An area of sustainability that does not seam to be getting much intrest is storage of electric power!  The most widely avalable renewable energy sources, solar and wind, aren't always.  So what happens in 10 years when in mid August when a large "Omega Block" (that big upper level high preasure that happens most summers in the Great Plaines} sets up and from the Rockies to the Ohio River swelter under the "dog days" of summer with virtualy no wind and the temp in Chicago at 10pm is still in the 90s?  The "Pikens Plan" wind farm from Texas to Canada will be usless (no wind) and PV don t produce after sunset.

tags: solar power, solar panels, solar energy, pv

Tags: Power-storage Wind-power Solar-electric PV Solar-power

4 comments View Entry

Sustainability in Dallas is a joke.  I have lived in the Metroplex less than 40 years and have now seen the Dallas Cowboys football team move into a brand new "Texas Stadium", the city build Reunion Arena and several miles of roads built.  All built of concrete and all schedules for demolition.  Give me a break!  The Coliseum in Rome is built of concrete and is still standing after thousands of years!  How is concrete recycled?  it is crushed and used as gravel!

tags:  sustainability, sustainable future, renewable energy, alternative energy

Tags: Sustainability Sustainable-future Renewable-energy Alternative-energy

1 comments View Entry

I just read a blog on some other site commenting about the Presidents program to repower America saying that he lives in MI and his roof has been covered in snow for months so how could his roof be generating any solar power.

First, MI and WI, where I grew up, are abour 45 degrees north.  for optimial wintertime solar collection a pannel should be tilted about 15 degrees more than the lattitude.  so way up north where they have snow for long periods  their house should be an A-frame orented east-west and the roof sloped at 60 degrees!  I doubt any snow would accumulate on a glass covered pannel at that angle!

tags:  solar roof, solar panels, solar power, solar energy

Tags: Solar-roof Solar-panels Solar-power Solar-energy

0 comments View Entry

look at this site from the world bank

k.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTENERGY/EXTRETOOLKIT/0,,menuPK:1040440~pagePK: 64168427~piPK:64168435~theSitePK:1040428,00.html

Tags: Links Toolkit

1 comments View Entry

I read about T. Boon Pickens and his plan to build huge wind farms across the high plains from Texas to Canada.  This is already going on in the Texas panhandle.  He, Mr. Pickens, is quoted as saying that Texas is the Saudi Arabia of potential wind power.  There is one problem though not mentioned in the stuff I have read.  Texas is not connected to the North American Power Grids.  All electricity generated in Texas must stay in Texas.  This is because the power companies in Texas have prevented any "Texas power" from crossing the state line so they, the power companies would fall under the jurisdiction of the Texas Railroad Commission instead of the Federal Trade Commission because they are NOT INTERstate only INTRAstate.  They are so powerful in this that when Lake Texhoma Hydro plant was built on the north side of the old river channel, the Texas/Oklahoma border, Oklahoma tried to impose their taxes.  The Texas electric companies were able to get Oklahoma to redraw the state line to include the power station in Texas.   This came to light again during the hurricanes recently.  Large scale blackouts in southeast Texas lasted far longer than in southwest Louisiana just a few miles away across the border.
I am not trying to shoot down anything. Just bringing up the point that as much as we dislike it. local politics can prevent more good programe than they can provide!

tags:  Wind Farm, Pickens plan, Wind Power, Wind Energy, wind turbine

Tags: Wind-Farm Pickens-plan Wind-Power Wind-Energy Wind-turbine

4 comments View Entry

I have a small stream on my property that I use for watering my lawn. I have a 3/4hp shallow well pump to pump the water from the streambed to a holding tank, about 25 ft of lift, and a 1.5hp hi volume pump to feed the sprinklers from the tank.  That pump will only self prime about 1 foot intake. Since neither of these is submersible they are mounted above flood height, about 20 ft, At low flow the stream is only about 200 CFM (30 ft wide and a few inches deep).  As it crosses my property the streambed has about 4 ft of drop.  Because of a sharp bend just before it flows off my land, there is a gravel bar damming up the flow so all that drop is in a few feet.  I have thought of trying to somehow use this hydro power, but when it rains the huge volume would wash away anything.  Moving water has tremendous force. There are chunks of concrete that have washed down from a half mile upstream that weigh over 1000 lbs.  I have seen the water 35 feet wide 20 feet deep moving at over 20 mph, that’s over 21,000 CFS

tags:  hydro,  hydroelectric, renewable energy, turbine, alternative energy, micro-hydro

Tags: Hydro Hydroelectric Renewable-energy

1 comments View Entry

I feel that sustainablity is as much about each of us doing what we can in curtailing waste as it is about each of us doing what is avalable where we are!  Adding insolation, replacing lightbulbs with CFL and LED lamps (and turning them off when not using them),  LEARNING TO COMBINE ERRAND TRIPS AND WORK CLOSER TO HOME SO WE REDUCE MILES DRIVEN.   

Anemoi-electric, anemoi is the greek source wind like hydro is water, Solar-voltaic & thermal, bio-digested methane, and alcohol are technologys that is very scallable and avalable to most.  Nuclear, geo-thermal/electric, tidal and Hydro-electric take substantial facilitits to use and therefor are mostly left up to the utility companies!  Our chances of making them change are not that great because they have huge investment in obsolete fosel fuel power plants. 

Another area we each can make a difference is networking to help get the word of new technologies out.  I have herd of a solar cell that can be made at home.  Every whare I have looked for the recipe but they want to sell me books on how th screen print or other related items.  Maybe this site will be a forum for USEFUL information for the DIY type!  

tags: Renewable Energy, Alternative Energy, Solar Power, Wind Power

Tags: Diversity Renewable-Energy Alternative-Energy Solar-Power Wind-Power

2 comments View Entry