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Wednesday, August 27, 2008 ..:: Energy Saving » Environment Page ::..   Login

 

 

Michel Ioffe – my uncle, writing his essays for this page.

Michel Ioffe is a retired engineer who dedicated his time and effort to the issues of prevention of Global Warming from happening. If you in support of these kinds of issues, or in denial that these kinds of issues even exist. If you would like that your opinion or question become public you can contact me on any other page of this website or on the “Contact Me” page. I will post your opinion or question on this page and Michel Ioffe will give his answer if it’s a question or give his comment it it’s an opinion just below of yours.


 

About global warming.

 

Our efforts in fighting global warming can be more productive if we will reexamine what we are writing and speaking about it. I found interesting that:

1.      Very often mass media changed carbon dioxide equivalent of all greenhouse gases only on carbon dioxide.

Forget that “Forests contain much more carbon than does grass, and they also absorb more sunlight (having different albedo) and produce more water vapor, which affects cloud formation”. Mature forests don’t take in much CO2 for they are in balance, releasing CO2 as old vegetation rots, then absorbing it as new grows. For these reasons the world largest forests-the coniferous forests of Siberia and Canada, and the tropical rainforests are not good carbon sinks, but new vigorously forests are.”

3.      Mass media mention only that greenhouse gases absorb heat in the atmosphere. More important processes that cool the atmosphere are completely ignored by mass media.

Absolutely misunderstand role of water vapor in cooling of the Earth, despite that it is also greenhouse gas.

Misunderstand that any source of energy – nuclear, wind, hydro, solar cells, hydrogen, geothermal in condition when greenhouse gases anyway will increased by others processes will heat the atmosphere as heat pollutant.

Misunderstand possibility of conservation of energy and its limits.

 

If we will look carefully on result of these misunderstanding we will found dangerous situation when high respectful authors asking us to do what in reality will bring more harm than good things.

 

“It’s not just carbon…

A single-minded focus on greenhouse gas emissions is the wrong way to fix our environmental problems.” (Alex Steffen, Wired, June 2008).

 

Let look in Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2007 (126 Edition) page 577, table 897.

“Energy consumption by End-Use sector in quadrillion British thermal Unit (BTU).

           

Total-1970 year –67.84 (67,840,000,000,000,000)---2004 year-99.74

 

Residential --------1970 year –22.11                           2004 year-38.6

and commercial

 

Industrial-----------1970 year –29.64                          2004 year –33.25

 

Transportation-----1970 year –16.10                           2004 year –27.79.

 

Our consumption of energy in the 2004 compares with 1970 almost double in residential and commercial, and transportation. Industrial energy did not grow in the same rate only because most industrial production moved to China and others developed countries.

Without any doubt to live better we need more energy.

In the world media idea of conservation of energy by increasing efficiency of all equipment and appliances prevail.

If we will increase efficiency of our motors, equipment, appliances, home heating and cooling systems, etc. from average 25% right now to impossible 100% it will mean only that four times more people will live on the same level as middle class in USA today. It is not enough even for USA population, not mention all countries in the world.

Conservation of energy is not a solution. It is always good direction but not enough.

Nuclear energy, geothermal energy, wind energy, solar cell energy even if they will emit zero carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the Earth (everyone knew that it is not true) still will heat air in situation where greenhouse gases in the air will be increased anyway by others processes.

It is possible to use these energy sources, but it is not true that solutions to fight global warming are nuclear, geothermal, wind, solar cell, hydrogen cell or many others or very expensive or not so effective sources of energy.

Nuclear and geothermal source of energy will additionally to Sun heat air of the Earth.

Wind and solar cells energy are very expensive and need batteries to store their energy in times when we haven’t wind or Sun.

If we still want to use them it is better for windmills directly found job, perhaps pump water from places where we have flooding to places where we need water. This will reduce significantly price for wind energy (we no need devices to change kinetic energy of the wind to electrical energy, electrical transformers, lines, motors etc). It also will increase efficiency of windmills. In this case it is not so important timing of pumping water.

Solar energy is better to use to grow vegetables, corn, wheat etc. The best way to use Sun energy is to grow forests. Trees are the champion in the world and grow faster than any others plants. They collect Sun energy during hundreds of years. Wood from the trees can be the cheapest source of energy for power plants. All emissions from these power plants can be without any harm sequestrated back to the land by water and will be the best nutrition to grow the same trees.

Instead of harvesting every year corn, grass etc for ethanol production we will harvest wood for electricity production from forest in area at least 100 times less than in case of harvesting grass, corn etc for liquid fuel. It will be the closest to customer source of energy and therefore cheaper than coal. Coal right now the cheapest source of electrical energy.

It takes one ton of coal to generate an average of 2500 KWH of electricity.

It takes less than 1.6 ton of wood to generate the same amount of energy.

 

By David Fleming, April 2006:

“It takes a lot of fossil energy to mine uranium, and then to extract and prepare the right isotope for use in a nuclear reactor. It takes even more fossil energy to build the reactor, and, when its life is over, to decommission it and look after its radioactive waste.

As a result, with current technology, there is only a limited amount of uranium ore in the world that is rich enough to allow more energy to be produced by the whole nuclear process than the process itself consumes. This amount of ore might be enough to supply the world's total current electricity demand for about six years.

Moreover, because of the amount of fossil fuel and fluorine used in the enrichment process, significant quantities of greenhouse gases are released. As a result, nuclear energy is by no means a 'climate-friendly' technology”.

http://www.uow.edu.au/eng/phys/nukeweb/index.html
http://www.feasta.org/documents/energy/nuclear_power.htm

Many scientists can confront David Fleming opinion, but they still need to agree that nuclear source of energy will additionally heat the air and will work as heat pollutant.

