Thread: Fossil Fuel Alternatives

Originally Posted by Umbuku

Iron-Chromium Flow Battery Aims to Replace Gas Plants - IEEE Spectrum

Interesting. Storage is the biggest obstacle to regenerative energy use. Something like this can help.

Originally Posted by Umbuku

Storage is the only thing that has been holding solar back from taking over as the primary energy producer. The problem with flow batteries is they use toxic and expensive refined chemicals which till now has limited their use. Hopefully this iron chromium style battery is a success and makes night storage of solar power more viable.

Would be good for a Mars colony too. They will have probably nothing but solar for power. They need storage desperately. This system will allow them to increase storage capacity with local materials instead of bringing it in from earth.

This one here looks interesting.

Electricity from waste.

Directory:StarTech Environmental Corp - PESWiki

Originally Posted by palexxxx

This one here looks interesting.

Electricity from waste.

Directory:StarTech Environmental Corp - PESWiki

Sounds like a good method for disposing toxic waste. As a method of reclaiming the energy content of waste the conversion rate is horrible.

Very good posts here.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/478903880793993216

SolarCity to build the world's largest advanced solar panel factory in upstate New York Solar at Scale

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/478901093733507072

Goal is for unsubsidized solar power to cost less than grid electricity from coal or fracked gas

Solar at Scale

Elon Musk the crazy entrepreneur has announced plans to build giant factories for solar panels in the United States. Goal is to bring production cost down through mass production of panels with advanced cells on an unprecedented scale.

The first plant will have a production capacity of 1GW solar cells per year, soon followed up by much larger factories.

He is aware that there is presently overcapacity in the market from chinese producers but he plans to bring prices down enough to generate a massive increase of demand.


He is talking about panel factories. I have not yet found anything on the source for those high efficiency cells that they will use.
Elon Musk is the type of entrepreneur who can announce the most crazy bat schemes and have investors fight for the right to finance them. So far he has made lots of money with every investment he started.

Jonathan Howes, a british aeronautical engineer has developed a novel method of storing electrical energy. Storage is the main obstacle to renewables on an industrial scale as they are often not available at the time they are needed. He has founded the company Isentropic together with friends to produce his invention.

Batteries are expensive. A good and cost effective method of storage is hydro where water is pumped up into a storage basin and channeled down through generators when needed. But this method is possible only where favorable geografic formations are available and cannot be built where needed and is limited in capacity.

This new system is using a heat pump. There would be two storage containes filled with gravel, one would be cooled and the other would be heated. The cold store would be at -150°C the hot one would be at 500°C. This large temperature difference allows for very efficient conversion back into electricity when needed. The medium for heat transfer would be Argon, a noble gas that is chemically inert and will not stress any materials involved. It is availabe from the air in virtually unlimited quantity and is used in circulation, not consumed. Whatever escapes the closed circuit simply goes back to the atmosphere where it came from. The heat pump is designed that it can run reverse, so so it can do cooling with electricity when available and can produce electricity when the grid needs it. Electricity produced that way can be sold at a good price because it can be produced at peak demand.



They claim they have a conversion efficiency of 72 to 80% which is on par with hydro electric storage. They claim the cost of the system is 50$ per megawatt hour, which would be below hydro electric storage.

A demonstration system with 1.5 MW/6MWh for the Midlands Western Power Distribution with funding from the UK government Energy Technology Institute (ETI). So it seems a bit more real than many proposals that promise marvellous results but never materialize as real world applications.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babba...ricity-storage

http://www.isentropic.co.uk/

Look at the last two posts I made. Both may be realistic technology at reasonable prices. Combined they could make affordable and reliable electricity production a reality.

How do we quickly get power to a remote village sitting miles off the grid or a bunch of homes hit by a natural disaster? "Not very easily", would usually be the answer, but now we have ’the PowerCube’, a new ‘pop-up’ solar station that can be transported via shipping container and installed anywhere with the push of a button.
Developed over the past seven years by Ecosphere Technologies, a technology and licensing company in the US, the PowerCube is completely self-contained, remotely monitored and controlled, and can be manufactured in three different sizes to match standard shipping container varieties. The first model will be released this month.

Pop-up solar station can take electricity, water and shelter anywhere (Science Alert)

27 TWh

Good to hear some good news.

