DEBATE ON GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is my continuing blog on global warming. If you are new visitor, please look at last couple of blog entrys also on global warming!!!!
"There are so many arguments proving & disputing global warming that people can't seem to agree completly on it. But for all the preperations that we make for hurricanes & other disasters, what do we have to lose if we prepare for global warming as if the worst might come true?
The answer is pure common sense. We should try to eliminate the variables that cause global warming instead of just arguing about it. It's like a hurricane- if we prepare for the worst, it can only save lives & money. If it does not come, no one will have been hurt & we may even have a healthier Earth."
Book I recommend reading:
Videos I recommend:
"Who killed the electric car?"
HBO'S "To hot Not to handle"
"Inconvienent Truth"
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So, thank you, crucilandia, for the link to that pic. I actually agree with you that solar concentraters make more sense than PVs for large-scale, centralized power generation.
They incorporate storage in the form of circulating salts that store the heat generated during the day for use at night. They do, actually, need less space than PVs (different type of energy collection so can't be directly compared to PVs) to produce the same overall power. The mirrors do require maintenance but so do PVs. Both get dirty, weathered, scratched, and, um, "visited" by birds which decrease their efficiency over time. Also, when they use the term "mirrors" they aren't talking about glass. They can be made of much sturdier materials.
Simplified, the mirrors are really concentrating heat which is used to turn water into steam to turn a turbine - just like a coal- or oil-fired plant (or nuke), really. That can continue despite dirt and even cracks, up to a point, as long as they remain focused on the tower.
It is so much more sensible than a PV field in many ways.
PVs make great sense on individual houses and businesses to feed into the grid, though. Use it all!!! There's plenty of it.
This is a little disjointed - sorry! It's getting late and now I've worn myself out, and can't bring myself to address the question of powerline losses, lol. Maybe tomorrow...
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this is not true
The existing panels on the ANU 400-m2 dish are approximately 4.4 m between the vertices, and this size requires 54 panels to cover the dish surface. Halving this vertex dimension to 2.2 m was considered a useful first step upon which to develop a model, as this would require 216 panels to cover the dish surface, whereas panels with smaller dimensions than this would require increasingly larger numbers of panels, which would make both modelling and manufacturing such a dish excessively cumbersome. Also, 2.2 m is a good size for packing in standard shipping containers.
excellent input.
what is the area of solar panels necessary to generate 10kW of energy?
A 5000 ft2 mirror does the job.
Sandia National Laboratories researcher Rich Diver checks out the first prototype of the 10-kW Solar Dish/Stirling Remote Power System, which incorporates the best of advanced solar technology developed at Sandia in recent years. A version of the solar collector will be placed on Indian Lands in the Southwest where it will pump water for agricultural purposes
BTW...The mirrors & the solar collecter works for me but, at the same time I think they should have the panels or film on every rooftop, window & convienent place to put them. This helps to tackle alot of the transmission topic brought up. Less energy needs to be transmitted then.
THE TECHNOLOGY IS HERE, THE TIME IS NOW!!!!!
Well stated Fish! That's the way I look at this legislation.
sp~ I'm always glad to have my misconceptions cleared by someone more knowledgable on a subject. I watched NOVA | Saved By the Sun | PBS last night and that cleared up some of my misconceptions about PVs. (If you didn't see it I recommend catching it on an alternate PBS station or watching it online.) While I know quite a bit about mirrors and their reflection efficiency I didn't know that PV's aren't that efficient either.
I say use it all too! PVs can be highly local and avoid tranmission losses. No one solution is going to solve the precarious position we find ourselves in. That's not a justification to "do nothing". ;^)
crucilandia~ If the efficiency of the PVs and the mirrors are the same it is true. The same amount of solar radition is falls on the collection area no matter what is inside the collection area. I can't make it more simple than that.
You on the other hand have copied and pasted something completely irrelevant about how the size of dish panels was decided. Was it an attempt to appear smart or to distract? Or both?
BTW you still haven't answered my original question, lol. The first prototype of the 10-kW Solar Dish/Stirling Remote Power System sounds great. Would you have us believe there is something sinister in encouraging it's continued development?
I watched FRONTLINE: hot politics | PBS last night also. I'd be very interested in what you have to say about it after you watch it.
i agree
they are not. that's the whole discussion
The same amount of solar radition is falls on the collection area no matter what is inside the collection area. I can't make it more simple than that
you are very limited then. It is very simple. AREA WISE, using a MIRROR one can collect same amount of sunlight in a MUCH SMALLER area.
why is it irrelevant?
