Photvoltaics – Affordable Renewable Energy?

Photovoltaic cells have definitely moved to the next generation, and I predict that the new plastic photovoltaic cells are within months of being in mass production, and where the silicon photovoltaic’s cost around $2.40 per watt, the new plastic variety are mooted to cost only around 1 cent per watt. This will put solar power within the affordable reach of everybody. I say everybody, because even the areas of the world that are still under development, will benefit through the aid of charities, that will now be able do divert resources to the implementation of solar energy.

I do have another blog post on the same subject, but looking at the information on the web, there are more and more companies delving into the technology of thin film plastic Photovoltaic’s. I say plastic, but as you will see from the YouTube footage below, the cells, or strip, is made up of plastic that is sprayed with compounds in layers, with each layer reacting to a different light frequency, so making these photovoltaic’s truly versatile.

Watch the YouTube video’s, and be as excited as I am at the prospect, of cheap, truly renewable energy, that will be available to us all in the very near future.

Renewable Energy – Battery Powered Bikes And Trikes.

A quick look today at Battery powered bikes and trikes. I do like battery power, and electrical power in general, because electricity is a truly renewable fuel. It’s all around us, and apart from the initial materials to be able to access it renewably, electricity is there for the taking in abundance, and the taking of which, compared to non renewable methods, has a minutely minimal, if any, detrimental effect on our environment.

As you can see from the YouTube video’s some of the designs, look pretty easy to put together on a DIY basis.

My favourite design for its quirkiness, is the rechargeable drill driven trike. Though this might turn out to be an expensive option, as it’s not really in the DIY field. Its range is only really limited by how many batteries you can carry, but on one battery, it’s ideal for a quick trip to the local shops, so long as they are not more than 2 miles away, or less, because if you’re doing the weekly shop, well, best to use the car, preferably an electric one. If you do use this trike for a shopping trip, remember to disconnect the drill, and take it with you, and make sure you have plenty of chain and padlocks, because with such a tempting item on display, the not so honest citizens, who seem to abound nowadays, would soon make it disappear.

I have to say though, that the last video does grab my attention, and is the best example I have seen yet of a DIY or otherwise, electric bike. It ticks all the boxes.

If you do actually want to buy a ready made battery powered bike or trike, as I’ve said above, it probably won’t come cheap, I’d love to own one, $3.500 is just a bit too steep, though doubtless there are cheaper options on the market. I think the DIY route would certainly be very much less expensive, and achieve the same ends, with a good deal of satisfaction to boot.

The everyday bike or trike looks to be a pretty easy conversion to battery power, and as an exercise in learning and understanding battery powered vehicles, and also as a precurser to more ambitious projects, bikes and trikes are a good place to start.

A bit of advice though, if you are thinking of building an electric trike, the 2 wheels at the front, 1 at the back configuration is the best, assuming that the drive is going to be at the back, because then you won’t have to worry about a differential in your drive train. Because remember, when you turn corners, the outside wheel always travels faster and further than the inside wheel., and if you have a solid axle, then you are going to have problems.

This photo turned up on a Russian site that my wife uses to keep in touch with her friends.

This Is Renewable Energy,Thermal kettle Style.

Wow, a Thermal Kettle.

This photo turned up on a Russian site that my wife uses to keep in touch with her friends.

It looks to be out in the Russian steppes, or maybe Uzbekistan, but certainly somewhere very remote, where the people probably have never heard about solar energy, but they do know that there is a lot of heat in that sun, and that that heat can certainly be used to boil a kettle. The kettle is essentially being used as a thermal oven to heat the water, what could be more simple than that?

If this guy had the materials, he could very possibly build a quite serviceable thermal heating system for his house, just by using the method he is using there, so long as the sun is shining.

So, 10/10 for initiative, that man.

Renewable Energy – Organic Photovoltaic Revolution

There is something very exciting on the near horizon in the Renewable energy field, namely Organic Photovoltaic cells, which are essentially plastic, fully recyclable and not least, much cheaper than the old silicon based cell technology.

