On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 Chris de Morsella <[email protected]> wrote:
> With power stations you don't need to worry about the same factors > (energy density etc) but you do need to worry about other things > And one of those other things you need to worry about is dimwitted and hypocritical environmentalists who don't want power stations of ANY sort built, ANYWHERE regardless of if they are renewable or non-renewable: *At the urging of environmentalist groups Sen. Feinstein of California has tried to put 500,000 acres of solar drenched land in the Mojave desert off limits to any solar development. *Environmentalists tried everything they could think of to block a 2.1 billion dollar solar plant in Ivanpah California. * The same people are trying to block a 680 million dollar solar plant in Owens Valley. * They were successful in killing a solar power station in Fresno County California that would have supplied enough greenhouse free energy to power 75,000 homes. * Environmentalists are trying their best to stop Obama from extending permits to build wind farms from 5 years to 30 because they kill little birdies. *And to quote directly from their website: "The Sierra Club opposes geothermal leasing or development in the following areas: 1. Lands included in or adjacent to federal, state, or local park systems or in wildlife refuges and management areas; 2. Areas known to provide habitat for rare or endangered species; 3. Areas designated as valuable for archaeological remains; 4. Units of the National Wilderness preservation System; 5. Units of the Wild and Scenic Rivers System; 6. Units of the National Trails System; 7. Areas reserved by the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture for ecological, scenic, natural, wildlife, geological, educational, historical, or scientific value, including Primitive Areas, Roadless Areas, Natural Areas, and Pioneer Areas; 8. Areas of de facto wilderness under study by the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture for reservation as part of one of the preservation systems listed above; and 9. Areas of de facto wilderness which are the subject of intensive study by recognized citizen groups or coalitions, resulting in formal proposals to the agencies and/or Congress for reservation as part of one of the preservation systems listed above." As I said the prefers solution to the energy crises according to some is to freeze to death in the dark. John K Clark > - load balancing, etc - which is why non-renewable sources are unlikely to > go away completely for power stations (unless we get something like a > world-wide power grid, which I don't suppose is very feasible). But they > could still do a lot better than they are now. > > > > A mix of renewables and gas turbines (which themselves could increasingly > be fueled by algae bio-gas sources). Gas turbines achieve 50% efficiency, > are relatively clean and are able to be spun up or spun down quite rapidly > making them the best choice for spinning reserve - along with hydro, which > can also take on the role of spinning reserve. > > > > LFTR could provide a portion of baseload power that coupled with a much > larger energy storage capacity (that acts to decouple supply from demand > and smooth it all out) and the available spinning reserve could ensure grid > stability 24X7X365 > > > > Some - varying from place to place - mix of renewable sources + baseload > sources + spinning reserve + energy storage capacity will gradually > supplant the current power generation mix dominated by large dirty > unsustainable coal fired thermo-electric and an aging fleet of increasingly > scary reactors (such as the one in Florida where they have just discovered > that its high pressure steam tubes are worn up to 30% for example) a fleet > of nukes that are operating well past their design specs - routinely > getting relicensed, with SFP getting filled far beyond original intended > capacity - by tight packing the spent fuel. > > > > Speaking of baseload power sources; there is another baseload source that > has a massive potential to scale, but also is saddled with some potentially > serious problems - of the kind that is a terrible PR nightmare. I speak of > engineered dry hot rock geothermal, using a similar fracking approach to > engineer a steam permeable reservoir in a deep volume of hot dry rock. It > would inject high pressure water/poppant slurry into the micro-factures the > very high pressure fluid creates in the rock mass, but without all the > toxic solvents, surfactants etc. present in the witches brews the gas > companies are pumping down dissolved in the fracking fluid used by the > kerogen and gas fracking plays. It has been tried a few times and famously > in Basil seems to have triggered a fairly noticeable tremor - which ended > that experiment immediately. For some reason the earth tremors are > "acceptable" and little mentioned when it comes to fracking for gas or > kerogen, but become large point headlines for dry rock geothermal. > > It is a problem, but perhaps it is not that much of a problem in many > geologic formations. A much improved understanding of how the forces and > stresses at work in the deep hot bottom of the crust dynamically behave and > what effects fracking will have could address this. If this issue can be > addresses this form of geothermal energy has a pretty big upside potential > for supplying baseload power - it gets very hot beneath our feet a few > miles deep... and good deep rock formations are very widely available. > > Chris > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. 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