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dpurdy

Unearthing the True Cost of Fossil Fuels : TreeHugger - 0 views

  • “true” cost of coal: Depending on how you factor in the costs of climate change, it could be between a few additional cents per kWh to a whopping ¢26.89 extra per kilowatt hour—the high-end estimate from the Harvard study. By way of comparison, the average American paid ¢11.54 per kWh on their residential electric bills last year.
dpurdy

Wind turbine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 1 views

  • A wind turbine
  • converts kinetic energy from the wind
  • into mechanical energy
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  • The first electricity-generating wind turbine was a battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by Scottish academic James Blyth to light his holiday home in Marykirk, Scotland.
mcdermottaar99

Wind Turbine Syndrome | Wind energy: The "least sustainable energy option" - 0 views

  • Wind turbine installations impact vast amounts of land, far more than traditional power plants.
  • Wind turbine installations require vast amounts of steel, copper, rare earth metals, fiberglass, concrete, rebar and other materials for the turbines, towers and bases.
  • Principal health issues are associated with noise – not just annoying audible noise, but inaudible, low-frequency “infrasound” that causes headache, dizziness, “deep nervous fatigue” and symptoms akin to seasickness. “Wind turbine syndrome” also includes irritability, depression, and concentration and sleep problems. Others include “shadow flicker” or “strobe effect” from whirling blades, which can trigger seizures in epileptics, “vibroacoustic” effects on the heart and lungs, and non-lethal harm to animals. Serious lung, heart, cancer and other problems have been documented from rare earth mining, smelting and manufacturing in China, under its less rigorous health, workplace and environmental regulations.
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  • Raptors, bats and other beautiful flying creatures continue to be sliced and diced by wind turbines.
  • Wind turbines are supposed to reduce pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. But because backup generators must repeatedly surge to full power and back to standby, as wind speed rises and falls, they operate inefficiently, use more fuel and emit more – much like cars forced to stop repeatedly on freeways.
  • Even huge subsidies cannot cure wind power’s biggest defects: its electricity costs far more than coal, gas or nuclear alternatives – and its intermittent nature wreaks havoc on power grids and consumers.
    • dpurdy
       
      Be cautious as this site is obviously anti wind power. The points might be valid though.
  •  
    wind turbine impacts 
jack wells

Wind farms can cause climate change, finds new study - Telegraph - 0 views

  • Wind farms can cause climate change, according to new research, that shows for the first time the new technology is already pushing up temperatures.
  • Usually at night the air closer to the ground becomes colder when the sun goes down and the earth cools. But on huge wind farms the motion of the turbines mixes the air higher in the atmosphere that is warmer, pushing up the overall temperature.
    • dpurdy
       
      What this means is that close to the wind farm there is a local warming, not a global impact.
dpurdy

Hydrogen Fuel Cells | INTUITECH - Intuitive Technologies - 1 views

  • Thirty-eight nationally recognized companies in the United States, including eleven Fortune 500 corporations, are collectively saving millions of dollars in electricity costs while reducing carbon emissions by tens of thousands of tons per year by using fuel cells, according to a new report by Fuel Cells 2000, a non-profit education and outreach organization. 
rodriguezjos99

Tidal power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • The world's first large-scale tidal power plant (the Rance Tidal Power Station) became operational in 1966.
    • dpurdy
       
      This is a barrage system. Old tech.
  • Tidal power, also called tidal energy, is a form of hydropower that converts the energy of tides into useful forms of power - mainly electricity.
  • Tidal power is extracted from the Earth's oceanic tides; tidal forces are periodic variations in gravitational attraction exerted by celestial bodies
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  • Tidal power is the only technology that draws on energy inherent in the orbital characteristics of the Earth–Moon system, and to a lesser extent in the Earth–Sun system.
  • A tidal generator converts the energy of tidal flows into electricity. Greater tidal variation and higher tidal current velocities can dramatically increase the potential of a site for tidal electricity generation
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    "tidal power has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than wind energy and solar power."
dpurdy

