1/8th inch piece of cheap 1950’s wood paneling. 1953 to be exact. What idiots.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBOGqaiVLUs&feature=related

I got up in the ceiling and looked back the other way. What I saw was a long tunnel formed by the ceiling panels and the roof and ANOTHER unscreened totally open vent at the other end. Then I looked up at a light in the sky – open, though screened continuous ridge vent. I started throwing things around the room, stomped downstairs and called Cathy at work. I screamed for awhile until she got me calmed down. She said, can you fix it? I said yah but I shouldn’t have to. She said, yah right and hung up the phone. The woman has no sense of humor. So then I pulled down the other panel. I scooped up three trash cans full of bees nests.

http://www.virginmedia.com/digital/science/pictures/insect-photography.php?ssid=8

www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk/nf/ClipArt/Ima..

http://gardenplotter.com/rospo/blog/2007/03/old-attics.html

At the west end of the house I even found 2 dinner plate sized wasp nests even though my biologist father claims that wasps and hornets will not cohabitate.

http://pestcontrolcanada.com/INSECTS/wasp_and_hornet_control.htm

http://www.aardvark-ie.com/wasps.htm

Then I sealed the vents with black plastic, caulk and staples. I stuffed the space with R-17 insulation and put the wood panels back in place. I have no idea how to seal up a ridge vent that should not be.

Here is how the pro’s do it:

http://www.onthehouse.com/wp/20030929

Since gable vents usually are architectural elements, it generally is best to seal them from the interior with a piece of plywood, thus preserving the architectural integrity of the home and eliminating the need to make a siding patch.

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More on getting rid of the ridge vent Monday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muyqMrsuLXw&feature=related

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The Horror Of Being Trapped In The Basement – It came from below

When I, Cathy and others started CES, my feeling  was that since I was going to be working from home I should spend part of that day improving the house. I figured after the rate hike fight in 2007 that I wanted no part of but got sucked into anyway, that it would take 2 years, maybe 3 to get CES up and running. So Cathy and I sat down and talked about what we wanted to do with the house. She wanted:

a Cistern

a Solar Space on the South side of the house

a solar water heater

I wanted:

a refurbished attic

to  tear out the ceiling in the bedroom

We both agreed that the basement was the place to start. We were getting a little water in the basement when it rained really hard. We knew that we needed to do something about that. We have a nice sump hole and a sump pump, but our thoughts were that maybe we just needed a bigger sump pump. There also was a question of electricity reliability. In three years we had at least 2 long outages…one lasting 8 days. Of course it usually rained real hard during those periods so we would end up draining our sump hole by hand. (Yes that is right Doug and Cathy with five gallon buckets. We dumped them in the downstairs toilet) We both agreed that the color had to change first. That was the hardest task actually because the entire floor was a hideous green.

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/1897/oldaomiprototypeyq7.jpg

So I moved all of the furniture down to one end of the basement and painted the basement steps a nice light blue/gray. Then I painted half of the main floor the same nice blue gray. I moved all of the furniture to the other end of room and painted the rest of the floor a nice blue gray. When I was done I said, What color do you want to paint the plant room honey and she said, LipStick Red. I was aghast. She said that is the color that plants love.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_z7PFSXqH2Vo/SJm6zvOXC7I/AAAAAAAAELg/CfxvWsJDUpw/s320/Red+Lipstick.JPG

Yup that Lipstick Red. The one that women have been using to seduce men (not that men need much seducing) since the time of the Pharohs and before. I was incredulous. So I went to the Menards

http://www.menards.com/

walked up to the paint counter and said I want to paint my plant room. The guy behind the counter said, oh you want a gallon or two of Lipstick Red. I just about died. I said you better make it 2. So I painted that room red. When it started raining the first day we were kinda worried. We had had the drainage system that runs from our back porch to the street blownout with high pressure water some months earlier, but the next rain had brought just a trickle of water.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=menards&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3RNFA_enUS268US269&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

