PORTA’s Wind Turbine – I think I will take the week and do some local issues

Posted on July 20, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

The mid range wind turbine is going up at PORTA High School outside of Petersburg. Way to go. First here is the rationale:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0907/S00214.htm

Green Economics and how it might work

Monday, 20 July 2009, 3:53 pm
Article: Salient Green Economics and how it might work

by Tushara Kodikara

In times of the global economic recession and ecological crisis, it is obvious a radical response is needed. World-renowned economist Herman Daly maintains the future of human civilisation is dependent on a new economic model, based on a dynamic model—known as the steady state economy—preserving the environment we are all dependent upon.

There needs to be a shift away from the current paradigm of the growth economy towards a system that emphasises conserving natural capital and views the economy as a subset of the environment. Neoclassical economics has ignored the environment. The current system views environment and economy as intertwined. Any environmental problem can be solved by the market or by governmental interference.

Traditional economic theory is based on general equilibrium models: a giant system of thousands of simultaneous equations balancing supply and demand. These determine the price and quantity of goods and services. It assumes that there is an infinite resource base and also an infinite waste sink with no feedbacks. Simply put, resources will never run out and pollution will never occur. This leads to the notion that infinite growth is possible.

However, a litany of environmental problems, including destruction of the ozone layer, climate change, acid rain, deforestation, overpopulation, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, desertification, floods, famine, overfishing, hazardous wastes, expanding landfills, fresh water depletion and the depletion of nonrenewable resources, to name a few, are symptoms of the shortcomings of the current economic system.

Did I mention it saves money?

http://www.sj-r.com/homepage/x1885902913/Spectators-marvel-as-turbine-installed-at-PORTA-High-School

Wind turbine draws crowd at PORTA High

Generator is final phase of $7.6 million energy-saving project

By ANN GORMAN

THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

Posted Jul 19, 2009 @ 11:00 PM

Last update Jul 20, 2009 @ 06:21 AM

PETERSBURG — Harold Biggs of Athens was one of several spectators behind PORTA High School Friday morning, as cranes lifted a hub with three huge rotor blades and then workers positioned it atop a large tower.Biggs, a 76-year-old retired engineer and Army veteran, began noticing wind turbines around the country about 10 or 12 years ago, and he’d recently read about them in Popular Science magazine. But he’d “never seen one put up before.”So, with camera and binoculars in hand, he decided to check out the activity in Petersburg.“I think it’s a step forward in ecology,” Biggs said of the turbine. “I’ve thought about getting a small one for my place, but it costs too much.”Anticipating public interest, PORTA officials had set up bleachers for people to watch the turbine progress.“I think it’s really cool to see how it’s put together,” said 15-year-old Abbey Stier of Williamsville, who watched the process with her dad, PORTA teacher David Stier.

The wind turbine — which extends 241 feet from base to blade tip — is the final phase of a $7.6-million energy-savings project instigated last year by the PORTA School Board because of soaring electric costs.

The 600-kilowatt wind generator — built in India and shipped by boat to Houston — was trucked in sections last week to Petersburg….

Way to go Petersburg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wErksDKeWB8

Flying Wind Turbines – Energy for Heaven on Earth

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

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.

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.

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

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.

Please see the rest of the article for more info

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

Solar Power From Space To Heaven – We concentrated on hell last week

Posted on July 13, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

while this may sound like pie in the sky:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/282700.html

Did you know that that phrase was coined by famous labor organizer Joe Hill?

OH sorry

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/07/will-the-stars-align-for-space-based-solar-power.ars

Will the stars align for space-based solar power?

The high cost of putting hardware into orbit would seem to rule out space-based solar power on financial grounds, but several companies are betting that technology has changed the equation. Here’s how such systems would work.

By John Timmer | Last updated July 9, 2009 12:30 PM C

Will the stars align for space-based solar power?

