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We also do it with landfill off gassing. It takes a fairly sizable landfill, but the gas is going into the atmosphere anyways, may as well trap it and burn it.

It's interesting that you mention that. It reminds me that we racist, wasteful, redneck, white bred 'Zonies' (none of these are my personal adjectives, but I've heard every one of them too many times to keep track), have a number of these systems in place. In addition to the landfill methane capture systems (which, last I checked, were somewhat experimental -- although the provided link isn't the only system in place), the solar projects, and the algal oil reactor (which, apparently, died along with GreenFuel Tech -- although the summer heat, based upon my own research, may have played a factor in the Arizona trial), we also have a small scale hydroelectric system put in place by the Salt River Project (SRP).

The desert area around Phoenix has an extensive irrigation system in place. Many of our canals are laid upon the same canals that the Hohokam people laid their canals. The water comes from (primarily) a series of reservoirs on the Salt River. These are mostly fed by snowmelt from the White Mountains (more proof of our white bred heritage). SRP has added small hydroelectric generators to multiple areas where a higher canal feeds into a lower canal. Granted, they do have pumping stations that move from lower areas to higher, so the entire system isn't completely gravity fed. However, it's nice to see them adding the equivalent of a regenerative braking system to their infrastructure.

It was many years ago, but I used to work as a contractor for the Western Area Power Administration, aka WAPA ( http://www.wapa.gov/ ). This is part of the Department of Energy, and has sister organizations that cover the entire United States. IIRC, they don't build new transmission lines per se, but they help manage them with all of the involved owners. Perhaps the DOE is a good place to start. Has anyone even bothered to look if they are working on this issue?

Oh hey, look at that: http://www.wapa.gov/newsroom/pdf/WCIOpenSeasonOutcome82608.pdf

- Necron69

It was many years ago, but I used to work as a contractor for the Western Area Power Administration, aka WAPA ( http://www.wapa.gov/ ). This is part of the Department of Energy, and has sister organizations that cover the entire United States. IIRC, they don't build new transmission lines per se, but they help manage them with all of the involved owners. Perhaps the DOE is a good place to start. Has anyone even bothered to look if they are working on this issue?

Oh hey, look at that: http://www.wapa.gov/newsroom/pdf/WCIOpenSeasonOutcome82608.pdf

- Necron69

Researchers from Stanford University collected wind speed measurements from 7,500 surface stations and 500 balloon-launch stations to determine global wind speeds at 80 m above surface, equivalent to the hub height of modern turbines. When results are interpolated over the world, authors Cristina Archer and Mark Jacobson estimate that 13 percent of the world experiences winds with average annual speeds of 6.9 m per second, which is strong enough for power generation.

Such wind speeds were found in every region of the world, although North America was found to have the greatest potential, they explain in the Journal of Geophysical Research, published by the American Geophysical Union. Locations with suitable wind resources could generate 72 trillion watts of power, compared with an estimate from the U.S. Department of Energy of 3.5 trillion watts.

• Solar Thermal - The cheapest option out there at the moment. Heat up water. Keep it in an insulated tank until it's needed. Drive steam through a turbine. Works up to 16 hours a day which isn't perfect but it's better than "only when the sun's shining"
• Vanadium redox (flow) batteries - Charge a Vanadium electrolyte and pump it into tanks for storage. Pump it back the other way to release the charge. Highly scalable (just add more electrolyte and bigger tanks) to many MWh of power. Still pricey but could be competitive with more research funding and economies of scale. A great candidate for Google funding IMHO.
• Compressed air - Use surplus energy to compress air into an underground aquifer. Release it through a regular gas turbine when needed significantly boosting the turbine's efficiency. Not truly renewable as you're still burning gas but you still get the benefit of otherwise wasted wind power. The advantage of pumping water into an aquifer is that the constant hydrostatic pressure removes the need for variable regulation at the plant saving significant cost. Won't work everywhere though and the drilling cost would be significant.
• Pumped hydro - Well established and incredibly scalable (to GWh of power storage!) but not cheap to build.
• Supergrid - Spread your wind farms across a wide enough grid and the wind will be guaranteed to be blowing somewhere giving you guaranteed supply. Uses HVDC lines to minimize power loss over the large transmission distances involved.

I had thought it was this project that actually stores off-peak power and then uses it during peak. It works based on this technology but uses wind power so that the variability can be managed.

I had thought it was this project that actually stores off-peak power and then uses it during peak. It works based on this technology but uses wind power so that the variability can be managed.

Back in 2001 the Tucson Citizen did a project where they powered a Sun Colbalt Qube 3 off of solar power using a set of panels based on a very similar if not the same technology.

The panels they came from a company called TerraSun and the one I have on my desk left from the project looks remarkably like the one in the article.

Archive.org still has some pages from the site which is long defunct http://web.archive.org/web/20010807151516/www.sola rexplorer.net/gallery/index.php?TopicID=panels

Google finds reference to the technology that TerraSun was developing http://www.wapa.gov/es/greennews/2001/may14'01.htm

In Iowa, the wind blows pretty steadily for about 9 months of the year - except during the summer when wind energy would be most useful. A couple years ago, I saw the following proposed. Don't know how much good it would do, but (assuming that they could make it work), it would allow for "wind" power to be stored in the form of subterranian compressed air. Neat idea, though.

one thing on the drawing board

While your attempt to compare music to air is... silly to say the least, I should point out an error.

Yeah, like the air I'm exhaling. I should get paid for that because you are literally just TAKING it for your damn trees and shrubbery. THIEF!
In case you forgot (or skipped high school biology), people exhale carbon dioxide, and plants "inhale" it for photosynthesis. You're not "TAKING" it from the trees, you're helping them out.

I can't say the same for the music you might steal.

As an aside, I think your painting analogy makes more sense than mine, so props on that.

As taken from http://www.es.wapa.gov/pubs/files/2001_holiday_lig hts_fs_es.pdf:

http://www.foreverbright.com/
http://www.ccl-light.com/

Nope, ain't a lot out there.

I think many rope lights use LEDs. You should look into those.