Thor’s Hall

Recently Scott Adams took a cursory look at the economics of Nuclear Energy in the US, and he rasied some great points.  Ultimately the issue is much larger than just building plants, and disposing of the waste material.  Go take a look here.  The best thing about Scott’s posts are the discussion that it generates.  There are a lot of intelligent folks that get opinionated in the comments section.

Gotta love the conclusion though:

The U.S. nuclear power debate usually gets characterized as a wrestling match between irrational scaredy cats and clear-headed rationalists, refereed by a comically incompetent government. The only thing I know for sure is that no one can understand the economics of a 40-year investment.

We all know that there are a lot of grants out there that are a bit unusual.  This bit of research says to me that:

a.)  Someone has too much time on their hands.

b.)  Someone else has too much time on their hands, in that they probably lobbied for, and developed the grant that resulted in this research.

Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research.

While millions of people tap into Google without considering the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”

So the next time you initiate that google search… think about it, do you need to have that large a carbon footprint??   Incredible.

Click here for the whole story.

You may recall that alternate energy is one of my side interests, although I do not do a lot of posting on the topic.  Frankly, most people find the topic dry and the reality of the situation is that it is a very complex problem to solve.  It is not just a technology problem but also an infrastructure problem.

I ran across this interesting AP article, about Toyota developing a solar vehicle.  This is something that has been going on in engineering schools for years, and having participated in one of these competitions I can tell you (at least at the time) that this is a bit of a pipe dream.  But, if they can draw enough energy from the solar panels to keep a good charge going to the battery or directly to the motors it might make ranges on electric vehicles a viable.  Of course your markets are going to be limited.  Can you imagine a small town like Yuma being >60% solar vehicles?  That would be cool.

TOKYO – Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy in an effort to turn around its struggling business with a futuristic ecological car, a top business daily reported Thursday.

The Nikkei newspaper, however, said it will be years before the planned vehicle will be available on the market. Toyota’s offices were closed Thursday and officials were not immediately available for comment.

According to The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle, and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes. The automaker later hopes to develop a model totally powered by solar cells on the vehicle, the newspaper said without citing sources.

I have made no bone about my opinions of the threat that is posed to the United States by Iran.  I have pretty clearly stated my opinion that Iran has been a huge supporter of terrorism across the globe since 1979, and perhaps earlier.

An interesting point about the impact of the falling price of oil on our friends in Iran was made over at Threatwatch.org.  Even more interesting is the delta between the tipping points for each country referenced.

The price of crude oil has hit an 8 month low, dipping to just under $90 a barrel. The decrease in price is being attributed to the global financial slowdown, which analysts believe will lead to a reduction in the consumption of gas. The decline in price should come as some relief to the average American and the numerous industries that are struggling to cope with the ripple effects of high energy costs.

Iranian leadership, however, view the decline in the price of oil with great concern. Speaking at the Second International Gas Conference in Tehran, a gathering that includes leading oil and gas producers, Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari called on OPEC members to stabilize prices at over $100 a barrel. “A price of US$100 and below is not suitable for anybody, neither oil producers nor oil consumers… OPEC members need to respect their output quota to avoid a worsening of the oversupply.”

At this point, Iran stands alone in its concern over the current price level for oil. But what is there motive? Is it simple greed – the higher the price of oil, the greater the revenues? To an extent, greed does play a role. However, there seems to be real fiscal concerns at hand for the Islamic Republic. Mohsin Khan, Director of Middle East and Central Asia at the International Monetary Fund, argues,

Iran’s break-even price is $90 a barrel, and that is a big issue in Iran right now. … If prices dip below $90 a barrel, and we have seen it touch $89 earlier this week, then they would have to tighten their public expenditure policy, and probably cut subsidies, which would be an issue for the government there – the public would not be content.

Go read the entire article here.

This week there was an article in Science Daily that hearlds a breakthorough in storing energy prdocued by solar heat and radiation.

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today’s announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Hey, sounds good.  Simple, inexpensive all good properties.  I can see all the residential fixtures going in now.

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun.

Alrighty, sounding even better.  People are thinking about this in production terms not pure research.

