- Electric Energy can not forever come from fossil fuels. Just as the Sun will someday run out of hydrogen fuel, ( See review #1415) the Earth will run out of hydro-carbon fuels. That day will come, it is just a matter of time. Solar and Wind energy are two alternative energy sources that are working today. But, they have one BIG disadvantage, the Sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. We need a way to store energy in between those time.
- The U.S. has enough wind energy to produce all the energy needed today. If it would just blow consistently. The Southwest deserts in the U.S get enough sunlight to sustain the U.S. electricity requirements 20 times over. But, even the deserts get dark at night. We need a way to economically store this energy so it can be used in all the off times. Because Solar and Wind is intermittent it can supply only 20% of our needs. If we had the proper energy storage it could easily supply 100% of our needs.
- Of course , keeping fossil fuels as a backup is a good idea to get us through technology development while being the off times energy source. Environmentalists need to accept the fact that fossil fuel power plants can be made to quickly ramp up production when wind and solar energy fall off.
- If we had a nation-wide power grid electricity could be sent from producing areas to temporally non-producing areas. California for example routinely buys electricity form neighboring states. Piping energy where it is needed from other areas that have an abundance is a great way to meet our energy needs.
----------------- What can we do to store energy?
---------------------------- (1) Hydro-pumping
---------------------------- (2) Compressed air
---------------------------- (3) Thermal storage
---------------------------- (4) Ice storage
---------------------------- (5) Batteries
---------------------------- (6) Hydrogen gas
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---------------------------- (1) Hydro-pumping is simple and 80% efficient. When electricity is abundant pump water up into a higher reservoir. When the wind or solar stops release the water to gravity feed the turbine blades of an electric generator We have 38 of these hydro-pumping plants in the U.S. today. They support about 2% of our electricity capacity.
- Eagle Mountain in California uses reservoirs in an abandoned iron surface-mine to store 1.3 giga-watts of energy.
- Gravity Power in Santa Barbara, California, has a deep vertical shaft. Water is pumped to the bottom of the shaft lifting a heavy weight. To recover the energy of gravity tunnels at the base open up and let water rush through the turbines.
---------------------------- (2) Compressed air stored underground is another successful storage technique. Power South Energy Cooperative in Alabama get 110 mega-watts for 26 hours out of an underground cavern.
- Efficiency is lost in air compression because air heats up under pressure. When the air is release to turn the turbines it cools down , even freezing the equipment. Spraying water droplets in to the air during compression heats up the water. When released the heat keeps the turbines form freezing.
---------------------------- (3) Thermal storage uses mirrors focusing sunlight on pipes full of oil. The hot oil produces steam and the steam turns the turbines.
- Archimedes Solar Energy in Italy uses molten salt instead of oil. The salt is at 550C where oil only gets to 400 C.
---------------------------- (4) Ice storage is Windsor, Colorado, makes ice when electricity is abundant . Then uses the ice to run air conditioners when the electricity is reduced.
---------------------------- (5) Batteries are still expensive, but , West Virginia uses 30 mega-watts of lithium-ion batteries to back up its 98 mega-watts of wind turbines.
- New battery designs use cylinders with molten metal separated by molten salt.
- VRP Power Systems in Utah uses Flow Batteries composed of the metal vanadium.
---------------------------- (6) Hydrogen gas can come from splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. Fuel cells can burn hydrogen producing electricity. However, today electrolysis splitting water Prequires expensive catalysts. Breakthroughs will become because a hydrogen economy is very attractive. Hydrogen has more energy density than gasoline. The exhaust is pure water which solves our pollution problems as well as our transportation and energy problems.
- An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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See reviews #1414, 909, 908, 788 for more on global warming
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707-536-3272, Thursday, March 1, 2012
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