 
As you can read in Tim Flannery book “The Weather Makers,” 2006:

“Forests contain much more carbon than does grass, and they also absorb more sunlight (having different albedo) and produce more water vapor, which affects cloud formation”.

“Mature forests don’t take in much COfor they are in balance, releasing CO2   as old vegetation rots, then absorbing it as new grows. For these reasons the world largest forests-the coniferous forests of Siberia and Canada, and the tropical rainforests are not good carbon sinks, but new vigorously forests are.”

If we will follow Tim Flannery, we can say, that all one-year vegetation wills rots during one year. In nature they are rots slowly, providing during vegetation period nutrition for new growing plants. Together with others vegetation on the Earth they create balance during millions years, when in air we had 280 parts per million of carbon dioxide.

Growing population, industrial revolution changed this balance. It is inevitable: we harvest food from almost all land in every state and bring it to huge cities, where rots of waste haven’t enough plants to take back carbon dioxide.

If we will grow corn, grass, etc. for ethanol or others so called “green sources of energy” we will bring to ethanol production place every year increasing amount of plants from which we extracting ethanol. We need energy to plant and harvest these sources. It will increase amount of carbon dioxide in the air despite our good intentions. “Green sources of energy” is a disaster for environment and as soon we will agree on that we will not spend money and efforts in wrong directions. Green sources of energy will not save civilization from global warming.

The same situation we have with efficiency of our production, transportation system, our homes, appliances and other needs of civilization. Demand for better living increased faster than our ability to increase efficiency of our equipment.

 

It is normal to have new balance of greenhouse gases in the nature.

 

Needs for energy in the world, as amount of greenhouse gases in air will grow despite all good resolutions and all inventions.

We intensified style of our life. We need to intensify process of cooling air in the Earth.

 
From Earth Science, Baron’s Educational Series, Inc, 2001

“Solar radiation reaches the upper atmosphere at a fairly constant rate of about 200

Kilocalories per minute/square meter. About 1/3 of this radiation is reflected back into space mostly by clouds. Ozone, carbon dioxide, and water vapor in the atmosphere absorb or reflect most of Earth’s infrared radiation; the rest go through the atmosphere and out into space. Solar energy reflected back into space by thick clouds – 75-90%, thin clouds – 30-50%, water – 10%, grassy field - 10-30%, fresh snow – 75-95%, forest – 3-10%…

The atmosphere consists mostly of gases, but also contains water, ice, dust and others particles. In dry air we have 78% of Nitrogen, 21% of Oxygen, almost 1% of Argon. In air we have traces of other gases: Neon, Helium, Krypton, Xenon, Hydrogen, Ozone, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxide, Methane. 

Molecular mass of N2 = 28, of O2 = 32, of H2O = 18. Since the lighter water molecules displace heavier air pressure decreases as humidity increases. HUMIDITY UP, AIR PRESSURE DOWN, HUMIDITY DOWN, AIR PRESSURE UP

Wind blow from region of high air pressure to region of low air pressure as in sea breeze, land breeze.

Climate influences a REGION’S NATURAL VEGETATION.

The roots of plants absorb water that has seeped into the soil. Then the water is transported to their leaves, and released back to the atmosphere, as water vapor. Each day an estimated 15 trillion litters of water in the form of rain or snow fall on the United States alone.

The atmosphere which now has a total mass about 5,000 trillion tons is held in place by Earth’s gravity and extend several hundreds kilometers into space.

A number of factors control the amount of solar energy that an area absorbs or reflects including the angle at which incoming solar radiation-insolation-strikes the surface, the length of time each day, that insolation is received, and a nature of the surface.

Most insolation passes right through the atmosphere to Earth surface, where it is absorbed and changed into form of energy that atmosphere can absorb by conduction, convection and radiation.

Most of the energy radiated by Earth’s surface is infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases absorb or reflect most of Earth’s infrared radiation; the rest goes through the atmosphere and out into a space.

Thus short-wavelength can readily enter the atmosphere, but long-wavelength cannot readily escape a phenomenon known as greenhouse effect.”

 
What are the most important lessons from these two books?

1.      Clouds reflect huge parts of solar energy back to space: thick clouds-75-90%, thin clouds-30-50%;

2.      Forests contain much more carbon than does grass and they also absorb more sunlight and produce more water vapor, which affect cloud formation.

3.      Water vapor is one of the lightest gases and has tendency to go up to cloud level. Water has another properties it takes a lot of energy to evaporate water. To evaporate one kg of water we need 339 kcal of heat. We need one kcal to increase temperature of 1 kg of water on 1ºC. Evaporation of water will cool air temperature. Despite that water vapor is greenhouse gas, it tendency to go up bring them on cloud level, where distances between molecules bigger and heat will go to space more easily than on ground level. No others greenhouse gases have these properties. Drop of rain when falling down partially evaporated and go back to cloud level, but more important they dissolve a lot of carbon dioxide and others “heavy” greenhouse gases from the air and soil and feed all plants on the Earth.

4.      Of course, reduction of carbon dioxide in the air will cool the Earth. Water vapor will produce the same effects of cooling the Earth. We need increase evaporation of water. It is significantly cheaper then efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Drops of rain at the same time will clean air from carbon dioxide better than any efforts of conservation of energy.

5.      Sun is the best source of energy to evaporate water, to grow trees, to produce the cheapest, really “green” source of energy, which can be used in any time during hundreds of years.

