This pilot project is being built in Regina, Canada and will use a Dry Fuel Reformation solar process to crack hydrogen from landfill methane. This project is a new concept for indirect solar power generation system with a focus on on-farm electrical power generation and the system will store large amounts of thermal energy which could be used to create large methane bioreactors.
Another idea is to reduce the fossil fuel inputs in agriculture by growing smaller plants that have a shorter growing season and can be more readily adapted to being farmed with a system that is completely electrically powered. Once the fossil fuel dependency is lowered in agriculture, clean energy products (ethanol, biodiesel, methane, hydrogen) can be produced on a large scale without the high fossil fuel input.
It's still easier and more efficient to transport hydrogen with carbon as in ethanol. If ethanol or biodiesel can be produced with renewable energy, they are carbon neutral and much easier to handle than pure hydrogen.
Finally - if it can be built to a size for a single dwelling, is this something you are pursuing? Are you looking at building a "proof-of-concept", or do you know of others who are doing so?
A single dwelling sized system in existing urban areas is probably not feasible, but it would make sense in rural and remote areas. I think the medium to large agricultural operation would be the best initial market. The ammonia absorption system works well with agriculture and in Canada and many other places there already is an infrastructure and material handling experience in place in agriculture for NH3 (used as fertilizer).
We are planning a POC based on the ammonia absorption idea and hopefully we can have that worked through in the next year.
Thanks for looking at the system, and you have some very good points.
Just for reference, the solar updraft tower you are talking about is an existing concept and there was a small prototype built in Spain in the 1980's. There is another large plant planned in Australia. Although a solar updraft tower is simple, the large land usage, limited night time power generation, the infrastructure cost of transporting the electricity and the extremely high tower requirements limit the potential usage.
I agree that the simpler the design the better for all of the reasons you state and many more, but there is nothing simple about constructing 1000 meter towers out in the desert and then building all of the infrastructure to transport the electricity to where it is needed.
The system I am proposing is intended to be scalable and adaptable to all power generation requirements and climates and could be used to generate electricity from geothermal sources and cold air in arctic regions, solar/geothermal/biomass in moderate climates and solar in hot dry climates. The intent of the absorption refrigeration system is to use solar energy to create a much wider temperature gradient (i.e. +30C air and -30C heat exchanger) than is possible with a non-active system and store the captured heat to be used to generate power when the ambient air temperature drops.
The intent of an adaptable design and a standard system beyond the engineering and construction benefits of standardization is to create the investor "warm fuzzy" and once a system is in operation, the same economic investment model can be used for other plants, regardless of location.
The ammonia absorption system in my design isn't much more complicated than an RV refrigerator or absorption heat pump and doesn't require any substantial operational resources. The fluid pumping systems are much less complicated than existing coal and natural gas power generation systems.
I have been working on a design for an indirect solar power generation system that can be cost effective, location independent and I believe can be built with a low enough capital investment to compete directly with fossil fuels.
The idea is to build a standard low gradient heat platform that can be optimized for a geographical location's specific climate and geothermal features. The specific adaptation for arid regions utilizing absorption refrigeration especially shows promise.
I took a Marine Radio Op. course back in the 80's and received a Canadian RGMC (Radio General Maritime Certificate). We had to be able to send and receive 25 wpm of CW. I never did work in the industry, but it is like riding a bike, I can still send at around 10 wpm without any practice for 20 years. Receiving is different for me and I can barely do it any more.
What would be great is to be able to input SMS on a single key as CW and have it processed and sent out as a regular text message. I would rather read the message and it can doesn't have to be read real-time like full 2 way CW. Every cell should have it as an input option and I think there may be a few open source decoding packages. Does anyone have any links?
Microsoft had that commercial for XP with Lunatic Fringe by Red Rider playing while a guy zoomed around on a desk. They pulled it right after 9/11. I guess they clued in that a song about terrorists as a theme for your O/S wasn't going to do much for sales.
I was spewing about two different topics, both of which (the reader-block-writers and lock escalations) make implementing large table solutions more difficult in non-Oracle databases. Not impossible, just more of a pain in the ass, and IMO push the TCO way up for non-Oracle solutions.
Oracle is staying ahead because multiversioning reads are a better database design for 24/7 hybrid (OLTP/OLAP) systems (i.e. ecommerce and just about everything else).
PostgreSQL is the only other product out there (including MS-SQL Server, DB2, Postgress, Informix, Sybase and MySQL(unpatched)) in which reads don't block writes and vice-versa.
The row level locking is also an original design in Oracle, where SQL Server and DB2 it is an add-on and both of them will eventually run out of row level locking resources and escalate to table locking.
