[Vo]:Intermittent Energy Sources
Below is an article that appeared in the American Public Transportation Associations bi-weekly publication Passenger Transport. It was timely since it related to a discussion ongoing between JJ regarding wind power. If ultracapacitors can be produced in large volumes, considering there are no rare materials involved, the UC offers the best solution to the smart grid storage problem, IMO. And I was quite surprised to learn that MARTA's electric trains consume almost 30% of their total electricity in acceleration due to the short distance between stops. Another interesting discovery is that MARTA's wholesale energy rate from GaPower varies over 24 hours and is actually $0.00 between 2 am and 4 am. This article is copyrighted by APTA and is reproduce here solely for the use of this list. Smart Grids and Wayside Energy Storage: Opportunities for Transit By Karen Holmes Special to Passenger Transport The emergence of smart grid technologies and systems for monitoring and controlling electric power flows will have important implications for rail transit agencies, including the potential to significantly impact the way agencies purchase electric power, typically one of the largest items in their budgets. As rail transit is a large local user of electricity, agencies may be called upon to acquire and install new equipment for energy monitoring and distribution. However, the smart grid – coupled with new wayside energy-storage devices – will create the potential for collaboration between transit and electric power utilities opening up new cost-sharing opportunities. What Is a Smart Grid? Smart grids are the application of communications and information technologies to the electric power transmission and distribution network. Smart grids use two-way communications, advanced sensors, and distributed computers to improve the efficiency and reliability of electric power delivery and use. For many years, experts have recognized the need to modernize the U.S. electric power grid. Over the past few decades, additions to power generation have far outpaced upgrades in transmission and distribution, and as a consequence, much of the current infrastructure is aging, outmoded, and overburdened. Several major power corridors are at maximum capacity more than 80 percent of the time—the equivalent of rush hour traffic from 5 a.m. to midnight. The annual loss to U.S. businesses from power outages, power quality problems, and other grid failures is estimated at approximately $150 billion per year. Deploying the smart grid became official U.S. policy with the adoption of the Energy Independence and Security Act in December 2007. Sophisticated software now under development will enable moment-by-moment decisions on power allocation across the grid communication network. Some have described the level of communication within a smart grid as analogous to bringing the power of the Internet to electricity distribution and use, predicting that the smart grid will result in a similar outpouring of knowledge and access. With the smart grid, utilities will be able to shift power quickly and efficiently to where it is most needed. This will not only improve the stability and reliability of the grid but would also help prevent cascading power failures – such as the one that crippled the Northeast in 2003, affecting 40 million people. The smart grid will also save energy and money, by helping utilities to direct power more efficiently to meet demand at peak periods without having to invest in building expensive new generating plants. Smart grids will require equipment to talk to the grid to enable utilities to better manage power supply to meet user demand. For instance, at the household level, smart energy meters will monitor and potentially regulate appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines based on energy demand conditions. Such meters are now being tested in several states, including California, Colorado, Florida, Texas, and Washington. Transit and Utilities Share Interests in New Wayside Energy-Storage Technologies As smart grids are deployed, transit systems will need to be integrated into them. One key area of shared interest and potential collaboration between rail transit agencies and electric power utilities is energy storage. New wayside energy-storage technologies are now becoming available to help transit agencies capture energy that is often wasted. Collaboration between public transit and utilities on new wayside energy-storage technologies would help address two areas of mutual concern: peak power demand and voltage sag. For instance, new wayside energy-storage technologies would enable transit systems to store the energy that is captured from a braking train and release that energy for propulsion when and where it is needed. At present, conventional regenerative braking systems (used by an estimated 60 percent of U.S. rail transit systems) do not have this storage capability. If there is no nearby
Re: [Vo]:[OT]Inflation