Yes, that is one thing I learned last night. I also learned that more efficient PVs are under development. ;^) (Hint!)
AREA WISE, using a MIRROR one can collect same amount of sunlight in a MUCH SMALLER area.
It's still the same amount of energy. It's basic physics, the law of Conservation of Energy.
why is it irrelevant?
It has nothing to do with the amount of incoming solar radiation on a given area.
You agreed with me AGAIN!!! lol
Fish even during the height of the East Pacific season you don't always see this many boxes (and the MJO enhancement is absent now)!
Yea really strange. I am by no means a weather expert but, they keep saying that we are going to neutral or la-nina conditions. They said the same thing last year before the season started & I kept telling everyone that it looked more like el-nino to me. Lo & behold which did we get??? I will say this though, last year I was looking at the Jason satellite data, I was not going by this websites pic of the SST'S. This year the Jason does not look to bad but, Wundergrounds??? Woof, that's ALOT of hot water & it looks to me like it is going to be stretched all the way across the Pacific. Bad news... only going to get warmer going into summer. I just hope our side stays cooler..
This is Jason Sat. link
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under development. The solar film developed in South Africa being one of them. I posted about it earlier on...
South Africa Develops Revolutionary Solar Power Technology
A team of South African scientists has stunned the world with the announcement of an innovative, highly efficient solar power technology that can make houses completely self-sufficient for energy. By Linda Orlando
A new technology announced earlier this year by a team of South African scientists is causing a buzz of excitement all around the world. The technology, which will enable homes to obtain all their electricity from the sun, means that high electricity bills, fuel shortages, and power failures may soon be just distant memories. The unique solar panels will make it possible for houses to be completely self-sufficient. They are able to generate enough energy to run stoves, lights, televisions, refrigerators, and even computers—all the modern conveniences of the average household.
The new technology was created by a team of scientists led by University of Johannesburg scientist Professor Vivian Alberts, after 10 years of research. The technology behind the solar panels has been patented around the world. Using a special converter, energy from the panels can be fed directly into the existing wiring of houses, and new powerful storage units will hold enough energy storage to meet demands even in extremely cold weather. The panels are so efficient that they can operate in any temperature, and they can generate energy with any daytime light, although direct sunlight generates the most high energy levels.
The South African solar panels are constructed of a thin layer of a unique metal alloy that converts light into energy. The cheap alloy solar panel is much more efficient than the costly old technology silicone solar panels, making the panels much more affordable. The photo-responsive alloy can operate on virtually all flexible surfaces, therefore it may be used in the future in numerous other applications. International experts all agree that nothing else comes close to the effectiveness of the new South African invention.
Alberts said that the new panels are approximately 5 microns in thickness—a human hair is 20 microns thick—while the older silicone panels are 350 microns thick. Therefore, the cost of the panels is a mere fraction of the less efficient silicone panels. Alberts said that in Switzerland, new homes are already required to include solar technology to ease demands on energy from national power grids. "And that was the older, less effective technology," Alberts said. "With our hours of sunlight, we will on average generate twice as much energy than, for instance, European countries."
Other companies have developed technology to work in conjunction with the new South African solar panels. Companies are developing super-efficient storage batteries and special converters to change the energy into various power sources for different countries. One of the global leaders in solar energy solutions, IFE Solar Systems in Germany, has invested huge sums of money in the South African invention and plans to manufacture 500,000 of the panels before the end of the year. Production has already begun and the factory will run 24 hours a day, producing more than 1,000 panels a day to meet expected demand.
Eskom, the state electricity company of South Africa, is doing its own research on solar energy, as well as wind and fuel-cell technology, and the government welcomes any new power supply that will lessen the current demand for electricity. The government is worried that it will run out of capacity for peak surges within two years. Carin de Villiers, a spokesman for Eskom, said the government is "currently investigating building what will probably be the largest solar power plant in the Northern Cape—a 100-megawatt facility." In the past year there have been several power blackouts in Johannesburg, and the government wants to prevent being embarrassed by outages that might occur during the 2010 World Cup.
The new solar panel technology developed by Alberts’ team may have come along just in time. "We are running out of power rapidly," says de Villiers.
By Buzzle Staff and Agencies
Published: 5/3/2006
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It's been almost a year since this story broke. We should be hearing results soon. Stay Tuned...........
All Amped Up
By Lawrence Ulrich
I took my first ride in the Tesla Roadster on Thursday — in Manhattan, not the best environment to test its claimed 4-second blast from 0-60 m.p.h. As an auto reviewer, I usually reject an offer to ride shotgun only. But I couldn’t resist the lure of this battery powered, Silicon Valley-bred offshoot of the Lotus Elise, one of my favorite wildly impractical sports cars.
