In recent news there has been a lot of discussion of various announcements coming out of the World Future Energy Summit being held in Abu Dhabi this week. The primary sponsor of this event happens to be Masdar which is owned by Mubadala Investments. Mubadala also happens to be a prime investor in several other “companies” that have dubious ties in the world of global finance and power. The very interesting thing about these announcements is not the number of projects that are being planned but the shear size of the budgets that are being forecast.

There is talk of plans for 48 sq km facilities in Dubai by 2030 generating 1GW of electricity, plans are underway to do similar large scale projects in Oman and Saudi and of course the same companies want to go all the way and install large Photo Voltaic and Concentrated Solar Power installations across the entire MENA (Middle East North Africa) region. These plans are fantastic and forward thinking except for one small problem. The costs for these projects are phenomenally out of bounds. The timescale of the projects (upto 20 years) are way over what is considered necessary to setup and install a large facility. After all The tallest building in the world was built in only 5 years and a Concentrated Solar Thermal Tower doesn’t even go up to 10 stories high with the entire solar array on ground level. Considering what has already been spent by these same companies on very mediocre attempts at Solar energy supply there is a serious disconnect between what is required in terms of resources and effort to build an industrial scale Solar energy facility and what is currently required in terms of budget to pay for the opportunity of bringing a facility online.

The answer to this mystery appears to be related to the financial crisis and the worlds Fossil Fuel addiction. If Solar energy is priced at the real market value. The true cost of building industrial scale facilities and connecting them to the grid and not the price that is current being forced on the market by the entrenched Oil industry we would see that Solar power is phenomenally cheaper than any of the competing energy sources. In other words the only reason the Solar has not already reached price parity is because the Elite are holding the industry to ransom to prop up the price of the other fuel sources for as long as possible.

The real reason for companies like Solyndra to be going bankrupt is because they were never intended to actually succeed. The entire industry knows full well this dirty little secret. The price of Solar when done correctly and at utility scale is ridiculously low compared to any of the other energy sources. Concentrated Solar power has the potential when combined with Solar Thermal to provide all the energy required for any of the cities that have a regular supply of sunlight. Therefore the entrenched players in the energy industry are quietly but assuredly doing their best to disrupt and stall the transition to the Solar economy for as long as possible.

By keeping the “true cost” of utility scale Solar energy artificially high through the use of excessive budgets on projects where they are essentially paying themselves excessively large sums of money to build pitifully low yield Solar installations Companies like Masdar are manipulating the cost of Solar energy on the world market thereby pushing up the price of oil as the markets continue to bid up the price of the dwindling reserves and keeping the other players like coal and gas satisfied with the status quo while they continue to rake in the profits received from sales of their product to the global market.

In other words, Utility scale solar is massively over priced. The big players know this full well and are controlling the market to keep things that way. In much the same way that they control the production of electric cars to ensure we all rely on petrol they are also drip feeding the world Solar energy to keep their profit margins high. The end result is wasted time, opportunity and resources.

The sad truth is that the word could already have an abundant supply of fresh drinking water and electricity simply by using relatively modest resources to build Concentrated Solar Thermal Desalinisation and Electricity production plants for every major city in the sunny parts of the world. This would free up remaining resources for the countries which are not as sundrenched and lower the price of energy and the global carbon footprint. Now that would just be rational and logical which as we already know is not possible while the Elite of the world remain in charge.

Either that or they really are just idiots over there at Mubadala and have no idea how bad they are getting ripped off.

Just flip a coin to decide…

Tags: banksters, construction, cover up, electricity, Elite, Fuel, oil, solar, supply, Sustainable by Sparky
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Dubai has thrown it’s hat into the ring with a massive 48 square kilometer commitment to solar energy launched today in the UAE capital. The project seeks to have a first phase development completed by 2013 with a target of 1 Giga Watt capacity by 2030. With the excess of low cost solar panels now on the market thanks to massive Chinese production this looks like it will be a serious infrastructure achievement once completed.

The reasoning behind this is given below:

The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, spelt out the country’s goals in tapping alternative sources of energy. ‘‘The UAE is striving to develop and boost its rich resources and expertise in the international energy markets and enhance its leading role as a world centre for renewable energy research and development,” he said.

This can be translated as “we have realised that we can make more money by selling the remaining reserves of oil to foreign powers and we would be stupid if we continued to use it as our primary energy source. The cost in energy of taking remaining oil out of the ground means we are consuming more energy every day in order to keep our power supply steady. Transitioning to a Solar Economy makes perfect sense as we receive some of the most powerful rays from the Sun everyday that make it to the earths surface. Continuing to burn our precious resources when we can sell them tom someone else instead is fiscally irresponsible and damaging to our future wealth potential.”

