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tony curzon price

Group read, energy, week 4. Will solar energy let us fly to the sun in winter? | open D... - 0 views

  • Feb 7 2009. Join the Group Read. Chapters 5 and 6. Flight and Solar Will solar energy technologies allow us to sustainably take those long-haul flights to get our winter dose of sunshine? On the way, we discover that flying intecontinentally once per year has an energy cost slightly bigger than leaving a 1 kW electric fire on, non-stop, 24 hours a day, all year, despite the fact that modern planes are twice as fuel-efficient as a single-occupancy car. It may be no surprise, therefore, that Airline businessman Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, has developed a Swiftian the solution to the problem: " The best thing we can do with environmentalists is shoot them."
tony curzon price

Ch 19 Page 117: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air - 0 views

  • Second, to supplement solar-thermal heating, we electrify most heating of air and water in buildings using heat pumps, which are four times more efficient than ordinary electrical heaters. This electrification of heating further increases the amount of green electricity required. Third, we get all the green electricity from a mix of four sources: from our own renewables; perhaps from “clean coal;” perhaps from nuclear; and finally, and with great politeness, from other countries’ renewables. Among other countries’ renewables, solar power in deserts is the most plentiful option. As long as we can build peaceful international collabor- ations, solar power in other people’s deserts certainly has the technical potential to provide us, them, and everyone with 125 kWh per day per person.
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    The basic plan: electrify transport, electrify heating, generate electricity from UK renewables, clean coal, nuclear and imported solar from deserts. There.
anonymous

Ch 6 Page 41: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air - 0 views

  • paving 5% of the UK with solar panels seems beyond the bounds of plausibility in so many way
    • anonymous
       
      What efficiency level is needed to give worthwhile returns from an acceptable coverage of land? If the max plausible efficiency and land use don't stack up, we should forget it.
anonymous

Ch 14 Page 86: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air - 0 views

  • It doesn’t require high-cost hardware, in contrast to solar photovoltaic power.
    • anonymous
       
      A low-tech, non-experimental system that can be rolled (or floated) out progressively - and produces the goods - looks very attractive.
tony curzon price

Energy group read - The basic solution | open Democracy News Analysis - 0 views

  • Chapter 18 was depressing --- the diffuse nature of renewables in the crowded UK basically means that a realistic view of their usage makes it clear we won't make it on local wind, tide, sun, geothermal, wood etc. Assume: a) we can't change energy per capita too much; b) we can't change the capita (ie no creepy population control) and we still want sustainability ... The basic solution is:  1. electrify transport 2.  electrify space heating 3. produce electricity with whatever local renewables we can, augmented by clean coal, nuclear and imported solar from desert regions. Sounds simple, no?
tony curzon price

Balance: thinly spread and unpopular | Energy group read - 0 views

  • March 30th 2009. Join the Group Read. Chapter 18. A first balance (Instructions on how to join are at the bottom of the original post) This is the first chapter attempting to balance-up consumption and production. While the story told so far of the raw energy potential from renewable sources shows an ecouragingly close race to maintain our rich lifestyles with sustainable energy sources, a little digging provides much disappointment. Between the potential and the realisation lies a factor of over 100! From a production potential of 180 kWh per day per person, we get to an actual production figure of just 1 kwh/d/p and a "realisable" estimate of 18 kwh/d/p---a full ten times less than our consumption. Looking at the heart of the physics problem, David MacKay points to the geographically diffuse nature of renewables: each person needs a huge amount of land, tidal exposure, wind per person to make the sums add up. The sustainable potentials, as David emphasises, need "country-sized solutions". "To get a big contribu- tion from wind, we used wind farms with the area of Wales. To get a big contribution from solar photovoltaics, we required half the area of Wales. To get a big contribution from waves, we imagined wave farms covering 500 km of coastline. To make energy crops with a big contribution, we took 75% of the whole country." Yet protection of species, habitats, nature, beauty etc. all move the same people who want to reduce fossil fuel dependency to limit the installations. Something will need to give to balance our energy ...
metalthrax

Alternative Energy Journal - 0 views

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    Green DIY Energy can be defined as energy that is created using the earth's most common energy sources and converting them to electricity. In most cases, the sources of energy present on the earth are the best to be used in our lives.
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