ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
It seems that occasionally a thread is started promoting some new environmentally friendly technology, and in no time, that idea is shot down (can it be 'shot down' if it was never 'up' to begin with?) by other posters with facts and figures. I was thinking, rather than a negative thread on enviro-green ideas, how about some ideas that look to have real merit? And if a new idea posted to this thread looks bleak after closer examination, maybe move any further discussion to another thread, to keep this one on the positive side? Just a thought.
Just for reference, let's look at a few not so great, bad, and downright ugly ideas, and get them out of the way.
The Ugly - That 'Solar Roadways' plan to make roads out of glass covered solar cells and LEDS, with heaters to melt ice and snow. There isn't even a single aspect of this that makes a lick of sense (other than for the promoter's pocket books) - it's all a waste, not environmentally positive in any way whatsoever. There are far better ways to use solar PV. See more at this thread, or just search the web for more critique than you can handle.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/solar-pavement-72955.html
And the super-mega-over-hyped source: Solar Roadways - Introduction
The Bad - Home-sized wind turbines and home-sized solar PV. Not outright ugly, but if you want to support wind power, the materials that go into making a wind turbine should be used at a large scale - winds are so much more powerful and steady at higher elevations, and larger sizes bring economy of scale. It is a waste, in relative terms, to make small wind turbines. Same with solar PV - large installations on schools, big-box stores, etc, bring economy of scale - one install and plan optimally placed on flat roofs versus hundreds of individual installs that need to consider shading and angles and wiring. Far easier to adjust one industrial sized install for the seasons, or to clean if needed, than to drive to and climb up hundreds of home rooftops, etc.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/personal-windmill-anyone-seen-this-45056.html
The Not so Great - Electric Vehicles. We have a lot of discussion of this on the Tesla thread, and when you compare an EV to other environmental options ('standard' hybrid cars like the Prius), they may be marginally better in terms of CO2 (but worse on much of the grid), but far worse for other pollutants (like a 100x worse) such as SOx (acid rain) and NOx (smog, irritant). And since batteries, chargers, and motors are already highly efficient, we can't really expect much improvement (yes, the grid may slowly get cleaner - but even a small % of coal creates problems for NOx and SOx).
Way too much in this and other posts in the Tesla thread: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/more-on-the-tesla-electric-car-60733-2.html#post1329959
If you disagree with any of the above, please take that to, or start, a separate thread. So on with the potentially 'good':
Hybrids are already pretty good, they don't have range or infrastructure issues, and unlike EVs, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the engines that power them. I predict that these improvements will advance faster than the greening of the grid. Here are a few potential ideas for hybrids:
1) The six-stroke engine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-stroke_engine ... the engine captures the heat lost from the four-stroke Otto cycle or Diesel cycle and uses it to power an additional power and exhaust stroke of the piston in the same cylinder. Designs use either steam or air as the working fluid for the additional power stroke. Injecting a bit of water absorbs some of the remaining heat, turns it into power, and may eliminate (or greatly reduce) the need for radiators.
2) The free-piston, linear engine - in a series hybrid, the engine is only a generator, and there is no need to convert the linear piston motion to rotary motion. The free piston engine eliminates the weight and friction from the crankshaft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-piston_engine
Toyota shows off free piston engine linear generator for future EVs
3) Hybrid delivery trucks - micro-turbine - Now this makes a LOT of sense to me. Focus these expensive hybrid systems on big delivery trucks that drive many, many miles of stop and go (where hybrids really help), and use LOTS of fuel. That battery and generator in a passenger car isn't utilized that well - cars are parked most of the day. Big savings on a delivery truck can trump the savings you get on a dozen or more passenger cars.
Ian Wright was a co-founder of Tesla Motors - Wright points out that the delivery companies will run their trucks for 10 to 20 years and need to replace their engines two or three times during the life of a single chassis. A new engine and transmission for these types of vehicles cost about $35,000. So ..., why not upgrade to a turbine-powered, electric dynamo?
Conservation: The above is conservation, and I think conservation has a much bigger near term payback than 'alternate energy'. Most alternate energy is variable, and that causes problems before it can replace significant % of our needs. Storage is expensive, and may have potential hazards to consider. I think we can conserve 20% far easier than we can replace it. And a MW-hr not consumed produces zero pollution.
I think telecommuting and ride-sharing could be promoted. And I'm in the lowest quintile of electric power users in my neighborhood and less than 1/2 the power of the average user (despite having an electric dryer rather than NG which is more common), and I'm sure not living like the Amish, I don't go powering down everything, we have two refrigerators and a freezer (and 2 of those are the old, supposed 'energy hogs'), and lots of old-style 'Edison bulbs' (high use sockets are mostly CFL though). What are all these other people using their juice for? How about more tiering of rates to make high energy users pay more? That would motivate savings in many areas, rather than just a few that get hyped (CFLs, etc).
