“There’s no such thing as Clean Coal” – A Liberal’s take on Liberal Stupidity

Clean Coal.  Everyone’s talking about it.  Well, every politician in America is talking about it, at least.  And I can’t blame them.  Being able to clean up and fully utilize North America’s most abundant energy resource is very enticing.  But is it possible?
You may have seen commercials recently for ThisIsReality.org that poke fun at the [...]

WiTricity

http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electricity.html
The idea for wireless electricity has been around for a while, but the nuts and bolts of it have been difficult to hash out.  A company, inspired by work at MIT, WiTricity has made an adapter of sorts that plugs into a wall, acts as a wireless transmitter and sends electricity to devices such as [...]

Detonation-Cycle Gas Turbine aka Engine/Turbine HYBRID

Get out your cook-meters folks, we got a live one.
A new engine design patented by Turbine Truck Engines, Inc. (TTE) takes the best aspects of turbines and engines and attempts to synergize them.  Currently in the 5th generation of design, the “Eng-bine” (maybe “Tur-gine”?) boasts:

no pistons or valves, and uses no lube oil, filters or [...]

Energy Efficiency: Big Upside, Low Sex Appeal

A report was released recently from Mckinsey & Company, one of the (if not the) most prestigous management consulting firms worldwide, regarding the potential cost savings of energy efficiency projects in the United States.  This incredibly in-depth study has been refined over the past few years and provides hard evidence that there’s plenty of work [...]

Downsizing Dilemmas

why can some things that work on the lab bench (fuel cells, for example) have difficulty scaling up in size?   Topic for a long post.  For fuel cells, it is about cost… piling stacks upon stacks does not allow for economies of scale.   What interests me today is downsizing things that work on big scales [...]

Carbon Capture, Viable or just another Parasitic Load?

Carbon Capture Plant Opens in Germany Amid Reservations

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The plant in eastern Germany, near the Polish border is the only one of its kind in the world

Energy giant Vattenfall has launched an emissions-free coal-fired test plant near Berlin using a technology touted as a huge potential breakthrough in [...]

Is burning “Biomass” carbon neutral?

This fundamental question keeps coming back to me again and again from many people. 
Is burning “Biomass” carbon neutral?
FYI: The EIA Greenhouse Gas reporting protocol treats “Biomass” particularly wood or wood-chips carbon neutral.

 

Europe Turns to Coal Again, Raising Alarms on Climate

This is an article from NYtimes.com 4/23/08
Very interesting article about how the pluses of coal outweigh the fears of climate change in Europe.  The picture is also very dramatic!!!  The entire article would have taken up 3 pages, so I just gave a teaser and the rest in online at this link
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/europe/23coal.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

CIVITAVECCHIA, Italy — At [...]

Solar Thermal’s Rise to Power (get it?)

With Professor Jaluria’s upcoming lecture on solar thermal power, i figured it would be nice to have some background and context. While photovoltaic systems are what most people associate with solar-derived electrical power, thermal systems are, at this point, the most efficient method for generating electricity from solar energy.
Solar thermal power generation was first [...]

Alternative to load shedding?

I just came back from Bombay where they have a huge electrical congestion problem. They are trying to build new plants, but the companies that the government has commissioned for the new plants have yet to meet any of their deadlines.
The current solution is scheduled load shedding. Every morning from 9 to 10:30 and then [...]