The old style photovoltaic solar panels required more energy to manufacture than what it would produce for its entire lifespan. Current technologies usually break even after about 1-4 years.
And you thought solar was a clean alternative...
« Showing posts with label Energy. Show all posts »
Thursday, March 18, 2010
«Dirty Solar Power»
Friday, June 5, 2009
«That Damn Bus»
Here's how the second day into my vacation went (May 8th, 2009). Click an image to view full.
Here's the car my dad and I were in. Surprisingly, the Toyota Prius cars have a lot of room. Yes, it's a hybrid. We got 51 mpg going down, and used a total of 16 gallons of gasoline to get from Prince Rupert in Canada to Junction City in Oregon.
And, on the other extreme of vehicle efficiency and emissions... Going through the Fraser River canyon (still in Canada) we were stuck behind this monstrosity through a long construction zone, so we couldn't pass the damn bus. We could smell this thing miles before we caught up to it, and our car was permeated with that smell even the next day. It was enough to make you sick.
However, we made it safely to our first stop in Mount Vernon, Washington. Here's the bridge where Interstate 5 crosses the Skagit River.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
«Sim City Microwave Power Plant»
For those of us that played Sim City 2000 or 3000, this will sound familiar.
Holy crap, that's exactly what the microwave power plants in Sim City do! It's expected to begin beaming down 200 megawatts of power by 2016 (a full 4 years ahead of the 2020 date the power plant becomes available in Sim City!)Solaren would generate the power using solar panels in Earth orbit and convert it to radio-frequency transmissions that would be beamed down to a receiving station
If that one is successful, larger-scale ones could be built that produce up to 4.8 gigawatts. (Remember, took only 1.21 gigawatts to travel through time in the movie Back to the Future.)
I love it when the fictional technology of the future becomes a reality.
See the rest of “Sim City Microwave Power Plant”»
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
«First Blogoversary»
January 21st may not be a holiday for anyone else, but it's a personal holiday for me. 1 year ago I started this blog. That's right, I've been rambling on for a year now. Someone must care; across my 404 posts, I've accumulated 1,313 comments so far.
Across my entire site (not just the blog) I've had over 200,000 visits and 400,500 pageviews during this past year. Not too bad, I suppose.
My 10 personal favorite posts are (in order of date posted):
Well, here's to another year of blogging!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
«Snowy Town (Photo Heavy)»
I've really been posting the pictures lately... These were taken yesterday. I was crazy enough to go up Rainbird Trail (cutting a new path in the snow as I went) just to get a bird's-eye view of the town covered in snow. Mine were the only tracks on the trail. Click an image to view full.
View of the West end of Ketchikan, covered in snow. Here's a link to a picture I took from the same location at the same angle back on April 21st, 2008.
The main road through town, with the snow bermed up in the center between the lanes. This is basically zoomed in on the center of the picture above. If you view the full-size, you can see the fuel prices are still quite high at $2.499 for regular unleaded and 3.999 for diesel. So although the prices came down a little the day of the protest, they didn't come as far as they should have.
This is the 3rd Ave bypass.
Back down off the trail, this is looking down Washington Street. It's one of the many hills that gets closed when it snows.
And here's looking down 2nd Ave. Looks like it's been reduced down to a single lane.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
«Blatant Fuel Price Gouging»
At a time when the major oil companies are cutting production in an attempt to raise the fuel prices, local prices are still up around where they were before the prices fell elsewhere.
Basically, what I can tell is the attitude of the local fuel companies has changed since last month. Before they were trying to make excuses about old "more expensive" fuel stored in their reserves still. Now, they're saying there's no price gouging law in Alaska, so they can charge whatever they want, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it! Seriously.
I heard there's a protest scheduled Saturday (December 20th) down by Safeway.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
«Fuel Prices Still High Here»
One of the many drawbacks of living on an island is the lack of competition. While fuel prices are dropping below $2.00 and even down close to $1.50 elsewhere, the people of this town still have to pay out the ass for fuel. It's still $3.759 for regular unleaded and $4.259 for diesel here.
