Archive for November, 2009

I’m doing a career research project on alternative energy researchers, and I need help finding information about a "critical issue," or disadvantage, of being in the career. Any ideas?

In less you are in collage now by the time you graduate the job market and technology will be on to something else.

As they say there is only jobs and money in an idea or technology as long as the research has not caught up with the product.
Once the product is developed the money and research funds go out of it and it becomes an item on the shelf.
Once it becomes an item on the shelf the value goes away, the money and the job.

In your first year of collage take you core science classes and try and figure out what is your passion.
Once you find your passion follow it in all earnest and your success and feeling of fulfillment will come out of it.

Don’t pursue the job, pursue your intereststs you have to remember it is what you want to do for the rest of your life.

Are there goverment grants for solar panels for residential? I live in New Jersey. USA. Or are there any experimental research companies that will install solar panels for free in return for their research purposes?
I just emailed the US Dept of Energy asking them the same question. Anyone know about the US Dept of Energy? What do they do?

i don’t really know about completely free solar panels, but you can get information about the best priced ones and how to do it yourself in my site www.ecologyforlife.info

I need some links answering or discussing this question.
Also what would happen to all the cars if we made the jump to alternative energy? could our current cars run on it such as natural gas?
Please give me links, I am doing a research project and needs links that I can research into not peoples answers. I’m having trouble finding any links to these that’s why I’m posting this in case anyone knows a reliable source pertaining to this.
Breath it is a research project that is why I asked for links not personal answers.

If you are looking under alternative energy for a question about how to change peoples mind you need to sharpen your google-fu. The proper subject would be rhetoric, mass marketing, advertising or possibly even political science. Once you understand this subject you will notice that although this discussion receives frequent mentions it is rarely a main theme in alternative energy literature.

There is a basic reason for this. It is a matter of perspective. There are two basic camps. There are vested interests who have been doing business in a certain way for several generations. They are a small group, well funded with a clear agenda seeking to control or manipulate mass opinion. Funding can poll markets to determine what is of interest and what is considered "good." Advertising and paid for "informative" articles will then target what is of interest and considered "good" like "security" or "sex" and hook public opinion and products into these values. From the perspective of this camp there is a great deal of interest in "what it will take to get people…"

And then there are the masses who are unfunded, uncoordinated, with many conflicting goals and often very little social perspective. The masses have individual needs and desires. It takes something special to motivate the masses as a unit.

Sometimes this happens after a war or as a result of a collective shock. But it doesn’t last for decades as it can with vested interests.

What this means is that for the masses to move on a subject like alternative energy sources first the resistance provided by vested interests must be overcome and then a collective sense of purpose should be instilled.

Practically this might mean eliminating all subsidies and a blackout on advertising similar to what was done during the anti smoking campaign…and you can see how effective this has been but it would be a start.

Natural gas may be an alternative fuel for a car but it is not an alternative energy source. It is still a fossil fuel. We are now hearing that the US has huge deposits of natural gas. These have been known for decades but the means to extract it has been considered an environmental disaster. With energy more desperately in demand it is felt that this will be overlooked.

Since it is a "research" project, I would not want to simply do your work for you, but I hope I have suggested some new avenues for exploration.

Im just curious as to if this is even possible. How much total power is used on average by the US? How much would it cost to make this many solar panels or other systems to make electricity from the sun? Im trying to figure out an estimate of how much it would cost to get all the electricity used in the us from solar power.

15Watt 38in x 13in = 494sqIn Scale this up by a factor of 1 million

15Mega Watt = 494,000,000 sqin

494 000 000 square inch = 78.75 acre

Sofar 15Mega Watts from 1,000,000 panels needs 78.75 acres lets scale this up to equal SqMiles (640 acres = 1 sqMile) Note the area doesn’t consider additional room between the panels. You will need additional space so you can walk between them so as to be able to service them etc.

15 * (640/78.75)= 121.9 MegaWatts / SqMile
1000000 * (640/78.75) = 8126985 * $100each = $812,698,400

So far that is over $812 Billion and you have enough wattage to replace one nuclear power plant.

Your going to need more land than 1 sq mil, you will need additional hard ware to mount the panels.
So you can easily quadruple the cost and area requirements to $3.248 trillion(not counting the purchase of the land) on 4 square miles with 32,507,940 (32.5 million) solar panels

Why quadruple the cost? Remember that the panels are only exposed to 1/2 day worth of light so you need at least twice the capacity to store half of what you generate in batteries for night time use. And this is being generous in assuming that you get 100% efficiency and no cloudy days. The additional cost of batteries, wire , solar trackers etc are only partially covered in this estimate. Then you will have maintenance costs to keep the panels operating at peak performance and replace damage. (imagine what a hail storm would do)

And all of this to replace a single 120 mega watt power plant.

