Yeah, we could improve energy efficiency drastically - well, when I say "we" some countries have done better than others at this. NZ could do with lots more cheap double glazing, for example, and insulation. New York apartment blocks could do to not run on diesel. And so on, and so forth. But retrofitting everything isn't so easy...
On 5 March 2014 17:38, Chris de Morsella <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *LizR > *Sent:* Tuesday, March 04, 2014 4:40 PM > *To:* [email protected] > > *Subject:* Re: The situation at Fukushima appears to be deteriorating > > > > On 5 March 2014 09:56, <[email protected]> wrote: > > according to a study today out in New Scientist, a researcher has > estimated that OTEC power,even with 3% efficiency, can produce 4000 times > our current consumption. It may even be affordable. We may have a good way > out. > > > > What's OTEC? Oops silly me, Il'l look it up.....OK. It's solar, via the > oceans. Nice. > > I've looked at OTEC in the past, as you said it is essentially harvesting > stored solar energy stored in the warm surface layer above the thermocline. > There are however some formidable engineering issues dealing with salt > corrosion, oceanic storms and such. They tried to build one - a ship based > unit -- decades ago; I believe corrosion and other such problems were too > costly. One place they are using OTEC is Hawaii - maybe the only place that > I know of. There is an installation (or at least was operating a few years > back) where they were pumping up the deep cold water onto an on land > installation. They were able to use this quite cold water for > air-conditioning & concurrent production of some fresh water - the cooled > air loses a lot of its water vapor as dew. I am not sure that this unit was > producing electric energy as much as off-loading the air-conditioners load > that would have otherwise been sucking electricity down from the grid... do > perhaps indirectly in the form of negawatts (e.g. negative watts) > > The biggest energy source we have available in fact is energy efficiency. > In the US buildings consume the lion's share of total energy consumed, far > more than the transportation sector for example. By just doing wide spread > insulation retrofits, putting in double and triple pane glass, and by using > energy efficient lighting - I have seen estimates that almost half the > energy currently used could instead be saved (reserves would then last > longer giving us more time to figure out an answer). > > This is by far the most significant thing we can do; this is the low > hanging fruit. It is not sexy and is low tech for the most part, but it is > by far the most effective action our society can take at this juncture, > given the very poor energy efficiency base line of our nations built > structures. > > Chris > > The trouble is, New Scientist solves the world's problems regularly, as > well as discovering the secret of life the universe and everything and a > cure for cancer every other week. I bet most of their gosh wow stories > never get off the drawing board. I hope this one does. > > > > > -- > 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. 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.
