[tmazanec1]

Could coal solve the problem for our generation (at the cost of global warming for the next)?

[Keith_McClary]

I apologise for diverting from the spirit of the original post but forget technological breakthroughs.
What we need are sociological breakthroughs.

There is a system that gives you a portable electric meter that shows you your current (unintended pun) consumption in Kw. and $/hr.
This lets the consumer immediately see how much they are saving by turning off the hall light, etc.
People with this system reduce their consumption by half.

A similar concept could work for cars.
People spend about $1/mile if you include depreciation, insurance, maintenance, repairs, licence and gasoline. But these costs are paid "up front" except for gas, which is on next month's credit card bill. So people are not very aware of the cost of driving.

Now imagine, hypothetically, that all these costs had to be paid by sticking a $1 coin in a slot in the dash every mile.

Would this change driving habits?

[Keith_McClary]

Fridges and freezers should be able to withstand power outages of up to 24 hours with zero food spoilage. This is a matter of design (adequate insulation and automatic locks that prevent opening during outages).

We were talking about shutting down fridges during the "Electricity rush hours" (as my utility calls it). Automatic locking during these times would save energy and also help with the obesity problem.

[Triffin]

First up closed cycle two tier dams, are actually considerably better at conserving water. You don't get just one energy release per unit of water instead you get 100s and as the dams would actually be for power only, we can cap/seal them and take them to near empty each drain cycle while refilling with surge supplies and off cycle generation. The need for large catchments and large volumes is also reduced.

Why can't this concept be applied to tidal generators ???
Most coastal locations experience a diurnal tidal cycle
ie two high tides per 24 hour period .. Water from a rising,
incoming tide would re-charge your catchment basin ..
You could then generate power as needed and not have to
use pumpback techniques to refill your catchment basin
as the next incoming tide would do it for you ..

Triff ..

[Duende]

Is it possible to somehow capture electricity generated by lightning bolts?

[Keith_McClary]

Is it possible to somehow capture electricity generated by lightning bolts?

Yes but you would need some expensive equipment to capture and store this intermittant source of energy and release it for normal uses.

If you could think of a use for a large but unpredictable jolt of high voltage electricity in a short time it would be ideal.

[small_steps]

Yes but you would need some expensive equipment to capture and store this intermittant source of energy and release it for normal uses.

I'm scratching my head on this one, what technology and/or equipment is this? That is from a viewpoint of capturing...

I could imagine a setup where we couple the magnetic field(s) generated by the lightening, but not directly "tap" into the lightning. Is this what you have in mind/ seen?

For dispensing the energy, we could use SMES type tech.

[oowolf]

I'm hoping to find a 2-stroke, biodiesel powered chainsaw that weighs less than 500 pounds.

[Keith_McClary]

Yes but you would need some expensive equipment to capture and store this intermittant source of energy and release it for normal uses.

I'm scratching my head on this one, what technology and/or equipment is this? That is from a viewpoint of capturing...

I could imagine a setup where we couple the magnetic field(s) generated by the lightening, but not directly "tap" into the lightning. Is this what you have in mind/ seen?

For dispensing the energy, we could use SMES type tech.

OK, I have done 2 minutes of Google research:
"The energy of an average 3 mile-long lightning strike is one billion to ten billion joules. To keep a 100-watt light bulb going for one second, one hundred joules of energy will be used. With one billion joules, the light bulb will be lit for 116 days."
Energy of Lightning Strike

"Florida, the lightning capital of the US, has about 15 to 30 strikes to ground per square kilometer annually"
Lightning Damage

So (assuming 30 strikes) if you could capture all the lightning energy from a square kilometer of Florida in a year you could light ten 100 watt bulbs for a year.

You could save the same amount of power by replacing fifteen 100 watt bulbs with fifteen 25 watt fluorescents which produce the same amount of light. This would cost about $50.

I don't think you could build any apparatus to capture lightning for $50.

[Keith_McClary]

I'm hoping to find a 2-stroke, biodiesel powered chainsaw that weighs less than 500 pounds.

I think you won't find any sort of small diesel engines because of the cost of the fuel injectors.

