--- Terry Blanton wrote: > Finally, someone has actually done it: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJJrjDI5xSQ
A-maizing. Yup. The corn justs keeps on a comin'... and look at that nice pond site behind Mr Green. Actually, kinda reminds me of the green vision which I awoke with this morning (another case of infosync ;-): to wit, a perpetual system with algae oil as the fuel stock, instead of maize ethanol. Below is your second helping of corn flakes. And this one is dedicated to Richard, for development of the plot behind the Dime Box. There is no reason why this kind of solar powered system cannot be perpetual, and at an installed cost which is less than half the very best projected cost of installing Nanosolar panels (and probably a tenth of the real cost for those illusory panels when they actually ship in 2012). IOW the cost of the system below would be be about fifty cents per watt of installed capacity, or for 1.5 megawatt of faceplate, a cost of about $750,000 (assuming you already own the land and barn) Look at it this way. The best strains of algae convert 50% of solar radiation into energy, but only when given adequate CO2 and added wintertime heating. And best of all, it only takes an acre to become a millionaire. A one acre pond = 4000 meters^2 Peak Solar irradiation = 1 kW/m^2 Average Solar irradiation = 500 watts/m^2 active hours per day (seasonally adjusted)= ~10 active hours per year = 36,000 total yearly irradiation/acre = 72 GW/hrs energy value/acre (50% conversion eff, & electricity sold at wholesale- $.05 per kW-hr) = ~$1.8 million This sounds so high that it must be in error ;-) OK that would be in the perfect world of Dreamville. Which could be behind the Dime Box or Dreamville, GA (just outside of Doraville). But how, exactly, do you reap the big bucks? Well, first you need a large diesel gen-set, and then the plumbing to send the CO2 and waste heat back to the pond. PVC is probably OK for that. Caterpillar is a good source for the big ticket item, and there are good used ones available for a little over a quarter mil. http://www.dieselserviceandsupply.com/Used-Generators/Caterpillar-1500-25Z01475.aspx And you need now is some kind of skimmer (several dozen probably) to continually harvest the algae. The biomass will double twice per day in July. I suggest you put Texas Tech or Ga Tech to work on modifying a mass produced swimming-pool skimmer for that job. Anyway, the gen-set only runs during the day, so you get to sell the power at the peak wholesale rate, whatever that rate is. 5 cents per kW-hr may be optimistic now but not when oil levels off over $100. Green dream delicacy, cornflakes, or just word salad? Jones