Although the US has plenty of terrain that’s well placed for producing solar power, the intermittent nature of that power and the distances of these sites from major population centers on the east coast puts severe constraints on what we can do with it. Space-based solar power, which can gather energy around the clock and transmit it to most of the populated areas of the planet, provides a way around these limits, one that was already being contemplated before the energy shocks of the 1970s.

Unfortunately, the prohibitive launch costs and challenges of sending the energy back to earth have left matters at the contemplation stage, but with the current focus on renewable energy, several companies are now betting that we’ll see hardware in space well before the next decade is over.

Going commercial

To understand what’s changed, we talked with William Maness and Philip Owen of PowerSat, one of a handful of companies planning to commercialize space-based power. Maness emphasized that the systems won’t require any new technologies, saying, “We aren’t doing science fiction, although it sounds like it; we’re looking for a steep decline in the cost curve, but no breakthroughs are required.”

PowerSat hopes to combine several recent developments, most of which serve to cut down on the weight of what’s put into orbit. At least one of these has found applications on earth: thin-film solar cells (PowerSat is looking at CIGS-based cells—Copper, Indium, Gallium, and Selenium—on a titanium or aluminum substrate). These can reach high efficiencies despite being only microns thick.

To deploy these in space without heavy equipment, PowerSat is looking to leverage some of the testing NASA has done on the use of inflatable structures in space. All of that means that far more energy-producing hardware can be put in space as a single unit. Maness says that the company’s models predict that it can get about 17MW out of a single 10-ton unit.

Most proposals for space-based solar have involved a constellation of satellites, each transferring those 17MW to a central unit for transmission back to earth. This adds to the complexity of the system and means at least one satellite has to integrate a very large amount of power. PowerSat hopes to avoid all that. The satellites will receive a pilot signal from the ground and use that to coordinate their energy-carrying return signal to the ground-based receiver. “The satellites act as a radio frequency cloud to create a phase array of phased arrays,” Maness says.

When the microwave signal hits the ground, the transmission from each satellite should be additive—all of which dramatically cuts down the weight and complexity of the hardware that has to be put into orbit.

The other place that PowerSat plans to save weight is in propulsion. “Traditionally, powersets are in geosynchronoous orbit and relied on a chemical tug to pull them out to geo,” Maness said. But NASA’s work with ion engines, which are lightweight but require an electric power source, have provided an alternate method—clearly, once the solar arrays unfurl, there will be no shortage of power.

When asked about the risk of opening up something that large amidst the junk in low earth orbit, Maness said that “a collision would have very little impact outside some small, critical areas.” In most cases, space junk would rip straight through the thin film material.

This setup will allow PowerSat to “start in all sorts of initial orbits” and take six to eight months to transfer to a geosynchronous orbit. “We can focus on the lowest cost ride,” Maness said. All told, these differences should mean that launch weight is cut by two-thirds compared to more traditional schemes—the 17MW satellite will come in at about 10 tons. And, since launch weight means dollars, this represents a huge cost savings.

Grounding the power

On the ground, the microwave power sent by the satellites is received by a structure that’s about a mile wide and between one and two miles long, depending on how far north of the equator it’s based. Maness says that there are chunks of unallocated microwave frequency that can easily handle the 230 watts per square meter that’s allowed by the EPA. Despite the size, the cost of the ground stations are only a small fraction of the total expense; PowerSat estimates it at $100 million or so. That’s largely because the hardware is very diffuse. Rain and sun can pass right through it, and Maness suggested the ideal location might be over an orchard or corn field, where the added heat could be advantageous.

