I don't know what to think of Peak Oil, since there are so many contradictions out there:
Russia has drilled deep and found so much oil under her that she is now a major oil exporter, larger than Saud. I see no reason why Hydrocarbons which are in every rock in space are limited to the shallow surfaces of earth, made only by dead critters.
I think the reason the former 7 Sisters ( Currently 4 sisters? ) are not investing in more oil infrastructure is based on other factors at work, plus they are proponents of the General Motors school of business. "Sell less and charge more."
Oil has been taken out of production in recent times as well, requiring that Your Son or Daughter would have to bleed on some far away desert in order to acquire somebody else's oil. Hey, It's Business......
http://www.reformation.org/energy-non-crisis.html
But enough of that. There are alternatives to imported Oil.
Listed in no particular order, New Energy advances that should have been in your newspaper yesterday:
Ethanol Fuel advances that would render North America and virtually most countries energy independent.
"Alcohol Can Be a Gas" by David Blume interviews on my server at http://network76.com/ A copy of ACBAG is available at http://ush2.com/ $47 bucks or so. Every penny worth it.
This one can't drift away since the technology is here-now.
Nanotechnology advance to allow a farmer to make all the bio diesel he needs to farm using a device the size of a suitcase to process veggie oils like Canola or Mustard seed oil, cotton seed oil, etc.
http://www.oregonbusiness.com/.docs/action/detail/rid/17609/pg/10003 the original story was released in April 06. Nothing has been updated in all of 07, yet something was supposed to be out in trial use well before 07 was over.
HTGR technology that the US and West Germany pioneered in the 70s making Nuclear Power safer and proliferation proof. South Africa and China are now in the lead with this system. It looks like China may have a working modularized unit operating within a decade.
TPD Thermal Depolymerization. Changing World Technologies. Son of Warren Buffet is said to be involved in this project. It is estimated this technology could convert crop waste, and garbage to #3 and #2 diesel for about $11 dollars a barrel in 2004 dollars (FRN). The project is supposed to be through the pilot plant phase but it has dropped off the radar. There is enough Waste from cities, farms, and the District of Columbia (bullsh*t and paper) to generate about the amount of oil the US imports each year. 4 billion barrels a year. This is renewable energy.
Autos: There are advances using compressed air to power an auto 125 miles between each charge and you can "recharge" for about 2.50 worth of utility electric. http://www.theaircar.com/
Would a car for less than $10.000 interest you? It also has a alcohol air heating option to extend range to over 400 miles using 1.5 liters of Ethanol, about $1.00 (FRN)
Here comes the Holy Grail of energy production, yet no one announced it on MSM news to my knowledge:
This news alone should have drowned out everything else for a week, if not a month!
To power your home and auto from your own roof, this December 18th. Nanosolar announced a thin film solar panel that is being produced "R.F.N." for 99 cents a watt. This is about 1/5 the present cost.
http://blog.nanosolar.com/
Problem is, there is no "Click to Buy Here" button on Nanosolar's site so that You could put those panels on Your roof. Word has it that they are only going to sell to utilities who are on the old dinosaur Power Grid, making us vulnerable to the whims of DC and any terrorist willing to cut down power lines.
Why they didn't go for Ebay I will never know. If demand is so great, they might find people willing to pay $1.99 a watt. Or more.
You could use off the shelf air compressors and carbon fiber tanks to store high pressure air for night time use and power for your cars. A one time expense of about $12,000 to $16,000 should cover the solar panels and compressor and storage tanks if mass produced. If the average bloke spends $450 a month for heat for home and fuel for autos, the payback would be less than 3 or 4 years. Perhaps 5 if I am off by a factor of 20%
Heating and cooling possibilities abound for this system also.
Example:
When an air compressor is compressing, it generates waste heat. You can heat water as a side show of compression.
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3 comments:
I appreciate your frustration that Nanosolar CIGS panels are unavailable to the public at this time.
I too am impatient to see this technological advance come into widespread useage, however, I also agree with their rationale for the delay. They need a real world test. The German power station installation atop a landfill will allow them to monitor the performance and durability of their first large run of product.
Once they see and confirm first hand the durability and performance in real world conditions, they will have the confidence to release product to thousands of retail customers. Now they have one major cooperative client to deal with which will be much easier than thousands of individual customers if there are unforseen problems.
It's more a case of they can "only" make 430MW/yr in panels and their first customer has ordered 1GW of panels. Do the math.
It's more efficient, grid-wise, to have a small number of large solar farms than hundreds or thousands of *insignificant* solar farms out there. I expect new housing developments to come with solar roofs to make their own solar farms in years to come, just not right now.
Thank You for the input!
I hope what you both say is true. I would love to see an Experimental Energy Association (like the EAA for homebuilt aircraft) formed to take these panels and put them to good use "testing" them.
Do You suppose they might allow a half million enthusiastic people to put together funds to build a second factory under their License?
I could see every member staffing the factory for two weeks a year and taking the panels home. We could offer as much or more to Nanosolar in royalty fees than they expect to make, since this is not totally about the bottom line.
Give me a shout Nanosolar!
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