6.      White fresh snow reflects to space 75-95% of Sun radiation. White cars, houses, roads will do the same.

 
Let go back to Wired, June 2008

“Farm the forests (MP-I hope I do not make mistake that it is Matt Power)

Ronald Reagan’s infamous claim that “trees cause more pollution than automobiles” contained a grain of truth…Canadian forests actually gives up more carbon from decomposing woods than they luck down in new growth.”

It is OK for President Reagan to use for political purposes a good slogan. It is not OK for Canadian Scientists to be blind by politicians. Carbon dioxide is not only one player in cooling and heating air of the Earth. Canadian forests evaporate a lot of water. Scientists even if they asked about carbon dioxide in Canadian forests need to mention cooling the Earth’s air by water vapor.

Unfortunately I do not see in mass media voice of scientists when United Nation Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon claim (UN Chronicle, Volume XLIV #2, June 2007) “Global greenhouse gas emissions have to start to come down. Carbon trading is but one weapon in our arsenal, even if it does range among the most effective policy solutions. New technologies, energy conservation, forestry projects and renewable fuels, as well as private markets, must be part of long-term policy solution.”

Al Gore “The assault on reason”, 2007: “The energy crisis and the climate crisis are inextricably linked-both in their causes and in their solution. In order to deal with the planetary emergency caused by the rapid accumulation of man maid carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere, we must quickly address its principal cause-which is our civilization’s tragic overdependence on burning massive quantities of carbon based fuel.”

The same mistakes make all our candidates for President and many others politicians in the world.

Op-Ed Columnist, New York Times
“Save the Planet: Vote Smart

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: October 21, 2007

…So if you want to be a green college kid or a green adult, don’t fool yourself: You can change lights. You can change cars. But if you don’t change leaders, your actions are nothing more than an expression of, as Dick Cheney would say, “Personal virtue.”

 

Are you serious, Mr. Friedman, those leaders who will ask to change lights and cars on hybrid will save the Earth?

 

Unfortunately Barack Obama and John McCain about global warming offer close solutions.

 

 

 

Back to Matt Power: “The most climate friendly policy is to continually cut down trees and plant new ones, lots of them. A few simple steps: clear the oldest trees and than take out dead trunks and branches to prevent fires; landfill the scrap.

 Plant seedlings and harvest them as soon as they power of carbon sequestration begin to flag, and use the wood to produce only high quality durable goods, like furniture and houses.” That is really good solution, with only one remark “high quality durable goods like furniture and houses” will not save carbon forever.

According to Tim Flannery and Matt Power only new forests collect carbon. Tim Flannery wrote also about absorbing sunlight to grow and also produce water vapor. Trees are the best and cheapest pumps in the world. They use Sun energy to evaporate huge amount of water. It is the cheapest way to cool the Earth and forget about growing amount of carbon dioxide. Drop of rain on cloud level is the cleanest and the best solvent of carbon dioxide and will reduce amount of carbon dioxide in the air better than any others human efforts in these directions.

Increasing of evaporation of water will do more to reduce carbon dioxide in the air than any attempt of conservation energy.

 
How we use energy?
 

For economical and profit reason we are building our power plants so huge that more than 80% of their overall energy – heat energy - we can’t use.

“The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine is the most powerful and most efficient prime-mover in the world today. At maximum economy the engine exceeds 50% thermal efficiency. That is, more than 50% of the energy in the fuel is converted to motion.
For comparison, most automotive and small aircraft engines have BSFC figures in the 0.40-0.60 lbs/hp/hr range and 25-30% thermal efficiency range.

The maximum power theorem applies to generators as it does to any source of electrical energy. This theorem states that the maximum power can be obtained from the generator by making the resistance of the load equal to that of the generator. However, under this condition the power transfer efficiency is only 50%, which means that half the power generated is wasted as heat inside the generator. For this reason, practical generators are not usually designed to operate at maximum power output, but at a lower power output where efficiency is greater.

Transmission and distribution losses in the USA were estimated at 7.2% in 1995, and in the UK at 7.4% in 1998.”

 

If we will calculate waste of energy to produce source of energy together with using energy we can conclude that more THAN 80% OF ENERGY WE ARE LOOSING IN VAIN.

If we will pay attention to growing trees in the same level as growing corn we will production of wood in forests many times.

 

We will create source of energy to power plants-wood energy-the cheapest and closest to consumer source of future energy.

If we will build small power plants to use not only electricity, but also heat we will use almost 100% of energy of the wood, not 20%. That means we will need to use three- four times less energy sources.

Of course we need time to build these small power plants, but we can grow trees as fuel for these plants right now all across USA. They will start evaporate water immediately.

If we compare yield of corn, hay, trees from one acre, we can see that trees are champion among all of them.

 

I am sorry for repeating many times these ideas. It is very important to remind that carbon dioxide is important but not one player in the game.

From “Atmosphere. Clouds. Rain. Snow. Storm” Vincent J Schaefer/John A. Day, 1981:
“The remarkable “year without a summer” of 1816 is thought to have been caused by massive volcanic eruption and is an indication of what could happen-volcanic ash particles serve as excellent nuclei for ice crystal formation. This factor, plus the reduction in solar radiation caused by volcanic dust cloud in the stratosphere and upper troposphere is thought to have been responsible for the widespread change in the weather America and Europe experienced in that time.”

We can provoke volcanic eruption. We can send mirrors particle on the orbit, by the rockets. What we will do depend of our common sense and willingness to spend money on projects. Growing forests for evaporation of water is cheaper and more controllable way to stop global warming. Woods, as source of the cheapest energy will pay all our spending bills.