Which you can kinda see in the picture above. We were getting huge puddles on our back porch and were fairly certain that the water in the basement was from the lack o’ drainage in that area. By the 4th day of rain the sump pump was running night and day.

http://www.freefoto.com/preview/35-18-35?ffid=35-18-35

by the 8th day of rain Iowa looked like this:

http://www.saveborrowspend.co.uk/articles/news/1655-flood-cover-should-be-considered

We had serious water running through the kitchen (Cathy’s craft area) in the basement, our sump pump died and we lost power. This solved all of our problems in short order. We immediately bought half  again as large a sump pump and a generator. Doug dug up the drainage system, found the broken tile and repaired it. The water damaged the flooring in the kitchen so we tore it out and installed nice blue “foamy” rubber flooring that Cathy had always wanted. And we removed the old nasty PHILGAS stove so she would have more craft space. There is a rainbow at the end of every storm.

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Confessions Of An Energy And Environmental Activist – Why a mechanic’s car never works,

a carpenter’s doors are never square and the wiring in an electricians house is always scary. Because you never do at home what you do at work. I never had this problem in New Orleans or when I moved back from Springfield. We owned our house in New Orleans and I put a lot of easy low cost energy improvements there. In Springfield, I had rentersitis and was working for Planned Parenthood, Lowe’s and the Sara Center and was not focused on energy issues.

When I moved in with Cathy in 2004 you would think I would have thought about maybe doing an energy audit but I was still working for the Sara Center and I was really absorbed by that project. I also assumed that if there were major problems Cathy would have found them by that time. She moved in in 1999 and had actually replaced the furnace with a really efficient one for the time. I guess by the time I got around to helping to start Community Energy Systems in 2007 my mind had been cleared by our fight to save our rather full and large (25 x 12 ft.) shed. That event marked the beginning of not only cursing the previous owner but realizing that there could be real problems with the house. I had never met a roof that I couldn’t get to stop leaking before I met this shed…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/quillus/118385662/in/set-539999/

I tried caulk. I tried Plastic Tarps. The Leak just got worse to the point where something really had to be done. It was rotting away. In the interim Cathy and I had been discussing getting a metal roof for the house. I had reservations mainly because Cathy wanted the metal roof because she want a “clean water” cistern system to use in the garden. A conventional roof was about 6,000 $$$ and a metal roof was like 15, 000 $$$. Finally I said to her, look we got to do something about the shed or tear it down which means we are going to have to spend money to hold the line until we get our new roof.

So we tore off the roof and immediately found the problem. There were 3 sets of shingles on the roof. To get ready for the sale to Cathy the previous owners had put a brand new set of shingles over 2 old sets. It was the oldest set that was causing the problem. They were so old that they had become water ABSORBENT! So we had to tear off a perfectly good set of shingles to get at and out of the real problem which had OBVIOUSLY been going on before the sale of the house and the previous owners knew about it. Very nice folks.

www.twincitiesdailyphoto.com/labels/cottage%2…

Scroll down to the post 5/30/2009 and you can see a picture of what the roof looked like under the new shingles. It was nasty. The water damage to the roof and the eves was extensive. Eventually however we got all that repaired and we put on a self adhesive roll roofing which cost about 300 $$$ and the cost of a laborer to help me was about 1,200 $$$. We had a lot of scrap lumber from our new and improved bathroom project. So we got off pretty cheaply.

http://www.cofair.com/peel_seal.aspx
But that got me to thinking. What else could be hiding in the house that had similarly been covered up? The answer to that when I found it was huge. After Cathy’s son moved out of the attic I had torn out the early 1960, very nasty carpet and cut it into strips so Cathy could use it as weed suppressing pathways in her garden.

100_1816.jpg

The other area of the house that we were having trouble with was in the basement. We had a room mate living there for years who had a dog. She bought a house and moved out so I tore the basement apart and cleaned it up. We had water problems, drainage problems and the whole thing was painted putrid green.

