Charging electric cars is mostly an overnight load. Wind power is mostly an overnight resource. If we had 25% wind power and every car were electric or pluggable hybrid electric, wind would provide enough energy for all the battery charging.
Beside that, a smart charger can watch closely the frequency of the AC source to determine whether the system is under heavy load or not. It can then charge only when demand for electricity is low (i.e. when wind power has picked up) in the night time. This is a phenomenon that isn't normally generated by wind systems, but because they follow the amplitude of the grid closely, and because the grid is probably dominantly powered by other systems, it should still work.
A microscope was my most beloved science toy when I was young. The low cost ones aren't lab-grade, but they work.
At age 13, the kid is starting to get old enough to do more than just play with gizmos - maybe it's time to start making them? I was building radio-shack springboard circuits when I was younger than that. Maybe an Arduino board would be appropriate - nobody has to know how to program to use it because there are lots of projects online, but it's a great way to get started tinkering with a hands-on implementation of code! I have a boarduino from Lady Ada. It's only about $25, that should leave you some extra $$ to spend on a breadboard, wire and maybe some other parts.
What I want to know is, how do we get the plans for the engine? If my tax money designed that thing, how on earth can it be justified to keep that information from me?
The reason I found that article was because I was seeking plans. What I found was that some of the major documents (like the summary I posted) have been scanned and are available online, but most of the technical documents are in their paper library. You have to buy them for something like $60 apiece (can't remember exactly the cost).
According to wikipedia, Stirlings have efficiency equivalent to conventional auto engines, but for the same power they're more expensive and heavier.
According to NASA, there was no weight change. Read it. More expensive is a matter of mass production, no auto engine is exactly simple nowadays anyway.
It's been refined for 160 years plus change. So it ought to be really spiffy, right? Well, no. There are definite upper limits to the efficiency of such a device. Most Stirling sites are very cagey when it comes to mentioning the efficiency of what they're selling. For good reason, it's terrible. Like 3 to 6 percent. That kinda explains why it's not in use everywhere, more like nowhere.
They converted a Chevy Celebrity and the results show that the highway gas mileage was increased from 40 to 58 mpg and the urban mileage from 26 to 33 mpg with no change in gross weight of the vehicle. This is NOT a hybrid - it is Stirling only.
By combining the efficiency of the Stirling with the get-up-and go of an electric this is a pretty good thing coming, and I've been waiting a while to see someone to produce it.
As a Windows user, I feel that I'm probably more likely to have my PC hijacked online than with Linux, which seems to be more secure.
Beside that, Microsoft is constantly bothering me with irrelevant updates, asking me to send them information about software failures, have at least once made an unauthorized update to my machine, always wants to DRM my music in media player, etc. This pushy nonsense gives me the sense that they're nosing in on my business, if not worse.
This is hardly the first time this has ever happened.
Why is this on slashdot?
Heck there are even better stories of this, such as a woman who used the laptop's webcam to !
I wonder why he didn't just tap into the webcam on his computer while the perpetrator was... oh wait.
So apparently the news is that it doesn't taste as bad anymore for some strange reason? marketing?;)
They could have found it's sweet spot for temperature and pressure range too, along with the necessary ingredient combination. The taste has a lot more variables than just the yeast. Nevermind that this might be a completely different yeast.
What's interesting is, nobody seems to draw a parallel between spikes that appear when clear water is frozen and tin whiskers.
Yeah, they do. NASA shows here a parallel between salt whiskers and tin whiskers. They're both crystalline structures, just like ice. I imagine lots of other crystals probably do the same thing, judging by macro-scale crystal growths in rock appearing as spikes.
Answer? Automation. If you can't automate, you'll outsource, and outsourcing itself often requires new technology.
It's surprising to me that an economist would say this, because as an engineering student I always believed it until I took economics. Automation involves a huge setup overhead and a few more expensive employees for maintenance. In the factories I've worked in they will throw a bunch of "temporary" employees in places where there were previously full-time employees making 2-3x the "temp" wages. From talking to engineers and managers I found it was cheaper to have those full-time workers there than robots, and way cheaper than robots to have temps. The reason for the robots was that it was hard to find workers willing to do the job at any wage, not that it was a cost savings.
