Slashdot Mirror
Home Biomass Power Generators
TLouden writes "The Rocky Mountain News had an article today about Community Power Corp. and its new BioMax unit which uses renewable resources such as corncobs, sawdust pellets, and coconut shells to produce electricity. This gasifier unit isn't commercially available yet but we might be seeing it sometime in 2004."
Conversions of solar power to electricity through photovoltaic cells is quite expensive.
One company, Energy Innovations, has an interesting new approach using a Stirling engine and solar mirrors. This could prove to be a cheap way to bring solar energy directly to your home. As long as certain engineers don't start getting mysteriously shot in the head that is.
I stole this sig from a more creative user.
There is a huge amount of federal money that goes into maintaining a massive agricultural surplus here in the states - this could easily be switched over to subsidies for fuel crops instead of (for example) tobacco, as is presently the case.
It would not supply all the needs by any means, but would help.
At present much is shipped overseas as 'aid', but rarely is this the most cost effective way to get food to war stricken areas.
... we can just strap an electric outlet to my son's head: he's got enouch energy to power a small city.
But seriously, if you've ever done "hot" composting, you know that this really can work - there's an astonishing amount of energy in a pile of grass clippings or a little cow manure.
You know, I think the Amish have it right - they don't use electricity unless there's no other way to do a job, and even then they won't rely on the power grid (it requires people to work on Sunday).
Biomass is just one way to (excuse the pun) take back power from the megacorps that dole it out in the current system. We can return to the Edison model of local power plants, local consumption - small scale, small bills.
Assuming, that is, that we're all willing to go on a power diet.
Bellhead
Well maybe it is in Iowa and Minnesota, but it has proven to be both efficient and profitable for small scale producers, as discussed here back in March.
The systems described in the main article do not sound very practical to me (800 degrees F. takes a lot of energy to maintain), but they are not the only example of biomass energy being put into practise, and they might be the right choice if you already have a lot of sawdust on hand (like in a lumberyard or a furniture fab).
Anything that reduces the dependency on foreign oil is good for the economy, and less dependency on large energy companies is good for the consumer. That these technologies allow small business to reduce thier cost of operation (or increase thier income) and are environmentally sound is good for everyone.
Read, L