[oowolf]

It appears there is no substitute for the gas powered chain saw. And even stabilized gas is good only for 1 year.
I'm stocking up on crosscuts.

[Tanada]

It appears there is no substitute for the gas powered chain saw. And even stabilized gas is good only for 1 year.
I'm stocking up on crosscuts.

Why not just take your gas/oil chainsaw and get it tuned for ethanol/oil mix? And the crosscuts are a good idea, I prefer them to chainsaws for a lot of applications.

[oowolf]

I was looking for a saw that would run on a home grown product. I am not aware of any combination of home made ethanol/oil that will run a 2 stroke engine. Is there?

[oowolf]

I was looking for a saw that would run on a home grown product. I am not aware of any combination of home made ethanol/oil that will run a 2 stroke engine. Is there?

[Antimatter]

Two stroke oil mixes with 95% ethanol in my experience - I've tried it in an old whipper snipper motor. The carburettor jetting needs to be changed to compensate for the leaning out affect of the ethanol or it will idle too fast and have no power.

[Crusty_Ass]

Oilburner:

I think fast breeder nuclear programs hold the most promise for the future.

LOL! They've been tried and failed. Very expensively failed. It's more myth than reality.

pea-jay:

An aside on refrigeration points made by gg3 and Devil;

Another thing about fridges: Put them against the coldest wall in your house. Even better: remove all isolation between the fridge and the outside wall. Even better than that: Drill two slit-like holes in the wall behind the fridge, one at the bottom and one at the top. That way cold air from outside will slip in, absorb heat from the fridge's back, and then move outside at the top slit. Makes even the most efficient fridge work less.
Guaranteed energy saver.

JoeW:

If solar technology costs were cut 90%, that would be a miracle.
If costs of high performance batteries were cut 90%, that would be a miracle.

Hear, hear! Photovoltaiics are very, very expensive and very energy-intensive just to produce. I'd say 90% would be a nice miracle.
But even a 30% reduction in cost would make it much more feasable.


Rickenbacker:

Anybody know anything about the possibility of using lightning? Seems like an easy way of getting a load of electricity running down a wire. Is it theoretically possible to store it?

Theoretically? Yes. Practically? Only Tesla knew...
The thing is, lighning isn't very predictable. Only in certain places where it's very wet and high in the mountains where you already have a lot of ligthning can you build some installation. And even then, what kind of installation? Because it's an non-continuous form of energy, you need to store it, with all the losses implied.

tmazanec1:

Could coal solve the problem for our generation (at the cost of global warming for the next)?

Interesting question, but, no. It comes at the cost of global warming for current generations. If India and China would adopt US energy consumption with coal, we're in for one hell of a ride.

I'd say that all the miracles we need are already here. Wind energy is an excellent power form and lakes and water reservoirs are a well known form of storing energy. Combine this with the burning of biomass, water and tidal energy and you already cover most of our domestic energy needs. Thermal solar panels can easily replace 60% of all building heating needs at no or minimal extra cost.

Transportation is also well known to be very inefficient, and can easily cut it's energy consumption in half. Easily.

The miracle that's needed is a change in political momentum. AND perhaps a 30% cost reduction of photovoltaiics.

[Keith_McClary]

The thing is, lighning isn't very predictable. Only in certain places where it's very wet and high in the mountains where you already have a lot of ligthning can you build some installation. And even then, what kind of installation? Because it's an non-continuous form of energy, you need to store it, with all the losses implied.

The forestry lookouts on mountaintops around here have elaborate lightning protection. They don't actually get much lightning in the mountains but it tends to hit the mountaintops where the lookouts are located and one strike is enough to do some damage . (It could blow out the lookout's TV ).
There is much more lightning out on the prairies to the east, but where it hits is pretty random, so building installations is not economical.

[Liamj]

Most likely technological miracle?

That in 15 years the IPFFD (intergovernmental panel on fossil fuel depletion) announces that data from new orbiting neutrino sensors proves that fossil fuels are nonrenewable, irreplaceable, and well past peak.

US President Gemma Bush sez "like, whatever".

The CEO of ExxonMobilShellBP Inc. sez, "The evidence is not conclusive and more research is required."

An impoverished world sez, "bloody scientists, always proving the bleeding obvious".