So I shut off the HVAC vents, shut the door to the attic and sealed it. What a mistake that was. More tomorrow.

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The Slow Local Food People Are Pretty Cool – I have been hanging out with the Lawn to Food Types lately

It’s Jam Band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCPSh47gHz8&feature=related

While I have understood for like 40 years that “scarcity” was the real environmental issue and that “over population” was its cause, many people are just waking up to that. On the energy front, an example would be that for the last 100 years we should have been rationing oil and using it for only the things that it was absolutely necessary for. Guess what? Gasoline and Plastics are two that would not be remotely near the top of the absolutely necessary list. Plastic bags would be ludicrous. Similarly, food should have been planted everywhere. I mean everywhere, yards, parks, ditches. Over the last 100 years good land should have been totally devoted to food and bad land left alone. We did not do that. In fact we did the exact opposite. If 100 years ago every couple could have produced no more that 2 kids….THINK about what our world would be like…Anyway the peak oil people and a lot of environmentalists are suddenly realizing that Thomas Robert Malthus was right:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Malthus

We (homosapien) have suffered die backs before. People like to ignore the fact that Malthus had already been RIGHT when he wrote his first pamphlet. Populations of Humans, and our close cousins Neanderthal, Erectis and Hablis have fluctuated radically in the last several million years. This to the extent that the cousins are extinct. No one has ever considered that we just got lucky on that one or even worse yet that we only made it because we could hang on. That is, when our numbers get small we cooperate and stave off the end by any means necessary. These episodes are called “bottle necks” in the populations sciences and they are frightening to contemplate. Just as an example sometime roughly 50,000 years ago there may have been as few as 5,000 humans on this planet in an area the size of New York State in eastern South Africa. Humbling isn’t it? Why did we go from a population of several hundred thousand spread all over the Mediteranian and the Middle east…maybe even extending to the west coast of India…BACK to our home in Africa? Was it war, volcanic eruptions, changes in climate, famine or even disease? Who knows but this planet can not sustain 9 billion people. It just can’t. So maybe the reason I have taken up with the agricultural types is that old marijuana saying, Food will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no food.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buXJlBd3Mf8&feature=related

So here are a couple of food ideas from the people at Peak Oil:

http://www.peakoil.com/

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/710876

Urban farms the wave of future?

Published Friday June 26th, 2009

Permit granted for experimental farm in Moncton neighbourhood

A5

It’s always risky to count your chickens before they’re hatched, but it looks like a go for a plan to raise egg-producing hens in a suburban Moncton neighbourhood.

The Greater Moncton District Planning Commission has granted a local group a one-year temporary permit to run an urban experimental farm. The project, sponsored by Post Carbon Greater Moncton, will involve the keeping of up to four hens within the city boundaries. The group hatched the plan as a response to concerns that rising oil prices will one day force people to return to being more involved in their food production.

Is having your own hens laying eggs all it’s cracked up to be? Will the quiet hamlet (or is that omelette?) of Sunny Acres West (or is that Sunny Side Up Acres?) ever be the same? What’s the best way to run a hen-house without running off half-cocked?

That’s what the folks of the local post carbon group hope to find out through a careful study. This is not simply a “let the chicks fall where they may” approach to the issue of farm animals and humans co-existing in an urban setting, but rather something that will be carefully monitored.

And bad puns aside — the “eggspectations” of the headline is Post Carbon spokesman Michel Desjardins’ own contribution to this article, lest anyone think we’re making fun — the purpose is serious. Desjardins said yesterday the pilot project is a step towards more self-sufficiency and food security in the region. “We think food security and self-sufficiency will be a huge issue in the future.”

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0aXY2pM2sA&feature=related

Then there is this:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/uow-pfe062509.php

Contact: David Zaks
zaks@wisc.edu
608-890-0337
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Projected food, energy demands seen to outpace production

MADISON — With the caloric needs of the planet expected to soar by 50 percent in the next 40 years, planning and investment in global agriculture will become critically important, according a new report released today (June 25).

