Powerful Research: The 8 Best + Worst Electric Power Sources
February 9, 2011 by admin · View Comments
[ By WebEcoist in Energy & Fuel, Science & Research, Technology & Gadgets. ]
Discussions of the best and worst energy sources often devolve into opinionated and dogmatic “religious” wars, full of speculation and low on scientific rigor. But this may not continue for much longer. According to a December 2008 press release, Stanford University environmental engineering professor Mark Z. Jacobson completed the “first quantitative, scientific evaluation of the proposed, major,energy-related solutions by assessing not only their potential for delivering energy for electricity and vehicles, but also their impacts on global warming, human health, energy security, water supply, space requirements, wildlife, water pollution, reliability and sustainability.”
In the study, Jacobson reveals what he found to be the 8 best-to-worst electric power sources. Here they are, in illustrated detail!
The Four Best
Wind power
(Images via TreeHugger, 4HCirriculum)
The best source of electric power, according to Jacobson’s study, is wind. As the diagram above helpfully illustrates, wind is converted to usable electricity by way of a blade-driven turbine with an internal generator. While wind currently only provides 1.5% of worldwide power, it is becoming more and more widely used, doubling in the 3 years between 2005 and 2008. According to Jacobson, a nationwide roll out of wind would result in a “better than 99% reduction” in carbon and air pollution emissions.”
Concentrated solar power (CSP)
(Image via Sustainable Design Update, RobertDowney.com)
Second to wind in Jacobson’s study was concentrated solar power, or CSP. Shown above, CSP systems utilize vast arrays of lenses and mirrors in order to focus a lot of sunlight into a small beam, which is then used as the heat source for power plants. Unlike some of the other power sources covered here, CSP is not new. Primitive forms of it date back to around 700 B.C. when the Chinese first used mirrors to ignite their firewood.
Geothermal power
(Images via EcoFriend, ReUK)
Clocking in at third in Jacobson’s study of the best and worst electric power sources is geothermal. The task of a geothermal power pant is using heat stored in the Earth to heat water that is in turn used to power steam turbines. As one might imagine, this is somewhat difficult. The rewards, however, seem to be worth it. According to EcoFriend, geothermal power generation represents “a completely safe, clean, and a virtually inexhaustible process and can fill the world’s annual needs 250,000 times over with nearly zero impact on the climate or the environment.”
Tidal power
(Images via StatKraft, Ausscifi)
The “last of the best” in Jacobson’s study was tidal power. Tidal power is based on the idea that the change in water levels between high and low tides can be forceful enough (in coastal areas) to power turbines. Since water is roughly 1,000 times more dense than air, lots of energy can be squeezed from even low-velocity tides. Tides also have the advantage of being more predictable than solar or wind power, which are only reliable insofar as the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.
The Four “Not So Best”
Solar photovoltaic (PV)
(Images via EIA, Ardenham Energy)
Photovoltatic solar panels are what most people associate with solar power. They are simply panels that use semiconductors to convert the sun’s rays directly into electricity. While these are certainly useful (and sales have risen from about 15,000 in 1998 to 886,000 in 2007), there are limitations, namely that they can only suck up electricity when the sun is shining.
Wave power
(Images via Sweden, Piston Heads)
The sixth best electric power source according to Professor Jacobson is wave power. It’s main strong point? According to Sweden’s national website, “while solar power is available for about 1,000 hours a year and wind power for about 2,200 hours a year, wave power is available for up to 4,000 hours a year.”
Hydroelectric power
(Image via K2M Energy)
The 7th best electric power source was hydroelectric, which currently provides about 19% of total world electricity. Despite this, hydroelectric comes with some significant disadvantages, such as how much space is required to build and operate a hydroelectric dam, possible dangers to nearby animal habitats, and disruption of aquatic ecosystems.
Nuclear power
(Images via Hello World Bea, Guardian)
The “worst” electric power source in the study was nuclear power. While nuclear has proven effective across the world (namely by powering 75% of France), the main risk is safety. As meltdowns like the one at Chernobyl have demonstrated, the risk of accidents in nuclear fission looms large, holding the potential to wipe out entire populations depending upon the severity of the meltdown.
