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The High Costs of Solar Electric Power by

Promotion of solar power generation is booming. After analyzing a few of these announcements one is left with quite a few questions. Why are solar farms built when financial data clearly show that solar power is still the most expensive electricity generation technology available?

Solar power plant developers and marketers obviously know that they need to lower costs. Cost reduction is, however, expensive and takes time. Many new enterprises have been formed and want to become profitable when the big construction boom in solar power plants will hit the road. In the meantime they must pay bills, advance their technologies, and stay alive.

There are two major technologies for solar energy conversion. One approach is based on the conversion of sunlight into heat and using the heat for the generation of steam. This concept has progressed to a relatively high readiness level. Electricity production with steam is a very mature technology. Remaining technical risks, therefore, relate exclusively to the design of the thermal concentrators or parabolic mirrors that optically transfer thermal radiation to a heat transfer medium and to the design of the heat receiving transfer and steam containment surfaces.

The other technology is the direct, photovoltaic conversion of sunlight into electricity. This technology will most likely become the dominant solar electric power generating technology – eventually. The big question for investors and for marketers is the uncertain duration of “eventually”. Converting sunlight directly into electricity is much more elegant and will almost certainly become less expensive than thermal conversion – eventually.

Very recently, IBM proposed a third concept, a kind of a hybrid approach. In this concept, the sunlight is concentrated onto a solar panel. This approach reduces panel area and saves lots of expensive silicon. But it generates another problem. The concentrated sunshine creates very high surface temperatures on the solar panel. To save solar panel area and make the solar panel price competitive, one must cool the surface of the solar panel very efficiently to prevent it from melting and destruction.

Installing highly effective cooling loops and providing a low temperature cooling medium presents a new set of technical challenges and costs. We will have to wait and see how IBM will solve these issues.

Present production costs for generating electricity with solar panels are hovering around $0.50 per kWh. This compares with an average US retail price for electric power of $0.095/kWh. Right now, solar power does not yet make economical sense.

All renewable energies share this distinction. None of the available technologies using renewable energy can compete with the cost of electricity generation from coal.

This is also one of numerous examples where free markets perform poorly. The technologies for generating electricity with solar power, wind power, marine power, and geothermal power are very well understood. What is missing is the industrial hardening of these processes and related hardware. This process of moving a technology from the demonstration plant stage to a more dependable and less costly mature system status is the most critical, costly, and dangerous step when developing industrial systems, which must operate uninterrupted 24/7 for thousands of hours on end.

The US cannot reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and cannot achieve energy independence without employing renewable energies for electric power generation and for the critical production of liquid transportation fuels.

At present, a respectable number of windmill farms and solar panel farms are being installed. Forward thinking industrial and public entities take the liberty to impose hidden taxes on the consumers of electric power in industry, in commercial enterprises, and in homes.

Solar power does not make economical sense, yet. However, by providing an income guarantee for investors, the crucial hardening and cost reduction phase of full size solar farms will be shortened tremendously.

There is one inherent danger in this approach. The consumers of electricity pay for this most crucial development phase while other participating parties make out handily. Effective controls for avoiding unproductive duplication of certain types of solar farms are sorely missing.

Duplication of experience is much less valuable than gaining broad experience from competing technologies and installations. Well engineered solar power farms can indicate their readiness for more widespread applications after a couple of uninterrupted, full capacity, generation campaigns. At completion, qualified technology leaders can begin to compete and can drive down total system installation costs by a variety of cost reduction measures.

Where are we now? A random sampling of recent announcements of solar farm installations reveals that system installation costs are in the $3000 to $7500 per kW installed capacity. These plant costs loosely translate into a cost of producing electric power at $0.30 to $0.60 per kWh. This very unfavorably compares to the cost of electricity generation by any other technology.

These figures do not yet contain the costs of energy storage. As long as solar power constitutes only a very small fraction of overall electric power generation, the additional costs of storing intermittently produced electric power are not yet of concern. If the US is going to depend significantly on the intermittent production of electricity from solar power and wind power, it must begin to develop storage technologies for huge amounts of electric energy. Frequent brownouts due to lack of wind and sunshine are unacceptable in advanced economies. Intermittent, renewable energies and electric energy storage are inseparable. This is a technology field where inventors, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists still can shine.