And there is some added heat; models suggest about two degrees Fahrenheit for every 10 minutes in the core of the signal—about a quarter of what you’d get on a sunny day at the beach, Maness said. He indicated that the EPA had done extensive testing, and birds and other animals that might be bothered by the microwaves simply leave the area. It’s not completely without effect, though: “Your cell phone will definitely stop working,” Maness said.

http://arstechnica.com/

okey dokey then

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0x5wgN2Xg

There Is Something In The Attic And It’s Alive – Our metal roof and huge discoveries

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

We finally decided to get a metal roof and that was a learning experience in and of itself but it led to many horrifying discoveries. But first the metal roof.

http://www.newenglandmetalroof.com/

http://www.metalroofingwholesalers.com/

We shopped around and it was amazing the difference in contractors. I asked 4 contractors to give us bids on both a metal roof and a standard roof. I also asked if they had installed a metal roof and could I see it. On one end, a contractor who had done work for a couple of my friends that they were happy with showed up at the house. He took no measurements. He did not get on the roof. He said a metal roof would be 15,000 $$$ and 25 year roof in shingles will be 7,000 $$$. Let me know what you decide and left.! I called my friends and said WTF. They said, oh John is such a clown but he does good work…

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61nP-dDSKTL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

Another contractor was good with the numbers but vague about experience and two other contractors seemed to have the numbers and the experience. One, Promax from Decatur gave me great references, One metal and one traditional. We decided to do the metal roof with them. I am an ex-roofer. I wish I could say that things went smoothly. They didn’t. I am currently satisfied, but there were problems some of which they couldn’t control.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61nP-dDSKTL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

They ordered the roof. It arrived late and not all the parts came. They had to reorder the parts. It rained every four days so that a job that was supposed be done in 2 weeks in June took 2 months, June and August. Did I mention that it was blazing hot when it wasn’t raining?

chicagoist.com/2008/07/09/watch_pro_volleybal…

Nonetheless two things were apparent when they were done. The valley’s around the dormers had been done “creatively” and we would just have to see how the winter went. Cathy was concerned about falling ice from the garage hitting the house and I was concerned about ice damming. The creativity about the valleys is hard to explain.. They do three feet of flashing in the valley and then cover it with metal roofing. The center of the valley is essentially decorative because the seam is protected by the sealing and the flashing. Well that and the continuously vented ridgecap (much more on that later) and the valley pieces were part of the reordered parts and when they showed up they had to get creative because the roof was pretty much done. They turned the valley pieces upside down and affixed them giving our roof a “distinctive” look.

As I said, unconventional. I understand. They would have had to unseal almost the whole roof to insert the metal under the other pieces of roofing for what was a decorative effect. But it scared the living bejesus out of the contractors we asked for bids on the solar space for the back of the house. Anyway to make a longer story much shorter the roof leaked in February and they came back and tinkered. The roof leaked in March and they came back and found the problem. Not however before I discover some real serious problems that horrified me.

My 19 Year Old Panasonic Light Capsule Died Today – I am so sad

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

I can barely post today I am so wracked with grief. 19 years is longer than I have been with anyone. I could tell you stories. When I lived in New Orleans it was our “vacation lamp”. So for 12 years in a row no matter what else it did it was on for two weeks solid in all kinds of weather. It wasn’t even supposed to be an outdoor lamp. But I put it there anyway. It kept watch over my dieing wife in her final days with it’s softwhite light. Lately it has been in the basement in our laundry room. A retirement home of sorts, where it only had to shine once in awhile.

Who CARES if Michael Jackson’s died? I want my light bulb back! Sob… It just sort of flickered this morning and then it went out…in memorial:

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-EFG25E50-Capsule-Collection-Fluorescent/dp/B00008BKXZ

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Technical Details

25-watt bulb replaces standard 100-watt incandescent bulbs
Cool, white lighting for bright illumination
Up to 10,000 hours of burn time
Consumes 70 to 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulb
Starting temperature as low as -22 degrees F for reliable outdoor lighting

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
Pansonic Energy Efficient long lasting compact fluorescent lamp suitable for indoor / outdoor operation. Replaces standard incandescent 120V light bulbs. Over 70%-75% saving energy cost compared to standard incandescent bulb and 10,000 hours long life compared to 1,000 hours of standard incandescent bulb. Available in two designer color: Warm Color or Cool Color. Energy Star Standard. Note: Not suitable for use with dimming circuit, sensor, or photocell devices.

