The efficiency of electrolysis is very high, 95% is actually possible. BUT, electrolysis has nothing to do with generating power, electrolysis is how you separate water into H2 and O2. A fuel cell is actually less than 50% efficient, and the overall efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells is comparable or a little less than diesel fueled cars.
"Centralizing power generation should be more efficient than millions of smaller generators all over the place."
Really? If you distribute your power supply then you can take advantage of cogeneration...heat + power. I think the efficiency of distributed power actually goes up, the cost also goes up though.
"As far as efficiency is concerned, the seperation of Hydrogen and Oxygen (by electrolysis) from water and the subsequent recombination in a fuel cell (creating electrical energy) is over 95% efficient."
Whoa! Sure that's the efficiency of electrolysis but then you have to compress and store the hydrogen (hydrogen storage is a whole thing in itself), then you have to feed it to a fuel cell that has an efficiency much less than 95%...usually less than 50% system efficiency. Overall, the total efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells is comparable to a diesel fueled vehicle, maybe even a bit less.
Of course, that's if you make the hydrogen by electrolysis. Most hydrogen comes from natural gas at the moment, which is less efficient and produces CO2.
What gets me is that the submitter said the article is light on details, but the submitter probably wrote the article himself! At least, they're both from OSEN.
theWatt has done a survey of peak oil dates, avaialble here. Basically, it seems as if 48% of the publications predict a peak oil date by 2010, 20% predict peak oil between 2010-2020 and 25% predict sometime after 2020.
I think something contributing to the stability of Denmark's wind power is that the power can be sold to neighboring countries quite easily, and so if there were strong winds that may jeapordize the power quality, then it could just be routed to Norway.
Nuclear is the least worst solution at the moment but don't push for it without pushing for energy efficiency as well. Economically viable uranium will likely only be in the ground for the next 50 or so years. That won't be a very good return on your investment. Will you then be pushing for uranium reprocessing? That's a whole new beast.
Energy efficiency is the only way to solve our energy problems. It's multiple times more efficient to ride a bike than it is to drive a car. Eating vegetables is multiple times more efficient than eating meat. Turning off the lights is multiple times more efficient than keeping them on. Efficiency is king.
I have to be a bit skeptical about some of these claims about wind turbines:
1. Wind turbines make the same noises as Nazi troops torturing Jews? WTF?? 2. Wind turbines causing women to have multiple menstrual cycles a month?
Come on. The real issue is that these people think wind turbines will decrease their property value. They don't have to make up shit like this. Especially if you compare the health effects of what would be built instead of wind turbines...probably coal power plants, which would be far worse health wise.
That being said, wind power is definitely inconsistent. From what I've heard about Denmark, which has the most wind power per capita in the world, most Danes are so untrusting of the quality of their electricity that they wouldn't even think about powering something without a UPS, otherwise they'd fry their electronics. Can any Danes back that up?
I'm sure most batteries will fail well above 43K...I'd bet you'd have a hard time finding a battery that works well at temperatures as high as 220K (-53C).
Maybe it's just me but I've never been to PriceGrabber.com before...never even heard of them. And it's not like I'm a recluse on the net either. I'm sure 90% of the people I know haven't heard of PriceGrabber.com before.
The problem is that evilpirate can then start introducing their own content to the subscribers of myrealsite...like their own ads, and that would suck for myrealsite.
This could end up being a problem though because nothing stops these "podjackers" from inserting their own content into the rss feed which subscribers would mistake as being from the original creators of the content. The same would go for any rss feed like this, not just podcasts. So in a sense, they are jacking the rss feed if it has turned into the primary feed by accident.
By the way, playing Warcraft 3 on Windows is about +40 Watt compared to surfing the web.
The graphics card is a power hog. Try loading a big image in a browser and then scrolling up and down with the scrollbar. You'll probably see the power shoot up while you're scrolling.
I bought myself a watt meter to measure the power of some of my home electronics. So I tested my friend's laptop, it was a Dell, 15 inch monitor P4. Under linux the laptop was drawing 50-100watts (which is very high for a laptop), under windows it was drawing from 30-50 watts. Linux on desktops has the same power management as windows on desktops though.
From here: "EIA expects energy expenditures will be 18% higher this winter compared to last winter, which will be 8.3% of the annual gross domestic product, a record since 1987 when it was 8.4%."
Yeah...guess what? Batteries also have a negative EROI. They work exactly the same way as fuel cells do. Batteries are more efficient overall, and there is talk of fast recharging batteries. For this reason, hydrogen is not the best energy storage mechanism, but until I can charge my battery fully in 5 minutes or so, I'm afraid it looks like these all in one electronics have no choice but to try and use fuel cells.