 

We need to change our transportation systems. Cars are perfects, but they are relicts of previous century.

It is impossible to collect greenhouse gases from millions of cars. We have only one environmentally friendly direction of transportation-electrical transportation. We know that efficiency of electric motors more than 85%. In this direction we can make instead of car weighting more than 2000 kg cart with weight around 10 kg. It is correct-10 kg cart for one person.

 

All these ideas are simple to understand. For some reason others ideas promoting by mass media and have support of our Government. I will repeat again main directions:

 

Of course we need to use everything what we have right now till time when it is economically working.

 
As our strategy goals:
 

1.     We need change transportation system.

2.     We need to reduce size of power plants, which we will build in future.

3.     We need in nearest future use electricity as only one source of energy for heating (cooling) of homes and for transportation.

4.     We need to use heat from power plants for industry and greenhouses.

5.     We need grow trees around power plants as only one source of renewable energy for power plants and solve all gases from power plants in water to watering growing forests. Instead of supporting liquid fuel production - a disaster for environmental, our government need to support growing trees instead of corn, grass and other sources for liquid fuel.

6.     We need to build systems to relocate water from flooding areas to watering these trees. Instead of spending money on result of flooding we need spend them to prevent flooding.

7.     We need start design small power plants with mandatory of using not only electricity but also heat. These power plants can use any kind of energy sources but after some time need to use only wood as main source of energy. All greenhouse gases from power plants need to be solved in huge amount of water to watering forest. Of course quality of water for watering needs to be check by scientists. 5-10 years is more than enough time to make this happen.

 

It takes one ton of coal to generate an average of 2500 KWH of electricity.

It takes 1.6 ton of wood to generate the same amount of energy.

 

I am not against freedom of speech, but time to time scientists need to provide politicians and people around the world with real knowledge about global warming, peak oil production and reasons for weather disaster.

 

In these directions we have possibilities to create new industries with 100% of employment for scientists, engineers, farmers and workers despite that many jobs positions goes abroad. It is normal process of globalization.

 
Coal Still the Cheapest Power Source Despite Increases

It takes one ton of coal to generate an average of 2500 KWH of electricity.

It takes 1.6 ton of wood to generate the same amount of energy

It seems everything costs more these days. Milk, eggs, gas and even coal – the price of each of these commodities has risen in the last few months.

And as we all know, the media loves to point this stuff out. There are articles and news reports like this one nearly everyday, telling us that as the price of fuel goes, so go our electric bills.

But one important fact is often left out, which is that even with price increases coal is still by far our cheapest full source. Here’s how some of our major energy sources stack up based on the average cost in dollars per million Btu for 2007 (annual average for the full year):

Coal — $1.78
Petroleum liquids — $9.21
Natural gas — $7.45

(You can take a look for yourself at www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm.pdf)
Net Generation Shares by Energy Source: Total (All Sectors),
Year-to-Date through March, 2008
Coal- 50.4%
Hydroelectric Conventional-6.5%
Natural Gas-19.0%
 Nuclear-19.8%
Other Energy Sources-3.3% 
Petroleum-1.1%
Facts and Figures

·         Even if all possible arable acres of land in the U.S. (~427 million acres) were devoted to growing corn for ethanol production, at current yields ethanol would satisfy only 12% of transportation fuel demand;

·         Similarly, if all soybean crops currently produced were to be refined into biodiesel, only 6% of U.S. diesel demand would be met;

·         Ethanol currently represents just over 2% of gasoline sold;

·         Studies indicate full scale CELLULOSIC (not corn-based but developed from switchgrass, woodchips, etc), ethanol could be produced for 60 cents per gallon (NRDC Biofuels Study);

·         Research shows that it takes about 0.75 BTUs (British thermal units - a measure of energy content) from fossil fuels to create 1 BTU of ethanol, compared to 1.23 BTUs to create 1 BTU of traditional oil-based gasoline (Dr. Wang, et al). So ethanol is a more efficient energy source than oil.

Pros of Use

·         Biofuels can be domestically produced from a number of available agricultural products (e.g., switch grass, woodchips, animal waste, etc);

·         Biofuels burn cleaner than most traditional fossil fuel sources;

·         Biodiesel can utilize current distribution systems and run in current diesel motors.

 


Cons of Use

·         At some point (arguably happening currently), food supplies are compromised and food prices rise as a result of additional agricultural products being sold for the creation of biofuels;

·         Limitations in the total transportation fuel supplied by biofuels exist using current technology;

·         There is not a readily established, high volume distribution system in place for the transport of ethanol as there is for oil (which currently enjoys a national pipeline system);

Ethanol requires the use of slightly modified, "flex-fuel" engines.

 

When we completely understand all above let look on “Pickens Plan”, and try to understand where he is wrong?

 
“Pickens Plan”

America is addicted to foreign oil.

It's an addiction that threatens our economy, our environment and our national security. It touches every part of our daily lives and ties our hands as a nation and a people.

The addiction has worsened for decades and now it's reached a point of crisis.

In 1970, we imported 24% of our oil.
Today it's nearly 70% and growing.

At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone — that's four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.

 

Projected over the next 10 years the cost will be $10 trillion — it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind.

America uses a lot of oil. Every day 85 million barrels of oil are produced around the world. And 21 million of those are used here in the United States.

That's 25% of the world's oil demand. Used by just 4% of the world's population.

Can't we just produce more oil?
 

World oil production peaked in 2005. Despite growing demand and an unprecedented increase in prices, oil production has fallen over the last three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn't enough of it to keep up with demand.

