Proof of concept (electric drag cars)

[Joel W.]

Do you want me to explain gravity power (free lunch) next for you?
Ok, here it is.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/4535408.stm

A road ramp that uses passing cars to generate power has been developed.

Dorset inventor Peter Hughes' Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp generates around 10kW of power each time a car drives over its metal plates.

More than 200 local authorities had expressed an interest in ordering the £25,000 ramps to power their traffic lights and road signs, Mr Hughes said.

Around 300 jobs are due to be created in Somerset for a production run of 2,000 ramps next year.

Plates in the ramp move up and down as vehicles pass over them, driving a generator.

"The ramp is silent, comfortable and safe for vehicles," Mr Hughes said.


Inventor Peter Hughes spent £1m developing the ramps

Depending on the weight of the vehicle passing overhead, between 5KW and 50kW can be generated.

Who is silly now!!!:evil2:

All these are out of the recent news stories... Put your books down..

 

[Adjuster]

Nope, not free lunch dude.

The cars have to be moving to go over the plates, so there is energy expended to generate energy.

There is no free lunch. (Someone, or something is paying for it always.)

 

[Joel W.]

Dude, they are already moving?? That agruement is totally lame.. so sorry..

 

[IJ.]

It cost someone something to get them there so nope it's not "free" it takes energy to produce energy or else we'd have perpetual motion machines powering everything.....

 

[Joel W.]

But the cars pass by all day/night long anyways.. Sticking generators in the roadway makes power for free all day/night long.
(less the cost of the generator):biglaugh:

No?

 

[IJ.]

And the fuel to get the cars there in the 1st place.....

and the road infrastructure and so on

it's NOT free

 

[Joel W.]

But that's going on already anyways (all the time), We just are not taking advantage of the inertia of the vehicles yet....

It does not slow them down.

 

[IJ.]

Wave powered Generators

do a search talk about an untapped power source.

 

[Joel W.]

See post 60.

 

[IJ.]

nuh

 

[Joel W.]

nuh

Ok.. here is another few..
http://www.esquimaltnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=10&cat=23&id=703627&more=

BC Hydro just announced in July that it's prepared to sign contracts for 38 projects worth $3.6 billion, three of which are wind power in the province. With the demand for energy expected to increase significantly in B.C. in the coming decades, Protter thinks that wave energy will also be part of that constantly evolving energy picture.

"Wave power is an excellent and powerful addition to the hybrid energy mix for off-grid, primary power generators," he said.


http://www.engineerlive.com/europea...nverter-will-be-able-to-generate-750-kw.thtml

Similar in size and rating to a modern wind turbine the Pelamis is designed to harness the energy contained in ocean waves to produce electricity. According to the company, it is the world's first commercial-scale floating wave energy converter.

The 750kW Pelamis machine measures 120m long by 3.5m wide (about the size of four train carriages) and weighs 750tonnes fully ballasted. The machine was 100percent assembled and fabricated in Scotland

 

[IJ.]

Watched a show the other night with an Aussie designed one that kicked but!

 

[Joel W.]

Wave of the future man. (literally)..

 

[Adjuster]

Wind, waves, solar, panels in the road bed and any other idea you have talked about all are examples of using existing movement and converting it into mechanical force to generate power.

None of them are free Joel. Some taxpayer or end user is going to pay to have them designed, built and serviced.

Wave power is a nice idea, but have you tried maintaining steel parts in salt water? Rust is an understatement. There are reasons ships have hulls with layers of anti rust and fouling paint over them. Also there are very few moving parts in the water. They rust very quickly, and exposed moving parts have to be constantly lubricated, cleaned and repaired as seawater is very nasty to metal. Even if you built them out of stainless steel, or other resistant materials, there are biologic organisms that will attach themselves to your generators, and have to be cleaned and scraped off on a regular basis, or you end up with a very expensive reef... So much for your free lunch dude. (Expense to build, maintain and so forth all add up to COSTS money to operate.)

There is no free lunch.

Some forms of energy are much less work to harness than others, and that is why you see dams built on our rivers. They make nice lakes you can fish, boat and water ski on, and by letting that fresh water power a turbine, you can generate lots of clean power for a long time, but even it's not a free lunch. You have to build the dam, buy and maintain the generators, and even fresh water causes rust.. just not nearly as bad as seawater.

Ok solar power? Ever paid for solar panels? (I worked for ARCO solar back in the 80's and they were 300.00 per panel then.) It took two of them to power a medium sized phone booth along side the road. It would take a few thousand to power your house, and then only power it for the daytime. At night you would need a few hundred batteries at 100.00 each...

Do the math, it's not a free lunch dude.

I think these new ideas are great. But are they cheaper than nuclear power? Nope, you can generate so much more steam with a good nuclear power plant v/s wind/solar/wave energy it's not even funny. And you can get power from it 24/7. It's up to you to determine how much power you want to generate, not the weather and sun cycle.