Again: the entirety of Professor Mark Z. Jacobson’s detailed study on the 8 best and worst electric power sources can be read here.
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Chilean Miners and the White Butterfly Story
October 15, 2010 by admin · View Comments
The story was first recounted in the spidery lines of a letter penned by Jorge Galeguillos, one of the 33 miners trapped half a mile deep in the bowels of the earth.
It was early afternoon on August 5, and Galeguillos was heading back down into the mine aboard a Nissan Terrano pick-up truck. His friend, former soccer star Franklin Lobos, was at the wheel.
“We had been up to the workshop and as we were driving back down, a slab of rock caved in just behind us. It crashed down only a few seconds after we drove past. Just ahead I saw a white butterfly,” Galeguillos wrote in the two-page letter to his brother Eleodoro, also a miner.
“After that, we were caught in an avalanche of dirt and dust. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. The tunnel was collapsing and the rocks buried a backhoe. A water tank lower down was almost completely buried too,” he continued.
A huge slab of rock collapsed behind them, totally blocking the mineshaft between Level 190 (the level corresponds to the height above sea level measured in meters) and Level 335, a level higher up the mine closer to the entrance.
In turn, that collapse triggered a series of smaller cave-ins and rockfalls further down the mineshaft, according to rescue workers.
As the dust cleared, Lobos and Galeguillos began driving again and managed to negotiate their way around the other rockfalls that had partially blocked the lower reaches of the 4-meter-wide tunnel. They were eventually able to reach 31 fellow miners, who were, by then, huddled for safety in the 50-square-meter refuge on Level 100.
Galeguillos’ brother says he has no rational explanation about how a tiny white butterfly could have flown more than 500 meters deep into the mine.
But like most miners in this spartan desert region, he’s a fervent Catholic and deeply superstitious. He’s also a deep believer in the folklore handed down by what he calls “the old people” — lessons passed by word of mouth from grandfather to father to son.
Source: CNN News
Beth
Athlete Continues Pursuits after 50
October 12, 2010 by admin · View Comments
(CNN) — Javier Mendez, a mixed martial arts trainer for 32 years, scoffed when he heard that retired NFL star Herschel Walker, who’s nearing 50, wanted to compete in ultimate fighting.
“Yeah, I didn’t think he could do it,” Mendez said. “I thought it was a joke.”
Walker had been out of football for 12 years. Aging football players tend to get flabby, play golf or relive the spotlight under “Dancing With the Stars.”
But the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Georgia always had an unorthodox streak.
After stints of ballet dancing, Olympic bobsledding, running track and field, gaining a black belt in taekwondo and retiring from a celebrated football career, Renaissance jock Walker has dived into the most physically demanding and controversial sport of his career.
At 48, Walker is training for his second Strikeforce mixed martial arts fight, scheduled for December 4.
“I was in great shape when I was younger,” he said. “This is the toughest thing I’ve ever done. I think that’s the reason I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been in.”
He was chosen to pose naked for ESPN The Magazine’s “The Body” issue, out last week, to show his muscular physique.
“I’m going to do something different, to be a little different than the average person,” he said. “You can’t be in the same cookie cutter.”
Walker has never followed the fitness norms.
He eats once a day, skipping breakfast and lunch. After a long, intense day of training, he eats salad and bread for dinner. He doesn’t care for meat or fuss about getting enough protein. Walker’s a vegetarian.
“It’s a mindset — something I’ve been doing for a long time,” he said. “I don’t worry about protein. I don’t worry about all that. I’m from old school. I grew up in south Georgia. They didn’t worry about cholesterol or protein. They went out and worked and lived a long time, so I don’t put a lot of worries in my mind. I just get it done.”
Sometimes, Walker doesn’t have an appetite and will go through seven hours of wrestling, kickboxing, sparring and practicing jujitsu without having eaten for three or four days.
“It’s just unbelievable,” said Mendez, who trains Walker at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California. “He shouldn’t be able to do what he’s doing. I don’t think it’s possible to eat as little as possible and work out the way he does. There’s no way. He’s an unbelievable athlete.”
Mendez doesn’t try to change it either.
“You can’t fix it, because it’s not broken,” he said. “You can try to understand it — good luck with that.”
