Renewable Energy Sources

MOSFET · **Joined:** Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:40 pm **Posts:** 295

http://www.nei.org/filefolder/u.s._electricity_production_costs_and_components.xls

Here is a partial list of energy sources and their associated costs. Look under the first section "Total Production Costs" for the total cost per kwh.

It does not include wind, hydro or solar, but is an interesting chart.

Some sources are relatively constant in price, whereas others have some wild price swings.

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:31 pm

Photo voltaic shingles have existed for a while and for hatchetman's neck of the prairie and the rest of the Midwest they are great. But in the Southwest tile roofs made from terracotta hold up better due to the heat. Having an option for the desert communities would be great too :wink:

dieseldoesit · **Posted:** Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:33 pm

warp2diesel wrote:

Photo voltaic shingles have existed for a while and for hatchetman's neck of the prairie and the rest of the Midwest they are great. But in the Southwest tile roofs made from terracotta hold up better due to the heat. Having an option for the desert communities would be great too :wink:

how about running fluid through them to keep them cool and use that for heating your hot water? Sounds like a win win to me.

retmil46 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:17 pm

dieseldoesit wrote:

warp2diesel wrote:

Photo voltaic shingles have existed for a while and for hatchetman's neck of the prairie and the rest of the Midwest they are great. But in the Southwest tile roofs made from terracotta hold up better due to the heat. Having an option for the desert communities would be great too :wink:

how about running fluid through them to keep them cool and use that for heating your hot water? Sounds like a win win to me.

Solar thermal hot water is one application that is relatively simple and can have a high payback - the biggest energy hog in most houses besides central heating/air conditioning is the water heater. For that matter, just turning down the water heater thermostat by 5 to 10 degrees can produce noticeable savings on your next energy bill.

OTOH, I've seen some people buy a couple of 100 watt 12V PV panels and then complain they couldn't figure out how to hook them in to their water heater so they could have "solar hot water". :roll:

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:01 pm

If you get allot of photo voltaic panels and hook them up to an inverter, you could power an electric water heater, but why?
Hot water solar panels with brush-less DC pumps operated by photo voltaic panels pumping the water to a storage tank for hot water and space heating makes sense and is how it is done.

If they live in the right part of California or next to a TGI Fridays, the house could have piezo electric shim pads set between the frame and the foundation. The Earth Quake Tremors or the Noise from TGI Fridays would induce vibration into the structure and transfer it into the piezo electric shim pads, which would produce a 1/2 Volt AC current. Each piezo electric pads could be connected to step up transformers to increase the voltage to 14 volts AC sending the voltage to a full wave bridge converting the power to DC to charge batteries and then the stored 12 volt DC could be converted to clean 120 Volt AC for domestic use and any excess sold to the grid. :idea:

Note: I just had to come up with an idea more crazy than powering an electric water heater off of photo voltaic panels :lol:

Please do not ask me for a price for a piezo electric Earth Quake Tremor power kit to install in your house, I have no plans to manufacture any :lol:

If your a contractor, please refer them to a consulting Electrical Engineer with a P.E., look at his/her prints, quote your price, install it per the Engineers drawings, and cash the check :lol:

Steve

More: http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/wang98new.html

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:21 pm

okay - no interest in Hydrogen catalysts or micro nukes
How about a diesel tree...
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF3/358.html

MOSFET · **Joined:** Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:40 pm **Posts:** 295

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,329407,00.html

Interesting article.

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:49 pm

Neat article: http://www.fieldstoneenergy.com/pdfs/Wa ... matrix.pdf

Steve :wink:

BiodieselJeep.com · **Posted:** Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:10 pm

warp2diesel wrote:

Photo voltaic shingles have existed for a while and for hatchetman's neck of the prairie and the rest of the Midwest they are great. But in the Southwest tile roofs made from terracotta hold up better due to the heat. Having an option for the desert communities would be great too :wink:

They have a "slate" roof replacement PV tile/shingle. The ones I saw were gray and looked good on european style houses (surprise) and they had a HUGE efficiency improvement over the black-shingle replacement PV shingles. Those black shingle type have a nasty rep of having low livespans and poor return on investment.

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:54 pm

...But, some places like my neighborhood have historical restrictions, thanks to this I am stuck with black asphalt shingles or I need to move. Having photo voltaic shingles that look like that are a must in my neighborhood. From a marketing stand point, the more choices the better.

Steve :wink:

Reflex · **Joined:** Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:48 pm **Posts:** 567

Europe and Canada finally returning to their senses over BioFuels: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/busin ... ref=slogin

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:28 pm

When I was going to Des Moines, IA on Monday, I saw two extra long trucks hauling two prop blades each that were at least 100' long. The trucks were going east bound on I-80 at around 10:00 AM local time. Blades were not yet painted and I saw no other trucks hauling any more equipment that goes with wind turbines.

Any one know where these may be going to or going to get installed :?:

Steve

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:49 pm

Reflex wrote:

Europe and Canada finally returning to their senses over BioFuels: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/busin ... ref=slogin

I must agree, subsidies are a form of corporate welfare paid for by the tax payers. Home brewers get charged their taxes by the various state revenue departments and subsidizing the corporations gives them an advantage they do not deserve, the playing field should be level.
I got no government tax break, grant, or subsidy (would not ask or expect it either) to produce my KJ Extra Leg Room Brackets (that made my bum knee happy) and will only be of use for 5% of the Liberty KJ owners.
Should Cargill, ADM or other mega Ag product company come up with a way to produce a bio-fuel or bio-additive and make money with out corporate welfare, they deserve their compensation.

When it comes to Government regulations on Biodiesel, SAE should have their members who work for the Diesel Injection Manufactures write the standards, have our elected officials rubber stamp them as they now do on safety related issues.

Case and point: Ralph Nader wrote the specifications for the first generation of Air Bags that killed people under 165 pounds :twisted:

SAE who figured out that dead people do not buy cars and trucks years ago, wrote the specifications for the next and subsequent generations of air bags so people can survive wrecks and buy more cars and trucks :idea:

Steve

Renewable Energy Sources

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