The Chainlink

3 Things

Three things I'll probably never see in my lifetime:

(in order of diminishing probability)

humans set foot on Mars

Peace in the mid east

Cubs win world series

Three thing I might see in my lifetime:

(in order of increasing likelihood)

6th extinction

widespread adoption of non carbon based energy sources

woman president

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Permalink Reply by Fran Kondorf on February 23, 2014 at 9:42am

 Why, of course. Let's build power plants on the moon and enable easier travel to Mars because we've done such a fantastic job with this planet, haven't we?

 

Joe Guzzardo said:

Grids are expensive and vulnerable to many threats, solar activity among them. Japan has proposed locating power plants on the moon and transmitting the power back to earth. A nationwide smart grid system will cost upwards of half a trillion dollars. I wonder how that cost compares to the Japanese idea. One additional benefit, though, once we've mastered the technology to build and maintain power plants on the moon, reaching Mars will be a lot easier. Which is a good thing considering that will be just about the same time we toast this planet, making it imperative to move on to greener pastures.

Permalink Reply by Fran Kondorf on February 23, 2014 at 9:53am

 I'm all for positive change but can't help but get nervous when outfits like GE, Lockheed Martin, Proctor & Gamble, and Dow Chemical do business with the Defense Department.



Lisa Curcio 4.1 mi said:

This is not directly on point (wind/solar), but seems to be an interesting step to positive change in the manufacturing sector.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on February 23, 2014 at 10:18am

You mean they are not, and have not been continuously since time immemorial, doing business with the Defense Department? IMO it is a good thing for Chicago to have some of those dollars being invested here.


Fran Kondorf said:

 I'm all for positive change but can't help but get nervous when outfits like GE, Lockheed Martin, Proctor & Gamble, and Dow Chemical do business with the Defense Department.



Lisa Curcio 4.1 mi said:

This is not directly on point (wind/solar), but seems to be an interesting step to positive change in the manufacturing sector.

Permalink Reply by S on February 23, 2014 at 9:01pm

Storage for home use is feasible since you can set up a 10-20KWh battery bank but that takes a bunch of batteries to do so.  Scaling that up to something that provides a MWh size bank, probably won't be super practical due to the maintenance needed and charge/discharge patterns.  There are better solutions than the standard lead acid batteries but I don't think any of them have gotten the to stage where they're ready for non-experimental use.

Mike Zumwalt said:

Solar and wind are of course variable but storage for home and commercial uses are totally feasible. We also need redundant systems much like a back up generator.

I was in the HUGE power grid failure of 2003? that went from NYC to Detroit to Toronto and even down to Toledo.

We had no power for 3 days in the middle of August.

Permalink Reply by S on February 23, 2014 at 9:05pm

Unless we switch to individual power supplies for each user, we'll still need a grid to transport electricity around.  Even that moon power generation will require a grid to distribute power from the places that receive the laser/microwave beams and convert that to electricity.  Renewable energy is going to require a larger scale and better grid so that excess power from areas can be sent to areas that need more energy.  That'll make the intermittent natural of renewables a bit less of an issue. 

Joe Guzzardo said:

Grids are expensive and vulnerable to many threats, solar activity among them. Japan has proposed locating power plants on the moon and transmitting the power back to earth. A nationwide smart grid system will cost upwards of half a trillion dollars. I wonder how that cost compares to the Japanese idea. One additional benefit, though, once we've mastered the technology to build and maintain power plants on the moon, reaching Mars will be a lot easier. Which is a good thing considering that will be just about the same time we toast this planet, making it imperative to move on to greener pastures.

Mike Zumwalt said:

Solar and wind are of course variable but storage for home and commercial uses are totally feasible. We also need redundant systems much like a back up generator.

I was in the HUGE power grid failure of 2003? that went from NYC to Detroit to Toronto and even down to Toledo.

We had no power for 3 days in the middle of August.

Permalink Reply by Joe Guzzardo on February 24, 2014 at 6:33pm

I was thinking that space based power generation would allow the possibility of more localized distribution, for example sending the juice to the east coast or the west coast depending upon demand, even utilizing space based mirrors, if necessary. 

The problem, as you pointed out, is really a 3 horned devil, green generation, storage and transmission. All of which are hard to solve.


S said:

Unless we switch to individual power supplies for each user, we'll still need a grid to transport electricity around.  Even that moon power generation will require a grid to distribute power from the places that receive the laser/microwave beams and convert that to electricity.  Renewable energy is going to require a larger scale and better grid so that excess power from areas can be sent to areas that need more energy.  That'll make the intermittent natural of renewables a bit less of an issue. 

Joe Guzzardo said:

Grids are expensive and vulnerable to many threats, solar activity among them. Japan has proposed locating power plants on the moon and transmitting the power back to earth. A nationwide smart grid system will cost upwards of half a trillion dollars. I wonder how that cost compares to the Japanese idea. One additional benefit, though, once we've mastered the technology to build and maintain power plants on the moon, reaching Mars will be a lot easier. Which is a good thing considering that will be just about the same time we toast this planet, making it imperative to move on to greener pastures.

Mike Zumwalt said:

Solar and wind are of course variable but storage for home and commercial uses are totally feasible. We also need redundant systems much like a back up generator.

I was in the HUGE power grid failure of 2003? that went from NYC to Detroit to Toronto and even down to Toledo.

We had no power for 3 days in the middle of August.

Permalink Reply by David P. on February 24, 2014 at 7:26pm

1)Porsche 911

2)BMW 2002tii

3)BMC Mini

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on February 26, 2014 at 4:23pm

Doesn't the Govt. offer a tax credit for Solar on your home? 

Divvy bike stations and parking meters are solar powered and that parking garage off Kinzie is wind powered, the new beach house in Edgewater uses stored rainwater to flush. It works.

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