Tesla RoadsterThe previous afternoon I had met with a Tesla executive in New York. Darryl Siry, Tesla’s marketing vice president, said that Roadster production would ramp up slowly beginning in late summer, with the first customers taking delivery sometime in October. The two-seat Tesla, which has already sparked enough overheated media emissions to roast the planet, is indeed hot: the company says that 100 people plunked down full price -– roughly $100,000 with options –- to get one of the early editions. All told, the company has orders from 380 buyers, whose driveways they hope to have filled by about June next year, via the same assembly plant in Hethel, England that builds the Lotus.
Is the Tesla fast and fun? Well, yes, but that’s not so surprising, considering its mating of a robust electric motor with one of the smallest, lightest, tightest-fitting cars around. I like to think I’m a hardcore sports car fan, yet even I couldn’t drive the Tesla, or the Lotus, on a daily basis.
Mr. Siry freely acknowledges that the Roadster isn’t a car for soccer-pooling parents. It’s about proving that plug-in technology can work, that electric cars don’t have to be frumpy and dull. More telling for Tesla’s long-term prospects will be a model in development, code-named White Star. The generously sized sports sedan will feature a lightweight aluminum chassis and body, the better to extract maximum efficiency and range from its battery pack. Tesla plans to build 10,000 of the sedans beginning in 2009, from a factory in Alberquerque that begins construction next year.But enough business: Who’s getting the cars first? When the must-have machine combines red-hot performance with green, global-warming consciousness, one can only imagine the jostling among the Hollywood elite.
Tesla’s chairman, Elon Musk, he of the Pay Pal fortune, will get the first of 23 roadsters, a Founders Series set aside for company investors. Mr. Siry insists they’re all paying full price for their cars. Mr. Musk apparently had to fight for first dibs with Martin Eberhard, Tesla’s chief executive.
Beyond that, Tesla is being somewhat coy about the public run. But George Clooney’s cleft-chin credentials –- Hollywood superstardom, passion for green issues, decent checking balance -– got him all the way to No. 8 on Tesla’s list. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who’s been wielding his regulatory pen against carbon-dioxide emissions like it was Conan’s mighty sword, couldn’t get higher than No. 10. The Governator, however, only asked for his car two weeks ago, and was almost immediately slotted into the Top Ten.
Will.i.am of the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas, expressed his interest in the Tesla and is now hovering around No. 59. In a hip-hop universe that exerts enormous cultural influence, having an owner-advocate in the community could create even more buzz for electric cars, Mr. Siry said.
Who knows — maybe 50 Cent and T.I. will one day trade in their Hummers and Range Rovers for Teslas and other E.V.’s. They may not want to boast about all the gas they’re saving, but the references to plug-ins, sockets and juice would offer endless possibilities for dozens of new hits. And no car on the planet will be a hotter date for next year’s Oscars, allowing a nominee to strike the perfect pose -– fashionably green, but still driving something the hoi polloi can’t touch.
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K, I was wondering when & who was going to get the 1st ones!!!!!!!!!
Also, here is a more recent article about them.
Thanks for posting about it! I must have missed it, last time.
G'night!
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THANX ALOT for the links, just what I was looking for...
LowerCal, those links accompany that article on the solar film. That is one of the HUGE advances in solar technology I have been talking about. As soon as I heard of it, I thought man the possibilities with this stuff is endless. My 1st thought Hmmm flexible power generating film.... LAPTOP!!!!! Think about it it could be everywheres. I also just heard of a "solar paint" on that Nova website you provided lol...God, I wish I had money to invest into all this. All this green technology is where all the money is going to be made soon!
THE TECHNOLOGY IS HERE, THE TIME IS NOW!!!!!!
The Tesla Roadster visits Washington, DC, April 24 to April 26. See the car up close and meet Tesla Motors staff members. (Tesla Motors is still finalizing its east coast schedule. Please check this page prior to the event for schedule updates and additional event opportunities.)
U.S. Department of Transportation
Tuesday, April 24, 10am-4pm
400 7th Street
S.W., Washington D.C. 20590
U.S. House of Representatives
Wednesday, April 25, 10am-4pm
Location: House side of Capitol Hill
U.S. Senate
Thursday, April 26, 10am-4pm
Location: Senate side of Capitol Hill
Tesla Roadster Tour – Chicago
Tesla Motors has tentative plans to display the Tesla Roadster in Chicago on April 29. Please check back for details.