First Tidal Power in U.S. Starts Flowing to the Grid - IEEE Spectrum - 0 views

  • An offshore turbine is finally spinning in the United States!
  • Bay of Fundy, off the Maine coast. The TidGen has a peak power output of 180 kilowatts, enough to power around 25 to 30 homes
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    The ONLY tidal power plant connected to the grid in the US is online.
conwayjam99

Wind Energy, Noise Pollution - Robert Bryce - National Review Online - 0 views

  • “headaches, ear pain, nausea, blurred vision, anxiety, memory loss,
  •  
    "headaches, ear pain, nausea, blurred vision, anxiety, memory loss, are all symptoms from the noise of wind turbines 
dpurdy

World_energy_consumption_by_type_2006.png (763×277) - 4 views

  •  
    about 6.27% of energy is generated by hydrogen fuel cells
coreyemi99

How Do PV Solar Panels Work - Solar - 0 views

  • When a visible light photon strikes a solar cell it can do one of three things: pass straight through, be reflected, or be absorbed. If the photon is absorbed, its energy is absorbed by an electron in an atom of the solar cell enabling it to escape from its normal position (photon excitation), cross the junction and fill a hole. Since electrons are physically moving across the PN junction, the positive charge carrying holes are effectively moving in the opposite direction around the load circuit (a rechargeable battery or light bulb etc). This completes the circuit providing more holes for the electrons to combine with and providing usable electricity.
dpurdy

Hydrogen vehicle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 2 views

  • As of October 2009, Fortune magazine estimated the cost of producing the Honda Clarity at $300,000 per car
  • by 2010, the Department of Energy estimated that the cost had fallen 80% and that such fuel cells could be manufactured for $51/kW,
  • When compared to ICE vehicles using gasoline, however, fuel cell vehicles using hydrogen produced from natural gas reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60%
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    • dpurdy
       
      so an internal combustion engine releases more co2 than a fuel cell that uses natural gas as its hydrogen source. 
  • Hydrogen fuel does not occur naturally on Earth and thus is not an energy source, but is an energy carrier. Currently it is most frequently made from methane or other fossil fuels. However, it can be produced from a wide range of sources (such as wind, solar, or nuclear) that are intermittent, too diffuse or too cumbersome to directly propel vehicles. Integrated wind-to-hydrogen plants, using electrolysis of water, are exploring technologies to deliver costs low enough, and quantities great enough, to compete with traditional energy sources.[1]
  • While methods of hydrogen production that do not use fossil fuel would be more sustainable
  • The challenges facing the use of hydrogen in vehicles include production, storage, transport and distribution.
  • The hydrogen infrastructure consists mainly of industrial hydrogen pipeline transport and hydrogen-equipped filling stations like those found on a hydrogen highway. Hydrogen stations which are not situated near a hydrogen pipeline can obtain supply via hydrogen tanks, compressed hydrogen tube trailers, liquid hydrogen tank trucks or dedicated onsite production.
  • Hydrogen fuel does not occur naturally on Earth and thus is not an energy source, but is an energy carrier. Currently it is most frequently made from methane or other fossil fuels. However, it can be produced from a wide range of sources (such as wind, solar, or nuclear) that are intermittent, too diffuse or too cumbersome to directly propel vehicles. Integrated wind-to-hydrogen plants, using electrolysis of water, are exploring technologies to deliver costs low enough, and quantities great enough, to compete with traditional energy sources.[2]
  •  
    Fuel cell cars are expensive.  The fuel cell costs a lot
dpurdy

Energy Resources: Wave power - 1 views

  • Ocean waves are caused by the wind as it blows across the sea. Waves are a powerful source of energy.
  • How it works There are several methods of getting energy from waves. One of them works like a swimming pool wave machine in reverse. At a swimming pool, air is blown in and out of a chamber beside the pool, which makes the water outside bob up and down, causing waves.   At a wave power station, the waves arriving cause the water in the chamber to rise and fall, which means that air is forced in and out of the hole in the top of the chamber. We place a turbine in this hole, which is turned by the air rushing in and out. The turbine turns a generator.
  • Once you've built a wave power station, the energy is free, needs no fuel and produces no waste or pollution.
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  • Not expensive to operate and maintain.
  • Needs a suitable site, where waves are consistently strong.
  • Some designs are noisy. But then again, so are waves, so any noise is unlikely to be a problem.
  • Is it renewable? Wave power is renewable.
dpurdy

