Homemade Energy

I am with you, though I am not able to contribute any thing now. Recently I heard that some one very poor not educated but owning a cell phone is using a lemons of big-lemon tree to charge his cell phone battery. I am trying to find out more details. Is it interesting?

The best way an ordinary westerner can help is by properly insulating their home, wearing more clothes instead of turning up the heat, warming one room not the entire house, getting accustomed to warm weather, using more efficient lighting and pushing their SUV's over a cliff.

However there is still a need for larger central power plants. They are more efficient and can be sized smaller than many small plants. Even solar cells and fuel cells are manufactured in factories that use MW's of energy.

Ultimately, I suspect that nukes will be the way to go (but there's a lot of hysteria to be faced before that happens). ffej

ffej,

"However there is still a need for larger central power plants. They are more efficient and can be sized smaller than many small plants. Even solar cells and fuel cells are manufactured in factories that use MW's of energy."

The "rundown" on larger central power plants is discussed in the "My Earthbound Spacestation", I am sorry you missed it in you reading. As for efficiency, the best any of these large power plants can expect is 40% efficiency. The efficiency of Fuel Cells can be as high as 90% when the heat is captured and used, too. That is true regardless of the size. As for the manufacturing process requiring energy, the same is true for any energy producing power plants. It takes megawatts of energy to manufacture turbines and generators, too.

"Ultimately, I suspect that nukes will be the way to go (but there's a lot of hysteria to be faced before that happens)."

As for nukes, the development of nuclear fusion energy is about 20 years away. One of the most promising is also a linear mirror type reactor that, depending of the fuel used, produces no residual radioactivity and no high energy neutron radiation. Not only is NASA looking at this type of reaction for nuclear rockets in space travel but for the copious electrical energy it produces for use on earth as well as to power space ships. We are rejecting nuclear fission because of the inherent safety issues, nuclear proliferation for weapons, and for the long life deadly radioactivity waste that must be disposed of safely.

Should you wish links to the latest commercial products that can be used by individuals to produce their own green energy as suggested in the article from Science Daily I would be happy to supply them. In fact, here is the list now:
http://www.powergeneration.siemens.com/products-solutions-services/products-packages/fuel-cells/

http://www.powergeneration.siemens.com/products-solutions-services/products-packages/fuel-cells/next-generation-sofc/

http://www.powergeneration.siemens.com/products-solutions-services/products-packages/fuel-gasifiers/

http://www.acumentrics.com/products-power-generators.htm

http://www.acumentrics.com/

http://www.distributed-energy.com/hydrogen_generation/markets_apps/renewable_energy.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasification

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/sugar_platform.html

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/ethanol.html

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/

http://biopact.com/

Please, please, if you with to argue against this project take the time to get some facts. After all, it is an engineer's duty, just as it is a scientist's or medical doctor's duty, to stay up-to-date with the current progress. The big is better idea is not always true. This is why I also promote continued adult education via distance learning. You might like to add MIT's open course ware to your list of links. But be careful, you might learn something.

I guess I dont understand why we insist in going after alternative energy solutions that generally have low energy production efficiency. There are several alternatives (hydrodynamic, geothermal, nuclear) that can be utilized that are well developed technologies and have high production efficiencies. Just because they are expensive to build or have environmentalist activists trying to antagonize the situation doesnt mean we should write them off.

I had this great factory for making homemade energy up in the woods behind my house. That is, of course, before these guys from the Federal Government can and broke up all my equipment!

HEHEHE, It was the revenuers who did you in. Bootlegging is not legal.

If you had denatured the alcohol so that it was unfit for human consumption and labled it for "fuel only" you would not have had "those guys form the Federal Government (come) and (break) up all (your) equipment!". See what they say about it at the Department of Energy.