The report, produced by Deutsche Bank, one of the world’s leading global investment banks, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, provides a framework for investing in sustainable agriculture against a backdrop of massive population growth and escalating demands for food, fiber and fuel.

“We are at a crossroads in terms of our investments in agriculture and what we will need to do to feed the world population by 2050,” says David Zaks, a co-author of the report and a researcher at the Nelson Institute’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment.

By 2050, world population is expected to exceed 9 billion people, up from 6.5 billion today. Already, according to the report, a gap is emerging between agricultural production and demand, and the disconnect is expected to be amplified by climate change, increasing demand for biofuels, and a growing scarcity of water.

“There will come a point in time when we will have difficulties feeding world population,” says Zaks, a graduate student whose research focuses on the patterns, trends and processes of global agriculture.

Although unchecked population growth will put severe strains on global agriculture, demand can be met by a combination of expanding agriculture to now marginal or unused land, substituting new types of crops, and technology, the report’s authors conclude. “The solution is only going to come about by changing the way we use land, changing the things that we grow and changing the way that we grow them,” Zaks explains.

The report notes that agricultural research and technological development in the United States and Europe have increased notably in the last decade, but those advances have not translated into increased production on a global scale. Subsistence farmers in developing nations, in particular, have benefited little from such developments and investments in those agricultural sectors have been marginal, at best.

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Me I am headed for the refrigerator:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxEjENrSdV0&feature=related

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Deep Geothermal Energy – From the winds of the Jetstream to the Bowels of the earth

I haven’t updated this particular topic area for awhile. I think this may hold the future for us all. Deep drilling for geothermal heat rates 3 pages in the New York Times Online. My. Maybe the rich and powerful are starting to get it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/business/energy-environment/24geotherm.html?pagewanted=1&%2359&_r=2&%2359;em&%2359;amp

Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears

Published: June 23, 2009

BASEL, Switzerland — Markus O. Häring, a former oilman, was a hero in this city of medieval cathedrals and intense environmental passion three years ago, all because he had drilled a hole three miles deep near the corner of Neuhaus Street and Shafer Lane.

 

 

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Christian Flieri for The New York Times

An earthquake halted Markus O. Häring’s geothermal project in Basel, Switzerland.

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He was prospecting for a vast source of clean, renewable energy that seemed straight out of a Jules Verne novel: the heat simmering within the earth’s bedrock.

All seemed to be going well — until Dec. 8, 2006, when the project set off an earthquake, shaking and damaging buildings and terrifying many in a city that, as every schoolchild here learns, had been devastated exactly 650 years before by a quake that sent two steeples of the Münster Cathedral tumbling into the Rhine.

Hastily shut down, Mr. Häring’s project was soon forgotten by nearly everyone outside Switzerland. As early as this week, though, an American start-up company, AltaRock Energy, will begin using nearly the same method to drill deep into ground laced with fault lines in an area two hours’ drive north of San Francisco.

Residents of the region, which straddles Lake and Sonoma Counties, have already been protesting swarms of smaller earthquakes set off by a less geologically invasive set of energy projects there. AltaRock officials said that they chose the spot in part because the history of mostly small quakes reassured them that the risks were limited.

Like the effort in Basel, the new project will tap geothermal energy by fracturing hard rock more than two miles deep to extract its heat. AltaRock, founded by Susan Petty, a veteran geothermal researcher, has secured more than $36 million from the Energy Department, several large venture-capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Google. AltaRock maintains that it will steer clear of large faults and that it can operate safely.

But in a report on seismic impact that AltaRock was required to file, the company failed to mention that the Basel program was shut down because of the earthquake it caused. AltaRock claimed it was uncertain that the project had caused the quake, even though Swiss government seismologists and officials on the Basel project agreed that it did. Nor did AltaRock mention the thousands of smaller earthquakes induced by the Basel project that continued for months after it shut down.

The California project is the first of dozens that could be operating in the United States in the next several years, driven by a push to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases and the Obama administration’s support for renewable energy.

