Clean Energy & Efficiency

Time for more good news. All will remember how I forsee Cowen resolving the financial crisis. The petrol crisis is to be solved likewise http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece

Dan

Thanks for the links, must dust of the Physics books. Still don't quite get how an imbalance in a magnetic field can cause constant movement. I would have thought it would be a bit like free wheeling down a hill and expecting to get up one of equal size without peddling. Must do some reading, more interesting than a lot of what I am currently doing.

Energy is a sector that is at last showing signs of starting to move. Hopefully we are in for a scientific and technological revolution. Expect also big advances in bio engineering about 10 years from now. Now that sector is the really scary science, life adds an unpredictable factor into any equation.

Squire, I believe a sort of perpetual motion machine can be built with magnets only it's not perpetual because the magnets run down and need to be recharged or remagnetised. People have tried to do this by designing the device so the magnet gets recharged half the time but I don't know if that works. The magnet propulsion lasts 20 minutes or so before the magnet runs down. Your man below, on the other hand, has a slightly different view of perpetual motion machines as he has created a simple edifice of physics theory to back it up. I'd love if he was right - A Redneck Changes the World !

Newman Energy Google Video 1 - 71 mins


I'd like this energy crisis to precipitate new developments and advancements in sustainable energy technologies too. The algae use for oil production is very interesting and there is a video of it on this thread got from youtube. They reckon algae can produce upto 20,000 gallons of biodiesel per year per acre whereas palm oil produces 700-800 gallons per year per acre. 700 gallons X 40 miles = 28000 miles - just about enough to keep myself and the missus small cars going if I had a missus. Palm doesn't grow in Ireland though.

Time to buy an acre of some land and some plastic bags and pipes and come genetically engineered Frankenalgae..

This is my favourite one so far



There must be problems with this though ... ?

Yep that is the sort of technology that I can see working. One of the reasons why I think the concept of Europe should be widened to include some of the Mediterranean countries is to do with sun light. Ever visited southern Algeria or what was once Spanish West Africa!!! Serious sunlight also interesting differences in tempertature between day and night.

The scary part is you are dealing with living organisims and these have a tendency to escape and evolve. Visions of freezing in Squire Hall because I don't want to light the boiler as the place is covered with moss that excretes aviation fuel.

Nice gothic horror image at the end there Squire - the algae IS very exciting and we'll have to google for plenty more stuff on that.

This guy is a Straight Vegetable Oilman. He gives a good enough summary of a range of the technologies that are out there though he fails to talk about the efficiencies of the Air Car which is captured, I think, by a very light car body and very little heat loss. He nearly has me going to the local chipper and starting my own business however and the talk is a good celebration of the superiority of diesel technology... Time to fill in the Leader grant application form.

google tech talk - 59 mins - The Truth About Biofuels in America

The problem is the governments are owned by the super rich. Anyone who thinks Gates is the richest in the world is dreaming. The Rockefellers and Rothschilds and others own the Federal Reserve. They will prevent these energy sourses from coming on stream if possible. They want you to die off. Entire populations in Europe are even now not reproducing themselves. You ain't seen nothing yet. Energy is a control over the entire economy and free energy is not what they want. They want it as expensive as possible. They can afford it.
The only hope is for smaller political units of say 50000. The drive to ever larger units is playing right up their alley because they are easily bought.

The man above is making a fortune in Missouri where he recycles used vegetable oil into diesel . If I start my own business doing this in Clare where I could be living off the detritus of Supermacs then the Government will tax me for doing so. They have relaxed the tax laws in some states so you may produced bio-diesel for free. Here you may burn 2000 litres of biodiesel per year before they start taxing you fully on it. Why do they tax you at all ? You eat it it's one tax, you use it to move your car it's a different tax.

Someone needs to call in Chuck Norris, not David Norris to sort some of these policymakers out.

We need to be thinking 21st centuary Auditor. Chuck and David are old hat. Now in the age of genetic modification we need to combine these two into a supergay warrier. The time for such a lethal slaying by day, laying by night action hero must surely be now. His name could be Chuid Norris, pronounced chew-id, by running the two together. The battlecry could be the same for the slaying or indeed the laying.
Chuid Mother******, Chuid Mother******.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Here you may burn 2000 litres of biodiesel per year before they start taxing you fully on it. Why do they tax you at all ? You eat it it's one tax, you use it to move your car it's a different tax.