Dr. Hemsath recently published the book: CLIMATE CHANGE – GOLD RUSH OR DISASTER? For 50 years he has worked as scientist, process engineer, Corporate Vice President of R&D, Company President, CEO, and Inventor. He holds more than 60 US Patents. He is working on a new book: “THE SOLUTION FOR ENDING GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE”. Go to http://www.thermalexpert.com
Article Source: Sustainable Living

The world has an energy problem. The supply of the main source of energy, the oil, is gradually running out. The use of oil, coal and other fossil energy sources is polluting the planet with greenhouse gasses that are capturing heat from the sun rays in a dangerous degree.

But also most alternative energy sources give problems for the environment. Some of them take up vast areas of land, like bio-fuel production, extensive solar cell plants and wind mills. Extensive use of croplands to produce bio-diesel, methanol, ethanol or other bio-fuels can cause a chronic hunger catastrophe. Others, like nuclear power stations can accidently destroy the environment of vast areas and potentially kill millions of people. Also leakage from deposits of nuclear waste can give the same effect. But nuclear power is very clean if everything goes well.

As it seems, there is no easy or elegant political or technical solution to the problem. The problem must be challenged with a clever combination of several means.

An important module in the solution is energy economization. Where it is possible one must use engines, technology and logistics that utilize the energy as effectively as possible. One must also stop using energy on activities that do not result in any added comfort, do not give gain of any sort, or give only marginal resulted value. By using the energy sources more effectively, the World’s energy need will perhaps drop by so much as 30%.

Then the use of oil and coal must be replaced with all kinds of alternative energy sources, but no alternative must be used in such an extend or such a way that it cause new problems.

One part of the solution is using bio diesel or other bio-fuels made of waste from croplands. In the process of converting the waste to fuel, the content of minerals in the waste can probably also be extracted and sold as fertilizers. But it is unethical to grow crop just for making bio-fuel, since that can cause food shortage and rise of food prizes.

Use of solar energy to make electricity will be a great part of the solution. Theoretically every roof and outer wall in the world can be covered by solar cell panels, even though it will not be estheticly or practically possible to go so far. Wastelands that have little other value can also be used to mount large solar cell plants. There is however a limit on how much solar cell panels you can mount before the environment is disturbed.

Much more electricity can be produced by wind-mills than today, but there is a limit on the number and extent of wild-mill parks you can set up before the environment is heavily disturbed. In areas like Denmark and Northern Germany the disturbing effects can already be seen clearly.

In many areas the waves in the sea or the stream of tide water can be used to produce electricity in a commercially economical fashion, but again there is a limit on how far you can go in building wave or tidal power plants before you destroy the environment.

The wind can also be used more directly, as it were in former periods. Sails can be mounted on large ships, especially on large cargo carriers. However, the sail rigs will probably look quite differently than those of the old vessels, and be operated automatically by computers.

Many countries have special natural energy resources that lend themselves to easily exploitation. Geothermal energy is one of these. Iceland is extensively using geothermal heat directly or to produce electricity. This technology can probably be extended for use in areas where the geothermal heat is somewhat more hidden, but still relative close to the surface.

Heat pumps are installations using a reversed refrigerator technology to carry heat from the outside environment to the inside of a building where it is concentrated to a higher temperature. The heat can then be used for warming the building or other applications. Heat pumps need some electricity to work, but extract more energy from the outside that they consume. More extensive use of heat pumps can give a great amount of the energy needed for heating,.Heat pumps can also be used to fetch geothermal energy of low temperature and concentrate it to a higher temperature without digging very deep.

Hydroelectric power plants using the natural fall of water from high to low areas have long been a major source of electric energy, and many of the existing plants can be made more efficient. To some extend new plants can also be built, but there is a limit also on this technology before the impact on the environment gets too heavy.