Then things start getting a little iffy….

…developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.

Hmm, home based hydrogen production and storage.  Not sure I want that too close to the kids, maybe these guys are not thinking in the production mindset.

The key component in Nocera and Kanan’s new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas.

To shorten the story, these guys use a three stage process that takes electricity from a source (photovoltaic), and runs the current through electrodes that are coated in catalysts to separate oxygen and hydrogen for storage to power a fuel cell.  It goes on to explain that the catalysts are cobalt and platinum.

Simple? Relatively.   Cheap? not so much.  Safe?  Well it’s still research so… not yet.

House #1 A 20 room mansion ( not including 8 bathrooms ) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool ( and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400. per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern ’snow belt’ area. It’s in the South.

House #2
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every ‘green’ feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet ( 4 bedrooms ) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.

The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

And the kicker.

HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee ; it is the abode of the ‘environmentalist’ Al Gore.

HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas; it is the residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

You can verify it at: Snopes.

I won’t say too much about the revolt in the House of Representatives on Friday. I found it amusing in a very frustrating, sad, sort of way. There has been a great deal of coverage on the internet on the event, and little or none in the MSM. If you missed it here is the short version:

• Congress recessed
• House Republican’s, recognizing the current energy crisis as a crisis were pissed that the house recessed without considering any legislation.
• In an effort to take some action, the republicans refused to recess and stayed on the floor of the chamber debating the issue without camera, microphones, etc. until the lights were turned off by Capitol Police.

Those are the big components. However it doesn’t give you the feel for the atmosphere of the event. For that go here and follow the various links.

So over the past couple of days the Dr. No ad came out.  Very clever advertisement I must say.  But tying it to firm examples of “no” was a little tough.  Well the folks over at Flopping Aces were able to tie it to a development in the Solar Energy industry that is disconcerting.

Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land

Go read the whole post here.

Back at the turn of the century, I was working a project in Ft. Worth.  One of the buildings that I walked by on a daily basis was the Federal Building.  It has reflective, mirror like surface on it’s windows.  Even 2 or 3 blocks aways you could feel the heat reflected from those surfaces.  My suggestion to the Solar Energy industry, look at building level energy plants.  Seriously.  The wide open desert spaces of the west are great for large solar collection arrays but, you have to distribute that power either through existing lines, or most likely through an investment in new towers, lines, and networks.  That is going to take some time.  In the short term think small.  Put solar arrays around the outside exposures of some of the buildings in sun drenched cities.  Austin, Houston, Phoenix, Tuscon, Dallas, etc.  Use those collectors and a small turbine on the roof to produce power for the building itself.  You probably won’t be able to power the whole facility but you can power a good portion of it.  On flatter, more sprawling facilities you probably can get a good roof level array going.

The goal here is to penetrate the local markets quickly with small scale energy generation to reduce the overall demand on the utilities generation facilities.  This has the advantage of appealing to the building owners / tenants directly.  The large scale plants are going to sell their energy to the utility companies for distribution to the end user, and the associated markup gets passed on to the consumer.

Sorry… I got sidetracked on one of my pet ideas again.  Go see Dr. No

So with the apparent major party nominees identified, each is beginning to develop their message and communicating it through the various media.  The folks over at Flopping Aces have pulled together some commentary around a couple of new ads that are out there.

The first is about McCain’s recent unveiling of the Lexington Project.  Now I have just seen limited peices of this but it seems very similiar to the Energy Policy that Bush and Cheney put together early in their administration.  Execution of that policy has been overcome by events.  From what I see of this it makes sense.  Take the immediate steps necessary to control what we can, with our own resources and let market forces work through which new / alternate energy programs are most viable in the long run.

Curt sums it up…

Pretty good stuff with the overall plan being to make a broader use of existing resources and letting the market solve the new problems associated with new technologies by giving tax breaks and/or rewards. A bit different then the Obama plan to confiscate profits and ignoring the resources within our own borders.

I thought that I was likely done with my energy ranting for the day.  However, I have to share this one with you.

The solution is not as easy as the comic portrays but it is funny anyway.