And no, Mendez thinks it probably won’t work for most people.
At 5:30 a.m., Walker wakes up to do 750 to 1,500 push-ups and about 2,000 sit-ups.
“I try to show the world at my age, I could do it,” Walker said. “I’m not trying to be arrogant. My parents say you can’t make excuses in life, you’ve got to get it done.”
And he did. In his first Strikeforce fight in January, Walker defeated Greg Nagy, a fighter almost half his age.
Source: CNNNews
Beth
A Tree, A Girl, A Life
May 6, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments
“From my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind,” she wrote on February 23, 1944. “As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be.”
The tree that reminded Frank of the promise of life still looms high above the courtyard behind the Anne Frank House, now a museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, that just marked its 50th anniversary. But at about 170 years of age, Anne Frank’s tree is dying.
The spring before her family and the others hiding with them were captured, the girl focused on the tree’s budding life — and her own.
“Our chestnut tree is already quite greenish and you can even see little blooms here and there,” she wrote on April 18, 1944. Two days earlier, she’d recorded her first kiss.
Frank died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen just weeks before the Nazi concentration camp was liberated in 1945. But her name, story and message live on through her diary and, also, through her ailing tree.
The tree that keeps giving
The tree has been sick for 10 years; a fungus has left two-thirds of it hollow, said Anne Frank House spokeswoman Annemarie Bekker.
A battle began in late 2007 between city officials who wanted to chop it down and activists who insisted it stay. But a court injunction, a second-opinion analysis and a committee mobilization later, it still stands, barely alive and supported by steel.
About five years ago, the museum began collecting chestnuts from the tree to grow seedlings, so that pieces of the original tree could take root and flourish elsewhere. The tree is a horse chestnut, which is often called a buckeye tree in the United States and a conker tree in the United Kingdom.
Its saplings have been distributed to international parks and schools named for Anne Frank. One will be planted later this year at Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.
Through a project and contest launched last year by the Anne Frank Center USA, a New York-based educational nonprofit working with the museum in Amsterdam, 11 sites in the United States will see Frank’s tree blossom. They range from the White House and various museums and memorials to a high school that changed U.S. history.
A handful of winning applications were driven by youth inspired by Frank, who would be 80 if she’d survived, and her diary.
One girl in Boston, Massachusetts,12-year-old Aliyah Finkel, felt an immediate connection to the writer, so much so that she chose to have her bat mitzvah — the coming of age ceremony for Jewish girls — in the synagogue Frank’s family attended in Amsterdam before they went into hiding.
“It wasn’t just a diary written by some person, it was written by a 13-year-old girl,” Finkel said. “I was interested in the story of her life. She had so much hope. There are some parts [of the diary] that are really sad, but it’s more inspiring.”
With the help of her family, and contacts they have with local officials, Finkel’s inspired push will bring a tree to Boston Common and lessons about tolerance to the city’s public schools.
Source: CNN News
Beth
The Tactics of Hope - Join the Social Entrepreneur Movement
April 9, 2010 by · View Comments
We want to support and inspire individuals to move from concern to action around the issues of poverty, human rights, social justice, and the environment. Join the Tactics of Hope Facebook Page facebook.com Get the Tactics of Hope book on Amazon.com www.amazon.com The recent election of President Barack Obama has given hope to millions and inspired them to address the many local and global challenges at hand. For the past two years, Wilford Welch (a US Diplomat, professor of international business, and acclaimed author) and David Hopkins (a recent college graduate and aspiring social entrepreneur), have been writing a book and creating a website to inspire and support those very people who want to join this movement. This video outlines the core concepts of their book “The Tactics of Hope: How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing Our World”. It explains what social entrepreneurship is, why it has the power to change the world in profound ways, and how people can join the movement. Most notably, the video highlights two inspirational and exemplary companies that have been celebrated by Oprah, Jay-Z, former President Bill Clinton, National Geographic, MTV, CNN, PBS, and NBC. The first, Playpumps, provides fresh drinking water to thousands of people in Africa via an incredibly simple, innovative, and scalable system, and the second, Kiva, facilitates peer-to-peer loans via the Internet to allow impoverished people develop their own businesses. The Tactics of Hope website …
Small Ways to Make a Big Difference
July 29, 2009 by admin · View Comments
Sometimes going green can seem overwhelming. There are so many ways in which we affect our planet on a daily basis. There are some many toxins to avoid and so much help needed to make our world healthier. Where to begin?
