I do agree with you about the pace of the development. Maybe its a case of lack of importance/income generated or maybe some technologies are just being "held" back by more established, competing industries. Combination of both? I'm not talking about conspiracy theories, just good old trying to maintain your market share. Kind of reminds me of the development of more fuel efficient/alternate fuel vehicles. sssssssllloooooowwwwwww.
My answer: The Illuminati are behind it.
Well, there you go spoiling my day. Now I need to get out and shoot some golfballs into the woods to clear my head.(see your other thread other) ;-)
30 years ago, I could have afforded a solar hot water collector, but my PV system would have been out of reach.
Solar hot water has got better, but not a lot cheaper. PV, otoh, has come down by at least 50% in that time. Still not cost competitive with utility-supplied electricity, if you have a grid connection, but it has made it cost competitive for those of us who are some small distance from the grid.
Energy is too cheap, so solar takes a back burner. Another oil crisis will focus the mind more. The global warming scare has focused on solar again, although not enough - Germany has done well here. The emphasis appears to be not to reduce energy consumption, but to generate it cleaner.
I agree, and all have been viable to some degree. Vested interest is the big killer of any emerging technology. One has taken off, distributed power generation using Stirling engine boilers in the home. The New Zealand company Whispergen who developed Stirling engine cogen units has teamed up with Powergen and Gledhill in the UK to produce a commercial workable system.
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Gledhill provide a thermal store dedicated to cogen units like the Whispergen. In the UK cogen is referred to as Combined Heat & Power (CHP and now micro CHP, mCHP). The Gledhill thermal store, the mCHP, which also has its own management system that brings in the Whispergen when necessasary optimising efficient usage, provides instant heating of incoming cold mains water and hydronic heating, run directly off the thermal store.
The Whispergen just heats the thermal store all in one long efficient burn. The DHW uses the stored hot water to instantly heat the incoming cold water and provide heat for the radiators. When the thermal store is near depleted the Whispergen is called in for a full re-heat. Any surplus electricity generated by the Whispergen is fed back into the grid. It doesn't provide continuous electricity generation, so not suitable for full off-the-grid application yet.
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at Innovations on the menu. This takes you to the thermal store.
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A press release that gives you the total system.
They omit the word "engine" from any marketing. The term mCHP, or boiler, is used. Getting people to put an "engine" inside their homes will be difficult.
They predict that 30% of all homes will have cogen units in 15 years time. This lines up with government papers I have read on the topic..
The peak time for DHW and heating usage lines up with peak electricity usage. So all these homes feeding the grid, or not extracting from the grid what they normally would, will reduce the need for extra power infrastructure. With all the wind farms, onshore and offshore, being erected and gradual introduction of mCHP, it may mean no new power stations.
The emissions will be less as overall as there are fewer line losses, as much power is being generated locally by the houses in the area."
Also: (Cogen) mCHP, An announcement to produce another unit - joint Dutch, US, Japanese project
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Also:
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Look at the computer industry. If those brains and effort went into finding cheaper energy and clean propulsion units we would be paying a few pennies a year to fully heat and cool a house.
BUT! The computer industry was expanding like mad, and old players like IBM were being eclipsed by the new companies and their young brains thinking out of the box, who met demand.
The auto, oil and energy industries are settled with no rejuvenation like in the computer industry of 20-25 years ago. They want change like they want a hole in the head and they will resist will all their might.
General Motors star John DeLorean wrote in an infamous 19-page memo on the eve of his departure, "In no instance, to my knowledge, has GM ever sold a car that was substantially more pollution-free than the law demanded - even when we had the technology" "Our corporation has lost credibility with the public and the government because each new emissions standard has been greeted by our management's immediate cries of 'impossible,' 'prohibitively expensive,' 'not economically responsible' - usually before we even know what is involved." It is clear they don't want to move unless smacked with a sledge hammer.
The only thing that will change them is legislation driven by cleaner air and emissions reductions. There is some public awareness that wants change, but even in "green" attitude California, Large pickups, SUVs and other such nonsense is still the norm.