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Well it will be interesting to see how much publicity they gain, started yesterday.
Extreme daily rainfall events in some parts of these areas are also strongly linked to the phase of the MJO. Hurricane and tropical storm activity in the region is also linked to the phase of the MJO and to extreme daily rainfall events. The predictability of extreme daily events is assessed both directly in terms of MJO influence and indirectly in terms of MJO influence on hurricanes.
Mathew A. Barlow, University of Massachusetts
a renewed active phase of the MJO may develop from South Africa into the southwest Indian Ocean during roughly weeks 2-3. Coupling with the warm west Paciific SSTs looks probable centered ~10S/160E while at least diurnally intense convection occurs across much of Brasil. This would suggest a return to a GSDM Stage 4-1 (La-Nina like) response meaning zonal mean easterly flow anomalies should re-appear across the deep tropics while the tendency of relative angular momentum becomes negative.
(Ed Berry and Klaus Weickmann)
But a market-based system with an economywide cap on emissions and trading of emission allowances would do the same, while having distinct advantages (3). Most important, a cap-and-trade system, coupled with adequate enforcement, assures that environmental goals actually would be achieved by a certain date. Given the potential for escalating damages and the urgent need to meet specific emission targets (4), such certainty is a major advantage. A federal cap-and-trade system could be incorporated into existing emissions trading frameworks and markets, such as the Kyoto Protocol's international market or subnational ones like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
(Science 23 March 2007)
Human-derived emissions from fossil fuel combustion are one of the smaller components of the atmospheric flux of CO2, which is dominated by exchange between forests and the oceans. During most of the past 10,000 years, the uptake and loss of CO2 from forests and the oceans must have been closely balanced, because atmospheric CO2 showed little variation until the start of the Industrial Revolution. CO2 from coal, oil, and natural gas combustion now comes from many segments of society, including electric power generation, industry, home heating, and transportation. Unbalanced by equivalent anthropogenic sinks for carbon, fossil fuel emissions account for the vast majority of the rise of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere. Caps on emissions, like those instituted for SO2, will be difficult to institute if the burden of reducing CO2 is to be borne equally by all emitters.
Because land plants take up CO2 in photosynthesis and store the carbon in biomass, forests and soils seem to be attractive venues to store CO2. Market-based schemes propose substantial payments and credits to those who achieve net carbon storage in forestry and agriculture, but these projected gains are often small and dispersed over large areas. We will need to net any such carbon uptake against what might have occurred without climate-policy intervention. Conversely, will Canada and Russia be billed for incremental CO2 releases that stem from the warming of cold northern soils as a result of global warming from the use of fossil fuels worldwide?
If credit is given to those who choose not to cut existing forests, the increasing total demand for forest products will shift deforestation to other areas.
sp~
crucilandia~
That's great news on the new PV technology coming out of South Africa. I'd like it even better if it were coming out of the US. ;^) I'd hate to see us end up as only consumers in this market. From the NOVA program currently marketed silicon PVs only convert the red/near-infrared wavelength into electricity. Sophisticated layering technology is under development that would allow relatively efficient use of the entire spectrum.
crucilandia~ I knew the MJO was laying low and didn't know where or when it would resurface again. Thanks for the info.
thanks for the input in the PV spectrum
but still we don't have a good grasp of the fluxes between ocean air and biosphere air. so is important not to think that humans are the culprit
I agree that land use factors do add another challenge to an effective solution ... but nothing that can't be overcome if there is the will to act.
how much coal do you burn to generate electricity to recharge the batteries of the "Tesla?
Less when you use less coal to generate the electricity. ;^) Gasoline, ethanol and natural gas transportation will always have a carbon footprint. I think that's the strongest justification for going to electric transport as quickly as possible. It would be interesting to compare the carbon footprints of a gasoline car with an equivalent electric car (charged with the total average of all current grid generation methods)... anyone?
But we are forcing CO2 into the atmosphere unrelated to the natural fluxes in addition to making large scale land use changes ... so it's important not to think that humans have nothing to do with it.
where is the link btw solar and global warming in the article?