Organic Photovoltaic’s are a relatively new innovation, and should, if the prices are allowed to be realistic, make, making your home fully self sufficient in renewable power a real and viable proposition. I know most of us would dearly love to be totally green in our power consumption, but at this moment the cost of that is prohibitive. Hopefully in the next couple of years all that will change, and the payback time for the installation of solar energy system will be down from 15 years to a mere 2 or 3 years, or less.

It will be hard for this new green technology to disappear without trace, when every concern from governments down, need to be seen to be green. Even the Chinese are getting in on the act, and in Russia, in some areas, they’re into green energy in a big way, so much so that it puts some of us Western countries to shame.

So folks, I’ll leave you with the usual selection of YouTube video’s which will give you a bit more of an insight into Organic Photovoltaic Cell technology.

Steam Power! A Contender? Maybe.

It’s about time I visited the topic of steam power as a renewable energy fuel. I don’t know if steam will be able to compete with all the other renewable energy fuelled motive devices that are coming into focus during these energy awareness times. It’s just possible though, that steam could be on the agenda.

The steam car land speed record, which has stood for 103 years at 127mph, has recently been broken by a British team, and now stands at 139.8mph. Ok, it’s not fast by today’s standards, and not much up on 103 years ago, but the modern car weighs 3 tons, which takes a lot of shoving. The steam car a 103 years ago was just a cart on wheels, mind you, it was a very quick cart, and the guy that drove it was certainly of fearless character, or just plain crazy. The pioneering spirit in those days, apart from killing a lot of people, got us to where we are today. Cars today have to be very safe, and all that safety comes at a heavy price, literally, so the achievement of the current steam cars’ land speed record was no mean feat.

Personally I do like the idea of steam, and maybe it will be a contender, but for it to be that, there needs to be people doing the research, and building the prototypes, but I have searched, and there is precious little out there, in fact I have found nothing relevant to steam cars today, apart from the recent land speed record. If anyone has better searching abilities than I do, and can find some information on modern steam car research, please leave a comment, which will be much appreciated, thank you.

It really is a great pity that steam cars were killed off, almost at their inception.

Below are some videos for you to enjoy, of the current record holders journey into the record books. Plus some really enjoyable stuff from Jay Leno’s garage, which is not all about steam, but does have some of that content, so I’m not really cheating, and Jay Leno is into renewable energy in a big way. So anyway, grab a cup of tea, or a beer, and enjoy.

Part 1 of the Steam Car Record story from Jeff Theobald on Vimeo.

Part 2 of the Steam Car Record Story from Jeff Theobald on Vimeo.

Land-Speed-Record-Run from Jeff Theobald on Vimeo.

Energy Conservation Revisited, With Angry Green Girl.

I know I’ve covered this ground before, but it cannot be stressed enough, that energy conservation in the home is as important as, and goes hand in hand with renewable energy.
I’ve visited my favourite video site again in the search for fresh material, and I’ve found a very nice Angry Green Girl series of videos, and obviously, being a Male, and maybe a chauvinist at that, I think they are very entertaining, and also very informative. Seriously, they are hard hitting and serious. P.S; I’m not really a chauvinist. So, without more ado, I’ll hand you over to the wonderful YouTube, and Very Angry Green Girl & co.

Magniwork E Book Review. 0/10.

Ok, I’m missing something here. Judging by the testimonials, the Magniwork generator is the best thing since sliced bread, or even better. Apparently it’s very easy to construct, and the instructions are easy to follow. Well, I’m not exactly mechanically challenged, being a mechanical technician myself, and if all the testimonials are genuine, then I should have no trouble at all in constructing one of my own.

Where does that leave me? Pretty well totally non plussed.

I have several issues with the whole Magniwork package, such as it is.

Issue 1/ I have read the Magniwork E book through several times, and I can find nowhere, any information on how to get in touch with the Magniwork technical team.