The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone.
What's the good news?

The United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power.

Studies from around the world show that the Great Plains states are home to the greatest wind energy potential in the world — by far.

The Department of Energy reports that 20% of America's electricity can come from wind. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power for more than a quarter of the country.

Today's wind turbines stand up to 410 feet tall, with blades that stretch 148 feet in length. The blades collect the wind's kinetic energy. In one year, a 3-megawatt wind turbine produces as much energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil.

A 2005 Stanford University study found that there is enough wind power worldwide to satisfy global demand 7 times over — even if only 20% of wind power could be captured.

Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns.

That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain.”

An economic revival for rural America.
A cheap new replacement for foreign oil.
 

Natural gas and bio-fuels are the only domestic energy sources used for transportation.

Cleaner

Natural gas is the cleanest transportation fuel available today.

According to the California Energy Commission, critical greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline.

Natural gas vehicles (NGV) are already available and combine top performance with low emissions. The natural gas Honda Civic GX is rated as the cleanest production vehicle in the world.

According to NGVAmerica, there are more than 7 million NGVs in use worldwide, but only 150,000 of those are in the United States.

The EPA estimates that vehicles on the road account for 60% of carbon monoxide pollution and around one-third of hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions in the United States. As federal and state emissions laws become more stringent, many requirements will be unattainable with conventionally fueled vehicles.

Since natural gas is significantly cleaner than petroleum, NGVs are increasing in popularity. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently announced that 16,800 old diesel trucks will be replaced, and half of the new vehicles will run on alternatives such as natural gas.

Cheaper

Natural gas is significantly less expensive than gasoline or diesel. In places like Utah and Oklahoma, prices are less than $1 a gallon. To see fueling stations and costs in your area, check out cngprices.com.

Domestic

Natural gas is our country's second largest energy resource and a vital component of our energy supply. 98% of the natural gas used in the United States is from North America. But 70% of our oil is purchased from foreign nations.

Natural gas is one of the cleanest, safest and most useful forms of energy — residentially, commercially and industrially. The natural gas industry has existed in the United States for over 100 years and continues to grow.

Domestic natural gas reserves are twice that of petroleum. And new discoveries of natural gas and ongoing development of renewable biogas are continually adding to existing reserves.

While it is a cheap, effective and versatile fuel, less than 1% of natural gas is currently used for transportation.

We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will give us the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel — reducing our dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third.

How do we get it done?

The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies.

Building new wind generation facilities and better utilizing our natural gas resources can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports in 10 years. But it will take leadership.

On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office.

We're organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration.

Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America's energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability.

You can start changing America's future today by supporting the Pickens Plan. Join now.”

 

I am sorry to tell that, but Mr. Pickens you are on wrong directions:

Mr. Pickens is writing about peak oil production (2005), huge price for oil - $700 billion dollars this year.

Solutions: wind power for electricity, Natural Gas Vehicles for transportation.

Will it work? Of course it will it is working right now in a small scale. If we will put billions in these directions we will work in huge scale as huge monuments all around our country for our stupidity and misunderstanding of global warming.

·        Let look how Pickens plan correlates with global warming?

Mr. Picken as many others very famous persons in the world and mass media did not understand role of wind to cool the air. Wind energy evaporates a lot of water from any surfaces of rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans. It evaporates water from the grass bushes and trees. Any uses of wind energy will reduce these cooling effects of wind.

Kinetic energy of the wind in the atmosphere send hot air from the land or water surface to the high level of atmosphere where it is easy for heat to escape to the space.

Kinetic energy of the wind met the small droplets of water in fog, clouds, and all green vegetables, especially in leaves of trees around all atmospheres on the Earth. These processes produce water vapor that invisible gas, which always go up to cloud level and cool the Earth better than anything else.

Mr. Pickens think that wind power did not produce pollution. It is not true. Production of millions wind turbines, batteries need energy. Electricity from these turbines is also pollutant –heat pollutant. In case when others processes in human activity will add greenhouse gases in the atmosphere any heat sources- wind, or nuclear, or geothermal and many others will increase amount of heat that will heat air and will be reason for global warming.

5.      Any our attempt to produce source of energy without production additional sources of water vapor will heat the atmosphere and increase risk of global warming.

·        Let look how Pickens plan uses energy sources?

Natural Gas Vehicles for transportation need huge investment to change our cars, where real efficiency in most cases will be less than 1%.

We need destroy all power plants and their distribution lines, which right now produce electricity-using energy of natural gas.

If windmills produce electricity we are loosing around 50% of wind energy on resistance of batteries, when we charge them, other 50% of energy will be loosing when power from batteries will go to customers.

We still have room for cooperation with Mr. Pickens.

Windmills can work directly pumping perhaps water to grow forests. Efficiency of using wind power will be increased at least tree times. We will have useful job without complication of electrical energy production.

GE can design and build small power plants (for ten-hundred thousands of people), which will use natural gas, where we can use as electrical, as heat energy and look forwards to use in the same power plant as natural gas as wood as source of energy.

GE can design and build 10 kg electrical carts for one person as main transportation system of our future (I have ideas how to make it happen).

GE with cooperation with Companies which specialized in building road systems, working together to build new transportation systems in North America with three levels without any intersection on second and third level.

These directions can not only solve independence from foreign source of energy, but also global warming problems and reduce weather disaster problems.

These directions will give jobs and new opportunity for all North America citizen with 100% of employment for nearest hundred years.

Of course it will be the best example to the world.

