Sensible Alternative Energy

A Mandate for New Home Building

2008-09-21T16:43:00.001-05:00

Politics for Smart People: A Mandate for New Home Building

The Pickens Plan

2008-09-11T20:15:00.003-05:00

I've taken a look at the Pickens Plan over the past couple of months, and while it is a great start, it could be better. The expansion of utilizing wind energy is the absolute greatest part of this plan, and it is great to see someone finally taking strong action to change the way America produces energy. The only part I disagree with in this plan is the push for using natural gas to power vehicles. These vehicles would need to be converted to run on compressed natural gas, and the infrastructure to fill up these cars is mainly only available to homeowners who have natural gas piped to their homes. While natural gas burns cleaner than gasoline, it still produces a significant amount of CO₂ .

I believe we should skip natural gas and push towards using the extra electricity to produce Hydrogen. Greater push should be made to get fuel cell or pure electric vehicles on the road. The Pickens Plan is only meant to help in the next ten years to give people more time to develop other energy sources, but the sources are available now, and we should push to use them. The natural gas will still be used to heat homes and power stoves so it will definitely not go to waste.

However, I do support the Pickens Plan because it is action, and it is action in the right direction.

Lightning GT: An Electric Car with Speed!

2008-08-10T20:31:00.004-05:00

I recently read about the Lightning GT made by the Lightning Car Company in the United Kingdom. This car is a pure electric car that recharges by plugging it in. The performance is quite astounding. The company claims it has 700 horsepower on tap and it propelled by four hub motors (one in each wheel). This car uses the same Hi-Pa Drive™ motors as found in the Volvo ReCharge. Acceleration from 0-60 mph is claimed to be under four seconds!

However, the really amazing thing about this car is the claimed recharge time. The car can supposedly go 300 km on only a ten minute charge of it's NanoSafe™ batteries. These batteries also have a claimed useful life of 12 years while still remaining 85% of it's peak capacity.

With the combination of these motors, batteries, and charging system, this could revolutionize driving forever. There will not be a need for gasoline anymore with this kind of technology.

To read the full article click here. Picture copyrighted by Jamie Lipman/Microsoft.

Volvo's New Green Car: "ReCharge"

2008-07-30T19:59:00.005-05:00

Volvo is on the right track with their latest concept vehicle. It's a plug-in hybrid and uses hub motors instead of traditional electrical motors. This provides greater efficiency because there are less transmititive loses because there are less moving parts because the traditional drivetrain is non-existent.

It definitely has taken a long time for someone to decide to use hub motors on a vehicle. The first time I have seen hub motors in use was when I worked on AN/AAQ-15 FLIR systems for Combat Talon II airplanes. The torquer motors in these were hub type, and they were very powerful. They are so powerful that I saw one break the frame that was designed to hold it. Volvo has made a very good choice in using these motors and teaming it up with a plug-in hybrid style vehicle. Hopefully the ReCharge will be on the market soon and that the price for it will be reasonable.

To see more information about this vehicle click here for the full article. The picture is copyrighted under "Volvo Cars of North America".

Is Growing Our Fuel a Good Idea?

2008-07-25T21:20:00.002-05:00

I'm just going to touch the basics of this for today's post.

Ethanol, biodiesel, and butanol at first sound like great ways to cut our dependence on foriegn oil. In reality, it's not as good as it sounds. The increase in prices for crops that are used for producing these fuels has increased dramatically. In turn this has also increased the price of food crops due to less being grown. Farmers find it to be more profitable to producs "fuel" crops instead. This is great news for farmers, but not very good for everyone else.

We still need to push for hydrogen based transport. Everything else is just steps in the road that will eventually lead us to nowhere.

My Reasons Why Drilling for more Oil is not a Solution

2008-07-21T19:01:00.000-05:00

Politics for Smart People: Is America's Solution Drilling for more Oil?

Where's my electric car?

2008-07-18T22:20:00.002-05:00

It's amazing how slow the development of electric cars for widespread use is. It does not seem like it can get much slower. Some of the biggest excuses are insufficient battery technology, and fuel cells are too expensive. This is understandable, however someone should do the best they can with the technology readily available.

A company that is doing cool things with existing technology is Tesla Motors. This company has created an electric sports car. They use the body of a Lotus Elise, install an electric drive train, and use lithium-ion batteries of the style typically found in laptop computers. The car is very expensive, but the performance is outstanding. This company is an example of pushing forward with the best you have available. Take a look at their website and see for yourself.