Major Milestone In Tidal Power Emerges With 'Spirit Of The Sea'

A full-scale, 156-ton tidal power generator meant to display the potential for harnessing tides as a source of renewable energy has been unveiled in Wales for a 12-month trial. If the trial goes well the company behind the generator, Tidal Energy, hopes to set up a nine more of these seven-story mechanisms and generate 10 megawatts of power, enough to supply electricity to around 10,000 homes in the area.

Named ‘Ysbryd y Mor’ meaning ‘Spirit of the Sea,’ this initial generator will provide 400 kilowatts of energy to the National Grid. Comprised of the company’s patented DeltaStream technology, the generator utilizes a freestanding triangular base and cutting-edge hydraulics to allow for free-turning movement aimed at best capturing tidal currents and generating power. The device is anchored by weight and does not require costly and environmentally destructive seabed drilling. The company hopes to minimize maintenance costs as well with this design, which is meant to withstand some of the most turbulent ocean currents — those are the ones that provide the most power.

Tidal Energy Ltd » The DeltaStream Technology

New Crystal Clear Solar Cells Could Power Your Smartphone One Day

The idea of a completely transparent solar panel has always been a bit of a dream. Such revolutionary technology would mean that we could turn windows into power generators and build phones with self-charging screens. Well, guess what? That dream is becoming a reality.

A team of researchers from Michigan State University has developed a completely transparent, luminescent solar concentrator. Whereas most traditional solar panels collect light energy from the sun using dark silicon cells and converted into electricity using the photovoltaic effect, solar concentrators actually focus sunlight onto a heat engine that produces electricity. In the case of this new technology, the plastic-like material channels specific wavelengths of sunlight towards the photovoltaic solar cells on the edge of the panel. "Because the materials do not absorb or emit light in the visible spectrum, they look exceptionally transparent to the human eye," Richard Lunt, who led the research, explains in a release.

Scientists have created partially transparent solar cells in the past, but the existence of crystal clear cells opens up some very exciting new possibilities. "It can be used on tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone or e-reader," says Lunt. "Ultimately we want to make solar harvesting surfaces that you do not even know are there."

This is clearly exciting. (Pun intended.) Again, a solar-powered smartphone sounds like a dream for anyone who hates charging cords. It also sounds like a once impossible future that's closer than we thought.

some good news,..kind of

Trina and Other Solar Manufacturers Racing To Keep Up with Demand

Trina Solar Ltd., China’s second- biggest maker of solar panels, said its factories are working at full strength and it can’t meet customer demand.

“Right now Trina is producing at 100 percent capacity and selling at all rates, yet we still can’t meet all customer demand,” Chief Executive Officer Gao Jifan said today in an interview in Tianjin, southeast of Beijing.

China’s top three solar-panel makers are all producing at full capacity and will need to expand to meet customer requirements, Gao said, citing the results of a survey unveiled by China’s solar industry association yesterday at an industry forum in Beijing. He didn’t elaborate.

The company’s solar-panel capacity will rise to 3.8 gigawatts this year from about 3.4 gigawatts at the end of June. Annual solar-cell capacity will rise to 2.8 gigawatts from 2.4 gigawatts in 2013, Gao said.

Trina, China’s largest profitable panel manufacturer, this year plans to build 400 megawatts to 500 megawatts of solar-power plants, including distributed systems. China will account for more than 80 percent, Gao said.

Trina is increasing its efforts to build solar-power stations including the 1-gigawatt project in the western region of Xinjiang, announced in December. The company said earlier this month that it agreed to buy a 90 percent stake in power- plant developer Yunnan Metallurgical New Energy Co.

That's an interesting turn. Only month ago they consolidated their capacity because the market did not support the full capacity. Maybe they just shed older more expensive production facilities and expand now at lower prices.

Ever heard of skunkworks?

It is a small research outfit, part of Lockheed Martin. They came out with news about fusion reactors. They claim they have reached a breakthrough in fusion. If true it would leave all those huge research projects that have cost billions like ITER and Shiva in the dust of history.

They believe they can produce a working demo of a fusion reactor in 5 years. Full production power plants in 10 years. The single units are not huge so can be developed and built fast. 20 years from now the world energy needs could be produced without using fossil fuels. The fusion units could be used to run existing power stations, no need to build completely new ones.

The technology is safe enough that it would not need restrictions. It could be given into anyones hands.

Maybe even small and light enough to power airplanes and spaceships that can reach Mars in one month.

