Tag Archives: energy

Gates & Toshiba Go For A Package Nuclear Plant

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By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009 – 2010)

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

According to Yahoo!®News and AFP Bill Gates and Toshiba are in discussions for the development of small nuclear reactor.  The story indicates that Gates and Toshiba will focus on developing such a reactor that will be able to operate for 100 years without replenishment of fuel:

The Nikkei business daily earlier reported that the two sides would team up to develop a compact next-generation reactor that can operate for up to 100 years without refueling to provide emission-free energy.

The daily said the joint development would focus on the Traveling-Wave Reactor (TWR), which consumes depleted uranium as fuel. Current light-water reactors require refueling every few years.

Gates’ company is TerraPower and they have been working to develop their own nuclear power package plant.  With the potential partnership between the two entities, perhaps technology will be exchanged which will roll out a completed product much sooner than would be expected without the cooperative effort.

Toshiba is not only Toshiba, but it is also Westinghouse:

Toshiba, which owns US nuclear plant maker Westinghouse, has developed a design for an ultracompact reactor that can operate continuously for 30 years.

The company is preparing to apply for US approval to start constructing the first such reactor as early as 2014 and put it into practical use by the end of the decade, Ohmori said.

Read the entire article here. But, don’t count your atoms before they’re split.

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New Mexico And Japan = Smart Grids?

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From New Mexico Business Weekly comes news of the signing of cooperative agreements and more between the State of New Mexico, research laboratories located in New Mexico, private companies and the nation of Japan:

Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization signed five agreements on Friday in Los Alamos with state officials and representatives from the two national laboratories, Los Alamos County, the Public Service Co. of New Mexico, and the Mesa del Sol master-planned community in south-central Albuquerque.

The agreements call for investment of 30 million dollars from Japan while the other partners will provide technology and implementation of various processes to help develop and expand smart-grid technology.  Such technology is essential to the proper utilization of renewable energy distribution and efficiency.

The current information on the agreements can be seen by clicking here.

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Organized Labor’s Whipping “Boy” Cleans Up

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By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009 – 2010)

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

Street sign for Wal*Mart Drive, south of Gordo...
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Perhaps whipping “boy” is a misnomer, since Wal-Mart is all grown-up and  king of the retail jungle.  Not that organized labor is happy about WallyWorld’s status, but thus far, they have been unable to do anything except attempt to make a villain out of a very successful business model that sold over 400 billion dollars of retail goods during 2009.

Now comes news from Wal-Mart and the New York Times (Stephanie Rosenbloom, February 25th) that they plan to cut  their greenhouse emissions substantially between now and 2015:

… it would cut some 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain by the end of 2015 — the equivalent of removing more than 3.8 million cars from the road for a year.

The New York Times article was largely taken from a press release from Wal-Mart.  This is not Wal-Mart’s first venture into helping to “save” the earth from some of the reported effects of anthropogenic actions, but more and more they are teaming up with environmental organizations. Whether this will be good for Wal-Mart remains to be seen and there will still be those detractors, whether organized labor or just garden variety progressives, that will demean the efforts of Wal-Mart and other big boxers, simply because they mean to have a drum in the band.

Here’s a link to the Wal-Mart press release … you be the judge, click.

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A “Little” Power From A Little Sunlight

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By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009 – 2010)

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

The Governor’s office, along with a couple of state agencies, announced yesterday that Chevron Mining and Chevron Technology will construct a one megawatt concentrating photovoltaic solar facility on property that was formerly used in the mining of molybdenum in Questa, New Mexico.

Everyone involved seems to be ecstatic about the project with state and federal agencies touting the use of the former mine property as a great way to use space formerly occupied by potentially hazardous material.

The press release is posted below, just click on the link:

GEsolarQuesta

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Big Solar In New Mexico — Again

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GLENDORA, CA - APRIL 22: Solar panels cover t...
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By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009 – 2010)

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

Albuquerque’s New Mexico Business Weekly has announced a firm has plans for a 2500 acre solar power array for Guadalupe County.  The Spanish firm, GA-Solar announced that the project would be a 300 megawatt facility.  According to the firm, the project will supply enough electricity for 50,000 homes.

Quoting from the article, it looks like construction will see hundreds of employees and the permanent workforce will be up to 75:

GA-Solar’s parent firm, Corporación Gestamp, will invest $1 billion to develop the project, which will take up to four years to construct. The company will employ 300 during construction, and will have 75 full-time employees once the plant is completed, said GA-Solar and Corporación Gestamp CEO Jon Riberas in a news release.

New Mexico through the Economic Development Department had a say, as did Governor Richardson when he issued this statement:

“I believe this unprecedented investment shows that New Mexico has not only become the center of the North American solar industry, but is ready to take its place as a global player in the production of renewable energy,” Richardson said in a prepared statement.

Surely, something will have to be done to distribute this kind of electricity generation.  Especially, when this project’s capacity is added to output by wind turbine generation and one or two other large solar arrays.  Perhaps, Tres Amigas will play a hand in  the distribution.  That is, if Tres Amigas is ever constructed.

Read the complete story here.

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Climate Change & Global Warming Arguments Could Cause Divorce?

