popular logistics

Testimony before the NJ Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Offshore Wind
April 14, 2005, Cape May Courthouse, 4 Moore Road, Cape May, NJ

Wind Power - 1976 and 2005 - More Questions Than Answers

Thank you for this opportunity today to share my observations regarding electricity generation technologies. I am a consultant with an academic background that includes utility economics and energy systems. I have provided consulting services to Public Service Enterprise Group at the Salem nuclear facility and at their corporate data center in Newark, NJ. I have also provided IT consulting services to Exelon / Amergen, to systems administrators of the Oyster Creek facility in an off-site location.

The first time I spoke before a body such as this was 1976, in Albany, NY, before a committee of the New York State Legislature on Energy, the Economy, and the Environment. The gist of my statement back then was “It is theoretically possible to power the New York City Subway System with wind driven turbines located in New York Harbor and off of Long Island.”

Where do we go from here? How can we transition from fuel based energy systems to sustainable 21st Century technologies?

Where do we install various systems? How much they cost? How quickly do they pay for themselves? How might the technology evolve? And what are the logistical challenges of nuclear power? How do we manage radioactive waste? What about evacuation plans for the areas near nuclear power plants? A large percentage of the US population lives within 100 miles of the Indian Point reactor - everyone in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx. Everyone in Northern NJ and Westchester. If nuclear power is so great, why then have no new nuclear power plants been built since the early 1980’s? Why are we so upset about Iran’s plans to build a nuclear facility? Why do nuclear plants require tremendous government subsidies?

UPC Partners of Newton Mass, is building the 57 MW Stetson Wind Project on Stetson Mountain in Washington County, Maine. Click Here or Here. They will be using 38 GE turbines, of 1.5 mw each, producing enough electricity to power 27,500 homes. Project cost is expected to be $100 million, about $1.75 per watt. The capital costs for new coal plants are said to be about the same, perhaps a little cheaper. However, keep in mind:

• No Fuel Cost associated with Wind, as with coal.
• No Possibility of a catastrophic accident in a “Wind Mine” as happens with coal.
  
• Wind workers don’t get ‘Black Lung.’
• And of course, wind alleviates global warming. Coal causes it.

When you factor in fuel costs and environmental impact wind is cheaper. How much cheaper? I will try to find out.

I would rather have a wind farm in my backyard than a coal plant or a coal mine. (I just planted plum trees and cherry trees. A wind turbine turbine would look good.)

If every elementary school in the country had a Photovoltaic Solar system installed onthe roof, then in a ‘Katirina like event’ each school would be an emergency shelter with power. If terrorists took one out, there’d be another one a short distance away.

Solar Panels work when the sun shines. Period!

The money we are spending on the war in Iraq - currently estimated at $2.4 Trillion - would pay for for 300 gigawatts of PV Solar generating capacity - at full retail, and about 800 gigawatts of offshore wind electric capacity. (Solar is about $8.00 per watt, offshore wind is about $3.00 per watt.)

Which would make this country more secure?

What do we do next? Solar? Wind? Nuclear? Coal? Oil? Negawatts?

Burning coal and oil create greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Nuclear power produces radioactive waste and a prodigious amount of heat pollution. Nuclear and fossil fuels require mines, mills or wells, and they are really bad for the environment, causing everything from pollution to global warming.

Negawatts makes sense. Hybrid cars get great gas mileage and offer a smooth, quiet, comfort. Every barrel of oil we don’t burn is better for our economy. Every barrel of oil we don’t buy from Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Venezuela is $80 or $90 or $100 that doesn’t go into the hands of people like Achmadinejad, Bandar, or Chavez. That’s good for us and bad for the terrorists.

Solar and Wind are not perfect. People complain that they don’t look pretty. But they create jobs not pollution. They help our national security infrastructure. And they look fine to me. I’d rather see solar panels on my roof and wind turbines on my horizon then global warming and my money going to thugs like Achmadinejad.

Mike Mercurio understands national security and knows the way to energy independence. He feels it with the cool breezes and the warm light of the sun outside his Long Beach Island, NJ home. He knows that clean energy stops global warming, enhances national security, and provides jobs.

He sees it on his electric bills – $9.50 per month – $114 per year – which reflect the clean power generated by the photovoltaic solar array on his roof. Without them the bill would be $150 in the winter, $350 in the summer - about $3,000 per year.

