The Energy Matrix
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Water Falls Two large ducts carry some of the
water from this river to a generating plant near base of fall. When the
river is near flood stage most of the water goes over the fall and the energy is
dissipated. Some estimate that the United States is only exploiting a
fraction of its potential hydro-electric
Cheap Oil, Jan.19,2007 Bad news for clean alternative
energy, oil drops to about $50 a barrel. If your trying to sell or develop alternative energy, cheap oil is bad news, because it undercuts
alternative products.
Cogeneration growing. Central heating systems date back to the days
of DC power generation in lower Manhattan during the Edison/Telsa Era. High
Pressure Steam Plants provided steam
Heat Storage Heat storage are an important element of solar
power systems. Power plants that use concentrated solar heat to generate
steam to drive turbine driven electric generators, require heat storage to
maintain steady power output. See
reference article, Click here . Heat stored in super heated water can provide
steam to meet sudden changes in load.
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Waterfalls resources. Here the scenic value of the waterfall exceeds the value of the lost electricity. Physics of Waterfall: At top, water has high potential energy due to its height. At bottom, potential energy is zero, and kinetic energy and momentum of water is high due to velocity of the water. In theory turbines placed inline with water stream could absorb the water's momentum and drive a generator. Of course it be difficult to build and suspend these turbine in water falls. Consider old fashioned water wheels ( see Water Wheels, Click Here) Water wheels about ten foot in diameter could be placed at base of waterfall without destroying scenic quality of waterfall. AS a matter of fact a waterwheel of less than 5 meters diameter, would be totally obscured by the mist generated by falling water. Of course an old fashioned waterwheel would be smashed to pieces if it tried to capture the kinetic energy of this waterfall. Capturing the energy from a rivers vertical velocity might not be practical today (Who knows what type of turbine will be invented 20 years from now?). It might be better to turn waterfalls off late at night until late morning and divert all water through turbines when no one is looking. I haven't seen any waterfalls shut down for power generation. I have seen cases where all but a trickle of a waterfall was diverted for agriculture. (See shut off waterfall, Snake River, Idaho )
Capturing the kinetic energy of horizontals flows of rivers or tides is coming of age. See East River Strong Tides Power Submerged Turbines.
Looking at above picture of Cedar river on its
way to Seattle's Elliot Bay, one might consider it a candidate for
small turbines. However, in the summer time the turbines would be standing in
the air. See picture below of same river. Turbines could be re- Click Here! To go to next page. Note: I selected this river a candidate for turbines, because I had some pictures handy. Science-ebooks.com is a one man operation not AOL. See all my eBooks and Webs, Click Here!
Check out the links below: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/hyhowworks.html http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/59.html http://www.ecology.com/archived-links/hydroelectric-energy/index.html http://www.hydrogenassociation.org/newsletter/ad22isol.htm http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/hydro.htm http://www.eas.asu.edu/~holbert/eee463/eee463.html
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What is the Matrix? In the future we will consider questions such as "Is corn a better solar collector than silicon"
Nuclear Energy and HVDC The safety of nuclear energy is
hotly contested in the US. High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission
will not effect nuclear plant safety. It could make worst case scenario
nuclear accidents economic impact less severe. HVDC
Practical Electric Cars by 2010 By 2010,Japan will have electric cars with
50 mile range and capability of being recharged in 15 minutes. The cars
will use lithium battery packs that will last
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