If someone can run their car on used oil from the greasy spoon the common sense approach would be to encourage.

If they continue that attitude with compressed air cars you know what they will be taxing next.

Here we go. What has this got to do with the internal market or EU integration?

It is closer to a declaration of war on a country that hasn't threatened us in any way.

Breakingnews.ie

Quote :

New sanctions against Iran, including an assets freeze of its biggest bank, were agreed by the EU today.

Iran’s Bank of Melli has been blacklisted by the decision, which implements already approved United Nations’ sanctions against Tehran.

The decision was formally adopted without debate at EU talks in Luxembourg.

Western officials have accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The United States placed the bank on its blacklist last year. The sanctions also include a travel ban on high level experts dealing with Iran’s nuclear program.

The EU’s blacklist of companies and people will be published tomorrow.

Can anyone tell me what an "assets freeze" is?

cactus flower wrote:

Can anyone tell me what an "assets freeze" is?

Self-justified robbery or blackmail or ransom of your own money ?

I don't know either what supposed evidence the UN has that Iran will make a bomb using the uranium they've centrifuged ? It's a bit outrageous that it's sanctioned by the international community like this...

It may well be that Iran wants a nuclear bomb. Seeing as Israel has scores of them and the US has thousands, it would not be surprising. I wonder if Iraq would have been invaded if it had had a few WMDs ?

cactus flower wrote:

Can anyone tell me what an "assets freeze" is?

It's where you can't liquidate your assets. Savings cannot be withdrawn and shares cannot be sold and so on.

This is the definition of it according to the Free Dictionary:

"c. To prevent or restrict the exchange, withdrawal, liquidation, or granting of by governmental action: freeze investment loans during a depression; froze foreign assets held by U.S. banks."

Oil has gone above 140 dollars now with the comments of the OPEC leader predicting 170 dollars a barrel. I think the animal spirits of the short-term bubble are pushing this up.

This is what they are at across the way - I suppose their economy is so big compared to ours that they really can save upto 20% by just slowing down.

Britain goes slow as trains, planes and ships cut fuel costs

Mad innit ?

The less time it take for trucks to deliver the more energy gets used but the opposite is also true - the more time they spend the less energy they combust until a certain floor is reached. Not a bad thing at all if it's true. America next please.

We should all try and reduce our use of energy, should be easy enough this time of year. If we can collectively get demand down then maybe we can cause this commodity bubble to pop, and that may give us an extra year or so to sort our selves out.

Auditor #9 wrote:

This is what they are at across the way - I suppose their economy is so big compared to ours that they really can save upto 20% by just slowing down.

Britain goes slow as trains, planes and ships cut fuel costs

Mad innit ?

The less time it take for trucks to deliver the more energy gets used but the opposite is also true - the more time they spend the less energy they combust until a certain floor is reached. Not a bad thing at all if it's true. America next please.

I guess the planes can't try this

Ireland should introduce a 70 kph national limit on National Roads and a 30 kph limit in towns and village imho - we would save masses of petrol and also lives.

Has anyone noticed the closed pumps in petrol stations? Apparently it is because they have to pay on delivery and the cost of filling both their tanks would be prohibitive - plus sales have dropped.

I read my car handbook once whilst stuck beside a road somewhere and it had great tips for saving petrol. Basically driving very smoothly and minimising the requirement for braking.

I never brake.

cactus flower wrote:

Ireland should introduce a 70 kph national limit on National Roads and a 30 kph limit in towns and village imho - we would save masses of petrol and also lives.

Fifth gear in cars is normally an overdrive gear, meaning the ratio of gearbox revolutions to engine revolutions is greater than 1:1
This means the faster you drive the more economical you're being - up to a point.
There is a certain speed where wind resistance overcomes the efficiency and it starts to become less economical. As far as I know this is thought to be around 60mph in most cars.

Quote :

I read my car handbook once whilst stuck beside a road somewhere and it had great tips for saving petrol. Basically driving very smoothly and minimising the requirement for braking.

Yeah the brakes just take all the kinetic energy from your car travelling at whatever speed and turn it into heat. The best thing is to use your gears to slow you down as the momentum pushes the engine along meaning you're using virtually no fuel.