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IN Australia where it holds huge potential, as it does on the whole ring of fire.

http://thinkgeoenergy.com/archives/1832

Australia opens round 2 of the Geothermal Drilling Program


Enlarge ImageAustralia opens the second round of the Geothermal Drilling Program and Australia’s Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP invites geothermal companies to submit applications for funding under this round of the A$50 million (US$39.8 million) program.

Written by: lxrichter
Picture: Habanero, Drilling Rig, Geodynamics (source: Geodynamics)
Reported today, Australia opens the second round of the Geothermal Drilling Program with “The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP inviting geothermal companies to submit applications for funding under Round 2 of the A$50 million (US$39.8 million) Geothermal Drilling Program, which opened today.

Round 2 funding will provide grants of up to A$7 million (US$5.6 million) on a matching-funding basis to support the drilling of deep geothermal wells and help finance geothermal proof-of-concept projects.
Geothermal energy producers pump water below ground (sometimes as deep as 5 kilometers (3.1 miles)), where it is heated by ‘hot rocks’. The heat energy is then used to generate electricity.

Ferguson said: “Geoscience Australia estimates that if just one per cent of Australia’s geothermal energy was extracted it would equate to 26,000 times Australia’s total annual energy consumption. “Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source with enormous potential in Australia; however, the Government recognizes technical development costs are high.

“The Australian Government is pleased to be able to support drilling at the first stage of development as part of its A$4.5 billion (US$3.5 billion) Clean Energy Initiative.

“Geothermal energy is important because it has the capacity to produce baseload power, diversify Australia’s energy supply and increase our energy security.

“The Australian Government has set a target for 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2020; a policy which will likely require an additional 45,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity generation from renewable sources.

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HOT Rocks Rock

From Infinity And Beyond – Electricity from kites…yes yes Kites

After an extended meditation like I just concluded on the Federal Energy Tax Credits (please click 2008 elections, international environmental groups and religion categories for more examples),  I am always at a loss for where to go next. I find it useful to just blow it out! So from Live Science and Yahoo I bring you some of the most implausible energy thoughts ever encountered by man:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/powerfulideasmileshighkitescouldgenerateelectricity

http://www.livescience.com/environment/090622-kite-wind-power.html

Environment

Powerful Ideas: Miles-High Kites Could Generate Electricity

By Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience

posted: 22 June 2009 08:21 am ET

Full Size

1 of 1

wind power from kite and turbine
Airborne turbines like these depicted in this illustration could generate electricity from strong high-altitude winds. Credit: Ben Shepard, courtesy Sky WindPower

Editor’s Note: This occasional series looks at powerful ideas — some existing, some futuristic — for fueling and electrifying modern life.

The sky might literally be the limit for wind power — rotors spinning miles high could help supply electricity worldwide.

“There is a huge amount of energy available in high-altitude winds,” said researcher Ken Caldeira at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, Calif. “These winds blow much more strongly and steadily than near-surface winds, but you need to go get up miles to get a big advantage. Ideally, you would like to be up near the jet streams, around 30,000 feet.”

All told, if wind turbines miles above the planet were tethered to 10 percent of the world’s land, there is enough energy in these jet stream winds to meet world demand 100 times over, researchers said.

Jet streams are meandering belts of fast winds at altitudes between 20,000 and 50,000 feet. They shift seasonally, but are otherwise persistent features in the atmosphere. Jet stream winds are generally steadier and 10 times faster than wind near the ground, making them a potentially vast and dependable source of energy.

But how to capture the wind so high?

Kites and tethers

A number of technological schemes have been proposed to harvest energy from these high-altitude winds, including tethered, kite-like wind turbines lofted miles high. Up to 40 megawatts of electricity could be generated by current designs and transmitted to the ground via tether.

Using 28 years of weather data, the researchers developed the first-ever global survey of high-altitude wind energy.

