something to get charged up about

Future of Electric Power

 robot generator being rescued by repair bot 

     Well if the lesson of Fukishima and nuclear power isn’t obvious, it should be. I doubt if anyone had in mind the size of a tsunami as that which hit Japan, and forever changed nuclear power as a primary source of providing electricity. We know that coal is harmful to the environment and that it increases the likelihood of warming the earth. Gas and oil are just Band-Aids as they too have contributed to global warming as well as the use of internal combustion engines. It seems as if solar and wind power is the two best tools we have in our tool bag to produce electricity efficiently and in a green manor that is least harmful to the environment.

    Water power is also a manor of producing electricity, and is also a green means of generating electricity but in that case it seems as if we block a river valley, we cause harmful problems associated with migratory habits of animals and fishes in particular. We forever change their habits as they try to adapt to new changes in their environment if they can. It is also an expensive venture in the initial cost as well as the continuing maintenance of said structures into the future.

    Water power can be a means to an end though if designed properly. Throughout the country we have hills and mountains where we could impound water from excess electricity that is generated from our existing power plants. We produce way to much at times and a lot of it is lost in heat generation as the electricity pulses over long distances in the lines that service us. Whatever we don’t use is eventually lost to the environment as we have no real means of storing excess electricity. Also current practices of generating electricity have us generating in one location and using it over a 100 or miles away from the original source of producing the electricity. And this may be so even if closer sources of generation are available. That means if Con Ed has a nuclear plant up the road and American Electric Power is in charge of the grid next to it. Then only in emergencies of low line voltage will one sell to the other to avoid a black out.

      But if we took all the excess electricity that was generated out of our power plants at full operating capacity where they are most efficient, and used this to pump water to higher locations geographically speaking. Then when we need more electricity we could always flow it back to a lower level and in the process regenerate the surplus electricity. This is one means by which we can store electricity.

     Storing electricity has never been a priority before but is something that needs to be done. This idea of using stored water to save electricity was proposed for our area before. In fact it was in Norton, Ohio where Morton salt company has extensive underground caverns this was proposed before. There they were going to use the underground caverns and a vertical drop of almost 600 feet to generate more than enough power to efficiently operate a hydroelectric plant underground, using the pool of water above to fill the electrical needs of the grid  as opposed to generating more electricity from other means like coal. For some reason the project was scrapped or is being done secretly as I have never heard any more about it.   There are hill tops in Ohio where we could have similar vertical drops and achieve the same thing.

      This would allow us to use our generating facilities more efficiently running them for shorter periods of time and it would also allow us to upload excess electricity from solar generation and wind power whenever we wanted to and not just when the electric company needs it. Virtually every electric meter on the grid would then become a meter where you could upload electricity to, any time regardless of who was generating the power. If we reached a critical mass where we are producing more electric than we need, we simply pump water uphill at a variety of locations. This would require a pool of water at both locations at the top of the hill and the bottom and generating facilities. Some water will be lost to evaporation, but this all depends on how soon the pool is being used. The possibility of coupling it with solar where the cells would generate electricity during the day and pump the water uphill then at night when the sun isn’t shining you could reverse the flow when you need electric most.

      As much as I like the free enterprise system I think it is time to take electric generation out of the hands of private enterprise as there is little incentive to be frugal with these resources as we have become more dependent on electricity all the time. We are letting the major power companies become monopolies and the money is being spent lobbying the use of coal and other sources of greenhouse warming sources of fuel, and then passing these costs on to the consumer. Whenever they want a rate hike it seems it is just a matter of time before they get it, and eventually we all pay for it.

       There is no incentive to use naturally occurring sources of electricity as they know the eventual end of what it all means. It is up to the individual consumer to ease that burden by reducing your need for electricity. If possible, be able to generate your own electricity and use it first. We use only an eighth of all sunlight energy that hits the earth daily for power generation. Once solar is in place it tends to pay back far greater returns than what it costs for investment. Turning that meter around should be priority for us all.

     Coupled with other forms of energy I can see hybrid rovers eventually panning our landscape for better wind and sun positioning in remote areas where power generation never would have been thought of before. An operator comfortably nestled in his house could send robotic energy gatherers out and collect energy in the form of electricity from solar or wind depending on whether one or the other was the prominent generating source and when full of stored electricity would dock itself at an upload station and download all the power stored in its batteries then go out and gather more working incessantly 24 hours a day 7 days a week without much human intervention except maintenance primarily. This could be done to pump water uphill as I previously described and then download the power generated to the grid when the pool of water is full.

     We have the technology now to accomplish this task presently. There is very little difference between this and the initial rovers put on Mars only we are here on Earth. This could for the most part be all renewable sources of electricity.

         And if we look at renewable sources of green electricity we could help ourselves by planting vast swaths of trees for the purpose of power generation alone using their mass to fuel the boilers like we did years ago in the early stages of the industrial revolution.  Planting trees that will be consumed 20 years down the road is just the same as passively storing solar energy as the trees do so well what we can only attempt to do. There is no reason we couldn’t get into a system where trees would provide our needs in fuel. At the same time we lock up carbon dioxide that is causing our global warming and achieve two goals at once. This would also provide us with a utilization of waste materials that normally end up in landfills.

     At one time during World War 2 our country proposed a means of capturing the gasses off of wood through the use of degasification and the resulting product was fuel for our vehicles and for power generation without the harmful effects of burning wood openly. This is done through a wood gas generator and the plans are still available on the net. When times get tough, like when hurricane Katrina or World War 2 was around and people knew they had little choice, then our government would issue the bulletin describing how to build your own wood gas generator. This was used extensively in Europe and here in the United States during World War 2 and had a beneficial use of extending our resources then as much as we need to now.

       Coupled with increased planting on marginal lands we could reverse the effect of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere in less time and with less expense than it took to get in this shape in the first place. We have shown that we can affect atmospheric changes in a wrong way, and now it is time for us to reverse that trend in a positive way, and think about leaving our children with a legacy of caring about our environment instead of destroying it through profitability.

         Sometimes as in the use of fossil fuels we find their use easy and the costs fixed so that one knows with x amount of investment I will get y return. Our environment cannot be limited to an algorithm that we just plug numbers into and then spits an outcome. Sometimes we don’t see the outcome till the polar caps start to melt. Then even then the naysayers will still say it isn’t a problem as they move to higher ground and reassess the damage and convert it to a profit. We can’t let Wall Street tell us where to go as they no doubt will be on the next spaceship to planet b as soon as they can buy a ticket leaving the rest of us poor souls behind.

       So I guess in conclusion if you have made it this far you are taking the first step to achieving awareness of a problem of our generation and the ones before and informing yourself about where we should go in terms of direction humans should take when it comes to or creature comforts and how we should provide the power for them to operate without harm to the environment. Profit can be made and money can be spent wisely instead of kicking the can down the road. We can’t keep going on like we are without some kind of repercussion. Massive storms and loss of life are on the horizon as our planet heats up. Last night should be an example. As well the typhoon in the Philippines is also an example of how the excess energy in our environment is changing our weather and lifestyles. Where does it end or are we looking at the beginning of the end? Informing yourself to viable alternatives is the first step. Electing representatives who also believe in the same thing is the next step. Turning off that bathroom light will all help when it we pass this issue and others down to our children.


http://www.allpowerlabs.org/gasification/resources/papers/Handbook.Reed.Das.pdf
http://www.woodgas.net/files/FEMA_emergency_gassifer.pdf