Supposedly Mercedes are planning to eliminate petrol and diesel cars from their whole lineup by the year 2015.
Here's an article in the UK Sun.... (I don't read the Sun, I just saw a link to it on another site)
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/motors/phil_lanning/article1314732.ece

This link says we are both right - for SUVs and other heavy vehicles, 40 m.p.h. and for light, aerodynamic little cars 60 m.p.h. I think my car's best speed is 50-55 m.p.h. Planning drives for times when the roads are empty makes a huge difference to petrol consumption - I often do long drives between 8 and 10 at night.

How Stuff Works link

Sadly, the Mercs seem to rely on "electricity" - doesn't say from where and possibly bio-fuel (not very clear about that).

Has it occurred to anyone else that the speculators might actually be saving our bacon?? Let's face it, if oil exports fell in the Middle East by 2.5% last year, that means, if they supply 62% of the worlds oil, that supply last year dropped by 1.55% as a result. Since demand has been pushing at supply, if the price hadn't been rocketting up at the rate it has been, we would have had shortages... and panic at the pumps with associated stoppages may, believe it or not, have done more damage economically than the price....far be it from me to defend the hedgies and other capitalist robber barons, but......
any thoughts??

expat girl wrote:

Has it occurred to anyone else that the speculators might actually be saving our bacon?? Let's face it, if oil exports fell in the Middle East by 2.5% last year, that means, if they supply 62% of the worlds oil, that supply last year dropped by 1.55% as a result. Since demand has been pushing at supply, if the price hadn't been rocketting up at the rate it has been, we would have had shortages... and panic at the pumps with associated stoppages may, believe it or not, have done more damage economically than the price....far be it from me to defend the hedgies and other capitalist robber barons, but......
any thoughts??

The high price of oil is short term pain for long term gain. It is making investment in conservation measures (woolly jumpers, draught proofing) very good value and is also pushing the alternative energy sector into the realms of viability. Using oil for home heating should be something we are phasing out as quickly as possible.
Transport is a harder nut to crack. I am very interested in the Danish wind energy for cars project.

If oil was more plentiful then would we be in a better position to address environmental concerns? It seems to me that we have not previously made efforts until we had to.

If we come up with alternative combustible energy sources, such as biomass, bio-diesel, rapeseed oil and so forth, will these sources not still result in a net increas of CO2 given that the land could have been used for other CO2 converting crops anyway?

If we recover and use the oil that is still in the planet then are we doomed from a climate point of view anyway? It just strikes me that countries with the biggest risks, such as China, will not tolerate this.

In short, the oil crisis appears to be challenge and an opportunity that we are failing to rise to.

Link:A Physicist's Analysis of Alternative Energy Sources

Not surprisingly he is pro-nuclear. The article links to his site where you can download a draft of his book for free. I wonder should we question who is funding him? Interesting ideas though and scary reading for those putting their faith in wind/biomass/photo-electric alternatives.

I got this link from a PropertyPin thread.

Zhou_Enlai wrote:

If oil was more plentiful then would we be in a better position to address environmental concerns? It seems to me that we have not previously made efforts until we had to.

If we come up with alternative combustible energy sources, such as biomass, bio-diesel, rapeseed oil and so forth, will these sources not still result in a net increas of CO2 given that the land could have been used for other CO2 converting crops anyway?

If we recover and use the oil that is still in the planet then are we doomed from a climate point of view anyway? It just strikes me that countries with the biggest risks, such as China, will not tolerate this.

In short, the oil crisis appears to be challenge and an opportunity that we are failing to rise to.

We are told that the planet would carry on warming for some time even if we stopped all carbon emissions tomorrow. Carbon emissions are going up globally. I think we need to be dealing with a potential peak very energetically whilst we are putting in place long term new non-carbon energy sources.

I agree that combustible alternatives are not the way to go. We should be planting large quantities of forest to increase the size of the carbon sink before we start thinking about chopping anything extra down. The rain forests are being ripped down to plant palm oil for biofuel - one of the biggest ecocrimes going on at the moment. No one in Ireland seems to be thinking of the implications in terms of air quality of switching to wood chip, never mind the fact that it only becomes carbon neutral if you plant and grow additional forestry before you start using wood for burning.

Tidal power seems to be something that might have great potential for Ireland, given that it doesn't have the peaks and troughs associated with wind. I'm sure we'll find ways of using the wind peaks though - perhaps for charging batteries? and wind can play a big part. Solar power also works in Ireland for heating domestic water, for much of the year.

There are a lot of vested interests at play trying to sell various solutions that are not so carbon neutral as all that. We need neutral research and information on which to make decisions.