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Automotive News & Views Are automobiles a major cause of global warming?
6995 messages, Last post on Dec 08, 2009 at 7:01 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: gagrice (Jul 17, 2008 10:58 am) This company is putting a Solar POWER PLANT in the California desert and are going to generate enough power for 1 million Cali homes. The have done their testing as Sandia Labs in New Mexico. Awesome Technology Sandia, Stirling Energy Systems set new world record for solar-to-grid conversion efficiency 31.25 percent efficiency rate topples 1984 record Sandia and Stirling Energy Systems set new world record for solar-to-grid conversion efficiency. The record establishes a new solar-to-grid conversion efficiency of 31.25 percent. The old record, which has stood since 1984, was 29.4 percent. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —On a perfect New Mexico winter day — with the sky almost 10 percent brighter than usual — Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate. The old 1984 record of 29.4 percent was toppled Jan. 31 on SES’s “Serial #3” solar dish Stirling system at Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility. The conversion efficiency is calculated by measuring the net energy delivered to the grid and dividing it by the solar energy hitting the dish mirrors. Auxiliary loads, such as water pumps, computers and tracking motors, are accounted for in the net power measurement. “Gaining two whole points of conversion efficiency in this type of system is phenomenal,” says Bruce Osborn, SES president and CEO. “This is a significant advancement that takes our dish engine systems well beyond the capacities of any other solar dish collectors and one step closer to commercializing an affordable system.” See a hi-res photo: Big Pretty Photo Link P.S. Gary - One of their power plant projects is in El Centro and contracted for a 20 year purchasing agreement with SDGE.
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The American Physical Society no longer buys the global warming myth. tidester, host SUVs and Smart Shopper
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Replying to: larsb (Jul 17, 2008 1:34 pm) This has already come up in the Northwest on a very windy day. Bonneville did not want to shut down a turbine in the hydro system and the Wind people wanted to sell all they could produce. Who gets screwed? You cannot save it for the night or a calm day. You have to build to satisfy demand 24/7. Makes for interesting discussion. SDG&E during the last heat wave had plenty of reserve. I think they were worried up around LA. |
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Replying to: tidester (Jul 17, 2008 2:16 pm) The guys who made THIS picture are the most dangerous of all of them though !!! 
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Replying to: tidester (Jul 17, 2008 2:16 pm) The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming "incontrovertible." In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,"There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution." |
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Replying to: larsb (Jul 17, 2008 1:34 pm) Not all that glitters is gold... Wednesday, March 12, 2008 One of SDG&E's largest renewable projects has so far failed to materialize. Stirling Energy Systems, a Phoenix-based solar developer, has a contract with SDG&E to build 300 megawatts of solar energy in Imperial County. That's enough to power almost 200,000 homes. If successful, the venture could triple in size, powering as many as 600,000 homes. But the project, which would use mirrored dishes to focus the sun's energy on a small engine, has shown little progress since being announced in 2005. Then you have your typical government roadblocks to progress in this state especially. San Diego Gas & Electric will not likely meet a state-mandated goal to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2010, making it the only state utility to admit that it expects to fall short of the green-energy mandate. SDG&E has agreements with developers of renewable energy sources and has hundreds of megawatts under contract -- enough to provide 13 percent of its total supply. But many of those projects are not built and are not providing green energy to San Diego. The company blames delays in its application process to secure state approval of the Sunrise Powerlink, a $1.3 billion, 150-mile transmission line it has proposed between San Diego and Imperial County. It is the same old story. You got one enviro wacko group pushing unrealistic mandates, while another enviro group blocks the progress. |
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Replying to: tidester (Jul 17, 2008 2:16 pm) The articles displays Christopher Monckton struggling to downplay GW. This is the same person who was quoted in the Telegraph article linked by Gary. Mr Moncton is a high profile GW sceptic and I understand that his views may draw sympathy from some oil-addicted people. I would be careful though before naming GW a myth. Even the article linked by tidester added an update : Update 7/17/2008: After publication of this story, the APS responded with a statement that its Physics and Society Forum is merely one unit within the APS, and its views do not reflect those of the Society at large. I could say one year ago I did not care about it. The more I read about it, the more I see it is a serious issue demanding action.
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Replying to: kernick (Jul 16, 2008 5:05 am) I am thinking it will be a bit more than "slightly". They are already issuing warnings over natural gas prices this winter in our state. The NE is bracing for very high heating oil costs. Diesel and RUG are at record levels. Inflation is increasing.... I really think the people on the lower income levels are going to be in trouble. And if you look at the headlines from around the world you can see that people are struggling. http://energyshortage.org/ I'm not suggesting that it is all doom and gloom, just that high energy prices and shortages will put the breaks on economic activity and indirectly slow emissions of CO2. It would be interesting to see the number of tons of CO2 saved as people switch to smaller vehicles.
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Replying to: larsb (Jul 16, 2008 2:14 pm) In order to stop a coal mine fire you need to plug all the gopher holes. No fresh air, no fire. 
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Replying to: avalon02wh (Jul 17, 2008 6:53 pm) T. Boone is trying to distance himself from Al Gore, calling his wind plans a way to get away from foreign oil. Al wants to go 100% green with electric power in a decade. (link) There's some interesting charts at this blog - says that cars and trucks use over 50% of the oil burned in the US a day. Oil for electricity is way down on the list. (The Big Future)
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