[start of exposition] i live in an island called Madeira (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira), we have a crap load of sun, are surrounded by sea and have wind corridors, we also have lots of water going downhill. i will enumerate some of the green power sources we have here (as i remember them): wind power: 6 wind parks, 3 private ones, 3 for the energy producing company, 4 of them on the main land and 2 in Porto Santo (http://www.eem.pt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=563&Itemid=493), the one from ENEREEM in "Paúl da Serra" produces an annal production of 7,56 GWh and has five 660 kW turbines, the 2 wind parks in Porto Santo produce annually 1,74 GWh of power, they have a combined number of 3 turbines, one at 660 kW the other two at 225 kW. http://www.eem.pt/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=536&Itemid=493 http://www.eem.pt/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=537&Itemid=493 hydro power plants: we have several of them (10, some of them are stopped and some work when there is water in that part), some are reversible, when there is to much power on the grid they reverse and pump the water backwards, they act like batteries. they are responsible for 15%-30% of the produced energy, this varies with the climate. solar power: currently we have a proposition from the company that produces the electricity (http://www.eem.pt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=715&Itemid=522) that lets everyone put solar panels on the roofs of their homes up to 5,75 kW or 3,68kW (depending on the source of the information), this includes wind generation, solar generation, etc... there is also a law that forces you to install solar water heaters on every new house. other: Porto Santo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porto_Santo_Island), the other island on our archipelago, will start using algae to produce bio fuels, by 2016 it will be free from external oil dependency. (http://diario.iol.pt/ambiente/madeira-porto-santo-energia-biocombustivel/935691-4070.html) if proven successful it will be ported to the main island. the company that produces the electricity is also exchanging incandescent lamps for CF lamps, this saves a crap load of energy for the energy producers and for the people. (http://www.eem.pt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=659&Itemid=508) every restaurant, fastfood and hotel has to dispose their oil correctly, it is then sent to mainland Portugal were it is transformed into biodiesel every main shopping centre is taking strides in becoming more energy efficient. [end of exposition] i think energy production in the future will come from a blend of technologies, not a single silver bullet, in places were you have lots of a certain type of power source, that place should use that one and blend it with other power sources. example: place with lots of wind and waves and very few sun: build horizontal wind generators on the sea and fields, small vertical wind generators on top of houses and buildings and wave power generators. example2: lots of clouds, almost no wind, strong currents: build a underwater "mix of vertical and horizontal generators" (yes they exist). example3: place with loads of sun, some wind, no water or rivers: solar panels, solar thermal parks, wind parks in wind corridors. etc.... why be happy with one source if you can have several sources (redundancy) and not have the risk of that specific source of fuel run out (fuel for nuclear power plants will run out, expectantly if the Chinese and Indians start behaving like Americans)? edit: and if she had solar panels on her house roof? I have seen some Californians do that with their RAV4EV. edit: nuclear energy is not evil, but going for another source of energy and staying exclusively with it is very daft.
It is very good, it's just there's the problem that the public are ignorant idiots and as soon as they head nuclear power plant they think of Chernobyl and mushroom clouds. We don't have nuclear power plants near cities because the public are stupid, and will kick up a fuss about how it's giving all their children whatever disease the tabloids decide it does. There are problems, but they're human ones, if people actually did their jobs properly then there wouldn't be so many problems with them. But it's still not the answer. Nuclear power plants take a long time to power up and power down, so they're not ideal for when there's a big spike of demand for power like when everyone puts their kettles on after coronation street. You also can't power cars by nuclear power, not until we get longer lasting batteries in our vehicles. Until we can find a decent renewable alternative, nuclear power should be used to power the majority of the national grid IMO, along with things such as offshore wind farms, and spikes in demand can be catered for by HEP and regular fossil fuel plants.
Somebody mentioned that bio-fuels would cause too much incursion on crops being used for food. There is only a certain value if it can be produced in enough volume and from alternative organic materials. I don't know about the UK, but here they are trying to use wood waste. A very promising source of ethanol is from (saw?) grass that I'm sure you don't have growing there. The UK probably doesn't generate enough wood waste either. I've heard a converted diesel will burn motor oil, vegetable oil from restaurants, cotton seed oil, and runs best on soybean oil. None of that sounds real plentiful there either. I agree with DXR_13KE, when he says that each place has their own forte that needs to be exploited, but sometimes people can't take advantage of it because the technology is lacking or availability isn't what it needs to be. In other cases, there are missing electric grids from where the power is being generated. Example 1: Most of the wind is in the center of the US where the population is the lightest. Example 2: Most of the solar arrays would be in the southwest where population is lighter also. Infrastructure is completely lacking to take advantage of these models. The existing power grids in the northeast are decrepit to ancient. Distances from the regions listed in the examples can easily be a thousand miles as the crow flies. This would also require much investment that is complete overhead until revenues are generated.
That's amazing! Why is it I don't hear it on the media elsewhere? (I'm saying this because I'm Portuguese and I didn't know about it) I also agree with DXR_13KE on that one, but I also think that even with the problems you point out, the investment should be made ASAP, as well as on research to make it cost effective. The dependency on oil has to end: IMAO not only it'll benefit the environment but also will calm thing down in certain unstable areas of the globe.
