The Next Generation of Alternative Energy

Next generation of Alternative Energy

This article highlights excellent ideas, as do the comments to the article. The ideas must be translated into action and results NOW! It is commendable that the private sector and investors are moving to implement these ideas; but to maximize the results all of the sectors of our country must work together. With positive goverment participation perhaps we could make our progress much more rapid. The "professional politicos" approach does work to solve such problems. We need leaders who are citizen, servant, stewards. We could solve many more of our problems, Energy, Economy, Education, Illegals, Health Care, Environmental, War and so many more expeditiously if we could obtain canidates from the ranks of regular folks who have no desire for power or wealth but only want to serve. Let's deal with energy but, let's also think about why we are mired down and behind nations that are leading the way. We need to get back to basics that will allow all of us to work together to solve our problems today and those problems our children will face tomorrow. It is amazing to me that everyone who speaks with me about the issues we face, including energy as a whole (not just the price of gasoline)feels the same way, disatisfied with the lack of leadership and cooperation in government to work expeditiously and efficiently, without rancor or pettiness, using our resources wisely to resolve problems such as energy. Let's also find a way to encourage people to seek and obtain office to serve, lead, cooperate, be problem solvers and good stewards, not forever, but only for a season as the founding fathers intended!

Bob of PA @ Jul 28, 2008 15:11:51 PM

Energy of all kinds

In the meantime, drilling our oil, and building some Nuclear power plants and refineries will give us time to use our cars, and we'll be independant of foreign states. A dream is not enough. We use what we have, being practical, and prepare the futur by exploring every opportunity.

Amen!

Anne Marie Gressani/Naples

anne marie gressani of FL @ Jul 28, 2008 14:12:42 PM

alternative fuel now

We don’t need future tech to have alternative fuel (although we should still research future tech). We can make ethanol and methanol with 19th Century chemical engineering. As long as oil is over $50 a barrel it is fiscally prudent. Ethanol competes with food, although the elimination of WTO tariffs against 3rd world farmers should allow the growth of enough crops to do both. Methanol can be made with any agricultural and forestry product (edible or not- to include algae) along with natural gas, coal, and the trash that fills our waste facilities. These changes can be done now- we can shift the oil economy to an alcohol economy and become energy independent. http://www.energyvictory.net/

Peter of VA @ Jul 28, 2008 13:52:11 PM

LEAP – LOCALIZED ENERGY ADVANCEMENT PLAN

LEAP – LOCALIZED ENERGY ADVANCEMENT PLAN

(1) Southern California Edison (SCE) is leasing commercial rooftops and installing solar panels on them to feed the local grid in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. This is the very best bang for the buck. Look at the advantages: No land is used. No transmission lines need to be built. No waiting 4 to 5 years to build them. No power loss to transmit electricity long distances to where it is consumed. The power is fed directly into neighborhood grids. No need to shell out big bucks to upgrade the National Grid which would drive your electric bill higher. Take every city where there is enough cost effective sunshine, and do the same. Cover all commercial rooftops with solar panels. Then do schools, colleges, hospitals, government buildings, and residential rooftops, either leased by the local power company or installed by the owner. This is LOCALIZED electric power generation.

(2) Pass a “Uniform Net Metering Act” to guarantee that anyone generating surplus electric power will be paid at least the going wholesale rate for it by local power companies. Some power companies already have variations of net metering, but many do not. The impact will be that solar, wind, biogas to electric, and other home and business power systems will be installed larger than they need to be, thus adding peak load and generating surplus power to the local grid and also creating quarterly revenue for the private owner.

(3) Massive installation of solar roof panels on plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, cars and trucks, including long haul trailer roofs. Theses would interface with localized V2G parking systems that would either charge the vehicle or produce peak load power for the grid while parked. The vehicle owners local electric power account would be electronically debited or credited accordingly. Solar roofed vehicles in mass, parked in the sun all day long, would generate a sizeable amount of peak load power, which would generate energy credits or even revenue for the vehicle owner. This combined with the rapid development of next generation translucent solarvoltaic window panels and entire vehicle bodies covered with hi-tech solar paint, with long haul trailers generating a significant amount of solar power. Again, no land or transmission lines needed and no National Grid needed.