Everybody who understand that, who have power to reach Mr. Pickens, our President or mass- media, please tell them about these possibilities. I am sure that these directions are working and need less investment with huge profit possibilities than anything else.

I will be glad to work together on these directions with everybody who agreed with me.

Let start to cooperation, Mr. Pickens!

Sincerely, Michael Ioffe.


Let look at “How Siemens does it.”

Wind power is the fastest-growing energy source in the world. Siemens is rapidly expanding its manufacturing capacities in this exciting new business with powerful offshore wind parks, growing much faster than the market. With more than 6,300 wind turbines around the world, Siemens helps to save up to 10 million tons of CO2 emissions per year. As the market leader in offshore wind energy, Siemens offers the largest serially produced offshore wind turbines, with rotor blades sweeping an area bigger than a football field.
The world's largest gas turbine, the Siemens SGT5-8000H, is also the most powerful. Its capacity of 340 megawatts roughly equals that of 13 jumbo jet engines. In combined cycle operation, plants powered with this new gas turbine will generate 530 MW - enough to supply three million people with energy. A higher than 60 percent efficiency rate in combined-cycle applications (an increase of two percentage points) sets a new benchmark for efficient power generation and results in a reduction of CO2 emissions by up to 40,000 tons per year.
Superior technology for long-distance power transmission is key to generating the thousands of gigawatts of electricity required by our growing planet. But how can we efficiently transport it from remote power plants to populated areas, where it is needed? To overcome the limitations and energy losses of conventional alternating current (AC) transmission, Siemens built high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission links, which are a more economical and ecological means of transporting electric power over distances of 600 km or more.
Buildings account for nearly 40 percent of global energy consumption. To address this massive challenge, Siemens offers measures that help reduce energy costs by 20 - 40 percent, on average. Through energy performance contracting, Siemens plans and installs new intelligent building systems that guarantee savings in cost, energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Under such a contract, Siemens identifies the potential for saving energy in a building through modernization and energy services. The investment pays for itself through the energy savings, with no added costs incurred.”

The same as Mr. Picken, Company Siemens make mistakes in wind production. Please read everything, what I wrote in my answer to Mr. Pickens.
The world’s largest gas turbine which has even with higher than 60 percent efficiency rate (Congratulation for that achievement) will loose more than 70% of gas energy in vain.
To use as heat as electricity energy we need design not more efficient huge power plant, but smaller power plants. Power plants, which served to area around 15 km will use as heat as electrical energy. We can transfer electrical energy on 600 and more km we can’t do the same with heat energy. The world’s largest gas turbine will be one of the many others huge heat pollutant, which will prevail reduction of carbon dioxide emission.

We still have room for cooperation with Siemens Company, the same as with Mr. Pickens.


Let start cooperation!

Sincerely, Michael Ioffe.

 

 

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Active Solar Heating
There are two basic types of active solar heating systems based on the type of fluid—either liquid or air—that is heated in the solar energy collectors. (The collector is the device in which a fluid is heated by the sun.) Liquid-based systems heat water or an antifreeze solution in a "hydronic" collector, whereas air-based systems heat air in an "air collector."
• Both of these systems collect and absorb solar radiation, then transfer the solar heat directly to the interior space or to a storage system, from which the heat is distributed. If the system cannot provide adequate space heating, an auxiliary or back-up system provides the additional heat. Liquid systems are more often used when storage is included, and are well suited for radiant heating systems, boilers with hot water radiators, and even absorption heat pumps and coolers. Both air and liquid systems can supplement forced air systems.

Economics and Other Benefits of Active Solar Heating Systems
Active solar heating systems are most cost-effective when they are used for most of the year, that is, in cold climates with good solar resources. They are most economical if they are displacing more expensive heating fuels, such as electricity, propane, and oil heat. Some states offer sales tax exemptions, income tax credits or deductions, and property tax exemptions or deductions for solar energy systems.
The cost of an active solar heating system will vary. Commercial systems range from $30 to $80 per square foot of collector area, installed. Usually, the larger the system, the less it costs per unit of collector area. Commercially available collectors come with warranties of 10 years or more, and should easily last decades longer. The economics of an active space heating system improve if it also heats domestic water, because an otherwise idle collector can heat water in the summer.
Heating your home with an active solar energy system can significantly reduce your fuel bills in the winter. A solar heating system will also reduce the amount of air pollution and greenhouse gases that result from your use of fossil fuels such as oil, propane, and natural gas for heating or that may be used to generate the electricity that you use.

Selecting and Sizing a Solar Heating System
Selecting the appropriate solar energy system depends on factors such as the site, design, and heating needs of your house. Local covenants may restrict your options; for example homeowner associations may not allow you to install solar collectors on certain parts of your house (although many homeowners have been successful in challenging such covenants).
The local climate, the type and efficiency of the collector(s), and the collector area determine how much heat a solar heating system can provide. It is usually most economical to design an active system to provide 40%–80% of the home's heating needs. Systems providing less than 40% of the heat needed for a home are rarely cost-effective except when using solar air heater collectors that heat one or two rooms and require no heat storage. A well-designed and insulated home that incorporates passive solar heating techniques will require a smaller and less costly heating system of any type, and may need very little supplemental heat other than solar.
Besides the fact that designing an active system to supply enough heat 100% of the time is generally not practical or cost effective, most building codes and mortgage lenders require a back-up heating system. Supplementary or back-up systems supply heat when the solar system can not meet heating requirements. They can range from a wood stove to a conventional central heating system.