CNN published a list of small things you can do to make a difference. Try to integrate a few of these pointers every day. You won’t know what hit you!
Workshop
1. Unplug your power tools. Figure out which cordless tools (like drill/drivers) get the most use, then unplug the chargers on all the rest. Most cordless tools have nickel cadmium (NiCad) batteries, which will hold some charge for up to a year. They lose 15 to 20 percent of their juice each month, but only take a couple of hours to power up again. Newer tools with lithium ion batteries lose just 2 to 5 percent of their charge each month, so they’ll be ready to go even if you haven’t charged them in ages.
2. Spread sawdust on your floor. Take the superfine shavings captured by your dust collection system, wet them down, then push them around with a stiff broom to sweep your concrete garage or workshop floor. The mix is as good as a power-guzzling shop vac at picking up dust but doesn’t swirl it into the air.
3. Up the wattage on lights. Where you still use incandescent bulbs (with dimmers or three-ways) on multiple fixtures in a room, try consolidating. One 100-watt incandescent emits more light than two 60-watt bulbs combined but requires 17 percent less power. The 100-watter also uses the same energy as four 25-watt bulbs, but pumps out twice as much light. Just be sure your bulbs don’t exceed the maximum wattage recommendation for each fixture. This Old House: Energy-saving bulbs
4. Eat your leftover take-out. Then save the plastic containers it came in–which can’t be recycled in most municipal waste systems–and use them to organize your nails, screws, and leftover paints. Not only does their tight seal help preserve solvents, but the see-through containers stack neatly and display contents clearly. For added strength, double up the thin ones.
5. Save used paint thinner. After cleaning oil-based finishes from brushes and tools, allow the dirty solvent to sit overnight. The sludge will settle to the bottom of the jar, leaving a layer of clear thinner on top. Carefully decant the clear thinner into a clean jar, and reseal it for future use. Be sure to dispose of the leftover sludge at a hazardous-waste-disposal site–never down a sink drain or into a street gutter.
6. Mix it up in the garage. Combine all those cans of leftover white paint that inevitably collect after you decorate the house and use them to paint the garage or workshop. (Make sure only to mix latex with latex and oils with oils.) You’ll keep the stuff out of the trash, and by adding the semi-glosses to the flats and eggshells, you’ll end up with a sheen that’s easy to clean.
7. Turn things on their heads. Store paint cans upside down so the solvents–which separate and rise to the top–get trapped under the bottom of the can. Not only will paint last longer, but solvents won’t be able to slowly seep out through the lid this way.
8. Take charge of your charges. Invest in an inexpensive battery tester, then set up a “battery center” where you can store new cells, check used ones for power, and set aside those that have burned out and have to be recycled. A designated collection spot will deter you from throwing bad batteries in the garbage. Once or twice a year, you just take the pile to your town’s recycling center.
Kitchen
9. Take your fridge’s temperature. Stick an appliance thermometer in a glass of water in the center of your refrigerator, or between frozen goods in the freezer, overnight. Your fridge temp should be between 37 and 40 degrees F (no more, to keep bacteria at bay); your freezer between zero and 5 degrees. If either compartment is too cold, adjust the setting, since keeping them just 10 degrees colder than necessary can boost your energy consumption by up to 25 percent.
10. Freeze your assets. Slip a dollar bill between the rubber gasket on your freezer and fridge doors and the frame, then close the door and tug on the buck. Notice any resistance? If not, the seal’s not tight enough and cold air is probably leaking out, making your fridge work harder to stay cool. Try this on all four sides of the door.
If necessary, call the manufacturer’s service department to find out how to replace the gasket.