From the Manufacturer
This 25-watt, Panasonic fluorescent bulb burns bright indoors and out, replacing standard incandescent 120-volt light bulbs for a 70 to 75-percent energy savings. The bulb offers 10,000 hours of brilliant cool lighting compared to the 1,000 hours you get from standard incandescent bulbs. Available in two designer colors, warm and cool, this bulb is not suitable for use with dimming circuit, sensor, or photocell devices.

Product Details

Product Dimensions: 3.8 x 3.8 x 5.3 inches ; 6.4 ounces
Shipping Weight: 9 ounces
Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
ASIN: B00008BKXZ
California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
Item model number: EFG25E50
Average Customer Review:

7 Reviews

5 star: (1)

4 star: (4)

3 star: (2)

2 star: (0)

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› See all 7 customer reviews…

› See all discussions…

3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #72,675 in Home Improvement (See Bestsellers in Home Improvement)
Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

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I feel so bad because I bitched about paying 10 $$$ for the little guy when new. That is about 53 cents a year. Cheaper than an incandesent and it paid back in three years…

At the funeral one man said:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Light but…, January 28, 2004

By	John Kwong (Los Angeles, CA USA) – See all my reviews

The light from the bulb is excellent, the warm light feels like day light, while the Verilux daylight really feels too strong on the blue spectrum to me, at least I don’t see the same color under the sun light.The Panasonic bulb is great except it takes a while to reach full brightness(like 20 sec. or so). and it starts very dim. The 15w looks like a 20w. incandlescent for the first 5 sec. if you have not turned on the light for a while(10 minutes). which might annoy some people. Yet I don’t have problem with other bulb flourscent light with such a long delay such as Verilux.

Kind of made him sound like a dim bulb but he was brighter than I.

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

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

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.

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

By Brent Mazerolle
Times & Transcript Staff

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.”

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.

Me I am headed for the refrigerator:

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

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

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

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

By JAMES GLANZ

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.

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.

HOT Rocks Rock

There Is Enough Wind Power To Generate The Electricity To Power The Entire World

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

A very hairy paper from three Harvard Grad students purports to show that especially the USA, Canada and China have all the wind power that we need to generate all the electricity we currently need. The rest of the world does too but not within it’s own confines. In other words some areas like say the Tibetan Uplands have way more than they need and maybe landlocked Germany does not. So they would have to trade but the net wind power to generate the electricity exists according to:

Xi Lu, Michael McElroy, and Juha Kiviluoma in:

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/06/19/0904101106.full.pdf+html?sid=12c8f234-313a-48e6-8e65-a59a1ead2b29

IN the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America – I tend to believe these guys-

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/06/19/0904101106.abstract?sid=12c8f234-313a-48e6-8e65-a59a1ead2b29

But all I can show you here is the abstrat because the 6 page paper is in PDF:

Global potential for wind-generated electricity

+Author Affiliations

^aSchool of Engineering and Applied Science, Cruft Lab 211, and
^bDepartment of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 100E Peirce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; and
^cVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, P. O. Box 1000, 02044 VTT, Finland

Communicated by James G. Anderson, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, April 29, 2009 (received for review November 6, 2008)

Abstract

The potential of wind power as a global source of electricity is assessed by using winds derived through assimilation of data from a variety of meteorological sources. The analysis indicates that a network of land-based 2.5-megawatt (MW) turbines restricted to nonforested, ice-free, nonurban areas operating at as little as 20% of their rated capacity could supply >40 times current worldwide consumption of electricity, >5 times total global use of energy in all forms. Resources in the contiguous United States, specifically in the central plain states, could accommodate as much as 16 times total current demand for electricity in the United States. Estimates are given also for quantities of electricity that could be obtained by using a network of 3.6-MW turbines deployed in ocean waters with depths <200 m within 50 nautical miles (92.6 km) of closest coastlines.