Given the proximity to the ocean it is highly likely that they will add on a Solar Thermal Water desalinisation plant so they can provide the region with a constant supply of fresh water. Watch for the French to get involved directly in that stage now that Areva have shown their hand with the recent completion and connection to the grid of the Gemasolar project in Spain.

Of course we should not forget that the work will be carried out by slave labour from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The Kingdom is renowned for it’s lack of resolve to provide fair working conditions for the crews of men that have been duped into leaving their families for a better wage only to find out that they have lost all their rights and are permanently trapped.

The systemised abuse and greed in Dubai due to excessive credit built around the construction industry by psychopathic bankers and a selfish ruling class gives us a very modern perspective of what the Egyptian, Roman, Aztechs and Ankor Empires must have been like. A society where the elite drink the blood of the unfortunate and feast on the bones of their dead. A truly Vampiric society sucking the life force from anyone who gets too close.

Tags: construction, Elite, Fuel, solar, supply, Sustainable by Sparky
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The XCore suborbital reusable horizontal launch rocket is a new contender for the space tourism crown. Taking off from a normal airstrip and being able to launch 4 times a day for 10 days before requiring servicing. They are pitching to sell the vehicles throughout the world. The idea looks like a neat toy for a wealthy Adrenaline junkie. It would also be a very quick way to get around for globe trotting adventurists who could effectively island hop their way around the globe in a matter of hours by launching themselves into sub orbit and letting the earths rotation do the hard work. Add on a couple of extra pounds of fuels and they can increase the burn time to make the distance covered longer and the over all trips shorter.

In a way it is surprising that the US have decided that it is time to allow this technology to be exported off their shores. But given the decline of the US dollar and economy it makes perfect sense that one of the ways they expect to work their way out of the global recession is by selling expensive toys to wealthy consumers.

The only thing missing from this technology is a way to stop the blinding flashes of light caused by cosmic rays that plague humans as soon as they get outside of the Earths magnetosphere. Once that has been solved we should be able to fly anywhere we want in the solar system. Holidays in moon craters may well become a viable tourism destination.

One interesting aspect of this venture is the way the industry has been designed. The scientists at NASA seem to have found a way to take their knowledge and commercialise it without having to depend on Elite Politicians for their funding. Now that they have split NASA into several commercial ventures and the best minds have made their bets on the direction they want to travel the Banksters will be less able to control them through their lobbying efforts. This by itself bodes well for the future as it will become fashionable to become intelligent, well read and educated. Hopefully that will translate into a more open minded and rational society where decisions are made based on logic and science rather than wishful thinking and passing the buck.

Tags: aircraft, Elite, Engine, Fuel, machine, Space, transport by Sparky
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Like Elvis, Burt Rutan just keeps delivering hit after hit. With the announcement of the decision to commit his own personal wealth earned from the Microsoft empire to funding the next phase of Burt Rutans Scaled Composites Space launch system Paul Allen has jumped back into the space industry with gusto. Forming a new company called “Stratolaunch Systems” and including the former Chief of NASA Michael Griffins on the Board of Directors is a bold move on his part. Given his history of making ridiculous amounts of personal wealth by “leveraging” the work of others before him this move is not out of character. However at least in this case he was one of the initial backers for the first space launch system that allowed Scaled Composites to win the Ansari X prize.

What is slightly more interesting is the list of names that are associated with the new phase of development. First Paul Allen and Burt Rutan are obviously the driving forces behind the plan. Next up are Richard Branson and Elon Musk both of whom have contributed their own personal wealth to other aspects of the development process. In Branson’s case it is by committing his wealth and organisational benefits of his Virgin Empire to the second phase of the Space Launch System which has resulted in Virgin Galactic. For Musk it is his SpaceX rockets that will be launched by Allen’s Plane.

With the addition of Jeff Bezos who is independently developing a reusable ground launch system it is clear that the commercial space race is being lead by an elite group of wealthy Information Tech heads who having conquered the web are now directing their wealth and organisational skills towards conquering space.

The next question is where are they going to get all the energy required to build, fly and launch the payloads?

Tags: aircraft, construction, Engine, Fuel, Space, transport by Sparky
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A recent report from Russian Scientists studying the Permafrost surrounding the Arctic Ice Shelf has pointed out that massive amounts of methane are being rapidly released into the Atmosphere due to the increased warming of the Arctic. While the issue of permafrost warming releasing massive amounts of Methane directly into the atmosphere has been flagged as an issue for many years now most reports focused on the permafrost above the ocean as the assumption was made that methane would be converted to carbon dioxide as it escaped from the regions located under the sea.