PS. Methanol would be best for portable electronics unless we find a good solid state hydrogen storage method (because compressed hydrogen wouldn't be good for portable electronics). Most of these direct methanol fuel cells only have about 10% methanol/90%water mixtures, so there's lots of room for improvement here.
The link between global warming an hurricane activity isn't quite there yet...they need more data, which means they need more destructive hurricanes.
Here's a good overview of the current thinking with the link between hurricane activity and global warming. Basically they can't prove the link between the number of hurricane's that make it inland, but it seems as if a link between hurricane strength and global warming is there. Since the 70's the number of class 4 and 5 hurricanes have gone steadily upwards.
Blogs have great potential because the good ones are written by experts in their fields and the really good ones have their own contacts and generate their own stories. The blog that I contribute to (shameless plug for theWatt.com) routinely finds mistakes in news articles that the press writes, and so it's also a way of trying to keep things from going out of hand in mainstream media. A blogger's dream isn't always to get rich though, a lot of the time it's to gain some sway in the field that they blog in. There are so many great contacts that people make in the blogging world.
I'm just in the process of writing a consumer complaint against a lot of thin film solar cells, the type that you showed. Don't get any that were manufactured in China! The problem is that a lot of thin film solar manufacturers will overstate their peak wattage. If it says 12W on the box, then in some cases you'll only get 6W! There was a study done by Humboldt State University about this specifically for the Kenyan solar market but it applies everywhere since the same manufacturers sell worldwide (.pdf available here). First of all some of these companies just plain out lie about their peak wattage, and then after 3 months there's a further degradation in performance. If you do want to buy thin-film solar equipment, go with the PowerFelx model or any model developed by ICP Solar, as you can read in the pdf document, they are one of the most reliable companies in this area.
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The efficiency of electrolysis is very high, 95% is actually possible. BUT, electrolysis has nothing to do with generating power, electrolysis is how you separate water into H2 and O2. A fuel cell is actually less than 50% efficient, and the overall efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells is comparable or a little less than diesel fueled cars.
"Centralizing power generation should be more efficient than millions of smaller generators all over the place."
Really? If you distribute your power supply then you can take advantage of cogeneration...heat + power. I think the efficiency of distributed power actually goes up, the cost also goes up though.
Wow...pop? dissolve?
"As far as efficiency is concerned, the seperation of Hydrogen and Oxygen (by electrolysis) from water and the subsequent recombination in a fuel cell (creating electrical energy) is over 95% efficient."
Whoa! Sure that's the efficiency of electrolysis but then you have to compress and store the hydrogen (hydrogen storage is a whole thing in itself), then you have to feed it to a fuel cell that has an efficiency much less than 95%...usually less than 50% system efficiency. Overall, the total efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells is comparable to a diesel fueled vehicle, maybe even a bit less.
Of course, that's if you make the hydrogen by electrolysis. Most hydrogen comes from natural gas at the moment, which is less efficient and produces CO2.
----
theWattPodcast.com - energy news and issues in an mp3
Isn't that the definition of a settlement?
The New Mexico Tech team didn't even win, they came in 2nd. University of Missouri-Rolla won.
Heh, didn't bother to read it either.
What gets me is that the submitter said the article is light on details, but the submitter probably wrote the article himself! At least, they're both from OSEN.
theWatt has done a survey of peak oil dates, avaialble here. Basically, it seems as if 48% of the publications predict a peak oil date by 2010, 20% predict peak oil between 2010-2020 and 25% predict sometime after 2020.
...this is. 62MW is being built in Portugal compared to the "supposed" worlds largest 18MW in Nevada.
On the front page of Slashdot today: "Google and Skype in Startup to Link Hotspots" eBay owns Skype and eBay and Google appear to be friendly
Then there's this story, eBay owns PayPal, eBay and Google don't appear to be too friendly anymore. Complex relationship huh?
Google lost $13B US, not $23.1B US
I think something contributing to the stability of Denmark's wind power is that the power can be sold to neighboring countries quite easily, and so if there were strong winds that may jeapordize the power quality, then it could just be routed to Norway.
Nuclear is the least worst solution at the moment but don't push for it without pushing for energy efficiency as well. Economically viable uranium will likely only be in the ground for the next 50 or so years. That won't be a very good return on your investment. Will you then be pushing for uranium reprocessing? That's a whole new beast.
Energy efficiency is the only way to solve our energy problems. It's multiple times more efficient to ride a bike than it is to drive a car. Eating vegetables is multiple times more efficient than eating meat. Turning off the lights is multiple times more efficient than keeping them on. Efficiency is king.