Footnotes

¹To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mbm@seas.harvard.edu
Author contributions: X.L. and M.B.M. designed research; X.L. and M.B.M. performed research; X.L., M.B.M., and J.K. analyzed data; and X.L., M.B.M., and J.K. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

http://www.pnas.org/

They have pretty pictures too.

For a not so bad summary:

Wind could power the entire world
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
June 22, 2009

Wind power may be the key to a clean energy revolution: a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science finds that wind power could provide for the entire world’s current and future energy needs.

To estimate the earth’s capacity for wind power, the researchers first sectioned the globe into areas of approximately 3,300 square kilometers (1,274 square miles) and surveyed local wind speeds every six hours. They imagined 2.5 megawatt turbines crisscrossing the terrestrial globe, excluding “areas classified as forested, areas occupied by permanent snow or ice, areas covered by water, and areas identified as either developed or urban,” according to the paper. They also included the possibility of 3.6 megawatt offshore wind turbines, but restricted them to 50 nautical miles off the coast and to oceans depths less than 200 meters.

Using this criteria the researchers found that wind energy could not only supply all of the world’s energy requirements, but it could provide over forty times the world’s current electrical consumption and over five times the global use of total energy needs.

Turning to the world’s two largest carbon emitters, China and the United States, the researchers found that wind power has the potential to easily supply both nations.

Windmill for pumping water in Kenya

Wind turbines for power generation in Maui.

“Large-scale development of wind power in China could allow for close to an 18-fold increase in electricity supply relative to consumption reported for 2005,” the researchers write. “The bulk of this wind power, 89%, could be derived from onshore installations. The potential for wind power in the U.S. is even greater, 23 times larger than current electricity consumption, the bulk of which, 84%, could be supplied onshore.”

Expanding their view to the top ten carbon emitters, the researchers found that Russia, Canada, and the United States (in this order) had the greatest capacity for wind power. However, they note that much of the area available for wind power in Russia and Canada is far from any cities, making their construction costly. In addition, the authors note that the public may oppose wind turbines in particular areas, especially remote, ecologically sensitive regions. Still, they conclude that “despite these limitations, it is clear that wind power could make a significant contribution to the demand for electricity” in most high carbon emitting countries.

http://sustainablog.org/2009/02/03/wind-energy-jobs-surpass-coal-mining-jobs/

Todd Woody reported last week that the wind energy industry now employs more people than coal mining. That is 85,000 jobs in wind – a 70% increase from 2007 – to coal mining’s 81,000 jobs.

http://greenwombat.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/01/28/wind-jobs-outstrip-the-coal-industry/

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

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

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

: 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.

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, Jimmy C. Fung ^1,2 and Alexis K. Lau ^1,3^,*

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

Download 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.

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

Comments (0)

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

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.

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

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

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

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.

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 »

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/

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

Published on Thursday, May 14, 2009

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.

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

Green Economics and how it might work

Wind turbine draws crowd at PORTA High

Generator is final phase of $7.6 million energy-saving project

Turbines in the sky

June 16, 2009 11:44am

Will the stars align for space-based solar power?

Going commercial

Grounding the power

Panasonic EFG25E50 Capsule Collection 25W Compact Fluorescent Lamp (Globe Shape)

Technical Details

Product Description

Product Details

Urban farms the wave of future?

Permit granted for experimental farm in Moncton neighbourhood

Projected food, energy demands seen to outpace production

Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears

Multimedia

Australia opens round 2 of the Geothermal Drilling Program

Global potential for wind-generated electricity

Abstract

Footnotes

Todd Woody reported last week that the wind energy industry now employs more people than coal mining. That is 85,000 jobs in wind – a 70% increase from 2007 – to coal mining’s 81,000 jobs.

Environment

Powerful Ideas: Miles-High Kites Could Generate Electricity

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

Kite applications

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bailout Watch 554: Cash For Clunkers Passes House