(4) Advanced, super-organized recycling systems to channel all local organic waste from homes, commercial buildings, restaurants, institutions, government offices, agricultural, food processing, wood working, building industry, municipal sewage and landfill, etc. into forms of localized energy production, such as biogas methane. With the fuel burned as natural gas for the local grid, and the exhaust and the nitrogen-phosphorous liquid effluent mitigated and fed to adjacent Algae production systems. With the oil in the algae made into locally produced biodeisel; the byproduct algae starch made into locally consumed ethanol; and the protein made into locally consumed animal feeds.

(5) The mitigation and exploitation of all sources of sewage and manure from septic systems, dairy farms, poultry, and livestock operations into biogas digesters producing methane to generate electric power for local grids and surplus regional transmission. With the effluent again being used to feed adjacent algae production for additional power, liquid fuels, or animal feed.

(6) The mitigation and exploitation of all existing fossil fuel and biomass burn power plants by the cycling of CO2 rich exhaust to feed adjacent algae production, with the potential to co-fire all or part of the algae as onsite power plant fuel, in the form of combustible ultrasound fractionated oil-rich algae slurry, to replace a portion of the conventional fuel being consumed by the power plants.

(7) The mitigation and exploitation of all existing corn ethanol refineries, by leveraging the waste products of CO2, waste heat, waste water effluent, natural gas exhaust (or other onsite exhaust), to feed adjacent algae production: To create feedstock for biodeisel, providing localized fuel for agriculture. To generate biogas to replace natural gas or to replace whatever fuel was being used for plant production power. To cogenerate electric power for the local grid. Thereby generating additional waste heat for the algae. With the option to produce additional ethanol from algae starch, and or high protein algae animal feed, to parallel and enhance the existing distillers grains market. These algae products, produced in whatever proportion would be advantageous, primary to supply local and regional markets.

Again, the emphasis is on localized electric power production, localized liquid fuel production, and localized animal feed production, mitigating and exploiting waste products into value added algae based fuels and feeds.

(8) Consistent long term tax credits for renewables such as solar, wind, wave, geothermal, biomass and biogas to electric, and hydrogen and clean fuels to electric, etc.

(9) Fast Tracking the award winning clean burning multi-fueled GREEN REVOLUTION ENGINE. This engine can burn any liquid or gaseous fuel, including hydrous ethanol, powdered biomass, and ultrasound fractionated oil-rich algae slurry (with any exhaust recycled to grow more algae).

(10) Fast Tracking hydrogen on demand water splitting, onboard the moving vehicle, using Ultrasound and or Pulsed Width Modulation current, generated by conventional vehicle electric systems and vehicle solar roof panels.

(11) Fast Tracking the ultra clean GEET Fuel Processor that runs existing internal combustion engines and gensets on vaporized mixtures of 75% water and any combustible fuel, including ultrasound fractionated algae slurry and enhanced powdered biomass slurry. Search: GEET Fuel Processor. Search: BingoFuel (one word).

Jeff Baker of AZ @ Jul 26, 2008 22:11:13 PM

Algae: so close, yet so far

I have read so many articles on algae now that it stinks (pun intended). Actually, what stinks is the gradual lengthening of time that companies are projecting for algae's eventual competitiveness with fossil fuels. Well, perhaps the road to utopia will be shorter with a new process for making sugars: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080724/full/news.2008.972.html;jsessionid=811904F43ED641F32B4123BFE58F3460?s=news_rss And just to be fair, I first learned about this article at http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/07/26/175553.php -- especially if the Nature link breaks.

Bill of WA @ Jul 26, 2008 21:00:33 PM