Register for Free
Post comments, receive updates via email, gain access to exclusive content, and more.
Spam Safe!
Email
We spend a lot of time on this site discussing the risks posed by Peak Oil. It's important to us that you understand the magnitude of our national/global predicament and take appropriate preparations.
But in addition to tracking the gathering stormclouds (of which there are many), our info scouting efforts also look for developments with potential to change the situation positively.
In the podcast below, Chris and Willett Kempton explore the potential of wind power to reduce the energy pinch threat posed by depleting fossil fuels. Dr. Kempton is an electrical engineering professor at the University of Delaware and director of the Center for Carbon-Free Power Integration. Turns out, while still early in the game, there's action going on in wind and electricity-management that offers real promise.
Click the play button below to listen to Chris’ interview with Willett Kempton:
Download/Play the Podcast
Report a Problem Playing the Podcast
The interview covers:
- The importance of electricity storage in making alternative energies viable, as they have fluctuating production (i.e., the wind doesn't always blow, nor the sun always shine)
- Current options for increasing our energy output from wind
- How much of our energy needs could be fulfilled by wind if we pursued it at a Manhattan-project scale (Hint: It's more than you'd think)
- Strategies for using electricity from wind (and other sources) to create liquid fuels
- The promise of 'smart' technologies to optimize our consumption and conservation efforts
Some truly novel ideas come up, such as Willett's work around using electrical car fleets as a distributed electricity storage system - returning power from their batteries to the grid when the cars are fully charged and not in use.
As for Peak Oil, Willett agrees the threat is real: "If the population understood what the scientists understand," he says, we'd be fast-tracking moon-shot scale alternative energy infrastructure investments immediately.
Willett Kempton is Professor, College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and also Director, Center for Carbon-free Power Integration, at the University of Delaware.. He received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Texas, Austin in 1977. He has done extensive research on social and policy aspects of energy use and energy efficiency.
His scholarly articles cover topics such as American citizens' understanding of global climate change, beliefs and behavior regarding home energy, international comparisons of citizens' and policymakers' environmental perspectives, energy efficiency policies, and factors which move citizens to environmental action. He has written one book on theoretical cognitive anthropology, edited three volumes on energy, and most recently coauthored "Environmental Values in American Culture" (1995), a study of Americans' environmental beliefs and values. Kempton has held research or teaching positions at Princeton University, Michigan State University, and the University of California campuses at Berkeley and Irvine, prior to joining the faculty at the University of Delaware in 1992.
- Adam Taggart's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- 6030 reads
Print
Comments
at the moment renewable supply is trivial compared to potential efficiency savings.. "negawatts"
As the EROI diminishes.. that will become even more true.. a joule saved will be 2.. 5... 7.. 12 .. ++ joules earned...
the demand side is where "easy", RAPID gains are made.. especially where it involves liquid fuels.. ie transportation.
smart grid: making *full* use of capacity, staggering heavy but non-urgent loads like dishwashing. washing machine, tumble drying, car recharging, and water heating to make use of wasted capacity is a good thing (tm).
the supply side will take time... and I think smart nuclear (pebble bed, thorium ) is the only sane/obvious/practical transition strategy.., not perfect... plenty of challenges/problems.. but scaleable, and efficient.
Using nuclear + tar sands for temporary oil is a better idea than wasting natural gas.. anywhere you need concentrated heat , nuclear is a huge win. And the smaller the scale, the bigger the win... a simple mass produced reactor delivering hot water and electricity to 1000 homes would be worth it's weight in PM's.
Solar, wind.. are distractions / long term prospects IMO.. same as fusion.
Another fantastic interview Dr. M.,
As usual, your questions made all the difference.
Look out Puplava, Martenson is on fire!
Captain Sheeple
Got to get off to work!
Cold Fusion is now 63% replicable.
http://www.lenr-canr.org/
This has the potential to be a game changer, if we can work out the theory behind it. We have the practical skills but not the theory.
It seems as though the helium trapped in the lithosphere is a product of cold fusion, and that the reason the planet's core is hot is cold fusion.
One has to disengage the chatter of the left hemisphere to assimilate new information.