“We found the highest wind power densities over Japan and eastern China, the eastern coast of the United States, southern Australia, and north eastern Africa,” said researcher Cristina Archer, an atmospheric scientist at California State University in Chico.

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You can go to the Energies site to see the scientific part of the study:

http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/2/2/340

Mesoscale Simulation of Year-to-Year Variation of Wind Power Potential over Southern China

Steve H. Yim 1 email, Jimmy C. Fung 1,2 email and Alexis K. Lau 1,3,* email

1 Institute for the Environment, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
2 Department of Mathematics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
3 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 27 April 2009; in revised form: 27 May 2009 / Accepted: 1 June 2009 / Published: 3 June 2009

PDF Full-textDownload PDF Full-Text (1202 KB)

Abstract: The objectives of this study are to combine historical observations and state-of-the-art numerical models (MM5/CALMET system) to map the spatial distribution of wind resources in high resolution, and to help foster a deeper understanding of the wind power potential over southern China (Guangdong). Hourly wind fields were simulated for three entire years (2004-2006). It found that almost 70% of the time, the wind speed along the coast of Guangdong is over 5 m/s, which is deemed a baseline magnitude for typical wind turbines. Spatial plots of the wind speed and power and their variations over Guangdong Province for the three years are also presented.

 

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For the SEX part of it…Generating energy from the jet stream …well it is awful high up there (40-50 miles), really really cold (100 degrees below zero) and really close to the cosmic rays…and it has been around for awhile. I mean looking up is to dream right?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVi_-dlDVcw

http://sleepgreen.info/?tag=energy

KINETIC ENERGY CREATES ELECTRICITY

Posted by admin | Green News | Wednesday 21 January 2009 2:43 pm

 

 

Dutch astronaut Dr Wubbo Ockels has successfully demonstrated i Netherlands his new energy concept. He has flown a high-flying energy kite, creating kinetic energy from huge radio-controlled highflying kites. He has designed ‘ladder-mills’ to store the kinetic energy and convert it into electricity.
Three such ladder-mills provide enough electricity to power one city. The experiment was carried out along the northern coastline of The Netherlands where there’s usually more than enough wind to raise the gigantic kites into.The radio- controlled, high-flying kites can create some 10,5kw electricity each, Dr Ockels told a local radio station.High-altitude kites could be used to generate clean energy at a cost comparable with that of fossil fuel generation , researchers claim.The “Ladder-Mill” is a chain of controllable wing-like kites attached to a looped cable stretching more than five miles into the sky.Strong high altitude winds acting on the “kitewings” produce as upward force on one side of the loop and a downward force on the other, causing it to rotate.The slowly turning cable drives a power generator in the Ladder-Mill base station.Although the concept sounds far fetched, its developers at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands hope to build a working model in the next four years.

They claim one Ladder-Mill could generate 100 megawatts of electricity, compared with only a few megawatts from a conventional wind turbine.

Winds at 30,000ft are 20 times more powerful than at sea level.

Professor Ockels, an ex-astronaut and head of the European Space Agency’s education office, told The Engineer magazine: “Above a certain altitude there is a massive amount of wind power.

Source:
http://alt-e.blogspot.com/2004/12/wind-power-laddermills-high-altitude.html
http://www.rense.com/general78/kinet.htm

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Did you know that people have even tried to use kites for COMMERCIAL FISHING?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_applications

Kite applications

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

The kite is used to do certain things; one kite or many kites are applied to achieve certain purposes, objectives, or tasks, that is: applications. Humans have applied the kite to bring perceived benefits during peace and war alike. New applications for the kite continue to be found. Only some innovative applications appear in national patents; others are communicated in newspapers, magazines, books, and internet pages. Air kites, water kites, bi-media kites, fluid kites, gas kites, kytoons, paravanes, soil kites, solid kites, and plasma kites have niche applications that are furthering the interests of humans. Non-human-made kites have applications; some spiders make use of kiting.

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If you click on 17 or 24 you can see the energy apps. By the way # 24 is funded by Google.