I have to be a bit skeptical about some of these claims about wind turbines:
1. Wind turbines make the same noises as Nazi troops torturing Jews? WTF??
2. Wind turbines causing women to have multiple menstrual cycles a month?
Come on. The real issue is that these people think wind turbines will decrease their property value. They don't have to make up shit like this. Especially if you compare the health effects of what would be built instead of wind turbines...probably coal power plants, which would be far worse health wise.
That being said, wind power is definitely inconsistent. From what I've heard about Denmark, which has the most wind power per capita in the world, most Danes are so untrusting of the quality of their electricity that they wouldn't even think about powering something without a UPS, otherwise they'd fry their electronics. Can any Danes back that up?
I'm sure most batteries will fail well above 43K...I'd bet you'd have a hard time finding a battery that works well at temperatures as high as 220K (-53C).
Heh...look at that. Never noticed it before. I guess it just goes to show how much that "Services" box is a little useless.
Maybe it's just me but I've never been to PriceGrabber.com before...never even heard of them. And it's not like I'm a recluse on the net either. I'm sure 90% of the people I know haven't heard of PriceGrabber.com before.
The problem is that evilpirate can then start introducing their own content to the subscribers of myrealsite...like their own ads, and that would suck for myrealsite.
This could end up being a problem though because nothing stops these "podjackers" from inserting their own content into the rss feed which subscribers would mistake as being from the original creators of the content. The same would go for any rss feed like this, not just podcasts. So in a sense, they are jacking the rss feed if it has turned into the primary feed by accident.
By the way, playing Warcraft 3 on Windows is about +40 Watt compared to surfing the web.
The graphics card is a power hog. Try loading a big image in a browser and then scrolling up and down with the scrollbar. You'll probably see the power shoot up while you're scrolling.
I bought myself a watt meter to measure the power of some of my home electronics. So I tested my friend's laptop, it was a Dell, 15 inch monitor P4. Under linux the laptop was drawing 50-100watts (which is very high for a laptop), under windows it was drawing from 30-50 watts. Linux on desktops has the same power management as windows on desktops though.
Energy prices are going to hurt everybody.
From here:
"EIA expects energy expenditures will be 18% higher this winter compared to last winter, which will be 8.3% of the annual gross domestic product, a record since 1987 when it was 8.4%."
And for those of you who want to find a way to save energy: Here's 60 Tips To Save Energy This Winter
Yeah...guess what? Batteries also have a negative EROI. They work exactly the same way as fuel cells do. Batteries are more efficient overall, and there is talk of fast recharging batteries. For this reason, hydrogen is not the best energy storage mechanism, but until I can charge my battery fully in 5 minutes or so, I'm afraid it looks like these all in one electronics have no choice but to try and use fuel cells.
PS. Methanol would be best for portable electronics unless we find a good solid state hydrogen storage method (because compressed hydrogen wouldn't be good for portable electronics). Most of these direct methanol fuel cells only have about 10% methanol/90%water mixtures, so there's lots of room for improvement here.
The link between global warming an hurricane activity isn't quite there yet...they need more data, which means they need more destructive hurricanes.
Here's a good overview of the current thinking with the link between hurricane activity and global warming. Basically they can't prove the link between the number of hurricane's that make it inland, but it seems as if a link between hurricane strength and global warming is there. Since the 70's the number of class 4 and 5 hurricanes have gone steadily upwards.
Blogs have great potential because the good ones are written by experts in their fields and the really good ones have their own contacts and generate their own stories. The blog that I contribute to (shameless plug for theWatt.com) routinely finds mistakes in news articles that the press writes, and so it's also a way of trying to keep things from going out of hand in mainstream media. A blogger's dream isn't always to get rich though, a lot of the time it's to gain some sway in the field that they blog in. There are so many great contacts that people make in the blogging world.
I'm just in the process of writing a consumer complaint against a lot of thin film solar cells, the type that you showed. Don't get any that were manufactured in China! The problem is that a lot of thin film solar manufacturers will overstate their peak wattage. If it says 12W on the box, then in some cases you'll only get 6W! There was a study done by Humboldt State University about this specifically for the Kenyan solar market but it applies everywhere since the same manufacturers sell worldwide (.pdf available here). First of all some of these companies just plain out lie about their peak wattage, and then after 3 months there's a further degradation in performance. If you do want to buy thin-film solar equipment, go with the PowerFelx model or any model developed by ICP Solar, as you can read in the pdf document, they are one of the most reliable companies in this area.