Outsourcing Power Generation

well i have done lot of work on this subject the problem is its a mind set that Diesel engines alone are contributing largely to globel worming and we should restrict and if possible stop manafacturing diesel engines.However the same envirmentelists are not aware where ever heat is generated for example your micro wave ovens,open grills used in kitchens generates the Nox and co & co2 and ammount of Nox produced by using chemical menures are let off No body even thinks about it ,just because every one can see Diesel engines and messure emissions diesel engines are singled out i suppose.

My solution to this problem would be to decentralize power generation. Besides eliminating those huge, ugly power plants, this step alone would relieve us of having to look at all those hideous transmission lines, pole pigs, wires, and smelly creosote-impregnated wooden poles. In short: Visual Pollution.

But before de-commissioning the big plants themselves, we should manufacture and install environmentally-friendly thermoelectric generators like those used to power the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyagers were launched in the 1970s and are both still transmitting from well beyond the Solar System. Even now!

To hell with rolling blackouts and brownouts, short-term contracts, and destruction of the environment through the use of all those coal- and diesel-fired plants! I think we should install these thermoelectric generators, one per residence, meter them, and lease them to the customer for a modest fee (to cover manufacturing, distribution, installation, and maintenance costs). We'd still bill the customer, but only for the eventual replacement cost of the heat source at the generator's core. (I said they lasted a long time. I didn't say they last forever!) As compensation for their recent, self-inflicted difficulties, I feel the pilot program should be conducted in California itself.

Do you think they'd mind all that plutonium?

-E

As I have understod it, the Voyager space crafts were powered by neuclear heater, with about 5% of the heat being transformed to electricity. Surely you are not suggesting that we adopt this for household power needs !

Yantram writes: "Surely you are not suggesting that we adopt this for household power needs!"

Surely I am not, Yanthram. You are correct. Not only that, but like a highly-trained bird dog you flushed me out in no time!

-E

WELL The best sulation would be fuelcells German Navy has come out with a submarine operating on fuelcells as main source of energy Batteries as back up & Diesel generator as additional back up and they have tested the submarine for endurance at sea the sub could sustain for 15days on fuel cells and they are in the process of building second submarine.Full length paper is avilable with IEEE who have published the same in 2005.To day it may seem expencive to adapt fuelcells but when there is no choice time will tell what is the best option for power.

I guess you are missing the point here. The emissions of deisel engines can be substituted with more enviornmently friendly technology which can provide greater or equal efficiency. Moreover two wrong do not make one right -- the fact that certain household items are bad does not mean we should not oppose deisel engines.

A state full of enlightened people- sitting in the dark during rolling blackouts. That is progress. The rest of the country should follow the model.

We discussed this a few weeks back, in which forum I forget. Many of California's power woes stemmed from the fact that utilities were prohibited from entering long-term supply contracts - this forced the utilities into short term contracts - this costs you many more $$$. When power is tight, you go to the spot market and pay what they ask or have a blackout/brownout.

Out local utility considered adding a new unit to an existing plant - they wanted to add an additional 3,000 MW of capacity. After considering ROE and all the bean-counter stuff, the decision finally came to being able to sell LOTS of power to California, a lot of that on the spot market. California is loosening up on the longer-term contracts, so their demand for our electricity will fade over the years, but that's okay because by then we'll need it here. In the mean time, it's cheaper for us to buy the electricity we use and sell the electricity we produce at a great profit - we have some awesome extremely long-term contracts.

In the long run, many utilities find it cheaper to add capacity with long-term purchase contracts than it is to make the capital investments - why spend millions/billions when you can get people like Excel Energy to make the investments - they have bigger capital available for the projects, and that's what they do for a living. It's a lot easier to buy it than it is to actually have to make it yourself! The problem then becomes one of delivery; there was a recent series of articles on some new long-haul lines going in from Montana down to Las Vegas, branching to Vegas and I think LA as well. The new circuit is going to cost something like three to five billion dollars. But some new plants are going in up in Montana, which then runs into the delivery problem again. I don't think it's that they aren't environmentally conscious up there in Montana, I think it's just that they have the land, the fuel, the capital, and they could use the jobs running the plants.