His neighbors can’t feel it, can’t see it, and have sued to stop him alleging that it is slightly louder than an air conditioner. What are they thinking? (Not in my backyard. Give me nuclear and give me death. Rad-Waste makes Teeth Shine.)

If each of the 28 panels in the Sean Godsell’s Future Shack, click here for Jon’s post, was a 160 to 200 watt Photo Voltaic solar module, of the type manufactured or used by Akeena Solar, Evergreen Solar, First Solar, SunPower, World Water & Solar, etc. etc., the structure would be rated at 4.480 to 5.6 kW. In other words, it would be sufficient to power a small house - say your typical 1800 sq ft 3 bedroom single family home anywhere in the US (except the Pacific North-West).

Inhabitat reports on a clever improvement on the basic - and  basically underpowered - solar-powered walkway light:

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But because of its size, a group of these could easily be used as traffic-calming signals during power failures, evacuation route markers, or in other ways.

Inhabitat post here.  Inhabitat credits these to designer Stefano Merlo - but I can’t find them on his website (but lots of other beautiful stuff).

So we don’t know if these are available for purchase - or if there’s an open-source recipe available. We’ll put the Popular Logistics R&D team on it.

From Inhabitat:

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As part of the Mayor of London’s plan for an increased reliance on energy efficient vehicles to power the city’s transport infrastructure, Transport for London, the British agency responsible for public transportation, has introduced one hybrid bus across route 141. The current hybrid bus is powered by a hybrid diesel-electric engine. Thanks to the mixture of both systems, the bus is able to cover the same distance range as a conventional diesel bus. All the hybrid buses will be marked with a leafy insignia to better communicate to the passengers that they are indeed traveling on an environmentally friendly bus. Here’s hoping that the rest of London, and other cities in the world follow this lead.

“This is a world-first for London marking our commitment to a cleaner, greener public transport network.” said Mayor Ken Livigstone.

Link to Inhadbitat post here.

Transport for London release here.

From the press release of the Royal College of Art:

A revolutionary new design for personal wind turbines wins top prize at the BSI Sustainability Design Awards 2007.

Tracking back the links to the Don Dunklee scooter plans -we found Gary Reysa’s BuilditSolar.com site. This site has many descriptions of links to, and explanations of, DIY solar systems. Most seem plausibly built by competent DIYers - even without Reysa’s background as a retired aviation engineer. This is a great reference site for renewable energy projects; even if you’re not going to do it yourself - it’ll demystify some of the concepts.

We live in a 36-unit apartment building - and have just added a second compost bin; in New York City, we think that puts us towards the high end of the composting curve. Because of BuilditSolar.com, now I have some idea of how we could extract heat from the compost (metal coil that is inserted in the bin). Not sure yet how we could easily make use of the heat - but Reysa’s explanations are first-rate.

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Don Dunklee of Davison, Michigan has tricked out his scooter so it runs on PV panels.  Looks like   - unfolded - the scooter takes up a space about as wide as a typical automobile parking space.

Apparently his children - three, late teens and early twenties - are embarassed to be seen with him.  We wonder if they’re also embarassed to take gas money from him.

 Via Wired Blog.      Here’s Dunklee’s how-to.

From ToolMonger’s reporting from Maker Faire:

These people from GreeneMotor brought out a number of motorcycles and scooters that they converted entirely to electric power. They claim that you can ride 450 miles on a single dollar’s worth of juice — even at California rates. Thumb your noses at the Prius crowd — you’re really green now. At least you’d be the first person on your block with an almost totally silent ride.

From  GreeneMotor.com.

Via Toolmonger. Maker Faire is a project of MakeZine, to which we subscribe.

A photo essay on the children of Chernobyl at Slate.

We’ll not reproduce them here; those who need reminding that nuclear power - and other complex systems - are accompanied by increased risk where increases in complexity are not accompanied by off-sets in safety - especially where the basic materials are inherently dangerous - should, of course, make a point of taking a look.

We suspect, however, that at firms which operate nuclear power plants - the link to this photo essay - if anyone is aware of it - is not being circulated to all employees with an admonition that they redouble their efforts to keep things safe.

Via Monkeyfilter.