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Feds Credits To Trade In An Old Inefficient Car – It’s called the Clunker or the Gas Guzzler Bill

It is not law yet, but if it will become law and it looks like it will. Waiting to buy a new car until it passes could be well worth it. I say this because it is unclear whether you will be able to take advantage of both the Clunker Bill and the Tax Credit for buying specific cars. In other words if you trade in an old car (getting a government rebate) and buy a Prius (getting a Tax Credit) would both apply? If they would you could get like nearly 10K off the price of the car making Prius or any other hybred car affordable. Since it is a House of Reps. Bill on first read in the Senate I can not tell you what it will say in the end but as I say, first the Proposed Tax Credit.

Not there silly here:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d111:9:./temp/~bdJxBz::|/bss/|

H.R.2751
Title: To accelerate motor fuel savings nationwide and provide incentives to registered owners of high polluting automobiles to replace such automobiles with new fuel efficient and less polluting automobiles.
Sponsor: Rep Sutton, Betty [OH-13] (introduced 6/8/2009)      Cosponsors (59)
Related Bills: H.R.2640
Latest Major Action: 6/11/2009 Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 74.

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Interpreted in a sick way here:

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/bailout-watch-554-cash-for-clunkers-passes-house/

Bailout Watch 554: Cash For Clunkers Passes House

By Edward Niedermeyer
June 10, 2009

The House of Representatives has passed Rep Betty Sutton’s $4 billion scrappage scheme [download full text here], reports CNN Money. The bill now goes to the Senate. Under Sutton’s bill, clunkers with a combined 18 miles per gallon rating or worse would be eligible for a scrappage rebate. Purchasing new vehicle which exceeds its replacement’s rating by four miles per gallon would earn a $3,500 rebate. Improve the combined EPA average by 10 mpg and snag $4,500. Offer good for one year. Or until we tear through $4 billion in a wholesome, American display of redemptive consumption. I’m sorry, I mean “shore up millions of jobs and stimulate local economies . . . improve our environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The [Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save] act demonstrates that we can free ourselves from the false argument of either you are for the environment or you are for jobs. You can do both, you must do both.” As the bill’s author modestly puts it.

CNN Money »

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I hate to be pessimistic but anytime you involve the Feds, the House and the Senate in legislation that directly effects, OIL, Gasoline and the Internal Combustion Engine, I think you have troubles ahead my friend. Here is a site that is very optomistic:

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=94525

A ‘Cash for Guzzlers’ website was launched to help keep consumers informed and aware about the pending approval of the Cash for Guzzlers bill. The measure, if approved by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama, would offer up to $4,500 in the form of a voucher for consumers who would trade in their old gas guzzler for a more fuel efficient car.

The new bill aims at improving environmental conditions by encouraging consumers driving old cars to trade in their vehicle for a voucher of up to $4,500 that can be used towards the purchase of a more fuel efficient vehicle. If passed, the new bill could lead to the purchase of over 1 million fuel efficient cars, a measure some say could help the US become less dependent on foreign oil. The bill is expected to be passed before Memorial Day weekend.

According to the proposal, consumers would get a $3,500 voucher if they trade in a car that gets less than 18 mpg for a new car with mileage of at least 22 mpg. Vouchers of $4,500 would be awarded if the new car gets at least 10 mpg more than the old.

More information for consumers is available at the recently established website for the Cash for Guzzlers bill, http://www.cashforguzzlers.net/

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This one kinda thinks NOT:

http://www.ohio.com/news/nation/44956957.html

Gas-guzzler voucher plan hits roadblock Calif. senator criticizes compromise for failure to boost fuel economy

By Kevin Freking
Associated Press

WASHINGTON: Legislation that would give car buyers a government voucher up to $4,500 when they trade in gas guzzlers hit a speed bump in the Senate amid concerns that a compromise between the White House and House Democrats doesn’t go far enough to protect the environment.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who authored the ”cash for clunkers” bill in the Senate, said Wednesday that she can’t support the compromise announced last week after House Democrats met with President Barack Obama on global warming.