Unfortunately it is not possible to avoid using more nuclear power than today if the energy crisis shall be solved. There are however new developments in this area that makes nuclear power less dangerous. Scientists are right now developing a new type of reactors that will use thorium as a fuel and that will be work subcritically. The reactions in these reactors cannot go out of control. The waste also will cease to radiate after some hundred years, and not many thousand, so the storing of waste will be less problematic. But still there will be waste that must be handled safely.

Most alternative energy sources produce electricity, but it is not always practical to use the electricity directly. It is however possible to use the electricity to produce hydrogen, and the hydrogen can then be used as a clean fuel in applications where electricity does not fit.

In the long run, use of fusion power will probably be the permanent solution. But commercial fusion plant will probably still not be available in the next forty years.There is however a joker that might show up to be salvage of the world’s energy problem, namely cold fusion. This seems to be a real phenomenon, and not a misunderstanding as many thought and still thinks. But one does still not know if this phenomenon can be used practically to produce useful energy.

Author, Knut Holt is an internet marketer and consultant focusing at technical, health and scientific items. To find items like car equipment, remote control models, airsoft guns, chemistry sets, electronic kits and components, microscopes, binoculars, night vision instruments, music instruments, computers, PDAs and more: http://www.mydeltapi.com Also health advices, fitness products and natural products to treast diseases, please visit:http://www.abicana.com
Article Source: Articles Sustainable Living

ORGANIZATIONAL SIGN-ON STATEMENT WILL BE RELEASED WEDNESDAY TOO

MAKE SURE YOUR GROUP IS ON

Dear Friends,

According to numerous reports, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) have decided to go ahead and release their climate bill on Wednesday, May 12, without the backing of Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and despite the ongoing calamity of the BP Gulf oil spill.

We don’t expect the bill to be markedly different from what we had previously reported: it will be a taxpayer-funded bonanza for the nuclear power industry, will still support offshore oil drilling (though perhaps a bit less stridently than before), will still support “clean coal,” will still remove EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and will still seek vastly insufficient carbon reductions.

We intend to go ahead and release a grassroots statement blasting the bill and its dirty energy provisions on Wednesday as well. It will be important to get into the same news cycle as the bill’s release. Because it is obviously no longer being released on the Chernobyl anniversary, we have reworked the statement. It is below, along with the current list of signers.

Organizations: Please check the list and make sure your group has signed on. If you haven’t yet signed on, please consider doing so. To sign on: send your name, organization, city and state to nirsnet@nirs.org.

If you have signed on, please check to make sure you are properly listed, and let us know of any changes.

Individuals: We know you want to have a say too! But we can’t send out 100-page press releases with everyone’s names on them! So we are preparing a new Senate letter and letter-to-the-editor campaign, and we’ll get that out to you on Wednesday or Thursday.

We hope you’ll keep supporting our efforts with your activism and your financial help. You are what makes this work possible. If you can make a tax-deductible donation to our outreach fund, please do so here.

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org

From: Home Power – Free

As the price of fossil fuels rise, it may be time to start pondering other options for your household power requirements. It’s not as difficult as you might imagine and with the breakthroughs in photo voltaic technology, you can now assemble your own panels for very little money.

And also being capable to build them cheaply, you’ll be able to take advantage of the federal government tax rebates that are on offer as well as local incentives to lower your expenses even more.

So how does constructing your own panels actually help other than financially?

1. Build them as you need to.

Perhaps the very best grounds for mastering exactly how to construct your own residential solar panels is that you could then start to add your solar energy system into your household energy system one panel at a time as your finances enable. In the event you purchase solar electricity panels, you frequently have to pay for them all simultaneously and if you do decide to buy them singularly, it is advisable to have a consultant come out every time and setting up charges often usually are not worth just getting individual panels.

By being able to build them as you can afford to or as you require them, you are in control and having the ability to install them yourself means very little or no additional expense on the part of servicing and guaranteeing they continue to generate electricity.