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By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009 – 2010)

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

A recent article brings the possibility of divorce as one result of global warming/climate change (gw/cc).  Well, maybe the preceding is a stretch about what the story actually says.  Before we get into the specifics of the article, let us recognize that those two issues have certainly relegated polite discourse among men and women to the manure heap of the internet. Go to any “warmer”  or skeptic blog and look at the bond fire made of virtual personalities and their comments in a point-counterpoint circle.  Of course, one can also see and hear the same on radio and television as disconnected and unrecognized voices and images flit by our collective lives.

Now, what about those divorces.  According to ClimateWire, an online news feed which dishes out information on “The Politics and Business of Climate Change,”  some therapists believe disagreements on different aspects of gw/cc  among couples can end in divorce:

“The danger arises when one partner undergoes an environmental ‘waking up’ process way before the other, leaving a new values gap between them,” said Linda Buzzell, a family and marriage therapist in California. She noted that diet changes are particularly jarring.

The story then suggests that taking or effecting change slowly may b.e the best way to go when there is disagreement between spouses.  One professor has this to say regarding divorce and the twin issues of gw/cc:

“As the focus on climate increases in the public’s mind, it can’t help but be a part of people’s planning about the future,” said Thomas Joseph Doherty, a clinical psychologist in Portland, Ore. “It touches every part of how they live: what they eat, whether they want to fly, what kind of vacation they want”

While the quotes above from ClimateWire are interesting enough, the information provided came from a New York Times article which can be found here.  It is an article that has some humor if you can read between the points made by the antagonists, but which seems confrontational overall.

Strange to say, the articles do not mention any of the recent revelations that have placed ‘warmers” and skeptics at each others throats … that would be the e-mail scandal flap and Himalayan glacier flop.

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Up On The Roof

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By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009)

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

The title of the article offered by Inter Press Service and truthout.org gives us, Egypt: Rooftops Empower The Poor. The article is really quite helpful and offers simple technology using readily available materials and techniques.

I won’t review the article, but I will post a small quote from the article to pique your interest.  Not necessarily in the hope that you’ll salvage everything you can to replicate a rooftop in Egypt, but to suggest opportunities which might make a difference in your own life:

The two solar panels and bio-gas unit on the roof of Soliman’s building in Darb El-Ahmar provide hot water and cooking gas to his two-bedroom apartment, reducing his family’s carbon footprint and energy costs. The clean energy appliances, made mostly from recycled material, have reduced his household’s waste and have meant that “my gas and electricity bills are much less than before,” says Soliman. They shaved nearly 50 percent off the utility bills.

Carbon footprints are of little interest to me at this time because it seems that the whole “global warming/climate change” effort has tumbled rear-end over teakettle … at least for now and maybe far into the future.  Something about scads of emails and weather cold enough to freeze the horns off of a brass billy goat.

Here’s the article in its entirety from Inter Press Service and truthout.org.

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Panasonic Stores The Juice You Can Use

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5 Kilowatt Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
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By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009)

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

Panasonic has come out with a storage battery that will interface with solar energy and wind energy on a long-term storage basis. That means that one of the obstacles which makes wind and solar somewhat unreliable may now be conquered.

Since this is New Year’s Eve and I’ve nothing better to do, I thought a little good news to chase the gloom from 2009 might be welcome. Here is the link to story. Enjoy and keep a great attitude and outlook for the future … this too shall pass! No, really!

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Edgewood Now In Renewable Energy Finance District

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By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009).

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

In the past we have written about or provided information about statutes passed during the last regular New Mexico legislative session which allows New Mexico counties to enable renewable energy financing districts. You can read our previous articles here and here.

Santa Fe County (SFC) did push forward and has passed enabling legislation and a resolution to begin the program as envisioned by the statutes passed by the legislature. This SFC work has in turn, allowed Edgewood to pass a resolution requesting to be a part of the Santa Fe County Renewable Finance District.  The resolution is Resolution No. 2009-48 – Renewable Energy District. As of the posting of this article, the resolution is not available on the Town’s website, but will likely be posted sometime next week.

Edgewood Town Councilor John Abrams has stated that with the passing of the resolution and its acceptance by SFC, Edgewood citizens can now utilize the funding mechanism formed by the finance district. SFC personnel and Edgewood staff will schedule public announcements, information sessions, and workshops for sometime in January. Santa Fe County citizens residing outside the corporate boundaries of Edgewood will likely come under SFC’s resolution and regulations.

We will post further information as it becomes available, but if you want to research the statutes you can start with this page.  The applicable statutes run from 5-18-1 through 5-18-13. You may also waqnt to access some SFC work information to be found here which includes a link to frequently asked questions (FAQS).

Thanks go to the Edgewood governing body and staff for ensuring that Edgewood citizens will be able to take part in the program which addresses residential solar, wind and geothermal energy projects. Special thanks to Councilor John Abrams for sponsoring the resolution.

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Girding For The Grid

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By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009).

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

According to an article in Salon, General Electric (GE) which is heavily invested in both wind and solar is jumping into the inverter business through conversion of their converter units for wind. Their plan is to enable solar direct current power to be converted through inversion to alternating current power suitable for transfer to a grid in multiples of megawatts …  if they are able to develop to that scale.

If GE, by itself. or with others, is able to accomplish inversion of solar power to the degree cited in the article; it looks like “the sky is the limit”.

Read Salon’s article here

®

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