I used to write games in assembler on my TRS-80 when I was ~11. I don't do anything to that complicated now. Somewhere along the way I must have lost a few braincells. Probably happened in High School.:)
If you use mencoder (mplayer) and dump the audio with -oac copy, you can encode the ac3 5.1 surround with mpeg4 video and is playable with mplayer with full surround.
What I don't understand is where the law is that says you are entitled to make huge sums of money because you can write and record a good song.
This phenomenon occurred for the first time in the 20th century (for both music and acting), because of technology and the ability to mass produce a performance cheaply and sell the reproduction for a high profit. Greed drove this market to release products in digital format.
Those days are gone. It doesn't really matter that much about laws and copyrights, the days of making billions from a performance are numbered. Trying to prevent people from distributing material is like trying to pass a law to outlaw the automobile in 1910 to save the horse traders and the blacksmiths.
The same concept probably applies to software. The billions from selling cheaply mass produced software will eventually dry up. There will be a living to be made from actually doing work, but there is going to be a point where most of the tasks that people use on a day to day basis will have free solutions, and there won't be a market for closed software except in custom situations and the enterprise.
IMO the biggest thing holding back Open Source/Free software is not M$ or any of the other large closed source software companies.
It it warez fucks like this.
If there wasn't such an availability of cracked versions of commercial software, way more effort and talent would be funnelled into Open Source development.
Photoshop is still a way better product than GIMP. I can get a warez copy of Photoshop. Why would I use/support GIMP?
I scanned through the first couple of documents from the link, and found them kinda long...
I could have summed it up in one sentence: "Watch what the Americans are doing, and do that"
Of course, that wouldn't get me the big ol' consultant fee that whoever gurged up that report got, but whatever I live cheap.
It's easy to write songs, you just sit down and write them.
This is great and all, but I think all the people living in sun-dried brick structures are gonna be pissed about not being able to call their construction 'Adobe' anymore...
'I live in a.. ummm... ahh... KBrick house? no... GMud? ahh... whatever'
It's easy to write songs, you just sit down and write them.
I think that the problem with the handheld market is that they are *neat* devices, but there is still a shortage of useful apps out there.
I have been doing initial development of a GIS app for CE devices, and it has been slow going. It is my first experience writing something for the Pocket PC, and I have to do a lot of learning.
I think that it will take a while for the devices to stabilize and some useful applications for business to take hold.
It's easy to write songs, you just sit down and write them.
Slashdot Mirror
This project is a new concept for indirect solar power generation system with a focus on on-farm electrical power generation and the system will store large amounts of thermal energy which could be used to create large methane bioreactors. Another idea is to reduce the fossil fuel inputs in agriculture by growing smaller plants that have a shorter growing season and can be more readily adapted to being farmed with a system that is completely electrically powered. Once the fossil fuel dependency is lowered in agriculture, clean energy products (ethanol, biodiesel, methane, hydrogen) can be produced on a large scale without the high fossil fuel input.
It's still easier and more efficient to transport hydrogen with carbon as in ethanol. If ethanol or biodiesel can be produced with renewable energy, they are carbon neutral and much easier to handle than pure hydrogen.
We are planning a POC based on the ammonia absorption idea and hopefully we can have that worked through in the next year.
Just for reference, the solar updraft tower you are talking about is an existing concept and there was a small prototype built in Spain in the 1980's. There is another large plant planned in Australia. Although a solar updraft tower is simple, the large land usage, limited night time power generation, the infrastructure cost of transporting the electricity and the extremely high tower requirements limit the potential usage.
I agree that the simpler the design the better for all of the reasons you state and many more, but there is nothing simple about constructing 1000 meter towers out in the desert and then building all of the infrastructure to transport the electricity to where it is needed.
The system I am proposing is intended to be scalable and adaptable to all power generation requirements and climates and could be used to generate electricity from geothermal sources and cold air in arctic regions, solar/geothermal/biomass in moderate climates and solar in hot dry climates. The intent of the absorption refrigeration system is to use solar energy to create a much wider temperature gradient (i.e. +30C air and -30C heat exchanger) than is possible with a non-active system and store the captured heat to be used to generate power when the ambient air temperature drops.
The intent of an adaptable design and a standard system beyond the engineering and construction benefits of standardization is to create the investor "warm fuzzy" and once a system is in operation, the same economic investment model can be used for other plants, regardless of location.
The ammonia absorption system in my design isn't much more complicated than an RV refrigerator or absorption heat pump and doesn't require any substantial operational resources. The fluid pumping systems are much less complicated than existing coal and natural gas power generation systems.
The idea is to build a standard low gradient heat platform that can be optimized for a geographical location's specific climate and geothermal features. The specific adaptation for arid regions utilizing absorption refrigeration especially shows promise.
