Lee, I would disagree that small wind power works well. There are no reliable efficient small wind turbines (which is why the companies that make them keep going out of business). We had the best of the recent ones a 2.4kW Skystream at my work, but Skystream is out of business - failed.
We also had a Mariah Power vertical that was a total piece of junk thought they were trying hard. At NREL they were testing them in real bill paying wind and they fell apart and never passed the testing. The bottom line is it costs too much to put one up, and because you can't put up a tall tower most populated places you can't get any wind on them. A tall tower costs. Re geothermal, I was talking about making power not delivering space heat. On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 3:52 PM, Lee Hart via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > Michael Ross via EV wrote: > >> A sail is impractical, unmanageable, a very good way to tip over with out >> a keel or daggerboard. >> >> Pedaling adds almost nothing as most of us have a hard time producing >> 100Watts continuously. >> >> So called small wind energy is a money pit with no real payback >> >> Geothermal is costly because you can't drill a deep hole just anywhere and >> it costs a lot >> > > All true. But, there are special cases. Just to play devil's advocate: > > If you *are* getting power for a boat, then PV on the sail *does* make > some sense. You have an enormous amount of area on those sails. I've seen > small PV arrays on sailboats, but haven't seen a "Yankee Clipper" > solar-powered racing sailboat yet. Possible? > > Pedaling certainly works if the vehicle is very small. Joel Davidson > commuted regularly on a 3-wheel recumbent trike with a 2' x 4' PV panel for > a "roof". > > Small wind power works just fine for locations where you just don't have > the room for PV, or have problems with things like snow. It can also be > very cheap if done right (we have this modern propensity to vastly > over-complicate everything). Remember that millions of of farmers > successfully used windmills for decades before rural electrification. > > Geothermal is easy if you happen to be next to a river or lake. Or, I went > to school in Michigan's Keewanaw peninsula. There are hundreds of abandoned > mines left over from the copper mining boom times. So there are buildings > that get their heating and cooling simply by ducting in the air from some > old mine shaft or air vent. It's 68 deg.F year round! > > Also, on PV for vehicles. I've wondered why they haven't built a commuter > train with PV panels on the roof. Rail has such low rolling resistance and > such a huge amount of roof area that I'll bet you could make a considerable > amount of your power with PV. If I wanted to set a land speed record for a > purely solar powered vehicle, I'd build a solar car that ran on rails! > > Don't take these as serious suggestions for widespread use. But they *are* > examples of special case solutions that might be useful in certain > circumstances. :-) > -- > Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit > them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations. > (Steve Jobs) > -- > Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/ > group/NEDRA) > > -- To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. Thomas A. Edison <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasaed125362.html> A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought. *Warren Buffet* Michael E. Ross (919) 585-6737 Land (919) 576-0824 <https://www.google.com/voice/b/0?pli=1#phones> Google Phone (919) 631-1451 Cell michael.e.r...@gmail.com <michael.e.r...@gmail.com> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20150331/4efb885c/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