Could be in the short term with repertory problems.
No conspiracy, simply economics. Oil, gas and coal are simply too cheap per BTU. As the cost continues to rise, you will see more alternative methods come online as they are able to compete in the marketplace
Tired of Iraq? Do something about it. Learn to halve your energy use while having fun with math and science.
Join PE Drew Gillett and PhD Rich Komp and me for a workshop on Solar House Heating and Natural Cooling Strategies at the first Pennsylvania Renewable Energy Festival on Saturday Sept 24, 2005 near Allentown. See
Ack! I'm in the middle of Dan Brown's "Angels & Demons" - what an awful book. So was the last book I read about Illuminati conspiracies - there seems to be a pattern :-)
Yeah, but I could make a solar hot water collector cheap in the 70s. Now I can get one with a glycol loop & heat exchanger that will run maintenance free for years, even in very cold Canadian winters . But they're not really cheaper than they used to be.
Your solar pond doesn't cost much in materials, but it's also not suitable for most Canadian winters, so it's not maintenance free and my time is valueable.
It needs a north reflector and more insulation for good performance in cold places in January.
Nick
Don't miss this opportunity to have every solar question you ever asked answered in three different ways...
Join PE Drew Gillett and PhD Rich Komp and me for a workshop on Solar House Heating and Natural Cooling Strategies at the first Pennsylvania Renewable Energy Festival on Saturday September 24, 2005 near Allentown. See
Yeah, the common pattern is that Dan Brown can't write very well. I got sucked into a few of his books, primarily as long airplane flight fodder. At the big ending of all his books I usually end up rolling my eyes at the outcome. Since your reading "Angels & Demons" I'll just give you a warning without spoiling anything. Just look out for a helicopter over the Vatican. The operative word that will come to mind, as it did mine, is: PaaaLeeaasee. ;-)
Please note the orginal langauge "little significant change in net cost to the consumer." If there had been significant change, well, we'd have seen significant change...
Well I enjoy applied (and even some 'pure') mathematics. Write simulation code for a living (our motto: "Vos volo fidelitas, vos non tracto fidelitas").
But in my experience, very *few* people consider solving PDE as 'fun'. Nor researching fluid mechanics and heat transfer. This is part of the problem with 'dumbing down' all the issues. People just aren't interested in the details, they just want 'sound-byte' sized answers.
I note the original language - and I'm saying we _have_ seen significant change. 30 years ago, only complete back-to-earthers had PV systems. People for whom the cost was irrelevant compared to the chance to get out from under the thumb of "the man". Now, I know half a dozen people who, like me, are absolutely middle class Joe Average. We are using PV and wind systems not because it's right (even though we all believe it is) and not because we can't stand being beholden to the utility company (even though we're happy we're not), but because it is the cost-effective way for us to go. It's still not a cost improvement of the sort that would get everybody doing PV (nor should they) but it has taken PV out of the realm of the extraordinary and into the area where it _sometimes_ make economic sense.
No, it shouldn't. I'll grant you uncommon, but not rare. It's not at all hard to find a place in Canada where it's going to cost at least $10,000 to bring in grid power. If that's your starting position (as it was mine) then PV is a no-brainer. However, 30 years ago, it _would_ have been rare to encounter a situation where PV made economic sense.
Considered and dismissed :-) I went looking in my library for the previous bad Illumaniti conspiracy book I'd read (Shea & Wilson, "Illuminatus"), and discovered that it appears to be one of those few books I've ever considered bad enough to get rid of... I'm still showing signs of sanity :-)
The Saudis are much smarter than you. They won't let their mealticket get priced out of the mass market
The "spending power" cost of a BTU of fossil fuel hasn't changed so very much since 1974. That's why we still have plenty of SUV's.
If people wanted to stop being couch potatos, they'd be doing the sort of stuff Nicksan posts about on weekends, instead of grooming lawns.
But they *don't* want to stop being couch potatos. Look at Nick's sigs, his advertisements. He's learned to stop trying to give religion to people, Instead he offers "fun", and "end the war". Hope it works for him.
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