I just received a notice that EarthPortal.org will be launching on Friday April 27, 2007. Apparently, it will be a news portal where hundreds of scientists will contribute on anything EARTH.
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
Posted under Climate, Energy, Internet
This post was written by drknuth on April 25, 2007
Sustainable Business has a list of stocks based on renewable energy resources, green energy, fuel cells, and socially responsible businesses. I have not yet worked to invest in stocks, but this might be a nice place to start.
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
Posted under Climate, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Inventions
This post was written by drknuth on April 20, 2007
We are now at an important point in human history. We have developed to the point where we are “de-terraforming the Earth” by burning vast quantities of fossil fuels. There is no debate here, as we know how much the CO2 level in the atmosphere is rising and we know how much coal and oil we burn. The correlation is a no-brainer.
To make matters more urgent, humanities fuel consumption is growing at a fantastic rate, and we are within 20 years or so of reaching the peak in energy production. Things are going to change whether we like it or not, and right now we are at the point where we can still control how it will change. But this situation wont last for long.
What is most fascinating to me is that businesses stand a lot to gain from this change. Intelligent entrepreneuers have the opportunity to start new businesses and watch them grow at exponential rates (for a time, since nothing can grow exponentially forever). However, our version of capitalism has become lazy, and those who want to make money by just doing what they have been doing for decades are fighting this change.
But now is the time for wise investors to be on the lookout for that new business that promotes self-sufficiency in energy production, or independence from fossil fuels, or methods for carbon sequestration.
I have found a nice website called Energy Bulletin that collects articles on the future of energy from a wide array of authors. For instance, three articles that caught my eye were:
1. “Wanna bet the farm on carbon capture and sequestration?” which discusses how carbon sequestration is going to happen like it or not.
2. “Gore stays cool on the hot seat” which discusses the current debate in Congress on Global Warming and Energy.
3. “You are now entering an oil-free zone” which discusses how “transition towns” are appearing in the UK that are moving away from reliance on oil.
Last, by shunning oil, foreign interests in the Middle East will decline, which will be good for everyone.
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
Posted under Climate, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Solutions
This post was written by drknuth on April 19, 2007
Today Ben, who is a student in my electromagnetism class, told me that he heard that wireless chargers are about to hit the market. The problem is that while radio communications works well, radio power transfer is hampered by the fact that the electromagnetic radiation spreads out with much of it being lost to the environment.
Powercast apparently has solved some of the basic problems with wireless power transfer. Their white paper claims that their Powerharvester can capture 70% of the theoretical maximum power anywhere within the Powercasters effective range. All Powerharvesters within range will be recharged. This will be extremely convenient as we will be able to place any device to be recharged near the Powercaster and it will be recharged. No more plugs! Furthermore, the circuitry needed is relatively small, and if the white paper is accurate, it is about 1 cm by 2 cm.
Spashpower is another company preparing to unleash wireless recharging via the SlashPad, which is a pad on which one places the device for recharging.
Meanwhile research on wireless recharging continues. Marin Soljacic an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics has been working on this problem as well. He presented his results at the 2006 American Institute of Physics Industrial Forum in November 2006. An MIT article can be found here. His solution is to use non-radiative energy transfer so that the system works much like a transformer. The only difference is that the magnetic flux is not coupled with an iron core. They came up with their designs through computer simulations, and their results demonstrate that one could recharge a device wirelessly within a range of about a meter. One recharger per room of a house would allow devices to be continuously recharged.
This will be extremely important technology for robotics. Robots would need only to follow the radio frequency power gradient until it is within recharging range.
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
Posted under Energy, Entrepreneurship, Inventions, Research, Solutions
This post was written by drknuth on April 17, 2007
Bryan W. Roberts, David H. Shepard, and colleagues recently published a paper in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion Vol 22 No.1 March 2007 titled “Harnessing High Altitude Wind Power” where they propose to harness the wind energy of the Jet Stream. Their research paper can be found here.
The Jet Streams are relatively narrow high speed rivers of wind flowing in the upper atmosphere at altitudes of approximately 7 miles. Their speeds depend on the temperature gradient, and thus are faster in the summer than the winter with speeds sometimes exceeding 200 miles per hour. As such, they carry an enormous amount of kinetic energy and have the potential to meet the majority of the world’s energy needs.
The ideas goes at least as far back as a patent written by David H. Shepard in the mid 1980′s. Their idea today is refined, and calls for a 1.5 MegaWatt Flying Electric Generator consisting of a tethered rotocraft with rotor diameters of 88 feet. This could easily be constructed using today’s technology and according to the author’s calculations, could supply energy at only 2 cents per kilowatt-hour. The environmental impact would be far lower than wind farms covering entire hillsides.
More can be found here at Sky Windpower Corporation.
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
Posted under Energy, Inventions, Research
This post was written by drknuth on April 15, 2007