I am a sphomore in college and i am interested in alternative energy but im not sure how to start a career in it so i was wondering if anybody new what type of jobs there are involving alternative energy that would be a good career to get into when i graduate college in about 4 years.

AER is a national alternative energy firm within the Alternative Energy Industry

Check out an artical on it at:

http://www.getalternativeenergyjob.com/alternative-energy-recruiting-firm-in-the-usa–393390.htm

or go to this website on alternative energy:

http://www.getalternativeenergyjob.com/

How much does solar energy cost, using pounds, in the Uk? How much does it cost to set up and does it cause a lot of hassle?
Peter J I know its expensive, I want an actual figure!
No best answer!

The energy costs nothing. The equipment required to make it go, is really expensive. The equipment required to make it practical is obscenely expensive.

I was thinking on buying some solar panels but I wanted some real life first hand knowledge.

It really depends on your usage habits, and the size of the system installed. For instance, if I got a modest-sized solar array, then said, "Woo-hoo, now I can run the A/C all summer and electric heaters all winter!" then I might never turn the meter back.

Now for the data points. In August 2008, we had a net consumption of -214 kWh for our house (that is, the meter was turned back 214 kWh). That’s the summer, of course. In January 2008, the dead of winter, we used a net 331 kWh. Other months are between these two extremes. Over the course of a year, it balances out to about zero kWh used. But again, if we changed the size of the system only slightly, or altered our usage patterns only slightly (say, it was a very cold winter), the answers would be different.

If you want to see our bill in detail, send me an email.

im doing a project for economics and i have to find out how economics & solar energy are tied together.

One has to consider the economics of using solar energy. If you want to install solar panels on the roof of your home, to produce electricity, you have to figure the costs involved.

Determine the cost of installing the panel and how long it is expected to last. Figure out how much electricity the panel will generate. Subtract that amount from your normal electric usage. Then figure out the savings over the life of the panel to see if the original expense is worth it or not.

If you live in northeastern Arizona and pay top dollar for electricity, it might pay to have solar panels. They have sunshine for 325 days a year.

The more, the better. The arguments should be at least remotely feasible. I’m looking for ecological arguments why solar energy is a better alternative than Nuclear Reactors.

They both have their place, so if you’re planning for a debate, you’ll have to take this into consideration. Your argument should be for solar, but not against complete replacement of nuclear. If you argue the latter, you’re sure to lose, unless your opponents are incompetent.

But to answer your question directly:

- Solar can provide heat directly, without being converted to mechanical motion and then electricity. It is thus more efficient at heating (say) water.

- Solar scales down well, so a single house system can be feasibly installed. A nuclear reactor needs at least an apartment-building load to be feasible. And they would only do that in Russia, because

- Nuclear reactor technology can be used to breed weapons materials. And even if you couldn’t construct an A-bomb, if you could order fuel for your home reactor, a bad person could grind it up into a fine power that would make a hazardous mess when blown up in a public place.

- The nuclear waste and radiation hazard also make nuclear unsuitable for single-home usage. These are not as much of a problem for a centralized plant.

I came accross a new, proven and tested home made wind power system and solar power system which eliminates our electricity bills. It was written by a Renewable energy enthusiasts Michael Harvey the diy called Earth4energy. You can get your copy to save energy and help environment while eliminating your power bills. Get it from here:

http://how-to-build-cheap-solar-energy.blogspot.com/

Anyone knows what kind of solar panels (wattage , ambers, Volts )should I purchase to have sufficient power for a Laptop , A modem/router And a fax machine?

You need to work out first how much power you will need . The power consumption will be clearly statted on the equipment. Usually on a label on the underside. So add up the power ratings on all the appliances you will want on together. Including lights, heating, tools etc. You won’t need everything on at once so look to decide you maximum power requirement.
Next you need to set an amount of hours per day you will want to run the power. So power (in KW- 1000 watts) X hours per day = total KW/H needed. That tells you what you need.
You will need to know the power rating for your solar panels i.e 50W and multiply that by the average hours of daily sunlight for your area. i.e. (50W X 4hrs Sun)/1000 = panel KW/H. Remember sunlight hours can dramatically vary depending on winter/summer so make sensible allowance for your needs in estimating the daily hours of sun.
Finally all you need to do is divide the KW/H needed by the solar panel KW/H to get the number of panels you need. i.e. NEED 2KW/H by PANEL 0.2KW/H = 10 solar panels.
Depending on the system you create. i.e. battery quality, inverter efficiency etc there will be inherent losses in the charge/use cycle. You will need to allow 50%-70% additional panels to account for losses.
Best not try and ‘give it a go’ if you are not 100% sure what you are doing. get some expert advice and help. It’s not exepensive.
Checkout http://www.greenpowereasy-review.com/