Renewable Energy Sources

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello,

We know about wind turbines and solar photovoltaic and solar heat, right? And going beyond biomass, what other sources are there? Well, here are a couple:

Wave Power

A New Jersey company that already has this sort of power generation in production. The AC that is generated is stored on the buoy in a large capacitor, and then an AC inverter sends out a 60Hz (or 50Hz) AC via a cable to shore. These buoys are set up in arrays that generate a lot of power: 150kW for each buoy, with 60 buoys in each array, totaling ~10mW. The array covers about 17 acres of area, and is located 2-3 miles offshore.

Science Friday Archives: Wave Power

Direct link to MP3 podcast: http://media.libsyn.com/media/scienc...2007081012.mp3

Tidal power is also briefly discussed.

Here's an alternate way to make hydroelectric:

Turbines Could Tap the Mississippi's Power - Technology Review

[Angelus359]

10mw is a lot of power

[solarguy]

Deep geothermal is often overlooked. While not widely available, in those areas, it's a big deal. Technological advances may broaden it's utility somewhat.

The other one that rarely gets mentioned is plain old aggressive conservation. Good conservation stretches the limited solar/wind/geo resources that much further.

eg, it's relatively easy to heat your house with solar energy, even in northern states, if the house is insulated to r-50, rather than the typical "r-13" or "r-19".

Neighborhood scale electrical co-generation could also potentially improve the overall efficiency of the "grid" from 30-35%, to more like 60-65%, regardless of which fuel you burn.

Please carry on.

troy

[NeilBlanchard]

Thanks for mentioning co-generation -- it can be as high as 80%, I think? Copenhagen uses this, and neighborhoods could use it, too. Very low grid losses, and all the heating and cooling for a bunch of houses at once -- and they can use locally sourced renewable fuels.

Methane digesters from the sewage, landfills, etc. are also possibilities.

[solarguy]

Yes, it can actually be higher than 80% if all the stars are aligned just right.

I built/have a residential cogen unit, and have the parts to build a second bigger one, so this is not a theoretical, pie-in-the-sky scheme. The first one is broken at the moment. Curse those one-off prototypes.


Finest regards,

troy

[Frank Lee]

I recently saw an article about university researchers exploring microgenerators; for example the movement in soldier's boots generating enough power for their night vision goggles. It could also power cell phones and loads of other small power users too. I like the idea of doing away with the kajillion batteries those things consume.

[04_Sentra]

Originally Posted by Angelus359

10mw is a lot of power

That's almost certainly 10MW instead of 10mW.

[04_Sentra]

How about biogas? Every landfill makes it and you got to do something with it.

[NeilBlanchard]

Yep - methane digesters / production can be used in landfills, sewage treatment plants, animal farms, and purpose made gas production from many types of biological waste. After the methane is made, the resulting material has fixed nitrogen, which means it is not water soluble (and won't wash away in the first rain), making it a high quality fertilizer. Which allows you to NOT make fertilizer from natural gas, so it can eliminate TWO sources of carbon dioxide.

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/20...ergy-come.html

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/20...ergy-cont.html

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/20...resources.html

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/20...ve-energy.html

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/20...generator.html

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/20...eneration.html

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/20...-feathers.html

[04_Sentra]

Maybe everyone knows about these already but here are links to two utility scale solar projects under construction:
370MW Ivanpah plant in Cali is solar thermal.
BrightSource formally breaks ground at Ivanpah | Brightsource Ivanpah

290MW Agua Caliente in AZ is PV.
Agua Caliente Solar Project ? Yuma County, Arizona ? First Solar

Both are supposed to be online in 2013.