Solar storms, such as the unusually intense events in October and November 2003, affect many aspects of our lives, such as radio signals and satellite communications. Now a new study partially funded by NASA and using data from several NASA instruments has shown that those late 2003 solar storms, which deposited huge quantities of energetic solar particles into Earth's atmosphere, combined forces with another natural atmospheric process last spring to produce the largest decline ever recorded in upper stratospheric ozone over the Arctic and the northern areas of North America, Europe and Asia
The scientists found the coldest stratospheric winters, during which most of the ozone loss occurs due to greater polar stratospheric cloud formation, have gradually become significantly cooler during the past few decades
While the 2004-2005 Arctic winter has been unusually cold, six of the past seven Arctic winters were unusually warm, with little or no potential for Arctic chemical ozone loss," "This period of warm winters was immediately preceded by a period of unusually cold winters. The point is that it is absolutely critical that we understand how and why the Arctic stratosphere varies from year to year, and that we need to be very careful to consider and account for natural variability when determining trends in atmospheric circulation, temperature, ozone levels and climate change
how much coal do you burn to generate electricity to recharge the batteries of the "Tesla?
Good question, not real sure. A rather irrelevant question but, a good one the same. Well our power here comes much to my disgust from nuclear as do many others in this country lol.So no coal use there. Also you have to remember this, think of all the gases that will NOT be introduced due to less gasoline being burned.The power plants fuel use is also a huge problem along with the transportation problem. Now think of what I have been saying all along. If set up right, the charge for the car would come from your own personal PV's so their would be NO coal burned to power the Tesla or any other electric vehicle for that matter. This point we already covered lol.
LOL How old is that article????? Like to hear their thoughts after the '05-'06 & '06-'07 arctic winters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TOYOTA just became the largest car manufacturer. Hmmm go figure...
I guess that had nothing to do with their fuel-efficiency & their hybrid pursuit!
Also, an electric car is far more efficient than a gasoline car, so the amount of pollution generated by producing the electricity to drive an EV a given distance is much less than the pollution from the gasoline to drive an internal combustion car the same distance.
LowerCal,I got that statement right off the Tesla website! They also have a couple charts comparing the Tesla to a
1- hybrid
2-gasoline
3-diesel
4-hydrogen
5-natural gas
run car. The Tesla more efficient than all of these. I remember seeing more info on your question. I WILL find it lol.
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As discussed above, natural gas will likely be used to fuel plug-in hybrids where available because natural gas plants adapt best to marginal increases in load. Also, wind power works well for plug-ins because much wind electricity is generated at night when plug-ins would be charged.
Further studies are being done on the cumulative emissions impact if electricity for plug-in hybrids is generated by coal. It is already apparent, however, that powering plug-ins, even with coal, would be cleaner in almost every area of the country, if not every area.Additionally, emissions would be concentrated in one location that is often away from critically-endangered air sheds. Also, it is less difficult to control emissions from a relatively few number of smokestacks rather than millions of vehicle tail pipes. And, efforts to clean up coal plants and other emissions will continue.
In fact, over the last 25 years emissions from U.S. power plants have decreased by 25%. This has been done through retiring old power plants and incorporating cleaner generation technologies. This trend is expected to continue so emissions will continue to get cleaner over time, meaning emissions generated from electric transportation will get cleaner over time.
Utilities Have the Electric Capacity
Over 40% of the generating capacity in the U.S. sits idle or operates at a reduced load overnight, when most PHEVs would be charged. That means tens of millions of plug-ins could be charged every night without the need to build additional electric generation capacity. For example, Southern California Edison, an investor-owned utility, estimates that 4 million plug-in hybrids could be charged without exceeding its existing peak load. Millions more could be fueled within existing capacity.
The next answer cause I KNOW it's coming lol.
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I just got done reading this book by Sherry Boschert. My brother gave it to me. I HIGHLY suggest people to read it. ALOT of good info in there. I will post a couple points they were making in a few....
Battery Electric Vehicles (EVs) are by far the most efficient vehicles in the world.
According to the Department of Energy, enough excess generating capacity exists at night in the U.S. to charge 180 million EVs without adding any new capacity.
All of our electricity is domestic except for a small percentage from Canada.
Most Americans waste more electricity in their homes than they would use to drive their cars.
We will never fight a war over electricity.
Driving on electricity from the U.S. grid is far cleaner than driving on oil.
A survey of EV owners found that 48% of them used solar energy to power their houses and cars.
EVs by the millions could be built today.
Plug-in cars capable of 50 miles per day would meet the needs of 80% of the American driving public. Source: U.S. Department of Transportation.
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Like to hear their thoughts after the '05-'06 & '06-'07 arctic winters
The point is that it is absolutely critical that we understand how and why the Arctic stratosphere varies from year to year, and that we need to be very careful to consider and account for natural variability when determining trends in atmospheric circulation, temperature, ozone levels and climate change
Electricity consumption at night drops so they reduce the production accordinly, charging cars will maintain production high 24-7-365
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