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Black Law Windfarm |
[Energy] |
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Posted on January 1, 2009 @ 08:50:00 AM by Paul Meagher
The Britian From Above website was developed by the BBC to provide information about Britian using a novel web interface. This interface is currently getting some buzz in the Rich Internet Applications (RIA) community.
One of the video-clips that the site hosts concerns the Black Law Windfarm, located in Scotland, which is the largest windfarm in Britian (serves around 200,000 homes). What I found interesting about this project was the idea of putting windfarms on the site of old mining operations. Before the Black Law Windfarm project could proceed they needed to "reclaim" the land so that the wind could blow unobstructed over grasslands into the propellors. This is what they have today and, to me, this seems a much better outcome than the "reclaiming" the mining companies would have done.
Siting a windfarm on the site of old mining operations is a win-win proposition but it seems like you can never please some people who will always object to having windfarms as the dominant feature of a landscape. The ugliness objection in this case is weak because the alternative is a blight on the landscape as well. At least this blight provides clean energy to 200,000 homes in Britian and is producing a highly significant reduction in green house gas emissions in a country that still uses alot of coal to produce electricity.
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Municipal Power Systems |
[Energy] |
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Posted on October 31, 2008 @ 09:44:00 AM by Paul Meagher
Lately, I've become more convinced that the solution to many of our problems lies in the devolution of power to the local level. Connecting a green energy source to the power grid can be a very expensive undertaking which often requires the approval of multiple levels of government, not to mention the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of the energy industry to retain their fossil-fuel monopolies.
The paradigm shift I think we will need if we want to modernize our power systems is to design our energy futures in such a way that 100% of the power is generated and consumed locally with a large chunk of the financing for local power generation initially coming from municipal taxes. These municipal taxes would be reduced as revenues from local power consumption flows into the municipal level of government. There is no reason why the municipal power system can't be financially self-sustaining as green power technology improves and costs go down. Going local with our power systems would also be a stimulus to consumers to monitor their power consumption so that your community as a whole can try to eventually achive 100% sustainable power.
A sustainable local power system would be a great legacy to leave our kids rather than the truely spooky future (war, disease, famine) that Jared Diamond predicts we will be facing within 20 years if we proceed on our present course.
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Ultra-high-voltage DC transmission technologies and infrastructure |
[Energy] |
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Posted on September 12, 2008 @ 08:00:00 AM by Paul Meagher
In a TheStar.com interview, well-known venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, claimed that an important investment area would be "next-generation, ultra-high-voltage DC transmission technologies and infrastructure".
In his mind, getting off coal and other fossil fuels means playing to our clean-energy strengths and connecting our energy sweet spots to a large, trans-national grid that can efficiently carry power over long distances.
Such a grid would mean that renewable energy from solar and wind power sources, for example, would still flow throughout the country when one part of the country has decreased solar or wind inputs. Scaling up means the sun always shines and the wind always blows.
It will be interesting to see how the grid for solar power evolves over the next few years. In a press release for the Massachussett's Green Communities Act, they nod in the direction of rooftop solar power grids:
The measure also authorizes utility companies to own solar electric installations they put on their customers’ roofs – a practice that was previously prohibited – up to 50 MW apiece after two years. If utilities take full advantage of this new opportunity, it will poise Massachusetts to meet Governor Patrick’s goal to harness 250 megawatts of installed solar power by 2017.
An ultra-high-voltage DC transmission infrastructure allows ones to imagine a solar-house in Boston collecting the renewable energy required to provide lighting for a clouded over solar-house in Minneapolis and vice versa.
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Buying energy |
[Energy] |
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Posted on August 11, 2008 @ 07:15:00 AM by Paul Meagher
I recently talked to a person who buys energy for a utility in Prince Edward Island. I knew the utility was moving heavily towards generating energy from wind so I was suprised to find out that he wasn`t too positive about this form of power. From his point of view the problem was that it didn`t replace any existing power plants owing to its intermittent nature so for him it wasn`t a solution. He still needs to buy coal and operate existing power plants for days when the wind does not blow. He would like to see some of these power plants shut down but reliance on wind power won`t do it.
Nevertheless, PEI is moving aggressively towards generating energy from wind. I recently read that a new blade design is being tested here - one that draws its inspiration from nature. The fins of a humpback whale have ridges on them. The professor in Pennsylvania realized that if he put similiar ridges on the propeller it might help the wind turbine run more by reducing the likelihood of turbine stalls. The data has not come in yet, but one estimate is that it will allow the propeller to run 1% more of the time.
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