”Essentially what it means is that perfectly good vehicles would be scrapped, so that vehicles with below average fuel economy could be purchased,” Feinstein said.

Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Copley Township, introduced the House version in March, reviving an effort that failed in Congress earlier this year.

The program is supposed to serve two purposes: Help the struggling automobile industry and the environment by replacing gas guzzlers with more fuel efficient autos.

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Stay tuned. It is going to be a long global warming summer.

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Feds Tax Credits For Fuel Cell Use – Say what?

Talk about an exotic credit. Wonder who is going to cash in on this? First the Tax Credit.

Not there silly – here>

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits#s5

Fuel Cells Residential Fuel Cell and microturbine system Efficiency of at least 30% and must have a capacity of at least 0.5 kW. 30% of the cost, up to $500 per .5 kW of power capacity Use IRS Form 5695 PDF Exit ENERGY STARMust be placed in service before December 31, 2016.

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Then the product

Acumentrics’ AHEAD: Residential Fuel Cell Heat & Power System

Think AHEAD:
Distributed Power Generation for Homeowners


Imagine a furnace that makes electricity, too. The Acumentrics AHEAD (click on link for specifications) is just that. The AHEAD uses fuel cells to generate heat and power for the home, with peak demands being handled by the grid or batteries. It runs off municipal gas or propane. This combined-heat-and-power unit (micro-CHP) can even meter excess electricity back to the grid. On-site generation has never been more clean, quiet, or secure.

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Or here…but this is all very experimental:

http://blog.fuelcellstore.com/?cat=7

http://www.cfcl.com.au/

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited

There is growing demand for energy across the globe. Demand for electricity is forecast to double from 2002 to 2025. Yet the existing supplies may not cope with this demand, and significant investment is needed in new generation systems that also meet higher efficiency and environmental standards.

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL) is providing solutions.

CFCL is a world leader in developing solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology to provide reliable, energy efficient, high quality, and low-emission electricity from widely available natural gas and renewable fuels. CFCL is developing SOFC products for small-scale on-site micro combined heat and power (m-CHP) and distributed generation units that co-generate electricity and heat for domestic use

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Then there are microturbines:

http://www.energy.ca.gov/distgen/equipment/microturbines/microturbines.html

Microturbines are small combustion turbines that produce between 25 kW and 500 kW of power. Microturbines were derived from turbocharger technologies found in large trucks or the turbines in aircraft auxiliary power units (APUs). Most microturbines are single-stage, radial flow devices with high rotating speeds of 90,000 to 120,000 revolutions per minute. However, a few manufacturers have developed alternative systems with multiple stages and/or lower rotation speeds.

Microturbines are nearing commercial status. Capstone, for example, has delivered over 2,400 microturbines to customers (2003). However, many of the microturbine installations are still undergoing field tests or are part of large-scale demonstrations.

Capstone Microturbine
Photo Source: Capstone

Microturbine Overview

Commercially Available

Yes (Limited)

Size Range

25 – 500 kW

Fuel

Natural gas, hydrogen, propane, diesel

Efficiency

20 – 30% (Recuperated)

Environmental

Low (< 9 – 50 ppm) NOx

Other Features

Cogen (50 – 80°C water)

Commercial Status

Small volume production, commercial prototypes now.

Microturbine generators can be divided in two general classes:

  • Recuperated microturbines, which recover the heat from the exhaust gas to boost the temperature of combustion and increase the efficiency, and
  • Unrecuperated (or simple cycle) microturbines, which have lower efficiencies, but also lower capital costs.

While some early product introductions have featured unrecuperated designs, the bulk of developers’ efforts are focused on recuperated systems. The recuperator recovers heat from the exhaust gas in order to boost the temperature of the air stream supplied to the combustor. Further exhaust heat recovery can be used in a cogeneration configuration. The figure below illustrates a recuperated microturbine system.

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Wave of the future or dumb tax give away…you be the judge.

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