The Scientists have noticed massive kilometer wide methane plumes that are escaping from the ocean floor as the rapidly warming ocean is also warming the submarine permafrost. Due to the speed with which the plumes are rising and the proximity to the surface the Methane is not converting to Carbon Dioxide and is instead just filling up the atmosphere. Given that Methane is significantly more powerful as a greenhouse gas at trapping heat in the atmosphere this is a serious increase in the speed of the changes that the planet is undergoing as the earth returns to the Eocene age of humidity and warmth.

From a visual perspective the sea floor around the arctic ice shelf is effectively boiling. From a Human perspective we can expect this rapid release of Methane to cause serious changes to the weather. We are already experiencing unseasonable cool in the South Pacific. How this will play out in the Northern climes is yet to be found out.

Tags: disaster, Energy Storage, environment, Fuel, meteorology, Ocean, weather by Sparky
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The Japanese Leadership have found a way to rationalise the use of $30 million in Tsunami relief funds to pay for the Security flotilla to escort the fishing boats on the Antarctic “Whale” hunt. Once again proving that 10 the people in charge of the purse strings are clinically insane. How they can justify taking funds from people who need them after 10 months of continuous exposure to the Toxic cloud of Death emitting from Fukushima in order to hunt whales in the Antarctic sanctuary is beyond any decision that a sane person could possibly make.

In addition they will certainly be getting the attention of the Australasian Naval forces as a significant armed naval presence in Antarctic waters at this stage in the global crisis is a flagrant display of agression to all pacific peoples.

There are moves in play to make the Japanese leadership aware of the significance that this move on the international chess board has created. The initial response from all Major Pacific nations with significant Naval presence was that this is a very bad move on the part of the Japanese.

What is most incredible is that they have the spare energy resources available for such an expedition. Obviously it takes massive amounts of fuel to send a fleet of ships to the Antarctic from Japan and with the whole nation reeling from the continuing impact of the Twin Tsunami and Fukushima disasters they surely don’t have enough spare fuel to get this naval fleet all the way to Antarctica and back home again.

Which leaves the question. What is the real reason for Japanese Naval Agression in the Pacific Theater?

Tags: disaster, e=mc2, environment, food, Fuel, government, military, Ocean by Sparky
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MIT scientist Daniel Nocera has released new publicity around his solar leaf concept. The basic idea is that instead of converting sunlight to electricity and storing it in a battery, use the electricity to split hydrogen from water allowing the hydrogen to be used in a hydrogen fuel cell. An inherently lossy process which will require a system to keep hydrogen and oxygen separated until it can be directed into the fuel cell for conversion back to electricity. Theoretically it could provide an almost permanent supply of electricity and stored energy if combined with a rain water capture system. However due to the lossiness of the conversion process it does seem to be running at a significant disadvantage to normal electricity storage in the form of a Lithium Ion battery. However as it is using a fuel cell that probably requires at least some rare earth elements during the manufacturing process which will of course contribute greatly to the amount of energy consumed to completely make the system.

In the meantime a Japanese company has already taken the process to it’s inevitable conclusion and produced a full scale home sized hydrogen conversion system. They claim that with a solar panel, 1500 cc of water and their hydrogen conversion and storage system they can provide 5000 KwH of electricity which is around that amount that an average home would use during a night. 5000 KwH is approx enough stored energy to provide 16 hours of electricity to an average home PC with a 300 watt power supply. However if you add a refrigerator or washing machine into the mix you start to see some significant decreases in energy supply time. The main benefit of this system is that it can be run simply on water and solar. Once the investment is made it will provide around 50 years of constant supply of energy as long as you don’t need to use more than 5000 KwH of energy between charges. If connected to a rain water capture system it is theoretically a 50 year life cycle version of a perpetual mobile. It will no doubt be very useful as a replacement for fossil fuels in low energy consuming households. Combined with a larger solar hot water and electricity storage system and you would be able to live with a degree of energy security.

If Nocera has a better and cheaper more energy efficient system up his sleeve he is keeping the details to himself at the moment. No doubt he is still waiting for approval from MIT to do something actually useful for a change. The general rule of thumb with anything from MIT is that it never actually gets anywhere other than securing more funding for the scientists involved in the projects.

Tags: Circuits, Components, electricity, Energy Storage, Fuel, hydrogen, renewable, solar, Sustainable, water by Sparky
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It’s nice that Al Gore is so invested in getting people to open their minds. It is a noble endeavour especially in countries where the population has been effectively made stupid from years of abusive manipulation by the media and educational elite.

There is a serious issue with making global warming the focal point for why we need to conserve energy. Calling it the truth is falling far short of the acceptable mark for what is considered fact. Sure there is a problem with consuming all the fossil fuels and increasing the overall temperature of the Earth. It will result in massive geological movements as the polar caps shift their weight and melt into the ocean.