2. Build them and make an income

There is certainly a growing market place for used and self made solar energy panels. There’s also plenty of people who wish to make the most of this know-how but don’t possess the skill set or the space to create their own. An incredibly profitable market place to tap into and make an extra income.

Here are some facts and easy to understand direct physics and NASA data Examining a Wind Energy Study

This study is about Exploring the concept of wind powered generators. Multi-bladed. Low wind capacity. As opposed to 3 bladed wind foil gigantic monsters.

A Farmer’s windmill

Many years ago, farmers built windmills. As we all know, farmers are extraordinarily gifted in the arts of “do it yourself,” and “make it work.” They are personally driven by production. They built windmills to lift water out of the ground for their cattle and for irrigation. They did not use silly, three bladed, passively turning windmills. They did build multibladed windmills which aggressively captured the wind and aggressively converted the wind to torque energy. And did you notice, by their folding design, when they were hit by hurricane winds they automatically folded out of the wind, and automatically unfolded when the extreme winds subsided? Mechanical automation without computers to reboot, and without electronics to short out. And NO silly three bladed things. Smart farmers.

Maybe we should have real farmers in charge of government spending? Less silly three bladed wind turbines.

The farmer needed power to lift water, a long way up from a well, consistently for their cattle or irrigation. Water weighs a lot. Just lift a gallon of water and see what it weighs. Consider lifting all of the water in a well pipe 50 feet up inside of that well pipe. There was a steel rod transversing all of that distance to lift the water, so to the weight of all that water add the weight of the steel lifting rod. That is a lot of weight. The farmer needed enough power to lift the entire length of that water. Yes, the entire weight every time. The water valve is at the bottom of the pipe, down in the water. And NO they did not set the valve 32 feet up, because the seal might not hold. (And YES they could pull a lever at the bottom of the tower, or use a float valve, which released the mechanical lifting of the water when they had enough for their cattle. And YES they had a lever to pull which disengaged other parts for maintenance, even when the windmill was turning. And YES the design would automatically fold itself out of the wind when hit by hurricane winds, and automatically reset itself when the extreme winds subsided. And all of this with NO electronics to go bad, and NO computer controls to have to reboot, etc.) Smart farmers. So, as we were saying, they needed a lot of power, every time that the well pump shaft was lifted by the windmill.

Now, think about this. How many times have you seen three bladed windmills out west, were the water table is a long way down? Never. You never saw that. You always saw multibladed windmills. Never 3 bladed ones.

Many Years of Wind Mill Experience

Now, think about this. Wilber and Orville Wright invented the airplane in 1903. There was publicity about that at the time. There were other people trying to utilize the Wright Brothers’ designs for wing shapes for themselves after that.

1903- That’s over 100 years ago.

Lots of people doing lots of thinking for over 100 years. But, no airplane wing windmills EVER became popular with the farmers. Nope. None. Did not happen. You go look again at the windmills out west pumping water. No airfoils using passive air lift. Not for the farmer. Remember the farmer needs power to help on his farm. He is not some silly teenager buying the latest fad advertised at the mall. He demands production. He demands power. He builds a windmill to work. You say, “But that is not the way it is done”

All of the other lemmings are building airfoil ‘wind turbines.’ The blades ‘fly’ and there are ‘turbulent slipstreams.’ Oh, no! Do not make me think!” Go talk to the average farmer today. Today’s farmer, with his Global Positioning System on his big turbocharged Electronically Fuel Injected tractor, and ask a farmer what he thinks about the three bladed “wind turbines.” Go. Ask. He will probably smile and be nice to you. But when you ask him why he does not invest in them, he will probably simply get back on his state-of-the-art, GPS equipped, self-navigating, air-conditioned tractor and go back to plowing, thinking that you are some city-slicker idiot that will never learn.

Farmers are probably a lot smarter than the average big city lawyer. Lots of farmers these days have a four year college degree in agriculture, which means that they study a lot about their business. A lot. And to top it off, they have direct, hands on experience with an extraordinary range of electrical and mechanical equipment. A farmer using a windmill to pump water is wise. The rest of the U.S. should learn from them.

