So what is with this green energy thing. Okay I have blogged before on this, but it keeps coming up. People ask how do you get solar energy at night and other dumb stuff like that.
Energy usage looks something like a curve with the peak of energy being used in the middle of the day and the low points in the middle of the night, so from that we see that when the sun is up we use the most energy and solar energy can be generated for the the time that it is most needed.
What about clouds? If we have solar plants all over the place some areas will be in the sun and others under cloud, solar generation can take place even on cloudy days. It is not perfect but it is very useful.
What about power at night? We come to wind power. The wind usually blows strongest at night, and strongest in the winter time. It does blow during the day too, so generation can supplement generation at day and can be run at night too. Again with a lot of wind turbines spread all over the country, power can be generated somewhere even when the wind is not blowing.
What if there is no wind and it is overcast? At night? There are other green power sources that generate power in the absence of light and wind. There is hydro electric plants. They work wherever there is water and a drop. There is geothermal. Both can be turned on when there is an absence or a shortage of wind and light.
Solar generation can be generated in many places, more places than you could imagine, many more. Solar generation can be on the roof of your house. Solar generation must be located in clear to the sun locations so roofs are ideal locations. Also, it would be best if the area was not being used for other things, like farming, so farms would be bad to have a lot of solar collectors. Roads and road sides do not use the light of the sun so, they would be good locations to build solar collectors. Railroads, between the rails, on the sides, on the trains itself. On cars. On the water if you wanted.
Wind can be generated in your back yard. Large turbines could be in farmer's fields, because the amount of sunlight it covers is small. Height it important, because wind blows harder higher up, so hills are better than valleys. Low surface roughness is good too, that means few variations in height, like trees. So hills are better, so are lakes and oceans. Indeed water locations are better because water can generate winds too. High locations beside water is best. Urban locations are good because they create wind tunnels, extra windy locations where the wind is focused. Tall buildings would also be good locations. But not every building, because wind turbines disrupt the wind as the wind passes through it and it takes distance to renew the wind's flow. Dependent on the speed of the wind. With gentle breezes turbines create a little turbulence, stiff winds creat more. So there is an ideal location for turbines based on the historical wind variations.
Hydroelectric generation must occur near flowing water where there is a difference in height. The water pressure or the falling water generates that electricity. Most large rivers have been damned, but many of the smaller locations have not so there is potential still to be gathered. Large reservoirs can allow power generation at any time, just by opening the turbines to water.
Geothermal can be operated anywhere, but some locations are easier than others. In America's Yellowstone national park, a few hundred meters of drilling is only necessary to generate power, other locations deeper holes must be drilled, but the effect would be the same, power at anytime.
Other forms of heat generation I have talked about before, like heating water by drawing the heat from the air or water reserves. Drawing energy in reverse refrigeration units. Compressors compress carbon dioxide gas in a closed water heater, move the compressed gas outside or into another liquid or a gas and decompress the carbon dioxide. The decompressing gas removes heat from the surrounding material. The decompressed gas moves back into the water heater and is compressed, releasing the gained energy heating the water. The heat of the compressor also is dissipated into the water heater. This style of water heater is 4x as effective as a standard electric water heater. The heated water can be used in house heating or for hot water.
One of the issues that we have with green energy is storing the excess energy if we should produce more in off peak times than is required. Batteries are one solution, large bulky transport boxes of energy that would sit on the grid ready to boost power levels on the grid if usage should change. There are detractors from this idea and there are people that think this is the solution, but this is not the only solution. It has been suggested that compressors be run of excess power to creat large compressed gas reserves under ground or in the water which can be released when power generation is low to run turbines to generate more power.
Then there are micro generation resources, powering your cell phone with the movement of your legs, the steps of your runners, generating power with your clothing, generating power when you open or close doors, rain falling through the eaves waste water traveling down from the second story, and if I heard correctly medical devices implanted in your body that run off the sugars in your blood.
Where will it go? What will the next step be. I can picture a fake tree in a park the leaves rustling in the wind. The leaves completely synthetic solar collectors, the leaves are attached to the twigs that collect power from the wind moving them the branches collect more power and the trunk collects more power. The tree provides shade in the summer and the leaves stay attached all winter long. The power generated would go into the grid or batteries. At night the tree would light up with LEDs placed at the tip of the veins on the leaves and provide light from the power it created. They might line city parks and streets providing power from wind and sun and maybe from ambient heat and light the streets at night.
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