Issue 2/ On the Magniwork capture page, it clearly states, and certainly gives the belief that the generator built with these plans, will be able to provide sufficient renewable power to reduce the average domestic power bill by around 50%. Well, the generator rotor dimensions are 2” in diameter, by 1 3/4” in depth, so by any stretch of the imagination, the few small magnets on that, are not going to produce any significant power at all. During my research, any magnetic generator that has been capable of powering a house, even in part, has been a pretty hefty piece of machinery. The one generator I’ve seen of the Magniwork size was just capable of powering a very small LED bulb. So, I suppose that if you are using a small LED bulb for any reason in your home, then it could be said that the Magniwork generator would reduce your power bill. Though I think that pay back would probably be achieved by your great, great grand children, but even that is a very optimistic estimation.

The E book does actually say that you can build a full size machine, that will power your house. However, no instructions are given for the dimensions of said machine, and anyway,

Issue 3/ This issue would immediately be a problem for most of us. The construction of the rotor requires machine shop facilities, which I suspect, most of us don’t have access to. Six grooves 0.260” deep, and 23/32 wide, 60deg apart and the length of the rotor, have to be cut, and a groove 5/16” deep and ¼” wide, has to be cut around the circumference of the middle of the rotor. Not only that, but also, an acrylic ring has to be fabricated with a .030” wide and ¼” deep groove at some point on its surface, presumably the diameter of the stator. Not the sort of operation you can do in your garage with a file and a hammer and chisel. So unless you have a lathe and a shaper in your garage, it’s going to be just a bit impossible, unless you are very good with a file and hammer and chisel, to fabricate these components.

The E book does actually say that you can build a full size machine, that will power your house. However, no instructions are given for the dimensions of said machine, and anyway, to build such a machine would, given the size it would have to be, would be a major engineering job, requiring substantial workshop facilities, far beyond the means that any serious DIYer would generally have in a small home workshop.

Oh yes, this small machine has to hand cranked up to 2100rpm for 42 seconds before it becomes self sustaining. Thouh I should think that anyone capable of fabricating the major components of the magniwork generator, and having the machinery to do, would not find the design and fabrication of a mechanical cranking device too arduous a task.

I do have a lot more issues about said E Book, but I think I’ve made my point

There are some reviews on the Magniwork E Book, which are glowing testimonials to the ease of construction of the Magniwork generator and its power producing capabilities, which probably have more to do with the commission paid on each sale, than any factual act of building this machine.

I’ve included a You Tube video, which shows the size and construction of a proper magnetic generator that should be capable of powering a house. I do have this video elsewhere on my blog but it’s easier if I include it here.

I would like to add that I do believe the magnetic generator is a fact, and that it does work, but the Magniwork generator is just not in the ball park.

Unless you have substantial workshop facilities, and abilities, building a magnetic generator big enough to power your house even in part, is not a DIY option.

So there you are, make of this report what you will. I have written as I see it, which may or may not be the view of the majority. If you have purchased The Magniwork E Book, I would very much like to hear from you, via a comment on my blog. Positive, or negative, any comments are welcome. Only constructive comments please, and no bad language, no matter what you think of my review. If there are positive comments about Magniwork, that can be proved, I would more than welcome them.

Sorry to drag this out, but a thought has just struck me; it’s a bit strange that the Magniwork author has no video of a working Magniwork generator. A video tutorial would not be so hard to arrange either. Anyway, enough is enough. Catch you on my next post.

Foot note: My blog is about information, and helping people. I will not endorse a product that I believe is misrepresentative, and misleading, so I have removed the link to the Magniwork E Book site from my blog.

Magnetic car with a difference.

Now then, here’s a vid of a novel DIY energy car, and very cheap, might just be a problem with the stearing though, and the sat nav looks a bit random, and tends to follow the traffic. Looks like this vehicle is probably a prototype, so with a bit more research it might just be a winner, but don’t hold your breath.

RACV Energy Breakthrough 1923 (Snub Pollard)

Renewable Energy; The Conspiracy

You know, it’s so frustrating to think that the technology for renewable energy has been around for decades, and governments have been aware of the need for green energy for over a hundred years, and we’re still living in the energy dark ages. We’re at the mercy of the fossil fuel conglomerates, who pretty well dictate how we live, and bleed us, and our planets resources dry.
It still boils down to the fact, that if we are going to be energy self sufficient, and make a difference to our environment, we will have to do it ourselves.
The article below is rather long, but it does make interesting reading. We all know what is going on, and why we are still using non renewable energy in every aspect of our lives, but do enough of us care. I would hope, by the very fact that you have found your way to my blog, and are reading this, that you do care, and do want to make a difference.