Controls for Solar Heating Systems

Solar system controls.
Controls for solar heating systems are usually more complex than those of a conventional heating system, because they have to analyze more signals and control more devices (including the conventional, backup heating system). Solar controls use sensors, switches, and/or motors to operate the system. The system uses other controls to prevent freezing or extremely high temperatures in the collectors.
The heart of the control system is a differential thermostat, which measures the difference in temperature between the collectors and storage unit. When the collectors are 10°–20°F (5.6°–11°C) warmer than the storage unit, the thermostat turns on a pump or fan to circulate water or air through the collector to heat the storage medium or the house.
The operation, performance, and cost of these controls vary. Some control systems monitor the temperature in different parts of the system to help determine how it is operating. The most sophisticated systems use microprocessors to control and optimize heat transfer and delivery to storage and zones of the house.
It is possible to use a solar panel to power low voltage, direct current (DC) blowers (for air collectors) or pumps (for liquid collectors). The output of the solar panels matches available solar heat gain to the solar collector. With careful sizing, the blower or pump speed is optimized for efficient solar gain to the working fluid. During low sun conditions the blower or pump speed is slow, and during high solar gain, they run faster.
When used with a room air collector, separate controls may not be necessary. This also ensures that the system will operate in the event of utility power outage. A solar power system with battery storage can also provide power to operate a central heating system, though this is expensive for large systems.

Building Codes Covenants and Regulations for Solar Heating Systems
Before installing a solar energy system, you should investigate local building codes, zoning ordinances, and subdivision covenants, as well as any special regulations pertaining to the site. You will probably need a building permit to install a solar energy system onto an existing building.
Not every community or municipality initially welcomes residential renewable energy installations. Although this is often due to ignorance or the comparative novelty of renewable energy systems, you must comply with existing building and permit procedures to install your system.
The matter of building code and zoning compliance for a solar system installation is typically a local issue. Even if a statewide building code is in effect, it's usually enforced locally by your city, county, or parish. Common problems homeowners have encountered with building codes include the following:
• Exceeding roof load
• Unacceptable heat exchangers
• Improper wiring
• Unlawful tampering with potable water supplies.
Potential zoning issues include these:
• Obstructing side yards
• Erecting unlawful protrusions on roofs
• Sitting the system too close to streets or lot boundaries.
Special area regulations—such as local community, subdivision, or homeowner's association covenants—also demand compliance. These covenants, historic district regulations, and flood-plain provisions can easily be overlooked. To find out what's needed for local compliance, contact your local jurisdiction's zoning and building enforcement divisions and any appropriate homeowner's, subdivision, neighborhood, and/or community association(s).

Installing and Maintaining Your Solar Heating System
Periodic visual inspection may be necessary to properly maintain your solar system.
How well an active solar energy system performs depends on effective sitting, system design, and installation, and the quality and durability of the components. The collectors and controls now manufactured are of high quality. The biggest factor now is finding an experienced contractor who can properly design and install the system.
Once a system is in place, it has to be properly maintained to optimize its performance and avoid breakdowns. Different systems require different types of maintenance, but you should figure on 8–16 hours of maintenance annually. You should set up a calendar with a list of maintenance tasks that the component manufacturers and installer recommends.
Most solar water heaters are automatically covered under your homeowner's insurance policy. However, damage from freezing is generally not. Contact your insurance provider to find out what its policy is. Even if your provider will cover your system, it is best to inform them in writing that you own a new system.

Ventilation Preheating
Solar air heating systems use air as the working fluid for absorbing and transferring solar energy. Solar air collectors (devices to heat air using solar energy) can directly heat individual rooms or can potentially pre-heat the air passing into a heat recovery ventilator or through the air coil of an air-source heat pump.
Air collectors produce heat earlier and later in the day than liquid systems, so they may produce more usable energy over a heating season than a liquid system of the same size. Also, unlike liquid systems, air systems do not freeze, and minor leaks in the collector or distribution ducts will not cause significant problems, although they will degrade performance. However, air is a less efficient heat transfer medium than liquid, so solar air collectors operates at lower efficiencies than solar liquid collectors.
Although some early systems passed solar-heated air through a bed of rocks as energy storage, this approach is not recommended because of the inefficiencies involved, the potential problems with condensation and mold in the rock bed, and the effects of that moisture and mold on indoor air quality.
Solar air collectors are often integrated into walls or roofs to hide their appearance. For instance, a tile roof could have air flow paths built into it to make use of the heat absorbed by the tiles. Air entering a collector at 70°F (21.1°C) is typically warmed an additional 70°–90°F (21.1°–32.2°C.). The air flow rate through standard collectors should be 1–3 cubic feet (0.03–0.76 cubic meters) per minute for each square foot (0.09 square meters) of collector. The velocity should be 5–10 feet (1.5–3.1 meters ) per second.
Most solar air heating systems are room air heaters, but relatively new devices called transpired air collectors have limited applications in homes.

Room Air Heaters
Air collectors can be installed on a roof or an exterior (south facing) wall for heating one or more rooms. Although factory-built collectors for on-site installation are available, do-it-yourselfers may choose to build and install their own air collector. A simple window air heater collector can be made for a few hundred dollars.
The collector has an airtight and insulated metal frame and a black metal plate for absorbing heat with glazing in front of it. Solar radiation heats the plate that, in turn, heats the air in the collector. An electrically powered fan or blower pulls air from the room through the collector, and blows it back into the room. Roof-mounted collectors require ducts to carry air between the room and the collector. Wall-mounted collectors are placed directly on a south-facing wall, and holes are cut through the wall for the collector air inlet and outlets.
Simple "window box collectors" fit in an existing window opening. They can be active (using a fan) or passive. In passive types, air enters the bottom of the collector, rises as it is heated, and enters the room. A baffle or damper keeps the room air from flowing back into the panel (reverse thermo siphoning) when the sun is not shining. These systems only provide a small amount of heat, since the collector area is relatively small.