Sure, it was always a bit more here than down in the lower 48 states: by maybe 10 cents/gallon. There's a public outcry in town about it. The gas stations are saying that they have to charge this much for it because they bought it at the higher prices and still have the "more expensive fuel" stored. However, as you might have guessed, it doesn't work that way when the prices are going up. It was changing daily to match the raising prices. Also, their reserves of the higher priced fuel seems to be lasting a long time...
That always happens around here. Any excuse to get the prices up, then when the markets change the prices still stay high here; and it's not just with the fuel.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
«Safeway Wind Power, Not in This Town»
Yesterday I was out taking a few pictures, and I happened to notice this sign on a Safeway fuel station.
Click image to view full
The island that Ketchikan, Alaska is on has its own separate power grid, powered by hydroelectric with diesel as backup. There are no wind turbines in the system, so it's impossible for their claim to be true that the station is powered 100% by wind power.
Just to raise a stink and see what they do, I emailed their Ethics Hotline, informing them of their misleading and false advertisement. I even included these pictures of the station and sign, to show them I have proof. The pictures were taken on July 15th, we'll see when or if the sign is taken down...
Click image to view full
See the rest of “Safeway Wind Power, Not in This Town”»
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
«Fuel Prices»
So, how are fuel prices in your area? What about diesel? This is what they're like here in Ketchikan, Alaska.
Yup, that's $3.919 for regular unleaded gas and $4.889 for diesel.
At this point, I'm curious what they'll do with the sign when it reaches $10.009. It seems most of the signs and pumps were not designed for the extra digit. Maybe they'll do away with that 9 on the end. I've always thought that added 9/10 of a cent was so ridiculous. It should be rounded to the nearest cent, don't you think?
I'll have to call in tonight "for further instructions", but if nothing has changed, Wednesday will be my first day of jury duty. My group number was called. Despite the common loathing associated with jury duty, I'm looking forward to it. This will be my first time.
Too bad that if I get on a trial I can't say anything about it until the trial is over.
Friday, February 8, 2008
«An Easy Solution to the Oil Dependency»
Environmentalists always find a problem with every source of energy. Now they're complaining about biofules. I never did think biofules were all that good. It's not the most efficient process of extracting it and I feel it's the wrong direction for our fuel. It's still a pollution causing form of energy and it is driving up the cost of corn. There's all sorts of foods that have corn products in them, and we don't need our food to cost more.
I favor types of natural, renewable energy. Take hydroelectric for example. That's a wonderful source of energy. Or wind turbines, that's another great one. Solar panels should be on the roof of every house in sunny areas such as California, Nevada, and Arizona. Geothermal is a good source of energy. Even tidal and wave action can be harnessed. The technology is all there to have all the electricity we need, and then some, without burning oil. Once you have a surplus of electricity, it's no big deal to use some of that to get hydrogen from methane gas or even water. Then we can use hydrogen in our cars, trucks, and even trains. Suddenly, our dependence on oil is gone.
It would also help the economy. Not only would it stop US dollars from going overseas for oil, but it would create a ton of jobs in the US to build and maintain the various power plants. It would dramatically lower the cost of electricity, reducing the cost of manufacturing (not the mention the common household's power bill). Producing hydrogen with the excess electricity would reduce shipping and transportation costs. All of this would cause a surge in the economy. The cost of building and maintaining would quickly be paid for by what would otherwise be spent on oil.
Measures can be taken to make sure the fish can get around the hydroelectric dams. That's one of the things environmentalists complain about. Some of their other complaints get kinda stupid, like the wind turbines injuring birds. The large wind turbines don't move that fast anyway.
Trains should be used everywhere. They are far better and more fuel efficient for long distance freight than individual trucks. The trucks can haul the few miles from the train station to individual factories and stores. That would also keep a good deal of the trucks off the highways and ease traffic. Not to mention prevent the ruts they cause in the pavement.
Oh, speaking of environmentalists, you know those nature documentaries they have on TV? They always seem to show a nuclear power plant when they're talking about pollution. Nuclear power plants are absolutely clean. That's only steam coming from the cooling towers, not smoke!
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