You, too, can be a banker: http://wfhummel.cnchost.com/bankingbasics.html Terry On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 3:54 PM, Stephen A. Lawrence [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Stephen A. Lawrence wrote: Michael Foster wrote: Arbitrary raising of interest rates by the Fed, for example, reduces inflation immediately by reducing the demand for borrowing. Since commercial banks are able to lend about ten times the amount deposited in them, Please provide a reference for this. I have continued looking and have found no indication that commercial banks either are allowed to lend more than their total deposit value, nor that they actually do. The money supply is currently several trillion dollars (exact amount depends on what's included in it): http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MoneySupply.html All time peak borrowing at the discount window totaled about $400 billion, which is substantially less than the size of the money supply: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1967248/ Ergo, borrowings at the discount window certainly don't account for 90% of the circulating money, as your claim would lead one to conclude. Banks can't make unsecured loans from the discount window; they must pledge securities in exchange for the loans: http://www.newyorkfed.org/aboutthefed/fedpoint/fed18.html http://www.frbdiscountwindow.org/cfaq.cfm?hdrID=21dtlID= Commercial banks are limited to lending an amount no larger than their primary deposits (NB -- a loan from the discount window is certainly not a primary deposit). None the less the overall effect of injecting high powered money is to increase the money supply by a substantial factor, termed the multiplier, over and beyond the deposit of cash by the Fed: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Deposit-creation-multiplier http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071220225943AAAzhu2 http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/Monetary-Multiplier/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking Note that the Wiki article claims that the effective reserve rate on most deposits is currently 0%, which is startling, as that also leads to a multiplier of infinity. (But it's been flagged as out of date, so that may or may not currently be true.) In any case, that's still no evidence that banks are allowed to lend out more than the value of their deposits. Unfortunately my economics texts seem to be AWOL -- I thought I'd unpacked them after we moved but they're nowhere to be found, so I'm just looking at reference on the Web here. Again, if you have a reference supporting the claim that a commercial bank can lend out up to 10 times the value of its primary deposits, please post it. I would be extremely interested in seeing it. Thanks. I have as yet not come across any information indicating that commercial banks can lend out more than about 90% of their net asset value -- reserve requirements currently being around 10% -- and you are claiming they can actually lend out about 900% of their net asset value. I will continue looking around but it would save time if you could provide a link to the relevant information. Next step will be dig my old macro book out of the basement and see what they say about the detailed operation of the discount window, which is what this is all about, of course. Note well that the money multiplier effect, which is about 10x, is quite different from the claim you are making. The money multiplier results from the assumption that the 90% which the bank lends out is redeposited in another bank, at which point 90% of the new deposit is again lent out, and so forth. You are claiming, on the other hand, that the original bank can lend out 900% of the original deposit amount, and that once that's deposited in another bank, another 900% can be lent out. The former converges to a multiplier of about 10x. The latter diverges, with the multiplier going to infinity. The consequences to the economy are likely to be very, very different.
Re: [Vo]:quantum fusion
Reads like he has discovereda new form of OPM. Nickel and dime ideas are still nickel and dime ideas until you have produced and sold a usuable working product.All the liscensing and patenting, the IP and the hype went the way of Hollywood. Richard - Original Message - From: Taylor J. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 8:29 AM Subject: [Vo]:quantum fusion Hi All, 12-1-08 What are your thoughts on The Quantum Fusion Hypothesis by Robert E. Godes in ISSUE 82, November/December 2008, of Infinite Energy? http://www.infinite-energy.com/ The article is not online, where all I could find is the enclosed below. Jack Smith -- http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm'AD=1ArticleID=15870 Robert Godes of http://profusionenergy.com/ wrote: ``Here is some food for thought. The DOE has established a huge feeding trough full of Other Peoples Money, (OPM) pronounced opium, to which they are fully addicted. There are more promising alternative paths to hot fusion than ITER. See work involving Boron 11 +H and there is even more progress being made in LENR reactors. Try as they did, they did not completely kill the misnamed 'Cold Fusion' technology. I say misnamed because the physics underlying it is fully described in a patent application publishing on September 6th 2007, U.S. Patent Application No. 11/617,632. I quit my day job in 2005 to start Profusion Energy, which will license the IP to build and produce products that will use what Profusion Energy calls 'Quantum Fusion'. We already have devices; yes multiple repeatable devices, that work reliably in an open container. We are currently looking for someone who can work out the math involved with the molecular Hamiltonian, for a white paper on the subject. We are also looking for an angel ... investor, as family and friends ... have taken it about as far as it can be taken in an open container. An investment of $2M will get my team in to an adequately equipped lab and allow us to collect hard calorimeter data on energy production in 12 to 18 months. An investment of $500K would allow me to rent lab space and get the equipment necessary to start collecting data by myself. At this level of funding it will take two to three years to collect the required data.'' Robert Godes, August 30, 2007 No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.9.12/1822 - Release Date: 12/1/2008 8:23 AM