Two men from Canada, Csaba Lemak and Patrick MacKenzie, have built the first known electric paramotor. As stated in the referenced article, the technology is nothing new. They are just people who push forward anyways. This is what we need from car manufacturers and governments around the world.

Add Solar to Hybrids and Pure Electric Vehicles

2008-07-12T01:17:00.005-05:00

It seems strange that mainstream hybrid vehicles do not have solar recharge capabilities added to their vehicles. Thin film solar cells like the ones created by Nanosolar would be a great addition to the roofs or even the hoods of hybrid vehicles. The amount of solar energy produced would not be enough to run the vehicle, but it would be enough to help charge the batteries. The solar cells could be mounted to the roof and covered by a thin acrylic film to keep them attached. A better solution would be to build a composite roof with the solar cells embedded within them. This solution would preserve the smooth aerodynamics of the vehicle.

When plug-in hybrids become available for sale, it only makes sense to add solar recharging capabilities to them. Every milliamp of electricity produced by the solar cells is one less that has to come from the electrical grid.

For Power for People, Inc., one of our marketing ideas was to ask either Toyota or Honda to make a "Power for People" edition of their hybrid cars. The cars would be used in promoting our charity. The proposed "Power for People" editions would have had thin film solar cells embedded in the body of the cars. It would have been a win-win situation for all.

This idea is something that should be looked into.

A way to get hydrogen usage mainstream

2008-06-29T14:03:00.004-05:00

It is a shame as to why it is taking so long for the use of hydrogen in vehicles. The technology exists, but very few people are willing to create the infrastructure to support these vehicles. It's also a shame that these vehicles are not being built quick enough, but that is a different story.

What we need are near-self sustaining hydrogen fill up stations accross the United States. The initial investment does not even have to be extremely expensive either. Here is my idea of what could be built and how it would help lower the costs of operation until more hydrogen vehicles are available.

The fill-up station must have or use the following:

As many photovoltaic panels/sheets installed as possible
Wind generators (preferably with vertical turbines to reduce noise and visual impact)
Rain collection and passive filtering system to filter the water before it is used for electrolosis
Large hydrogen storage tanks for fuel storage for customer use and use by the station at night for power generation
At least one fuel cell for the station's own power
The use of LED lights for any lighting needs
Connection to a water source because rain water will not always be available
The station must be hooked up to the electrical grid so any excess power generated can be sold to electric utilities
Credit card/debit card only because no one will be attending the station

The station would be monitored remotely and it will be able to send messages when problems occur. The amount of maintenance the station will require will be determined by the environmental conditions existing in the area.

The beauty about this idea is that it can make money for the owners by producing electricity until it will be used by consumers needing fuel. We can start building these stations now, and this can be a catalyst for bringing more hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the market.

If someone decides to make vehicles that will combust hydrogen and oxygen, then the design of the station can be adapted to cater for this, too. The oxygen can be stored as well, and maybe it can be sold to companies who bottle oxygen.

If only some people with enough money will have the foresight, and be willing to wait for long term profits instead of just the short term, then we will be well on our way to a hydrogen "economy".

Power for People, Inc., - What it was and why it no longer exists

2008-06-24T21:25:00.005-05:00

Power for People, Inc. was a innovative idea that was never approved by the IRS. The concept was to be set up as a charity and build alternative energy production sites (e.g. wind, solar, micro-hydro electric, etc...), and possibly produce ethanol and bio-diesel using donations. The "profits" of selling the energy would then be given to other reputable charities to improve the lives of people in the areas where the sites were located. This corporation would have been a win-win situation for everyone involved.

This awesome concept was not approved by the IRS because it would be considered giving Power for People, Inc. an unfair competitive advantage over other businesses (even though we were not in competition with anyone because we were going to give all the profits away!).

Since I could not get my ideas pushed forward, I decided to create this blog to help push those ideas and help promote the ideas of others. There are a lot of smart people who have great ideas on the horizon, and I'll review some of those ideas here. Please feel free to add your comments and add to the pool of knowledge. Someday, someone with investment capital or someone in the government may see these ideas and make them a reality.

Welcome

2008-06-24T20:47:00.000-05:00

It has been frustrating trying to do good in the world, and also having plenty of ideas and not enough money to implement them. Some of my ideas are original and some are borrowed (I'll give credit where credit is due). The bottom line is that I was not seeking to get rich, but I wanted to make the world a better place and help people at the same time.

Please respond with your ideas and please feel free to leave constructive comments. All are welcome here.