Transpired Air Collectors
Transpired air collectors use a simple technology to capture the sun's heat to warm buildings: The collectors consist of dark, perforated metal plates installed over a building's south-facing wall. An air space is created between the old wall and the new facade. The dark outer facade absorbs solar energy and rapidly heats up on sunny days—even when the outside air is cold.
A fan or blower draws ventilation air into the building through tiny holes in the collectors and up through the air space between the collectors and the south wall. The solar energy absorbed by the collectors warms the air flowing through them by as much as 40°F. Unlike other space heating technologies, transpired air collectors require no expensive glazing.
Transpired air collectors are most suitable for large buildings with high ventilation loads, a fact which makes them generally unsuitable for today's tightly sealed homes. However, small transpired air collectors could be used to pre-heat the air passing into a heat recovery ventilator or could warm the air coil on an air source heat pump, improving its efficiency and comfort level on cold days. However, no information is currently available on the cost effectiveness of using a transpired air collector in this way.

Liquid-Based Active Solar Heating

This home in Golden, Colorado uses a liquid-based solar system for space and water heating.

Solar liquid collectors are most appropriate for central heating. They are the same as those used in solar domestic water heating systems. Flat-plate collectors are the most common, but evacuated tube and concentrating collectors are also available. In the collector, a heat transfer or "working" fluid such as water, antifreeze (usually non-toxic propylene glycol), or other type of liquid absorbs the solar heat. At the appropriate time, a controller operates a circulating pump to move the fluid through the collector.
The liquid flows rapidly through the collectors, so its temperature only increases 10°–20°F (5.6°–11°C ) as it moves through the collector. Heating a smaller volume of liquid to a higher temperature increases heat loss from the collector and decreases the efficiency of the system. The liquid flows to either a storage tank or a heat exchanger for immediate use. Other system components include piping, pumps, valves, an expansion tank, a heat exchanger, a storage tank, and controls.
The flow rate through the collector should be between 0.02 and 0.03 gallons per minute per square foot of collector when water is the heat transfer fluid (0.82 to 1.22 liters per minute per square meter of collector). Other flow rates apply for different heat transfer fluids. The total flow rate, used to size the collector pump, is the product of the above flow rate times the total collector area.

Storing Heat in Liquid Systems
Liquid systems store solar heat in tanks of water or in the masonry mass of a radiant slab system. In tank type storage systems, heat from the working fluid transfers to a distribution fluid in a heat exchanger exterior to or within the tank.
Most storage tanks require 1–2 gallons (3.8–7.6 Liters) of water for each square foot (0.093 square meters) of collector area. Tanks are pressurized or unpressurized, and the type used depends on the overall system design. Before choosing a storage tank, you should consider several factors, including cost, size, durability, where to place it (in the basement or outside), and how to install it. You may need to construct a tank on-site if a tank of the necessary size will not fit through existing doorways. Tanks also have limits for temperature and pressure, and must meet local building, plumbing, and mechanical codes. You should also note how much insulation is necessary to prevent excessive heat loss, and what kind of protective coating or sealing is necessary to avoid corrosion or leaks.
Specialty or custom tanks may be necessary in systems with very large storage requirements. They are usually stainless steel, fiberglass, or high temperature plastic. Concrete and wood (hot tub) tanks are also options. Each type of tank has its advantages and disadvantages. All types require careful consideration for their location, due to their size and weight. It may be more practical to use several smaller tanks rather than one large one. The simplest storage system option is to use standard domestic water heaters. They are designed to meet building codes for pressure vessel requirements, are lined to inhibit corrosion, and designed so it is easy to attach pipes and fittings.

Distributing Heat for Liquid Systems
There are different ways to distribute the solar heat: with a radiant floor, with hot water baseboards or radiators, or with a central forced-air system. In a radiant floor system, a solar-heated liquid circulates through pipes embedded in a thin concrete slab floor, which then radiates heat to the room. Radiant floor heating is ideal for liquid solar systems because it performs well at relatively low temperatures. A carefully designed system may not need a separate heat storage tank, though most systems do for temperature control. A conventional boiler or even a standard domestic water heater can supply backup heat. The slab is typically covered with tile. Radiant slab systems take longer to heat the home from a "cold start" than other types of heat distribution systems. Once they are operating, however, they provide a consistent level of heat. Carpeting and rugs will reduce the system's effectiveness.
Hot-water baseboards and radiators require water between 160° and 180°F (71° and 82°C) to effectively heat a room. Generally, flat-plate liquid collectors heat the transfer and distribution fluids to between 90° and 120°F (32° and 49°C). Therefore, using baseboards or radiators with a solar heating system requires that either the surface area of the baseboard or radiators be larger, that the solar-heated liquid be heated more with the backup system, or that a medium-temperature solar collector (such as an evacuated tube collector) be used.
It is possible to incorporate a liquid system into a forced-air heating system, and there are different options for doing so. The basic design is to place a liquid-to-air heat exchanger, or heating coil, in the main room-air return duct prior to the furnace. Air returning from the living space is heated as it passes over the solar heated liquid in the heat exchanger. Additional heat is supplied as necessary by the furnace. The coil must be large enough to transfer sufficient heat to the air at the lowest operating temperature of the collector.

 

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