Why do you think they use nuclear power on submarines and aircraft carriers? On the subs they need power that is not dependant on air supply or running on the surface. Power is there all the time at the surface, or under hundreds of feet of water.
With carriers, they need huge ships to be able to go 30 knots or more so the aircraft can land and take off in a nice stiff wind. To get a ship that large going that fast takes amazing amounts of energy, so Nuke power is perfect. It's able to generate massive amounts of energy, and it's there when you need it, 24/7.

Tell you what, you build your ships with wind power, solar and some wave generators, and I'll just take one fully stocked Nimitz class battlegroup. Let's have a war, and see who wins.... LOL (You rely on green power, and I'll decay some urainium and burn some hydrocarbons )

 

[Joel W.]

Wow, Your outlook shocks me bud..(not really) You sure you don't work for the power companies/big oil??? You sound like you do? You can't admit that this new tech is pretty damm cool? No big suprize here I guess..

None of them are free Joel. Some taxpayer or end user is going to pay to have them designed, built and serviced.

Of course they are not totally free, I already said (less the price of the tech), But once they pay for them selves they are kinda free and good for the enviroment.....Don't you get that?? This is private industry that is designing/fabricating/installing them for profits. Yes proifits!!!!

All this stuff means jobs and growth. The free power source is the "river of cars" that is already passing by.. :biglaugh:

They are still working on the wave tech. No one said it was easy, but hydro dams can not keep up with demand!!!

(I worked for ARCO solar back in the 80's and they were 300.00 per panel then.)

Isn't Arco a fuel company? I knew it (SELL YOUR STOCK)..:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: .LMAO Anyways, solar tech is getting cheaper every day. Again, once the initial investment is paid off, the rest is basically free and again enviroment friendy... This is 25 years later, there is new solar tech I will post here now...

Do the math, it's not a free lunch dude.

Ok, it is a VERY profitable lunch (not for the oil companies, unless they get on board now) and it is still VERY green.. Get it yet?

I think these new ideas are great. But are they cheaper than nuclear power? Nope, you can generate so much more steam with a good nuclear power plant v/s wind/solar/wave energy it's not even funny. And you can get power from it 24/7. It's up to you to determine how much power you want to generate, not the weather and sun cycle.

You don't sound like it, you really do not...Nuke is great also, but it makes massive amounts of toxic waste that has to be delt with somewhere, some how by someone!!!. None of these techs do that..

Why do you think they use nuclear power on submarines and aircraft carriers? On the subs they need power that is not dependant on air supply or running on the surface. Power is there all the time at the surface, or under hundreds of feet of water.

Because an extenion cord would be impractical? Give me a break, Nuke has it's place now, but not in my future. I bet they will convert to the hydrogen tech soon.

Tell you what, you build your ships with wind power, solar and some wave generators, and I'll just take one fully stocked Nimitz class battlegroup. Let's have a war, and see who wins.... LOL (You rely on green power, and I'll decay some urainium and burn some hydrocarbons )

I am basically talking about land based power (for houses and cars), not war ships. Is that the best rebuttle you got? It's pretty weak.. Get on board man. You do not have to play with the new tech, but it can still save you money anyways even as an unwilling participant!!! :icon_razz ...

 

[Joel W.]

Check this out!!! Brand new tech right here>>> "SPRAY ON SOLAR CELLS"

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0114_050114_solarplastic.html

Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn the sun's power into electrical energy, even on a cloudy day.

The plastic material uses nanotechnology and contains the first solar cells able to harness the sun's invisible, infrared rays. The breakthrough has led theorists to predict that plastic solar cells could one day become five times more efficient than current solar cell technology.

Like paint, the composite can be sprayed onto other materials and used as portable electricity. A sweater coated in the material could power a cell phone or other wireless devices. A hydrogen-powered car painted with the film could potentially convert enough energy into electricity to continually recharge the car's battery.

The researchers envision that one day "solar farms" consisting of the plastic material could be rolled across deserts to generate enough clean energy to supply the entire planet's power needs.

"The sun that reaches the Earth's surface delivers 10,000 times more energy than we consume," said Ted Sargent, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Toronto. Sargent is one of the inventors of the new plastic material.

"If we could cover 0.1 percent of the Earth's surface with [very efficient] large-area solar cells," he said, "we could in principle replace all of our energy habits with a source of power which is clean and renewable."



A very Profitable Lunch!!!! :evil2:

 

[Joel W.]

Here is the next new Solar tech out..

Discovery may spur cheap solar power
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/10/02/solar.cells.reut/index.html[/b]

STMicroelectronics, Europe's largest semiconductor maker, said that, by the end of next year, it expected to have made the first stable prototypes of the new cells, which could then be put into production.

Most of today's solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity, are produced with expensive silicon, the same material used in most semiconductors.

The French-Italian company expects cheaper organic materials such as plastics to bring down the price of producing energy. Over a typical 20-year life span of a solar cell, a single produced watt should cost as little as $0.20, compared with the current $4.

The new solar cells would even be able to compete with electricity generated by burning fossil fuels such as oil and gas, which costs about $0.40 per watt, said Salvo Coffa, who heads ST's research group that is developing the technology.

"This would revolutionize the field of solar energy generation," he said.

ST's trick is to use materials that are less efficient in producing energy from sunlight but which are extremely cheap.