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The Conspiracy Against Renewable Energy

By John F. Miglio
www.opednews.com

By John F. Miglio

I hate to use the “C” word, but there is no other way to say it. There is a national conspiracy to prevent renewable energy from becoming the primary energy source in the United States.
And who are the conspirators? The usual cast of characters: the fossil fuels industry, which continues to rake in exorbitant profits on oil and gas while it refuses to make any significant investment in renewable energy, even in the face of global warming; the members of the mainstream news media, too craven to cross their corporate masters by doing any serious coverage on the viability of renewable energy in today’s market; and the members of Congress, too addicted to the big bucks they receive from Big Oil and other traditional energy sources to create any sweeping renewable energy legislation for the good of the country.

The truth is, if it were not for this unholy trinity of greed, cowardice, and bribery, all of us would already be living in solar or wind powered homes and driving electric cars to and from work.

Here are the facts:

1) According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the amount of solar energy that hits the surface of the earth every hour is greater than the total amount of energy that the entire human population requires in a year. Another way of looking at it is that roughly 100 square miles of solar panels placed in the southwestern U.S. could power the entire country.

2) The Department of Energy also states that all U.S. electrical energy needs could be met by the wind in Texas and the Dakotas alone.

3) In 1977, the Office of Technology Assessment published a nonpartisan report that concluded that if the federal government offered substantial tax credits and incentives to speed up the mass production of renewable energy technologies, these technologies “could be made competitive in markets representing over 40% of U.S. energy demand by the mid-1980s.” At that rate, they would be competitive in almost all markets today.

4) The technology to produce photovoltaic panels and modern wind turbines has been around for decades, and thousands of Americans already have installed these renewable technologies on their homes and businesses, cutting their energy bills by significant margins. Recently, a New Jersey resident named Mike Mercurio installed both an array of solar panels on his roof and a wind turbine in his back yard and cut his energy bill from over $300 per month to about $10 per month.

This immediately begs the question: If we have the renewable technology at hand and we know it works, why don’t we use it in place of heavily polluting energy sources like oil, gas or coal? And why have so few people installed solar panels or windmills on their homes and in their backyards?

The primary reason is because the cost of renewable energy is still relatively high compared to fossil fuels, although the gap is closing as the cost of natural gas and oil continues to climb. For example, the price to install an array of photovoltaic panels on the average home– notwithstanding some modest tax incentives and rebates from the government– is anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000. At this price, only those who are well off can afford to have solar panels installed on their homes.

Of course, anyone with half a brain knows that once a product is mass produced, its price per unit plummets. But in order to facilitate this process and make it happen over a period of years and not decades, the federal government (with help from the states) needs to institute a massive, full-scale national renewable energy program, something equivalent to the Marshall Plan, something that would transform our entire society within a decade.

It can begin this process with a four-point plan: 1) Mandate tight pollution standards on the fossil fuels industry and stiff penalties for not abiding by them. This will get the carbon-based boys to start thinking about divesting some of their money into renewable energy. 2) Impose high CAFE standards on auto manufacturers and stiff penalties if they don’t implement them post haste. This will get the bright boys at GM to start thinking about electric cars in a big way. 3) Implement a windfall profits tax on oil companies and remove tax incentives to the entire fossil fuels industry. This will create billions of dollars that can be used to promote renewable energy. 4) Offer generous tax credits and incentives to the renewable energy industry to facilitate mass production of its technology and equally generous tax credits and incentives for homeowners to buy it.
If Congress made this four-point plan a reality, it would literally reverse the brain-dead energy policy that has been in effect for the past 27 years, ever since Ronald Reagan, Big Oil’s Bad Boy, strutted into office, decimated Jimmy Carter’s renewable energy program, and created energy bills and tax policies that favored the fossil fuels industry at the expense of renewable technology.