So far as outsourcing goes, it's hard to argue that point. I get mixed messages from people on the cost/benefit of outsourcing, especially when quality is important.
I've been thinking I'll use old laptops as slideshow displays (explanations) for science projects at Maker Faire. Better than lugging around desktops. Only problem is the prices seem to be either inflated or so low no one will sell them because the shipping exceeds the cost..
Not sure that this applies to you or not, but if you're a member of any organizations that do public exhibitions it's worth looking into.
Apart from being ugly and noisy and vibrating and dangerous, they also don't provide any power worth mentioning. Some of them even have trouble making back what it took to manufacture them -- and THAT is a feat in the wind industry.
Ugly is subjective, noisy/vibrating/dangerous are engineering problems that we've long ago overcome with far more than just windmills, and no power worth mentioning? That's also highly subjective and depends on the system. As far as I'm concerned any power at all is better than no power. In the past five years I've spent a total of 1.5 months without electricity due to weather and rural location (last priority). Having a small system that's easy to fix (obviously not for everyone, but it would be for me) is a major plus.
So far as cost goes no one can disagree with you. Being green isn't cheap. I think we'll find that as coal prices rise and further solutions continue to fail to come to fruition it becomes increasingly economical though.
1. what makes you think it's more economical now? the price of cabling sure hasn't gone down.
Because the price of electricity sure hasn't gone down, Kyoto protocol signees are itching for carbon-free sources of energy and the available quantities of coal and uranium sure aren't going up.
2. your example ignores the fact you'd be stringing the line under the mediterannean. under sea cables are a whole lot more expensive.
The Strait of Gibraltar is 8 miles wide at its narrowest point. I can't see why that would be so big a problem. Initial expense would be high, yes, but it's a one time fee (with maintenance, of course) for an intercontinental electrical grid.
3. even if you crossed at the most narrow point, it's still greater than 7000km (you best case) from any fesible site in africa into northern europe.
If you're talking about Norway, yes. If you're talking about France and Germany (like people are here) then definitely no. The deserts of Morocco are only several hundred miles away from existing grid in Spain, and probably only a hundred or so miles away from re-enforcable grid in Morocco. There's geothermal energy that hasn't yet been exploited in northern Europe, and tidal, et. al. I'm not saying it's a 100% solution, just that it's no less difficult than doing in the US (see GP post).
I am aware of the end-of-life problem surrounding nuclear power, but you got to admit that if your goal is to avoid burning stuff, you cannot get any better than this. Especially in crowded, not-so-sunny Europe, where you cannot even make a "what if we paved the desert with solar cells" hypothesis.
Why not? Africa isn't too far south of Europe. It's not any further than the Eastern USA is from the deserts of the USA, mostly in the southwest. The reason that doesn't matter is because we have a national power grid. Eventually we should have a global power grid and lining the Sahara with giant wind turbines will be a possibility. If you feel political relations aren't adequate for such a friendly gesture, see the USA relationship with countries like Saudi Arabia..
I'm all for nuclear power too, we need everything we can get for when the coal runs out.
Speaking as an American, as long as dumbasses think they're special because some of their ancestors came from Ireland 8 generations ago before proceeding to mix with every other background in the US, we're going to hear a lot more "I'm Irish" or worse "I'm 1/16 Cherokee, 1/2 Irish, 2/7 Italian..." crap.
1/16 Cherokee is enough for full tribal membership and almost all benefits.
I live in the Cherokee Nation, naturally a lot of my friends are part Cherokee (among others) and some have three digit fractions, but are still considered Cherokee by the tribe. Keeping track of those fractions means free health care, commodities, etc..
Slashdot Mirror
As a taxpayer, I disagree.