Biofuels are primarily used from material that would be thrown in landfills, even the gases from dumps are being used for power.(http://www.climatevision.gov/sectors/automobile/pdfs/workplan_3-3.pdf is a noteable example). I don't believe increased biofuel usage would raise the price of any goods unless they took the land itself away, which may be happening here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXZItyORjm8. If they are taking the forest's compost to generate power they will gradually take away the nutrient rich top-soil. Just speculation though. Using oils for biofueled cars helps this because the owners are getting the oil as waste from other people, like restaurant owners. The owner s don't have to pay for a disposal fee and the driver gets to make the roads smell like chinese food on his way to work. But yeah, that's not for everyone. Switchgrass is the plant that should replace corn as the new ethanol except for it has a stronger starch bond (i think) which makes it harder to get the yields they could, also (at least in USA) the corn companies have a whole lot of money and corn which has led us to using the corn we have for ethanol (which it doesn't do very well) and raising the cost of corn. It's also led to the downfall of a somewhat nutritious vegetable, but that's a different thread... Solar Power isn't that viable for huge power plant generation because of the typical arrangement of the cells. Using a combination thermal-electrical plant you can get the high wattage that power plants need. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_One. The idea for solar is it's an idea that individuals can use, an average joe can set up panels on their roofs. And if every one person does that, you Can power a town using them. Also the reason why Solar is only popular in some places is because the solar radiation is stronger there: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/12/graph-of-solar-radia.html. The great thing about solar though is that you can integrate it with things we already use, Solar window panes on office buildings, Solar roofing to insulate a home.... Wind is great, especially the offshore wind power, the main loses with this are in the extremely long transmission lines to get it back to land. Also, with building anything far away, costs for repair and maintenance. The things are expensive enough to put on land, installing a huge base a few miles out is just too much. I'm surprised I haven't of many farms installing windmills. Those guys seem to complain enough about not making money with all their land, why not make more by being a small wind plant? Offshore water power is another option, but harnessing the tide or waves is only cost effective in like four places on earth... http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200802/1204065625.html I don't know jack about Nuclear, except that everyone but America loves it, and France recycles the most of any other country. The cool thing is even though the waste doesn't go anywhere, there isn't much waste.In America we can't even have ours recycled by another country. They've been running some 30 years storing all the waste the make on site, stored under layers of lead-absorbed glass. Also, to anyone that hates nuclear because of the radiation. Coal-fire plants produce more harmful radiation and emit it right into the air, since they have less restrictions. http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/dec102006/1508.pdf The problem is us. We use more power than we ever have. If we made small adjustments to our lives then the alternative fuels would be able to go farther and provide for more people. We need to understand that the grid is just a way for people to get power. It doesn't matter how that grid is supplied power, as long as the grid is maintained as a constant for all the users, we can all use it to get, or give, power. If everyone helps a little in the form of a small scale plant, or not using as much power then we won't be in a crisis. The small changes will get the ball rolling so the people with all the money can see there is money to be made in helping the alternative fuels. As far as what I'm doing: I'm currently converting a motorcycle to pure electric. Realizing that all I need is a 12hp DC motor to replace a 50hp gas engine is making this a lot easier, again, another story. I installed small turbines in the downpipes of my house's gutter system a year ago. They give about 100W during a good rain. I'm also installing Solar panels at my school, which is great because I could never afford these things on a student budget, if all goes well I may be able to convince them to fund an electric car conversion.
Welcome to the forums. As for biofuels, great idea if we can get second generation refineries (ones that use agricultural waste) into production, unfortunatly we can't - we don't have any.
and you thought we only had bananas, Alberto João Jardim and Cristiano Ronaldo..... come visit us someday edit: off topic: Icy EyeG, did you know we had a project called "uma familia, um computador" lots of years (like 8 years) before those "e-escola" laptops came for the students? edit2: kewl, welcome to the forums, can you post a work log of your motorcycle here in the forum?
According to the guys who deal with some of the UKs power grid my gf went into an interview for, people putting solar panels on their roofs isn't a good thing. Because the house is generating electricity, to put the shortfall back in, you have to make sure that the power in from the NG is higher, so the more people do it, the higher the energy power companies need to produce to get the shortfall into homes.
As the Democratic Convention wraps up and the hoopla of the Republican Convention heats up Americans are still left with a sense of a lot of hot air of any concrete plans to end the energy crisis in America. Northerners dread the upcoming onset of fall and colder weather wondering how they will be able to afford how to keep their homes and families warm. Southerners have been sweating the high cost of energy raising the thermostat to save on their electric bills. Families everywhere are wondering where else they can cut back to cover the cost of fueling up the family vehicle to get back and forth to work and take care of the necessities of life. There is no money left for relaxation and family fun. The stress level continues to rise. The average electric bill has risen 16% to cover the power companies additional production costs. A gallon of milk is almost as precious as a gallon of gas. The cost of every consumer product has risen sharply. American's are stretched to the limit. Jobs are being lost, foreclosures are increasing at an alarming rate. Seems even the family pets are suffering the high cost of fuel as almost daily a new story is on TV about shelters being forced to euthanize record number of surrendered pets from those forced out of their homes or no longer able to care for them. The energy crisis in our country is far reaching and needs immediate attention. I am hoping whoever gets elected will get their act together and make this their #1 priority.
during the next few months we will get 27 more wind generators, with this we will triple the amount of power we get from the wind, a big chunk of this cash will come from private groups.
depending on were you live and what energy sources are available, were i live solar+wind+wave+hydro >> nuclear.
We drove from Oman to Abu Dhabi the other day...there must've been about 300km of desert / wasteland / mountains with an air temp of 40-50C, and very bright sunlight. There must be some potential there for a solar plant (using sun's heat to boil water) / solar panels, so why isn't it used? If it isn't very economical to wire electricity for 100's kms then it could be used to electrolyse water into H + O, piped to it's destination. I guess there's plenty/effectively unlimited of energy available to the planet in terms of heat / light from the sun, gravity from the moon, it's a case of first trapping it, then tranfering it to it's destination, then converting it to useful energy.
When I was over there, southern Oman, there was a crap load of wind every day as well. Wind farms would work pretty good too. If you can keep the sand out of them... I'm still finding sand in stuff and I was there over five years ago.