Before your irritation at a blatant disregard for current standards and engineering expertise and even government spending get you upset, think about it.
Energy for Household Power

We estimate that the average needs about 12kw for average daily use. We looked on the net and found a range of 10kw “wind turbines” which require a “startup” wind speed from 22.5 mph to 31 mph. (Oh, and by the way, they seem to have changed their advertised startup speed since we began telling the world of our low wind speed startup design.) That is a lot of wind. Are you willing to wait for a tornado to go past your house for the “wind turbine” to work? Probably not.

Can you afford even one of the homeowner sized three bladed, airfoil imitating, “wind turbines” like your tax dollars are being wasted upon? Waiting for that rare blast of wind might be a silly investment. So, it is probably not in your current budget.

OK, so what do you do? You think like a farmer. Remember, farmers are smart. Get yourself a multibladed wind powered generator. Get a bumper sticker that says, “Think like a farmer.” Remember, just because the other lemmings are dashing into the sea does not mean that there is any true logic to three bladed “wind turbines.” Whatever it takes, get your head straight. Think.

Not enough logic?

Really?

You say, “But the engineers . . .”

Wind Powered Generators Archimedes, Levers, Torque

Archimedes, about 287-212 BC said about the use of a lever,

“Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth.”

And guess what, a blade on a windmill, or on a wind powered generator, or even on a “wind turbine,” is a lever. Remember that Physics class that you took, where you should have learned more. Here is a refresher: (force) x (distance) = torque. So, if you want a lot of power from your “wind turbine,” it is a good idea to make the blades capture lots of wind. Got it? You want a lot of the force to be directly on the blades, not wasted in aerodynamic “lift.” Got that? And, you want to capture most of the wind passing through the blade area. See? That was not so difficult to understand. Think about what you have seen. Farmers need mechanical power. Multi-bladed Windmills produce lots of power. Three bladed, aerodynamically “lifted” “wind turbines” do not produce much power. The laws of physics are not wrong. Wind Powered Generators, based upon the laws of physics are the best way to go.

A blade that is wide at the furtherest part away from the hub should give better torque and thus more power.

A blade that is wide close to the hub and skinny way out from the hub is exactly backward. That is an idiotic way to design them (unless you don’t want them to work??? If they worked then the need for oil and gas might seriously diminish. Now who would benefit from shoving non-efficient silly three bladed wind turbines down the public’s throat? Hmmm?). Think. Think. Think. Look at the blades on this link: “wind turbines,” and here; silly of them to ignore simple physics like that. Think.

You have seen “wind turbines.” Something is definitely not right about them.

Wind Energy Physics

Think. Use your own brain. Do not be afraid to think. Something is not right with those “wind turbines.” Look at them again. They are just not right. Archimedes was not wrong about levers. Farmers are not wrong about pumping water with windmills. Physics 101, where you should have studied, was not wrong about force x distance. Those “wind turbines” are just plain idiotic. Think. For yourself, think.

Take a piece of paper. Go ahead. Hold two corresponding corners in your hands, make that section flat and horizontal, and blow across the top surface. Sometimes, the back of the sheet rises, if you blow hard enough, and get the air flow in exactly the right place. It is called “Lift.” Now take the same piece of paper and hold a large width of both ends and blow directly onto the middle, with the same amount of air.

Yeeooow! What a discovery! You do not need an engineering degree and calculus to see that direct air pressure against the side of a flat surface produces far more force than over the edge with “lift.” “Wind turbines” work on lift. Windmills work on air flow pressure. Lift vs. direct flowing air pressure? You have no excuse for thinking that “wind turbines” work well now. Physics does not lie. That paper in your hand did not lie. That was a pretty simple example. Those farmers’ windmills were built right. Think for yourself.
Wind Energy Common Sense

You tell your children to think for themselves. You tell them of examples of people that did not think for themselves. There is even a famous tale of an emperor, being duped by lies, when he did not think for himself. Remember when you were young and your parent’s read you the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes? Think about it. Think for yourself. Look around you and observe reality for yourself. “Wind turbines,” as they are now, are like the Emperor’s New Clothes. A little child, being innocent of the vanity of adults, simply asked “Why is the Emperor not wearing any clothes,” and the truth was set free. Think.