Coffa said the materials should be able to turn at least 10 percent of the sun's energy into power, compared with some 20 percent for today's expensive silicon-based cells

Should I continue??? I think I should!!!

 

[Joel W.]

Here is yet another "SOLAR TECH ADVANCE"

Solar cells change electricity distribution
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/280625_solarcell10.html

In separate announcements over the past few months, researchers at the University of Johannesburg and at Nanosolar, a private company in Palo Alto, have announced major breakthroughs in reducing the cost of solar electric cells. While trade journals are abuzz with the news, analysis of the potential implications has been sparse.

We approach this news as current and former public electric utility executives, sympathetic with consumer and environmental concerns. South Africa and California technologies rely on the same alloy -- called CIGS (for copper-indium-gallium-selenide) -- deposited in an extremely thin layer on a flexible surface. Both companies claim that the technology reduces solar cell production costs by a factor of 4-5. That would bring the cost to or below that of delivered electricity in a large fraction of the world.

The California team is backed by a powerful team of private investors, including Google's two founders and the insurance giant Swiss Re, among others. It has announced plans to build a $100 million production facility in the San Francisco Bay area that is slated to be operational at 215 megawatts next year, and soon thereafter capable of producing 430 megawatts of cells annually.

What makes this particular news stand out? Cost, scale and financial strength. The cost of the facility is about one-tenth that of recently completed silicon cell facilities.

Second, Nanosolar is scaling up rapidly from pilot production to 430 megawatts, using a technology it equates to printing newspapers. That implies both technical success and development of a highly automated production process that captures important economies of scale. No one builds that sort of industrial production facility in the Bay Area -- with expensive labor, real estate and electricity costs -- without confidence.

Similar facilities can be built elsewhere. Half a dozen competitors also are working along the same lines, led by private firms Miasole and Daystar, in Sunnyvale, Calif., and New York.

But this is really not about who wins in the end. We all do. Thin solar films can be used in building materials, including roofing materials and glass, and built into mortgages, reducing their cost even further. Inexpensive solar electric cells are, fundamentally, a "disruptive technology," even in Seattle, with below-average electric rates and many cloudy days. Much like cellular phones have changed the way people communicate, cheap solar cells change the way we produce and distribute electric energy. The race is on.


Should I go on? I think I should...

 

[Joel W.]

Spinach solar power: Tapping the secrets of photosynthesis -- engineering proteins from spinach -- to make organic solar cells whose efficiency could outstrip the best silicon photovoltaic arrays today.

Silicon superstrings: A novel approach to manufacturing conventional silicon photovoltaic arrays by pulling the chips in stringy ribbons out of a molten stew like taffy rather than slicing them from silicon ingots.

Laptop-powered hybrids: Using a new generation of lithium-based batteries (which power most portable electronics today) to cut the price and charge-time of hybrid and electric car batteries.

Tubular battery tech: Using "supercapacitors" made from carbon nanotubes to store charge -- rather than the chemical reactions that power most batteries -- resulting in a lightweight, high-capacity battery that could someday give even the laptop battery a run for its money.

Hold the A/C: Optimizing air and heat flow on a new computer-aided design system, before a building's construction begins, allowing for the building's air conditioning costs to be cut by as much as 50 percent.

Hybrid without the hybrid: Turbocharging an automobile engine with plasma from a small ethanol tank (which would need to be refilled about as often as the oil needs changing), reportedly increasing fuel efficiency almost to the level of a hybrid -- but only adding $500-$1000 to the car's sticker price.

More light than heat: Generating a car's electricity photoelectrically (using a gas-powered light and a small, specially designed solar panel) rather than mechanically (using an alternator), substantially increasing fuel efficiency.

Coal-powered biofuels: Bubbling exhaust from a coal-fired power plant through a tank of algae that's been bred to siphon off much of the exhaust's carbon-dioxide -- in the process, fattening the algae that can then be harvested as biodiesel.


Chew on those for a bit and let me know if you want more.....

 

[Joel W.]

Now for some Wave energy farms. I did not even know some of this stuff was possible untill just now!!! Of course it will need to be installed in a place that has a lot of waves...

http://www.oceanpd.com/LatestNews/default.html

A company called Ocean Power Delivery are developing a method of offshore wave energy collection, using a floating tube called "Pelamis".

This long, hinged tube (about the size of 5 railway carriages) bobs up and down in the waves, as the hinges bend they pump hydraulic fluid which drives generators.

Find out more, including an interactive model, videos and technical details at www.oceanpd.com


The Aguçadoura wave farm project was presented at the Peniche shipyard on the 12th of May. The event, coordinated by Enersis and Ocean Power Delivery, was witnessed by four Secretaries of State of the Portuguese Government, namely Defense & Sea Affairs, Transports and Environment, who classified the Pelamis as an “advanced wave energy conversion technology”. The wave farm, which will be installed this summer, will be rated at 2.25 MW at this first stage.

On the 16th of May the Portuguese Minister for Economic Affairs & Innovation, Manuel Pinho, also visited the Peniche shipyard and the three Pelamis machines.