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details

Lockheed Martin aims to develop compact reactor prototype in five years, production unit in 10

Hidden away in the secret depths of the Skunk Works, a Lockheed Martin research team has been working quietly on a nuclear energy concept they believe has the potential to meet, if not eventually decrease, the world’s insatiable demand for power. Dubbed the compact fusion reactor (CFR), the device is conceptually safer, cleaner and more powerful than much larger, current nuclear systems that rely on fission, the process of splitting atoms to release energy. Crucially, by being “compact,” Lockheed believes its scalable concept will also be small and practical enough for applications ranging from interplanetary spacecraft and commercial ships to city power stations. It may even revive the concept of large, nuclear-powered aircraft that virtually never require refueling—ideas of which were largely abandoned more than 50 years ago because of the dangers and complexities involved with nuclear fission reactors.

A link to the full article.

High Hopes ? Can Compact Fusion Unlock New Power For Space And Air Transport? | Things With Wings

I have said before, what sounds too good to be true, usually is. But this is not just anyone, it comes out of Lockheed Martin.

I have looked around some more. Plenty of sceptic responses.

However Lockheed Martin is not quiet about it. They sound really confident.

Here a link to their own website.

Compact Fusion · Lockheed Martin



This is how small they think their fusion reactor can be. To be sure this is just their reactor. Turbine and generator are extra, but still, very compact power.

It’s no secret that our Skunk Works® team often finds itself on the cutting edge of technology. As they work to develop a source of infinite energy, our engineers are looking to the biggest natural fusion reactor for inspiration – the sun. By containing the power of the sun in a small magnetic bottle, we are on the fast track to developing nuclear fusion reactors to serve the world’s ever-growing energy needs.

Rapid design cycles allow for less conservative design choices, faster consideration of alternatives, less capital, and the ability to maintain momentum moving forward with constant progress.

To mimic the energy created by the sun and control it here on earth, we’re creating a concept that can be contained using a magnetic bottle. The bottle is able to handle extremely hot temperatures, reaching hundreds of millions of degrees. By containing this reaction, we can release it in a controlled fashion to create energy we can use.

The heat energy created using this compact fusion reactor will drive turbine generators by replacing the combustion chambers with simple heat exchangers. In turn, the turbines will then generate electricity or the propulsive power for a number of applications.

I want to add that this is not totally out of the blue. The basic concept is Polywell Fusion. Other teams are working on it, too. The way LockMart is publishing it now could make one think they believe others may be close to a breakthrough.

Burlington, Vermont Runs on 100% Renewable Energy

These news stories about cities producing most or all of their energy from renewable sources are the feel-good stories of the year.

Wind, water and biomass are providing all of Burlington’s electricity, and this city is the largest in Vermont. So, critics can’t say, “It’s just a little village, probably has 800 people, that’s not feasible anywhere else.” However, the population of Burlington is about 42,000. It’s not a large city by any means, but it also is not a tiny town where adding some solar and one wind turbine would cover everyone’s electricity.

Actually, it was the purchase of a 7.4 MW hydroelectric facility on the Winooski River that put Burlington at 100% renewable electricity. Christopher Recchia, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service, “It shows that we’re able to do it, and we’re able to do it cost effectively in a way that makes Vermonters really positioned well for the future.”

It’s not surprising that a city in Vermont would achieve renewable energy independence, because the state has been environmentally conscious for a long time. In an article about America’s greenest states, Forbes ranked Vermont number one, in a tie with Oregon. Washington state was number three.

In fact, Vermont has a goal of generating 90% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050. The small, northern state was the first to ban fracking, so it won’t be too surprising if it can operate on mostly renewable energy, too.

Bumper month for Scotland's renewables

October 2014 was a “bumper month” for renewables in Scotland, new figures published by WWF Scotland today (Tuesday 4 November) reveal.

Analysis by the environmental group of data provided by the WeatherEnergy organisation found that for the month of October:

• Wind turbines alone generated an estimated 982,842MWh of electricity, enough to power 3,045,000 homes in the UK - equivalent to 126% of the electricity needs of every home in Scotland.

• For those homes fitted with solar PV panels, there was enough sunshine to meet an estimated 46% of the electricity needs of an average home in Edinburgh, 38% in Inverness, 37% in Glasgow, and 33% in Aberdeen.

