Biofuels have been around as long as cars have.
A biofuel is a fuel that contains energy from geologically recent carbon fixation. These fuels are produced from living organisms.
Generating Electricity from Wing Waves.
Wind turbines, like windmills, are mounted on a tower to capture the most energy. At 100 feet (30 meters) or more aboveground, they can take advantage of the faster and less turbulent wind.
Producing electricity from solar energy.
Solar energy is a free, inexhaustible resource, yet harnessing it is a relatively new idea. The ability to use solar power for heat was the first discovery.
Turbines catch the wind's energy with their propeller-like blades.
A blade acts much like an airplane wing. When the wind blows, a pocket of low-pressure air forms on the downwind side of the blade.
Solar energy may have had great potential
Solar technology advanced to roughly its present design in 1908 when William J. Bailey of the Carnegie Steel Company invented a collector with an insulated box and copper coils.
We have been harnessing the wind's energy for hundreds of years.
For utility-scale sources of wind energy, a large number of wind turbines are usually built close together to form awind plant.
Biofuels are produced from living organisms.
In order to be considered a biofuel the fuel must contain over 80 percent renewable materials.
Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth.
Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth's surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma.
Geothermal heat pumps can tap into this resource to heat and cool buildings.
A geothermal heat pump system consists of a heat pump, an air delivery system (ductwork), and a heat exchanger-a system of pipes buried in the shallow ground near the building.
In the future, civilization will be forced to research and develop alternative energy sources.
Possession of surplus energy is, of course, a requisite for any kind of civilization, for if man possesses merely the energy of his own muscles, he must expend all his strength - mental and physical - to obtain the bare necessities of life.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Destructive Ivanpah Solar Project To Finally Start Operations
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Are Environmentalism And Selfish People Why We Will Be Crushed By Peak Oil And Global Warming
Forget nuclear now, and there is that specter of global warming tarnishing coal power plants. So why, then, aren't we producing more from this sustainable technology?
There is that matter of the sun, on average, only being available 8 hours or so per day. Thus, for two-thirds (night, clouds, power factor) the time, you either need to use this as an intermittent source (which makes the investment risky), or install storage systems, which could double the price. Molten salt heat exchange fluids are being used, and these ultimately could become competitive once the carbon tax is instituted.
Wheeling was one constraint (some say just transmitting this electricity if you need to build new grids could almost double the price of renewable energy), but there are power lines with sufficient capacity in various parts of the country, including especially that highway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
So what is the problem? Squirrels, for one, and tortoises. Yes, Solar Millennium (from Germany) abandoned a 250 MW solar project because of the Mohave ground squirrel, although water laws also got in the way. Now Brightsource (started out as Luz), with 2,600 MW of signed contracts and a 1.4 billion loan guarantee from the U. S. Department of Energy, has reached a crucial decision for their solar tower power concept because of the desert tortoise. But Brightsource's chairman, John Bryson, was recently named as the next Commerce Secretary.
Thus, a lot of politics and environmentalism at play here for this 10 billion effort. You can't win for anything these days. For example, Brightsource conducted an acceptable environmental assessment for these critters in 2007. Unfortunately, that was a drought year, when these animals stayed burrowed. Now with normal rains, tortoises are all over the place.
Brightsources's chief executive, John Woolard, was quoted to say:
"Climate change is the biggest driver of species extinction there is. If Ivanpah (the site next to Primm Valley Golf Course--note that green spot to the right above--where I just played) doesn't move forward or can't be done, then we should write-off all renewable energy in the country."
Woolard, 46, holds a master's in environmental planning.
With geothermal energy on the Big Island long stymied by environmentalists, lifestylists, marijuana growers, Hawaiian activists and Rain Forest advocates, and the 3 billion Big Wind project in big trouble, I guess we will need to wait until the combined hammer of Peak Oil and Global Warming crushes our economy. No squirrels and tortoises here, but there is something called NIMBY (not in my back yard), people who want to protect their lifestyles. Some might call them selfish. A goodly number actually think living off the land and having fewer tourists might not that be all that bad. When the doom comes, I can predict that when reality hits, many of the above will necessarily then willingly support these sustainable options. But won't it then be too late?
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Monday, February 18, 2013
How Much Land Will We Industrialize
Sunday, February 10, 2013
All Eyes On Ivanpah Will Federal Policy Finally Take Notice
Monday, October 15, 2012
Mission Accomplished
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Israel Concentrated Solar Power Csp Plant Gets Private Funding
The Be over Solar Damage (CSP) situate, which the ministry whispered tendency be one of the largest of its structure, is standard to depart deed in the concluding partly of 2017 and tendency be in wing to two other power stations to be built convenient - one each based on solar thermal technology and a photovoltaic one.
Communally, the three stations tendency wait on Israel before 1 percent of its domicile electricity requirements before a utter cut of 270 megawatts.The assemblage has set a make an objection of producing 10 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The situate tendency be set up according to the play a part, design and take (BOT) dummy, in which the Megalim Solar Damage count on tendency outline, finance, play a part, design and control the situate for 28 being and then take the plant's ownership to the Israeli assemblage.
The count on includes BrightSource - a designer of Be over Solar Damage (CSP) - Alstom of France and the Noy Armory, an trailblazer in telephone lines and energy projects.
http://www.helioscsp.com/noticia.php?id not=2566
Be over Solar Damage, Concentrating Solar Damage, CSP, Be over Solar Thermal Damage, solar power, solar energy, Israel, BrightSource Verve, Alstom,
worldwatch@nodo50.org
Sunday, February 7, 2010
How Much Is Too Much Heat For Birds
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
First Solar Meddling In Riverside County Election

