Re: [Vo]:'Heavy' drinkers live longer
Cholesterol can be separated into two categories: good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Transfats are unhealthy because they increase levels of the bad kind and decrease levels of the good kind. hmmm I wonder if there is ugly cholesterol too. harry - Original Message - From: Taylor J. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2008 9:52 am Subject: [Vo]:'Heavy' drinkers live longer Nick Palmer wrote: Also there is quite a lot of evidence that eating cholesterol laden substances does not necessarily translate to a high blood cholesterol level which would support your theory about healthy animal fats but would not suggest that vegetable oils were unhealthy... Hi All, My cholesterol is normally in the 160's. A few years ago I experimented with a pure fat diet (e.g. butter on the pork rinds) and brought my cholesterol down to 150. Of course I couldn't keep that up since I'm a carb junkie. Personally, I think a cholesterol of 200 is about right, since apparently people with low cholesterol don't live any longer than people with high cholesterol -- they just die more frequently from accidents, homocides and suicides. Jack Smith
Re: [Vo]:'Heavy' drinkers live longer
http://www.thegreatcholesterolcon.com/ http://www.bodye.com/reports/cholesterolfarce.htm Mark Jordan On 2 Dec 2008 at 10:28, Harry Veeder wrote: Cholesterol can be separated into two categories: good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Transfats are unhealthy because they increase levels of the bad kind and decrease levels of the good kind. hmmm I wonder if there is ugly cholesterol too. harry - Original Message - From: Taylor J. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2008 9:52 am Subject: [Vo]:'Heavy' drinkers live longer Nick Palmer wrote: Also there is quite a lot of evidence that eating cholesterol laden substances does not necessarily translate to a high blood cholesterol level which would support your theory about healthy animal fats but would not suggest that vegetable oils were unhealthy... Hi All, My cholesterol is normally in the 160's. A few years ago I experimented with a pure fat diet (e.g. butter on the pork rinds) and brought my cholesterol down to 150. Of course I couldn't keep that up since I'm a carb junkie. Personally, I think a cholesterol of 200 is about right, since apparently people with low cholesterol don't live any longer than people with high cholesterol -- they just die more frequently from accidents, homocides and suicides. Jack Smith
Re: [Vo]:Self-powered devices possible, researcher says...
On Dec 1, 2008, at 8:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hope you all had a very pleasant and filling Thanksgiving... now on to the cool stuff. http://www.physorg.com/news147353581.html Specifically, Cagin and his partners from the University of Houston have found that a certain type of piezoelectric material can covert energy at a 100 percent increase when manufactured at a very small size – in this case, around 21 nanometers in thickness. What's more, when materials are constructed bigger or smaller than this specific size they show a significant decrease in their energy-converting capacity, he said. I think you have misunderstood what the author intended. It is ambiguously written and maybe the author did not understand what the researchers said either. If a device converts energy at 15% efficiency and is upgraded to 30% efficiency then that is a 100% increase in energy conversion. It is still only 60% efficient, however. The self powering is via the operator's movements, e.g. walking or dancing, as the article later states. There is no free lunch here. Best regards, Horace Heffner http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
Re: [Vo]:'Heavy' drinkers live longer
No, but I think there are charm and strange cholesterols. Terry On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 10:28 AM, Harry Veeder [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Cholesterol can be separated into two categories: good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Transfats are unhealthy because they increase levels of the bad kind and decrease levels of the good kind. hmmm I wonder if there is ugly cholesterol too. harry - Original Message - From: Taylor J. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2008 9:52 am Subject: [Vo]:'Heavy' drinkers live longer Nick Palmer wrote: Also there is quite a lot of evidence that eating cholesterol laden substances does not necessarily translate to a high blood cholesterol level which would support your theory about healthy animal fats but would not suggest that vegetable oils were unhealthy... Hi All, My cholesterol is normally in the 160's. A few years ago I experimented with a pure fat diet (e.g. butter on the pork rinds) and brought my cholesterol down to 150. Of course I couldn't keep that up since I'm a carb junkie. Personally, I think a cholesterol of 200 is about right, since apparently people with low cholesterol don't live any longer than people with high cholesterol -- they just die more frequently from accidents, homocides and suicides. Jack Smith
Re: [Vo]:Self-powered devices possible, researcher says...
On Dec 2, 2008, at 10:00 AM, Jones Beene wrote: From: Horace Heffner If a device converts energy at 15% efficiency and is upgraded to 30% efficiency then that is a 100% increase in energy conversion. It is still only 60% efficient, however. Don't you mean that it is still only 30% efficient ? Yes, that's right. Just another one of those senior moments. 8^) Best regards, Horace Heffner http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