• For those homes fitted with solar hot water panels, there was enough sunshine to meet an estimated 41% of the hot water needs of an average home in Edinburgh, 31% in Inverness, 30% in Glasgow, and 27% in Aberdeen.

WWF Scotland’s director Lang Banks said:

“While nuclear power plants were being forced to shut because of cracks, Scotland’s wind and sunshine were quietly and cleanly helping to keep the lights on in homes across the country. With wind power generating enough electricity to power 126% of the needs of every home in Scotland, it really was a bumper month for renewables in Scotland.

“Summer may be a distant memory, but for the tens of thousands of Scottish households that have installed solar panels to generate electricity or heat water, a third or more of their needs were met from the sun this October, helping reduce their reliance on coal, gas, or even oil.”

The figures come immediately after United Nations scientists published their latest report on global climate change, warning that without action the world faces “severe, pervasive and irreversible” damage.

Banks added:

“The science is clear, if we are to prevent the worst impacts of global climate change, then the world needs to move away from fossil fuels. The good news is that here in Scotland we’re making good use of wind power to create clean electricity. However, if Scotland is going to meet its future climate change targets, then we need to see greater support for energy efficiency and renewable heat, as well as action to curb emissions from transport.”

In the US

Here Comes the Sun: America's Solar Boom, in Charts

Last week, an energy analyst at Deutsche Bank came to a startling conclusion: By 2016, solar power will be as cheap or cheaper than electricity from the conventional grid in every state except three. That's without any changes to existing policy. In other words, we're only a few years away from the point where, in most of the United States, there will be no economic reason not to go solar. If you care about slowing climate change or just moving toward cleaner energy, that is a huge deal.

And solar energy is already going gangbusters. In the past decade, the amount of solar power produced in the United States has leaped 139,000 percent. A number of factors are behind the boom: Cheaper panels and a raft of local and state incentives, plus a federal tax credit that shaves 30 percent off the cost of upgrading.

Still, solar is a bit player, providing less than half of 1 percent of the energy produced in the United States. But its potential is massive—it could power the entire country 100 times over.

So what's the holdup? A few obstacles: pushback from old-energy diehards, competition with other efficient energy sources, and the challenges of power storage and transmission. But with solar in the Southwest already at "grid parity"—meaning it costs the same or less as electricity from conventional sources—Wall Street is starting to see solar as a sound bet. As a recent Citigroup investment report put it, "Our viewpoint is that solar is here to stay."

Some numbers that tell the story (I've only posted a few charts. There are more in the link):

That wind turbines damage bird populations is a myth that has been proven wrong. They do kill the occasional bird, true, but they don't endanger populations.

Some people affected? Some people are affected when they BELIEVE, the aircon is on. Not actually related to the aircon being really on or off.

Early wind turbines may have been unreliable but the industry has moved beyond that. Wind parks are profitable.

The main problem with all kinds of renewable energy is that they are not always available, when energy is needed. There are two possible solutions to that problem. One is storage which keeps getting better and cheaper with battery development.

The other would be a worldwide grid of energy super highways, probably supra conductor high voltage DC transmission. Such a grid could distribute the energy from where it is produced at this moment to where it is needed at this moment. The problem with this approach is political or social.Such a grid would involve many countries with instable to downright dangerous governments.

Researchers have developed lightweight "supercapacitors" that can be combined with regular batteries to dramatically boost the power of an electric car.

............

The supercapacitors - a "sandwich" of electrolyte between two all-carbon electrodes - were made into a thin and extremely strong film with a high power density.

The film could be embedded in a car's body panels, roof, doors, bonnet and floor - storing enough energy to turbocharge an electric car's battery in just a few minutes.

The findings, published in the Journal of Power Sources and the Nanotechnology journal, mean a car partly powered by its own body panels could be a reality within five years, Mr Notarianni said.
.............
"In the future, it is hoped the supercapacitor will be developed to store more energy than a Li-Ion battery while retaining the ability to release its energy up to 10 times faster - meaning the car could be entirely powered by the supercapacitors in its body panels.

"After one full charge this car should be able to run up to 500km - similar to a petrol-powered car and more than double the current limit of an electric car."

Dr Liu said the technology would also potentially be used for rapid charges of other battery-powered devices.

"For example, by putting the film on the back of a smart phone to charge it extremely quickly," he said.

https://www.qut.edu.au/news/news?news-id=81659