Beside that, a smart charger can watch closely the frequency of the AC source to determine whether the system is under heavy load or not. It can then charge only when demand for electricity is low (i.e. when wind power has picked up) in the night time. This is a phenomenon that isn't normally generated by wind systems, but because they follow the amplitude of the grid closely, and because the grid is probably dominantly powered by other systems, it should still work.
A microscope was my most beloved science toy when I was young. The low cost ones aren't lab-grade, but they work.
At age 13, the kid is starting to get old enough to do more than just play with gizmos - maybe it's time to start making them? I was building radio-shack springboard circuits when I was younger than that. Maybe an Arduino board would be appropriate - nobody has to know how to program to use it because there are lots of projects online, but it's a great way to get started tinkering with a hands-on implementation of code! I have a boarduino from Lady Ada. It's only about $25, that should leave you some extra $$ to spend on a breadboard, wire and maybe some other parts.
The reason I found that article was because I was seeking plans. What I found was that some of the major documents (like the summary I posted) have been scanned and are available online, but most of the technical documents are in their paper library. You have to buy them for something like $60 apiece (can't remember exactly the cost).
It is all there though.. for those who want to invest in the paper weight. This page will get you most of the Stirling results and this is the main document research website for NASA.
According to NASA, there was no weight change. Read it. More expensive is a matter of mass production, no auto engine is exactly simple nowadays anyway.
Citation Needed
20 years ago NASA had an automotive Stirling program. Read it and stuff it.
They converted a Chevy Celebrity and the results show that the highway gas mileage was increased from 40 to 58 mpg and the urban mileage from 26 to 33 mpg with no change in gross weight of the vehicle. This is NOT a hybrid - it is Stirling only.
By combining the efficiency of the Stirling with the get-up-and go of an electric this is a pretty good thing coming, and I've been waiting a while to see someone to produce it.
As a Windows user, I feel that I'm probably more likely to have my PC hijacked online than with Linux, which seems to be more secure. Beside that, Microsoft is constantly bothering me with irrelevant updates, asking me to send them information about software failures, have at least once made an unauthorized update to my machine, always wants to DRM my music in media player, etc. This pushy nonsense gives me the sense that they're nosing in on my business, if not worse.
I wonder why he didn't just tap into the webcam on his computer while the perpetrator was... oh wait.
Exactly. Can't anyone remember the source of this??
1.) Collect underpants
2.) ???
3.) Profit!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underpants_Gnomes
They could have found it's sweet spot for temperature and pressure range too, along with the necessary ingredient combination. The taste has a lot more variables than just the yeast. Nevermind that this might be a completely different yeast.
Or they could just unplug it? Lost productivity is better than lost data here, I'll bet.
So far as outsourcing goes, it's hard to argue that point. I get mixed messages from people on the cost/benefit of outsourcing, especially when quality is important.
I'm not going to downplay the chances of it being a hazard, but this story is very one-sided.
See the AP version for, in my opinion, a longer and less biased review.
I've been thinking I'll use old laptops as slideshow displays (explanations) for science projects at Maker Faire. Better than lugging around desktops. Only problem is the prices seem to be either inflated or so low no one will sell them because the shipping exceeds the cost..
Not sure that this applies to you or not, but if you're a member of any organizations that do public exhibitions it's worth looking into.
So far as cost goes no one can disagree with you. Being green isn't cheap. I think we'll find that as coal prices rise and further solutions continue to fail to come to fruition it becomes increasingly economical though.
I'm an electrical engineering student - I'm well aware of the transmission loss. "As of 1980, the longest cost-effective distance for electricity was 4,000 miles (7,000 km), although all present transmission lines are considerably shorter."
That's at 1980 prices. Just how far across the Mediterannean do you think Africa is, anyway?
I'm all for nuclear power too, we need everything we can get for when the coal runs out.
Count on other things to go up as well.
1/16 Cherokee is enough for full tribal membership and almost all benefits.
I live in the Cherokee Nation, naturally a lot of my friends are part Cherokee (among others) and some have three digit fractions, but are still considered Cherokee by the tribe. Keeping track of those fractions means free health care, commodities, etc..