. . .”But the blades fly”. . . “But turbulent slipstreams”. . .” But, but, but, everyone KNOWS that 3 blades are best because you do not want too much power.”. . . “And the Emperor really WAS wearing new clothes”. . .

Obviously this was not written for idiots. If you feel like a lemming, and want to dash into the sea; well, don’t. Lemmings do not always dash into the sea. You can think for yourself. You can read the links that we give for physics and NASA information and you can see the facts for yourself.

Wind Energy= Natural Energy

Look at solar and find that the solar panels created such a tiny trickle of power that they were actually a waste of space. Thousands of dollars to trickle charge a few batteries? No way. Not with our money.

We looked at water power from streams and rivers and found a huge amount of potential energy there. But, not many people have fast flowing streams available on their property.

Look at wind power and you’ll find vast and renewable resources of energy there. Look at wind turbines and you’ll find the 3 bladed ones to be idiotic in design. Look at the old farmer’s windmills and consider them to be extremely logical in design, extraordinarily aggressive in capturing wind energy, and phenomenally safe for birds.

We compared the calculated wind energy capturing capacity of our Wind Powered Generators (per kilowatt rating) with the calculated “airfoil lift” wind turbines and found that our Wind Powered Generators have a calculated Kilowatt-Hour return of more than 4 times that of the “airfoil lift” wind turbines.

Wind Energy and NASA

We looked at wind powered energy sources and quickly found that they were not well designed. The commercially produced wind powered energy sources were incredibly inefficient. But, in their inefficiency, they were more efficient than the solar panels. Thus, we decided to analyze them and potentially build our own. We looked at the parts for wind power sources and studied each part incrementally. This has taken us a few months, about a year now. An airfoil [or here] on edge, in a steady stream of air, does create lift. Albeit, very little lift unless there is a lot of air flow, but lift none the less, and measured in joules of energy per volume of air flow, it is very little. A flat plate, perpendicular to a steady stream of air, has the maximum mechanical advantage, and has far greater joules or energy per volume of air flow. But, we do not want to totally blow away our wind powered generator by making it flat to the wind, so we set the flat plate on a 45 degree angle. Maximum force perpendicular to the direction of the wind. And that force is against the blades of the wind powered generator to make it turn! Yes, there is drag. But drag, in this case, is transferred to the mechanical structure of the wind powered generator. Maximum turning force. Maximum torque on the shaft that turns the wind powered generator.

Having difficulty envisioning this?

Look at the NASA example of a kite. Click on “select view” then “side” then Click on “Trim.” Adjust the “B-Bridle” and the “K-Knot” until the “lift” is maximized. It is a simple visual representation, but it gets the point across. More information from NASA at “Kindergarten through 12th grade” explanations: Kites, and general Aerodynamics. Get it? Flat plate. 45 degree angle to the wind. Maximum torque for energy generation.

Wind Energy and Angle of Attack

Flat plates are a logical starting point for the design of a wind powered energy system. From fluid dynamics we know that an attack angle of 45 degrees is the most efficient for angular energy conversion of flowing air against a flat plate. At 45 degrees, it spills the energy depleted air flow which is replaced by the upstream air flow, as it has to because it is wind power. Stay with us on this. Focus. Think.

We have studied solar and wind as alternative energy sources. We are giving you a report of our findings. We are giving you direct references to physics and direct examples from NASA. We have made some discoveries of products being offered, their benefits, and their shortcomings. We are building wind powered generators based upon logic and the laws of physics. We have read and listened carefully to the lemming followers of the “wind turbine” fad. We have studied their calculations and their conclusions and found them lacking. The laws of physics are not false.

Flat plates, even if they are slightly curved for structural strength, are far better than airfoils for a wind powered generator.

David Bruce is a professional blogger who blogs on the topic of Wind Powered Generators http://windenergysystems.blogspot.com/