However the real truth is that by consuming all the resources we have we run out of energy to continue enjoying the results of industrialised society. Once that happens we face the problem of how to progress as a globalised civilisation. The real inconvenient truth is that we will be forced to die off in great numbers which will be a terrible period of human suffering.

Already it is in progress as we look at the wars throughout the OPEC region and the suffering at the Horn of Africa. The main problem we have to contend with is global blackouts of the power grid. This is already happening in America and Japan. Other countries like Yemen and Cyprus are already unable to provide enough power to their populations. The trend will get worse rather than better as consumption of fossil fuels has already increased significantly this year due to Japan and Germany replacing their nuclear power stations with fossil fuel.

The next problem to come from the lack of energy infrastructure is the inability to sustain and support the infrastructure as it ages. Already the issue has become obvious in states like California which have been bankrupt for several years. We see massive explosions of gas mains, complete blackouts along the entire west coast and massive sewerage spills due to the inability to cope with complete blackout.

The Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was also a symptom of the malaise. The quest to find a new source of energy positive fuel inspired greedy BP executives to attempt to tap a Methan Hydrate reserve. Of course they did it entirely on the cheap, using engineers who were out of their depth, in a corporate culture where passing the buck and avoidance of direct responsibility are the way to progress up the ladder which inevitably ends in the results that were predicted by the people who actually know what they are talking about.

Now the quest is on to achieve ignition at the ITER project. The fact that they have an exploding sun in a magnetic bottle doesn’t bother them in the slightest. In much the same way that the nuclear industry lies about the dangers of uranium/plutonium reactors they also insist that Fusion in inherently safe and there is nothing to worry about. We can master the problem of getting more energy out of the process than we need to start it off but can we really be certain that we can master the issue of keeping the whole thing contained permanently once it has kicked off? Do you want to be around to see the aftermath when the first industrial Fusion accident occurs?

Fusion should be left for the stars and deep space. We can find other ways to tap the abundant energy of the earth without putting the whole planet at risk of annihilation.

Tags: disaster, e=mc2, electricity, Fuel, Magnetics, nuclear, Space, supply by Sparky
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An update on the Aeroscraft compressed helium cargo airship. A demonstration unit is now in production using military funding. At least they are doing something useful for a change.

Thanks to advances in composite materials it is now possible to build lightweight containment chambers which are strong enough to hold the compressed helium and light enough to allow the vessell to become lighter than air when the helium is uncompressed providing lift and descent capabilities. Combined with fuel for thrust and steering the vessel is able to transport 50 Tonnes of cargo to hard to reach places with limited infrastructure for landing and takeoff.

This is the inevitable progression of the Helium aircraft. It is a refreshing change to see actual progress in this technology. One thing not mentioned in the article is the potential for the aircraft to run with no fuel simply by using lift and descent to create thrust. Combined with energy regeneration from the descent stage that would provide enough stored energy to enable the vessel to run 24 hours a day without having to rely on external fuel sources. Add in lightweight thin film solar technology on the exterior skin and the vessel becomes a truly revolutionary machine. A true product of the 21′st century.

Tags: aircraft, construction, Energy Storage, Fuel, military, renewable, transport by Sparky
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An interesting twist on the Hydrogen production system using sunlight and water to react with copper and aluminium oxide that when heated to 200 Degrees Celsius and combined with “catalytic nano particles” initiate a chemical reaction to quickly release the stored hydrogen. The Hydrogen is then fed into a Fuel cell battery to provide a constant source of power to a household.

The idea basically being that all the hydrogen for one day can be created quickly from the chemical reaction and then temporarily stored in holding containers reliving the necessity to permanently store hydrogen which is a major obstacle for a Hydrogen based economy.

If the demonstration system can confirm the suggested results from the preliminary modelling this would be a handy way to provide a constant source of energy to a household without having to worry about battery replacements every few years and could be built into every house

The hybrid device contains series of copper tubes coated with a thin layer of aluminum and aluminum oxide and partly filled with catalytic nanoparticles. A combination of water and methanol flows through the vacuum-sealed tubes.
“This set-up allows up to 95% of the sunlight to be absorbed with very little being lost as heat to the surroundings,” Hotz said. “This is crucial because it permits us to achieve temperatures of well over 200 ºC within the tubes. By comparison, a standard solar collector can only heat water between 60 and 7 ºC.”

Once the evaporated liquid achieves a high enough temperature, tiny amounts of a catalyst are added. The combination of high temperature and catalysts produces hydrogen very efficiently, Hotz said. The hydrogen can be immediately directed to a fuel cell to provide electricity to a building during the day, or compressed and stored in a tank to provide power later.

Tags: construction, e=mc2, electricity, Energy Storage, Fuel, hydrogen, renewable, solar, water by Sparky
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