11. Throw a dinner party. And clear out that second fridge or freezer in the garage or basement. Then banish the appliance to the recycling center. Getting rid of either one can save you more than $200 a year, especially if it’s an old, inefficient model. This Old House: House-part recycling centers
12. Invite your biggest buddy over. Ask him to help you move your fridge out of direct sunlight or away from the range. The heat from either will force a refrigerator compressor to gobble up more energy than necessary. A fridge uses up to 2.5 percent more power for each degree the surrounding temperature is above 70 degrees. So moving it out of a 90-degree spot can save you as much as $70 a year. If you can’t move it, at least block any sunny window with curtains and put as big a buffer as you can between it and the range.
13. Use the dishwasher. Doing a full load in your machine is far more efficient than washing the same number of dishes by hand. This is especially true if you have an Energy Star dishwasher, which requires an average of 4 gallons of water per load, compared with the 24 gallons it takes to do them in the sink. Using one will save you 5,000 gallons of water, $40 in utility costs, and 230 hours of your time each year.
Bathroom
14. Turn your toilet tank blue. Or green or red. Pour food coloring into the water in the tank, wait two hours, then check to see if any color has seeped into the bowl. If it has, your tank’s flapper is leaking, either from mineral buildup or worn parts. After you flush the dye away so it doesn’t stain, head to the hardware store for a replacement flapper assembly (then go to thisoldhouse.com for instructions on how to install it). Toilet leaks waste up to a gallon of water per minute. That’s more than 43,000 gallons a month.
15. Run the shower. Place a 1-gallon bucket under the running water, then see how long it takes for it to fill up. If it’s less than 20 seconds, replace the showerhead with one that sprays 1.5 gallons per minute. That could save as much as 14,600 gallons of water a year–especially if you limit your showers to 10 minutes. It will also save you $22 on your annual water bill, and $150 per year on water heating.
16. Go from scalding to just hot. Turn your water heater’s temperature setting down from the standard 140 degrees F to 120 degrees. Not only will this save you some bucks, it’ll also slow down mineral buildup and corrosion, prolonging the life of your tank. Since a new water heater costs about $900 installed, each additional year of use saves you money as well.
17. End the water torture. One drip per second from a leaky faucet or pipe can waste up to 5 gallons of water a day–and 1,800 gallons a year. While you won’t notice much of an increase on your water bill (around $3 annually), if an overlooked leak soaks through your kitchen floor, you could wind up with a $1,000 repair job–money that could have been saved by simply replacing a 50-cent washer.
Entries
18. Wipe your feet. Equip your exterior doors with a series of mats–or one long “walk-off” mat–so everyone enters with clean shoes. As long as there’s room for five steps on the mats, you’ll drastically reduce the amount of grime tracked in. That means fewer pathogens that cause disease and less chemical cleanup. It will also mean improved indoor air quality, since dirt embedded in a carpet can become airborne when it’s tromped on or agitated by a vacuum.
Basement/laundry
19. Reach behind your clothes washer. Turn down the hot water tap for the washing machine so less goes into the warm-water cycle. Perspiration and most other dirt dislodge best at body temperature, so you don’t need water that’s warmer than 100 degrees. Since most washers simply open both the hot and cold taps to make “warm” water, it may take longer to fill the machine. But you’ll save about $40 annually on your water-heating bill.
20. Spend more time in the basement. Make sure furnace filters in forced-air systems are clean. Dirty furnace filters restrict airflow and increase energy use. Cleaning them, or swapping them out each month during the winter, can save you up to 5 percent on your heating costs. Also schedule an annual checkup before the heat comes on to see that the furnace is properly calibrated.
Living areas
21. Listen to your mother. And put on a sweater. That way you can turn down your thermostat this winter. Adjust it by just one degree for eight hours a day, and you could save 1 percent on your monthly heating bills. Do it for 24 hours and save 3 percent. Try setting the temp at 70 degrees during the day and 62 at night during winter (and 78 or higher come summer). Heating and air-conditioning account for nearly half the energy used in our homes, so every little bit less you use makes a dent.
22. Worship the sun. Or at least use it to your advantage. Open blinds or drapes to let in natural solar heat on cold days, then close them once the sun sets, and you can reduce your heating bills by 10 percent. You can also cut your cooling costs by up to 33 percent in the summer by blocking out sunlight with exterior blinds, shutters, or awnings. To keep rooms bright, paint or paper with light or reflective colors.
Source: CNN
Beth