EIA Energy Kids - Biomass - 1 views

  • Biomass is organic material made from plants and animals (microorganisms). Biomass contains stored energy from the sun. Plants absorb the sun's energy in a process called photosynthesis. The chemical energy in plants gets passed on to animals and people that eat them. Biomass is a renewable energy source because we can always grow more trees and crops, and waste will always exist. Some examples of biomass fuels are wood, crops, manure, and some garbage. When burned, the chemical energy in biomass is released as heat. If you have a fireplace, the wood you burn in it is a biomass fuel. Wood waste or garbage can be burned to produce steam for making electricity, or to provide heat to industries and homes.
  • Crops like corn and sugar cane can be fermented to produce ethanol. Biodiesel, another transportation fuel, can be produced from left-over food products like vegetable oils and animal fats.
  • Ethanol and biodiesel were the fuels used in the first automobile and diesel engines, but lower cost gasoline and diesel fuel made from crude oil became the dominant vehicle fuels. The Federal government has promoted ethanol use in vehicles to help reduce oil imports since the mid-1970s.
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  • Compared to petroleum diesel, biodiesel combustion produces less sulfur oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and unburned and other hydrocarbons, but more nitrogen oxide.
  • Growing plants for biofuels is controversial however, as the land, fertilizers, and energy used to grow biofuel crops could be used to grow food crops instead. Also, in some parts of the world, large areas of natural vegetation and forests have been cut down to grow sugar cane for ethanol and soybeans and palm-oil trees to make biodiesel.
  • Biofuels may be considered to be carbon-neutral because the plants that are used to make biofuels (such as corn and sugarcane for ethanol, and soy beans and palm oil trees for biodiesel) absorb CO2 as they grow and may offset the CO2 produced when biofuels are made and burned.
  • Biomass — Renewable Energy from Plants and Animals Source: The National Energy Education Project (Public Domain) Source: The National Energy Education Project (Public Domain) Biomass is organic material made from plants
  • Biomass fuels provided about 4% of the energy used in the United States in 2010. Of this, about 46% was from wood and wood-derived biomass, 43% from biofuels (mainly ethanol),
dpurdy

Biofuel Guide - Introduction to Ethanol and Biodiesel - 0 views

  • First generation biofuel are those fuel derived from vegetable or animal fats/oils, starch or sugar with the use of modern technology.
    • dpurdy
       
      Gallons per acre In the perspective of land use and agricultural efficiency, ethanol seems to be a good choice. The reason is that about 420 gallons of ethanol can be generated per acre in contrast to 60 gallons of biodiesel per acre soybeans. Consequently, the cost of soybean oil would significantly increase if biodiesel production is increased as well.
  • 1. Let the base organic material (corn, sugarcane, wheat, etc) pass through a grinding meal to pulverize the selected material. 2. Then, liquefy it by placing the blend of water, grain powder and an enzyme that facilitates the breakdown of the grain compound into a high-heat cooker. 3. Cool it afterwards. Add another enzyme that will facilitate the conversion of starch into sugars which are then fermented, producing alcohol from the cooled mash. 4. Start the fermentation by adding yeast to the sugar mixture. The sugars will be broken down to ethanol (a form of alcohol) and carbon dioxide. 5. Distill the fermented mixture in order for the ethanol to separate from the solids. 6. Get rid of the water from the separated ethanol through a dehydration process.
  •  
    "Cellulose ethanol production is newly discovered experimental processes which can breakdown cellulose in woody fibers. This would only mean that through this method, ethanol from crop wastes, trees and grasses can be derived. It is significantly better since trees and grasses require small amount of energy in comparison to grains that must be replanted annually. "
dpurdy

Biodiesel Performance, Costs, and Use - 0 views

  • Unless soybean oil prices decline dramatically, it does not appear that biodiesel can be produced in large quantities at a cost that is competitive with petroleum diesel
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