Comments on The Ergosphere: Sustainability, energy independence and agricultur...

Very good, overall.But I noticed one detail: you h...

2007-09-21T17:41:55.485-04:00

Very good, overall.

But I noticed one detail: you have the farmers getting a retail price for their liquid fuels, and consumers at the pump paying that same price.

Unfortunately, a huge amount of profit and taxes get siphoned off in order to drive that fuel from the producer to the consumer. You might want to look up wholesale prices of gasoline and diesel, and use these in

We seem to agree on the need for energy independen...

2007-02-24T20:41:21.826-05:00

We seem to agree on the need for energy independence. We need to promote this view in terms of foreign policy improvements as well as environmental benefits.
Please check out the following connection and post your comments. http://energyamerica.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-to-avoid-future-iraq-wars.html

I dealt with that; the efficiency of the internal ...

2007-02-01T22:32:30.950-05:00

I dealt with that; the efficiency of the internal combustion engine is far too low for a biomass-to-liquids play to even replace gasoline. If you can achieve 100 gallons of ethanol per ton, 1.7 billion tons of biomass would give you 170 billion gallons of ethanol. You need about 210 billion gallons to replace US gasoline consumption alone; it would take much, much more to replace

WOWA, EP quite the thesis!Let me see if I get this...

2007-02-01T20:34:23.516-05:00

WOWA, EP quite the thesis!

Let me see if I get this right: you are arguing we should go:
Biomass->Gas or Carbon->Electricity->Storage->Transportation

That seems longwinded. Wouldn't this be easier (a.k.a. more efficient):
Biomass->Gas->Liquid Fuel->Transportation?

I know you showed that EtOH does not make a lot of sense (you need how much energy for

That's behind a paywall now too.

2007-01-01T10:09:16.583-05:00

That's behind a paywall now too.

Sorry...........http://www.nature.com/nature/journ...

2007-01-01T02:48:36.203-05:00

Sorry...........

http://www.nature.com/nature/journa

l/v442/n7103/pdf/442624a.pdf

RE: Nature Article — the link given on the previou...

2006-12-30T17:41:45.913-05:00

RE: Nature Article — the link given on the previous page,will not allow access without being a subscriber to Nature.

I posted it Before Nature started requiring a subscribing membership, here is a link to the original pdf version. The pdf version is still accessible without a membership.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...df/442624a.pdf

The upcoming International Agrichar Initiative (IA...

2006-12-09T19:39:12.600-05:00

The upcoming International Agrichar Initiative (IAI) conference is to be held at Terrigal, NSW, Australia in 2007. ( www.iaiconference.org )

I spoke with the author of a Terra Preta (TP) story in Solar Today, Ron Larson ,
http://www.solartoday.org/2006/nov_dec06/Chairs_CornerND06.pdf
he said he spoke with a major National Geographic editor, who is preparing a big article on TP

Here's the rough accounting:1.72 billion tons of b...

2006-12-09T18:23:55.526-05:00

Here's the rough accounting:

1.72 billion tons of biomass grown, containing ~770 million tons of carbon.

Roughly 516 million tons yielded as charcoal. This charcoal can either be used as a soil amendment (full sequestration in soil) or used at remote sites for electric generation (which allows sequestration as liquid CO2). That's up to half a billion tons or so taken

I'm sorry EP, I only wore a pocket protector for a...

2006-12-09T16:33:03.263-05:00

I'm sorry EP, I only wore a pocket protector for a short time in my life, so I am having trouble following the rationale. How does a scheme to capture a billion tons of carbon a year — 30% of it is turned into gas — resulting in 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide, reduce green house gas emissions?

The integrated energy strategy offered by Terra Pr...

2006-12-05T00:17:05.943-05:00

The integrated energy strategy offered by Terra Preta Soil technology may
provide the only path to sustain our agricultural and fossil fueled power
structure without climate degradation, other than nuclear power.

I feel we should push for this Terra Preta Soils CO2 sequestration strategy as not only a global warming remedy for the first world, but to solve fertilization and

Mr. Wiese:5 million acres at $3 million/acre is $1...

2006-12-01T00:15:12.926-05:00

Mr. Wiese:

5 million acres at $3 million/acre is $15 trillion for the production hardware alone. Storage is extra. If we invested $200 billion/year, it would take 75 years to get there.

My proposal came in at an estimated $360-odd billion for the hardware, plus as much as $50 billion/year for vehicles (which would be repaid rather quickly). Over 20 years,

What kind of life expectancy does the average (PV)...

2006-11-30T14:17:06.043-05:00

What kind of life expectancy does the average (PV) panel have after weathering, UV radiation degradation, accidental storm damage (especially after 20years in-situ) etc etc.