No, the tower is bi-directional in moderate climates and in no means tall enough to cause this problem.
Open Energy Project
I took a Marine Radio Op. course back in the 80's and received a Canadian RGMC (Radio General Maritime Certificate). We had to be able to send and receive 25 wpm of CW. I never did work in the industry, but it is like riding a bike, I can still send at around 10 wpm without any practice for 20 years. Receiving is different for me and I can barely do it any more.
What would be great is to be able to input SMS on a single key as CW and have it processed and sent out as a regular text message. I would rather read the message and it can doesn't have to be read real-time like full 2 way CW. Every cell should have it as an input option and I think there may be a few open source decoding packages. Does anyone have any links?
Microsoft had that commercial for XP with Lunatic Fringe by Red Rider playing while a guy zoomed around on a desk. They pulled it right after 9/11. I guess they clued in that a song about terrorists as a theme for your O/S wasn't going to do much for sales.
Woops.. I was just thinking that, I must have accidentally telekinetically posted it. :)
You are a fucking idiot, not a Sr. Oracle DBA.
Yes, they do.
I was spewing about two different topics, both of which (the reader-block-writers and lock escalations) make implementing large table solutions more difficult in non-Oracle databases. Not impossible, just more of a pain in the ass, and IMO push the TCO way up for non-Oracle solutions.
Oracle is staying ahead because multiversioning reads are a better database design for 24/7 hybrid (OLTP/OLAP) systems (i.e. ecommerce and just about everything else).
PostgreSQL is the only other product out there (including MS-SQL Server, DB2, Postgress, Informix, Sybase and MySQL(unpatched)) in which reads don't block writes and vice-versa.
The row level locking is also an original design in Oracle, where SQL Server and DB2 it is an add-on and both of them will eventually run out of row level locking resources and escalate to table locking.
I used to write games in assembler on my TRS-80 when I was ~11. I don't do anything to that complicated now. Somewhere along the way I must have lost a few braincells. Probably happened in High School. :)
If you use mencoder (mplayer) and dump the audio with -oac copy, you can encode the ac3 5.1 surround with mpeg4 video and is playable with mplayer with full surround.
humans take up 83 percent of the Earth's land surface to live on, farm, mine or fish
If they added sightseeing they could push the number to 99% (there are some things I refuse to even look at)
What I don't understand is where the law is that says you are entitled to make huge sums of money because you can write and record a good song.
This phenomenon occurred for the first time in the 20th century (for both music and acting), because of technology and the ability to mass produce a performance cheaply and sell the reproduction for a high profit. Greed drove this market to release products in digital format.
Those days are gone. It doesn't really matter that much about laws and copyrights, the days of making billions from a performance are numbered. Trying to prevent people from distributing material is like trying to pass a law to outlaw the automobile in 1910 to save the horse traders and the blacksmiths.
The same concept probably applies to software. The billions from selling cheaply mass produced software will eventually dry up. There will be a living to be made from actually doing work, but there is going to be a point where most of the tasks that people use on a day to day basis will have free solutions, and there won't be a market for closed software except in custom situations and the enterprise.
IMO the biggest thing holding back Open Source/Free software is not M$ or any of the other large closed source software companies.
It it warez fucks like this.
If there wasn't such an availability of cracked versions of commercial software, way more effort and talent would be funnelled into Open Source development.
Photoshop is still a way better product than GIMP. I can get a warez copy of Photoshop. Why would I use/support GIMP?
Kids have always played aggressive games. I don't think that it matters whether it's a video game or sports.
Games don't create psychopaths and cause a kid to bring a gun to school. Parents (or lack of) do that.
We can't compete with Microsoft & Sony... so let's port some TRS-80 software to a handheld.
This sums up everything I've learned about Software Engineering. Engineering
I could have summed it up in one sentence: "Watch what the Americans are doing, and do that"
Of course, that wouldn't get me the big ol' consultant fee that whoever gurged up that report got, but whatever I live cheap.
It's easy to write songs, you just sit down and write them.
'I live in a.. ummm... ahh... KBrick house? no... GMud? ahh... whatever'
It's easy to write songs, you just sit down and write them.
I have been doing initial development of a GIS app for CE devices, and it has been slow going. It is my first experience writing something for the Pocket PC, and I have to do a lot of learning.
I think that it will take a while for the devices to stabilize and some useful applications for business to take hold.
It's easy to write songs, you just sit down and write them.
Reading through the article, was actually kinda upsetting...
I have tended to act like this
It's easy to write songs, you just sit down and write them.
If someone started marketing a teddy bear sized Tux doll, with one of these stuffed inside...
We could all curl up to a linux box at naptime.
It's easy to write songs, you just sit down and write them.