(See "The Master and his Emissary" on Amazon.)
http://www.amazon.com/Master-His-Emissar...
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." Einstein. ""Absolute certainty is a privilege of uneducated minds-and fanatics. It is, for scientific folk, an unattainable ideal." Cassius J. Keyser ."
Regarding LENR:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4967330n&tag=related;photovideo
(60-Minutes-Clip about LENR, April 2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLEMl5WLw3o
(Dr. Robert Duncan of the University of Missouri on LENR, May 2009. Dr. Duncan gives a very informative speech on LENR)
Just recently, Gerald Celente put LENR on his newest trends forecast. He said he expected an energy revolution from it, but he didn't tell the time frame. I think it was in a King World News interview where he mentioned it.
The question is: If LENR should become technological and commercial viable, what would that mean for our planet? Even more exponential population growth? I consider "Peak Fossil Energy" as both a threat and chance to shrink our world population to a sustainable level. But if LENR became reality, this would push everything to a completely new level.
So I am keeping an eye on LENR, that's for sure. :)
Has anyone ever considered hooking wind turbines to pump air into compressed air storage tanks, which can then be used to power household appliance?
Some Amish have a lot of experience with using compressed air to power work tools (drills, lathes), blenders, washing machines, etc. Air cars are a proven technology - powered with compressed air.
With clean compressed air, you don't have to deal with chemical batteries or hazardous wastes disposal after the batteries are done, or rare earth minerals. The tanks act as storage for when the wind doesn't run, and can power dynamos to provide power and light.
Poet
I belong to several science/altenative energy discussion forums where they discussed the pros/cons of such ideas. apparently there is a pretty significant loss of energy in the transfer. of course that doesn't matter if the energy is free, but the size of the tank vs payback is also not very good.
http://fieldlines.com/board/index.php/topic,135908.0.html
I think both solar and wind power should be used to produce hydrogen on site.
My thinking on this is as follows. When you save that electricity in a battery it 'leaks' away relatively quickly. If instead you used the electricity to create hydrogen onsite the the hydrogen could be stored indefinitely with very little loss. It could also be shipped across the counrty via hydrogen vehicles that don't have the heavy load issues that electric cars have, due to battery depletion. In other words you could use hydrogen in large trucks, something that 'electric' vehicles have a hard time with right now. Yes I know that electric/hydrogen conversion is not very efficient but the source is relatively free.
Any thoughts?
"Even if we are occupied with important things and even if we attain honor or fall into misfortune, still let us remember how good it once was here, when we were all together, united by a good and kind feeling which made us perhaps better than we are." - Fyodor Dostovevsky
I think both solar and wind power should be used to produce hydrogen on site.
My thinking on this is as follows. When you save that electricity in a battery it 'leaks' away relatively quickly. If instead you used the electricity to create hydrogen onsite the the hydrogen could be stored indefinitely with very little loss.
I hate to tell you this.... but hydrogen atoms are so small they escape through the walls of any container, and the higher the pressure the faster it escapes! This is one of the major hurdles of the so called "Hydrogen Economy".
If you're going to do this, then you'd have to use the H2 up pretty quick....
Peace on Terra http://damnthematrix.wordpress.com/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roeoz/
Maybe special adamatium tanks lined with kryptonite?
"Even if we are occupied with important things and even if we attain honor or fall into misfortune, still let us remember how good it once was here, when we were all together, united by a good and kind feeling which made us perhaps better than we are." - Fyodor Dostovevsky
Here's an interesting email I received from a reader on the subject of wind turbines. This is out of my depth on the subject, but I offer it as a starting point for conversation.
Any thoughts? Seems like some legitimate concerns there to me.
One of my biggest concerns is that there is not yet, even remotely close to being done yet, a single manufacturing process that runs, beginning to end, just on electricity.
And by "beginning to end" I mean from making the mining vehicles that mine the ore that feeds the smelters that were built from electrically run plants that turn out the steel that's used to build the turbines, etc and so forth, including all the necessary components and the feeding and housing of the workers at those plants.
We are a long, long way from a cradle to grave mfg processes for alternative energy devices that run on electricity.