But how much money would it actually cost to institute a full-scale national renewable energy program in the United States? Hundreds of billions, no doubt, which is a lot of money, but not that much when you consider that over the past seven years, the Bush regime has already blown a half trillion dollars on Iraq and another trillion on tax cuts for the rich.

If that $1.5 trillion had been used to fund renewable energy instead, photovoltaic panels and wind turbines would already be in mass production at affordable prices for most homeowners, and the electric car industry would have been able to stage a major comeback.

For the last couple of decades, the electric car industry has languished due to the introduction of the hybrid car, the “compromise car,” as I call it. Instead of going from gas-powered cars straight to all-electric vehicles, which was the original plan, auto manufacturers decided to take an in-between step in deference to the fossil fuels industry and create the hybrid. (See the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? for more information on how auto manufacturers deliberately sabotaged their own electric vehicles.)

As a result, three misperceptions about electric cars have persisted to this day: 1) They’re too slow. 2) Their batteries won’t go far enough on a single charge. 3) Their batteries take too long to recharge. This was partially true 20 years ago, but no longer. Recently, the Japanese built an electric car called the Ellica that can out perform a gas-powered Porsche from zero to 100 by almost two seconds! So much for being slow.

And as far as batteries being a problem, the technology has come a long way in recent years, and if the money is there for more research and development, the battery technology will be perfected, and the electric car will become the ultimate driving machine, i.e., a vehicle that is affordable, fast, pollution-free, economical, and stylish– all in one package. And the best part of all, American drivers will never have to pay $3 a gallon for gas again. At the end of the day, they will simply plug their electric vehicles into their solar and wind-powered homes and recharge their batteries for nothing!

This has always been the dream of environmentalists: a non-polluting energy source for their homes and a zero-emission vehicle for travel at a cost that would be reasonable for everyone. Of course one person’s dream is another person’s nightmare, and this green scenario is anathema to the fossil fuels industry. It means they would lose their economic and political stranglehold on not just America, but the entire world. Which is why they’ve been bullying mainstream news organizations for decades and paying off politicians at the beginning of each election cycle.

Naturally, there are plenty of cynics around who say it will take 50 years for renewable energy to make a real difference in our energy consumption, and we’ll still need good old gas, oil, and coal as our primary sources of energy in the meantime. Of course, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy if we just sit back and do nothing, but if we change our energy policy dramatically, we can transform our entire society in a relatively short period of time.

As proof, consider this: In 1997, the Danish government began an experimental project on the island of Samso to see if it was practical to use various forms of renewable energy for all the island’s energy needs. Their goal was to accomplish this in ten years.
Remarkably, they finished ahead of schedule, and today 100% of the island’s electricity is generated by 11 one-megawatt wind turbines, while the rest of the island’s energy needs are met by using solar panels and other forms of renewable energy. True, it is easier to convert a small island to renewable energy than a large country. But the point is, the technology is available, and with the proper financial incentives and a full-scale commitment from the federal and state governments, the United States could break free from fossil fuels and be well on its way to becoming a land where solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars would become the norm in ten years.
The only thing it takes is the political will to stand up to the fossil fuels industry. I know that’s asking a lot. But in view of the perpetual wars for oil in the Middle East, the increased awareness of global climate change, and the high cost of gasoline at the pump, maybe, just maybe, enough Americans will get fed up living under the greasy, smelly, polluted armpit of the fossil fuels industry and look to the sun and the wind to guide them to a cleaner, safer, brighter future.

www.onlinereviewofbooks.com

John F. Miglio is the editor of the Online Review of Books & Current Affairs and author of Sunshine Assassins, a futuristic political thriller.

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A Nice Selection Of You Tube Electric Car Stuff.

Here’s a cross section of elctric cars courtesy of our wonderful friend You Tube. Looks like the Electric Smart is available now, though I’ve seen no advertising of it. The last video is interesting, I wonder if anyone in the UK is doing plug in conversions for Hybrids. That will be worth Googling, so will the smart.