They are guareented by the manufacturer typically to operate at 90 % of rated capacity after 12.5 years and 80 % after 25 years. The degredation is mostly due to cosmic rays, not hail or other factors. The

The only thing which amazes me more than the warm,...

2006-11-30T14:13:35.013-05:00

The only thing which amazes me more than the warm, almost desperate-for-hope reception here and at The Oil Drum, is the fact that nobody else came up with it first. There are tons of PhD's out there whose whole raison d'etre is research, but for some reason this guy with no lab, no staff and just a BSEE scooped 'em.

Not many people do Ph.D.s on policy.

That said, if

My biggest concern with mass solar rollout program...

2006-11-30T08:38:47.213-05:00

My biggest concern with mass solar rollout programmes is lifetime issues.

What kind of life expectancy does the average panel have after weathering, UV radiation degradation, accidental storm damage (especially after 20years in-situ) etc etc.

Truth is we just don't know (at least for the latest and greatest cells anyway.) We may have a feel for the earlier first gen sets.
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The price is around $3M - $4M per acre. Yes, that ...

2006-11-30T03:23:23.236-05:00

The price is around $3M - $4M per acre. Yes, that is a lot, but if we spend an equivalent to what we're spending in Iraq every year it would add up after a decade. After 30 years the output will drop 15% - 20%, but they'll still be working. This assumes no economy of scale, and absolutely no new technology beyond what is commercially available today.

Wind is cheaper, so that ought to be

Only 5 million acres, eh? What is the price per a...

2006-11-30T02:55:07.530-05:00

Only 5 million acres, eh? What is the price per acre of Kyocera KC167G's?

Not to be snide, but any realistic program has to be something we can afford to implement, and soon enough to make a difference.

Converting electricity to motion in an electric mo...

2006-11-30T02:31:39.256-05:00

Converting electricity to motion in an electric motor is much more efficient than burning fuel in an engine, or even fuel cells, which is why we should use plug in hybrids powered by electricity as much as possible.

Last year I generated 4565 kWh with 23 square meters of pv panels (in Silicon Valley, CA). This is about 200 kWh/yr per square meter. So you could generate 4 trillion kWh/

I'm afraid that those 100 million acres would be i...

2006-11-30T01:25:59.600-05:00

I'm afraid that those 100 million acres would be in perennial grass crops. They'd be put to the sickle bar, not the plow. Not nearly as catchy. ;-)

nobody else came up with it first.Others like RMI ...

2006-11-29T19:37:54.876-05:00

nobody else came up with it first.

Others like RMI have hatched plans to get the country off imported oil.

However, if "it" means weaving together biomass, pyrolysis, fuel cells, biodiesel from algae, carbon sequestration and an incentive plan to knock out the U.S. contribution to climate change, fuel the economy AND get us off imported oil and gas - yeah you probably did

If this piece is recognized as anything 50 years f...

2006-11-29T18:16:15.880-05:00

If this piece is recognized as anything 50 years from now, it will be a success beyond my wildest dreams.

The only thing which amazes me more than the warm, almost desperate-for-hope reception here and at The Oil Drum, is the fact that nobody else came up with it first. There are tons of PhD's out there

Many of the diehard doomers on TOD seem to be quit...

2006-11-29T16:53:13.156-05:00

Many of the diehard doomers on TOD seem to be quite upset

Aren't they? Tis' a dream devoutly to be wished!

I wouldn't have as much of a problem with them if they backed up their pushback with numbers.

There are niche markets for industrial consulting ...

2006-11-29T13:58:36.983-05:00

There are niche markets for industrial consulting firms engineering co-ordinated plant strategies to minimize waste energy and maximize recycling/energy conversion. Since energy sufficiency is necessary to continued prosperity, I expect a huge demo project for proof-of-concept should find a government sponsor somewhere ( China ? ).

Oh, and I'd like to add, this is a superb piece of...

2006-11-29T13:31:35.326-05:00

Oh, and I'd like to add, this is a superb piece of work, which with any luck 50 years from now will be recognised as "genesis" for a sustainable energy system.

Many of the diehard doomers on TOD seem to be quite upset, but as a fellow engineer, I can see that creating soloutions is a much better way forward than doing nothing.

KingofKaty: I'm sure that energy companies will b...

2006-11-28T17:53:05.906-05:00

KingofKaty: I'm sure that energy companies will be a huge part of what comes. However, electric utilities are positioned at least as well as oil companies to take this position. If you look at the growth path, renewable-energy outfits could wind up holding all the chips.

One thing is absolutely certain: in the relatively near future, people are going to be