Green Technology

Are compact florescent light bulbs living up to their promise? My experience says definitely not! Here is a picture of all the ones that have failed me. This represents roughly half of the ones that I have purchased and they generally failed after a few months to a year - nothing like the 5 to 7 years to pay back their acquisition cost in saved electricity. I believe that they are more efficient in electricity use when compared with incandescent bulbs, but not when their purchase price and reliability are factored in!

Now, when I see Phillips advertisements for compact florescent light bulbs, I think of the Marlboro man hawking cigarettes. Both are trying to get you to buy something that doesn't benefit you by appealing to your concern for the environment or the allure of the open range. It's called marketing.

The trouble is that the more "Green" claims I personally investigate, the more seem to be unworkable scams that appeal to nebulous, good-for-the-environment types.

Steal My Idea #1

I'm now trying to give away some of my ideas, after years of entertaining the delusion of patenting them. I finally reached the conclusion that patents are stupid and only favor the already established, both in legal representation and money. Additionally, companies are so afraid of getting sued by some would-be inventor that they will plug their ears and sing la la la la la when you mention that you have an "idea" that they might be interested in.

This idea uses ordinary fence brackets, like those made by Simpson http://www.strongtie.com/ My idea is to put some double-backed adhesive foam on the bracket to hold it on the fence post while you install the screws. Simply measure for the location of the bracket, remove the release paper from the double-backed adhesive, and press the bracket to the fence post. Then, install the screws to complete the bracket. The adhesive makes it easy to do, without needing a third hand.

Take look at the photos to get a good concept of my idea. Steal it and make millions!

Not Enough Juice

"Not Enough Juice", that's the title of a recent editorial in Machine Design by Leland Teschler (http://machinedesign.com/article/leland-teschlers-editorial-not-enough-juice-reality-and-alternative-energy-0519). I recommend the entire article. It is well worth reading, but I will summarize the basic facts.

Siemens recently announced a order for 33 of its 2.3 MW wind turbines for a project in North Dakota.

It would take 13,000 of these 2.3 MW wind turbines spinning at full speed to power New York City; and 50,000 of these to meet the peak eletricity demand of the Big Apple.

It will take 2 years to install the 33 wind turbines in North Dakota. At that rate, it would take until 2797 to install the 13,000 wind turbine to power New York City.

Talk about tilting at windmills! What a waste of capital to build these medieval devices merely updated with modern materials.

I prefer compact, safe, clean nuclear power.

No Batteries

In a previous blog I wrote about electric cars without batteries. I made the assertion that batteries are not needed, just electrified roads powered by nuclear plants. Now, I see that SEW Eurodrive actually makes a contactless energy transfer system for industrial use, including automatic guided vehicles. I haven't investigated this technology beyond reading their brochure, but it sure seems like this might work. The literature claims it possible to have a air gap of 20mm (almost an inch). You can check it out for yourself at http://www.sew-eurodrive.com/download/pdf/11452617.pdf

Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency

I have been fuming about this raging stupidity known as the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, or UTOPIA, for years. Steam has been coming from my ears and I have been sputtering about how ridiculous I find the whole thing. So, I finally condensed my opposition into one reason. The reason I hate UTOPIA is because I am being coerced into paying for it. So there it is in one simple sentence. Let me repeat. I hate UTOPIA because I am coerced into paying for it.

Never mind that the whole idea behind it is a delusion, the business model sucks, the name is infantile, it has no accountability, its principals pretend to have never heard of the Rigas family or WorldCom or iProvo or etc, etc.

None of that would matter one whit to me if "my" property had not been put up as collateral for the bonds being used to build the network. Brigham City Council twice voted to use tax revenue as collateral to obtain the bonds and tax revenue to ultimately pay the bonds, if the venture fails.

Utah has long been the target of schemers, shysters, and conmen, some of who are smart enough to go for the deep pockets!

Batteries?

Batteries are the Achilles' heel of electric cars and always will be. It's a fact of chemistry and physics. However, I submit to you that electric cars really don't need stupid, unobtainable, heavy, expensive, low-power density batteries any more than they need to carry the road with them.

Modern, gas-burning cars need roads. Look out your window in any direction and you will see this reality. Cars that don't need roads are called four-wheelers or Off Road Vehicles (ORV). Now, I don't think that the greens are really suggesting that we develop electric ORVs, so we can conclude that electric cars are intended to be used on roads (infrastructure). Thus, if electric cars need roads to function, then they don't need batteries. Here's why - electric power can be added into the existing roads and the electric cars can pick-up the power they need from the road. Only a small battery would be required to take the car from the garage to the electrified road. The driver could even be billed monthly for the electricity used since the car could connect to the road grid with a unique IP-like address, similar to a cell phone or other wireless device and keep track of the kilowatt-hours used.

Of course, a nuclear power plant would have to be "connected" to the road, or what would be the point of burning coal instead of gasoline? This arrangement would also have the added benefit of supporting both gasoline powered cars and electric cars at the same time.

Note: Non-contact power transmission devices have been available for industrial uses for a few years. I believe that they could serve as a model for the type of electric car that I am talking about.

Peak Uranium

I want to be the first to predict the coming shortage and potential crisis if humanity becomes dependent on nuclear power. I have dubbed this looming catastrophe, "Peak Uranium". Based on known supplies of uranium and breeder reactor technology, humanity will reach the peak of production of uranium in approximately 2 billion years. We need to act now to prevent this cataclysm! This crisis is as critical to the survival of the planet as is global warming. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away!

Seriously, folks, breeder reactor technology has the ability to provide all of humanity with the energy it needs for as long as this planet is estimated to be habitable (3 to 5 billion years) See Abundant US Energy-Supply Options for the Very Long Term, by S. S. Penner http://www.ddponline.org/penner08.pdf

By the way, I have addressed the non-issue of nuclear waste in a previous post. Mr. Penner also further comments about this non-issue in the above link.