So what other green ideas have potential? Thoughts?
-ERD50
Just for reference, let's look at a few not so great, bad, and downright ugly ideas, and get them out of the way.
The Ugly - That 'Solar Roadways' plan to make roads out of glass covered solar cells and LEDS, with heaters to melt ice and snow. There isn't even a single aspect of this that makes a lick of sense (other than for the promoter's pocket books) - it's all a waste, not environmentally positive in any way whatsoever. There are far better ways to use solar PV. See more at this thread, or just search the web for more critique than you can handle.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/solar-pavement-72955.html
And the super-mega-over-hyped source: Solar Roadways - Introduction
The Bad - Home-sized wind turbines and home-sized solar PV. Not outright ugly, but if you want to support wind power, the materials that go into making a wind turbine should be used at a large scale - winds are so much more powerful and steady at higher elevations, and larger sizes bring economy of scale. It is a waste, in relative terms, to make small wind turbines. Same with solar PV - large installations on schools, big-box stores, etc, bring economy of scale - one install and plan optimally placed on flat roofs versus hundreds of individual installs that need to consider shading and angles and wiring. Far easier to adjust one industrial sized install for the seasons, or to clean if needed, than to drive to and climb up hundreds of home rooftops, etc.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/personal-windmill-anyone-seen-this-45056.html
The Not so Great - Electric Vehicles. We have a lot of discussion of this on the Tesla thread, and when you compare an EV to other environmental options ('standard' hybrid cars like the Prius), they may be marginally better in terms of CO2 (but worse on much of the grid), but far worse for other pollutants (like a 100x worse) such as SOx (acid rain) and NOx (smog, irritant). And since batteries, chargers, and motors are already highly efficient, we can't really expect much improvement (yes, the grid may slowly get cleaner - but even a small % of coal creates problems for NOx and SOx).
Way too much in this and other posts in the Tesla thread: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/more-on-the-tesla-electric-car-60733-2.html#post1329959
If you disagree with any of the above, please take that to, or start, a separate thread. So on with the potentially 'good':
Hybrids are already pretty good, they don't have range or infrastructure issues, and unlike EVs, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the engines that power them. I predict that these improvements will advance faster than the greening of the grid. Here are a few potential ideas for hybrids:
1) The six-stroke engine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-stroke_engine ... the engine captures the heat lost from the four-stroke Otto cycle or Diesel cycle and uses it to power an additional power and exhaust stroke of the piston in the same cylinder. Designs use either steam or air as the working fluid for the additional power stroke. Injecting a bit of water absorbs some of the remaining heat, turns it into power, and may eliminate (or greatly reduce) the need for radiators.
2) The free-piston, linear engine - in a series hybrid, the engine is only a generator, and there is no need to convert the linear piston motion to rotary motion. The free piston engine eliminates the weight and friction from the crankshaft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-piston_engine
Toyota shows off free piston engine linear generator for future EVs
3) Hybrid delivery trucks - micro-turbine - Now this makes a LOT of sense to me. Focus these expensive hybrid systems on big delivery trucks that drive many, many miles of stop and go (where hybrids really help), and use LOTS of fuel. That battery and generator in a passenger car isn't utilized that well - cars are parked most of the day. Big savings on a delivery truck can trump the savings you get on a dozen or more passenger cars.
Ian Wright was a co-founder of Tesla Motors - Wright points out that the delivery companies will run their trucks for 10 to 20 years and need to replace their engines two or three times during the life of a single chassis. A new engine and transmission for these types of vehicles cost about $35,000. So ..., why not upgrade to a turbine-powered, electric dynamo?
Conservation: The above is conservation, and I think conservation has a much bigger near term payback than 'alternate energy'. Most alternate energy is variable, and that causes problems before it can replace significant % of our needs. Storage is expensive, and may have potential hazards to consider. I think we can conserve 20% far easier than we can replace it. And a MW-hr not consumed produces zero pollution.
I think telecommuting and ride-sharing could be promoted. And I'm in the lowest quintile of electric power users in my neighborhood and less than 1/2 the power of the average user (despite having an electric dryer rather than NG which is more common), and I'm sure not living like the Amish, I don't go powering down everything, we have two refrigerators and a freezer (and 2 of those are the old, supposed 'energy hogs'), and lots of old-style 'Edison bulbs' (high use sockets are mostly CFL though). What are all these other people using their juice for? How about more tiering of rates to make high energy users pay more? That would motivate savings in many areas, rather than just a few that get hyped (CFLs, etc).
So what other green ideas have potential? Thoughts?
-ERD50