(Part 2) Top products from r/energy

if Hillary hadn't made corn a product of choice for ethanol, we probably wouldn't have an agriculture industry right now. Or, rather, there would've been an even larger consolidation of the agriculture industry than there has been in the past 10 years to the point that it would become very very difficult to pull it out of that depression.

Switchgrass and other products for ethanol make more sense on a multitude of levels (EROEI, cost, resources, etc) but one of the major, and oft overlooked reasons is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchgrass#Soil_conservation

it would allow for new lands (otherwise not dedicated to farming) to be used, as well as allow lands that have been overworked, over fertilized, and otherwise leading to the death of soil, ( dated, and modern techniques allow it to be rebuilt... read: switchgrass/biochar/etc, but a good example is the first few chapters of this )
Switchgrass can prepare new lands for food-crop growing, it can repair old lands, and it otherwise can be grown on lands that most likely will never be suitable or economical for food-crop growth but perfectly fine (and profitable/sustainable) for switchgrass (or hemp, take your pick, I think switchgrass is more realistic in this environment).

This would allow for lands to be redirected back to their original purposed to begin with: growing crop to export (for profit). US agriculture exports have plateaued and even dropped over the past decade. There was supposed to be a major Gulf port facility upgrade back in 2000 that Bush didn't sign because he only agreed to build it if he got offshore drilling (a few hurricanes and an oil spill later, he got his offshore drilling... though port facilities still haven't been upgraded)

This was going to overhall all the shipping lanes on the major rivers (Ohio, Missouri, Mississippi, etc) as well as increase road width from the southeast to three lanes to allow for the increased trucking as well as rail line upgrades. Also, and the major plug to the whole thing, the port facilities from the Gulf out were supposed to be upgraded to be larger than the LA port upgrades happening just before then (same crews were to move from LA to New Orleans, etc after the LA ports were finished).
When this happened, plus some trade agreements between the US and China, combined with arrangements between US/China/Brazil... we cut our exports at the same time that Brazil was investing heavily in theirs (with money from China... ultimately, from US and Bush investors who'd bought up large swaths of brazilian rainforest and otherwise destroyed it for farmland under Bush-ite control (yes, I'm saying that Bush and friends own and control the Brazilian agriculture industry). Brazil was able to grow well beyond our capacity and to become the major exporter of food-crop to China and Africa (as well as pretty much everywhere else). Essentially, Brazil replaced the US as China/the world's breadbasket.

Now that their industry is up and running, and running strong and profitably, and likely to continue to grow at a controlled rate, I wouldn't be surprised if a major agriculture bill in the US as well as infrastructure projects weren't pushed by Obama/democrats to overhaul and increase our shipping/handling facilities and infrastructures as well as readjust our farm subsidies so that farmers can profitably stop overworking their land, and begin to grow on currently undeveloped land, as well as..... you get the general idea

Then again, with the repub's winning control of the Senate, and ganking so much from the house, it'll prob be a fairly difficult beast to wrestle away from them.... read: we will most likely be locked in stalemate until 2012. Personally, fine with me (i hate neocons, tea party is stupid, Obama is almost as incapable and... Hilary or Ron Paul are my two choices for pres in 2012. And, I'm from KY, I voted for his son... who, despite the rhetoric, is not a (modern incarnation of the) teaparty nut case though he did use them for votes... and I would imagine thinks Sarah Palin is a whore, and used her as such to get votes.). With any luck, a vote of no confidence will come up for Obama forcing him to compete in dem primaries in 2011/12 and Hillary will win. The ag industry has been hers since 2004 anyway, and its only likelyhood of moving forward with any stability or chance for success is by something she proposes (no longer a senator so easier said than done) or, in fact, pushes through as president.....

either way, its form will most likely include a switch of subsidies from corn to switchgrass, at least until the infrastructure for corn export is increased to allow for imports to come back in and help the industry grow w/out them (subsidies).

Energy efficiency engineer here.

You want diagnostic equipment that's straightforward, temporary, and relatively inexpensive and durable. While there are a ton of diagnostic options for professionals, most of them are not well suited for average consumers because they require more know-how, software, or post-processing to understand.

My initial reaction is that kill a watts are good- they are simple and very easy to deal with, and relatively cheap. Get a few.

The IR camera is useful, but only if you know how to interpret it.

I'd recommend that you get a copy or two of Residential Energy ( http://www.amazon.com/Residential-Energy-Savings-Existing-Buildings/dp/0133418960) since it's written in an understandable manner and is full of really great information.

Do you guys have natural gas? If so, I'd get a gas sniffing wand. Last thing you want is for a well meaning person to seal their house up tight and then have their house explode due to a gas leak that would have never built up in a drafty house.

A pro grade caulking gun might be helpful- most people would never buy a nice one but they make the job much better.

Get an IR thermometer gun. It's a much faster way to check surface temperatures, which could be used by somebody who wants to do some math about heat loss calcs.

I'll think some more and see if I can come up with other simple tools. Honestly, the best thing to do is get a professional energy auditor, but you can't really get one of those to keep at the library...

I think this book is a good high level overview. It’s not too technical.

Thirst for Power: Energy, Water, and Human Survival https://www.amazon.com/dp/0300212461/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_8aK7AbWP7N9PF

As for ‘finding a job in renewable energy’ I think it really depends on what you’re like to do. Build things? Construction science, civil eng or elec eng. Design things? Mech or elec or civil eng. Research? Chemistry / chem eng or elec Eng.

I see lots of math in your future.

I just read Energy for Future Presidents. Despite the somewhat odd format it was one of the best thought out books out there.

While I didn't expect it from the title, Green Metropolis is another book which should be required reading on energy.

A book that I really enjoyed about the effects of peak oil on society is called "Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller" by Jeff Rubin. If you are interested in the subject give it a read.

I ended up picking this up and it is a great read.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Surge-Opportunity-Americas/dp/0199986169

Maybe you'll also like this book then: Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution

I've not read this one: Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

edit: and this film: The Corporation but especially: CEO Ray Anderson Playlist

I redid your math and got a very similar answer. And then I redid it with my preferred constants, and we're missing something. Because with my preferred constants (0.15 emissivity and 0.9 absorptivity, because the real world is way uglier than spec, and ~30 suns concentration or 10 KW/linear meter), we should be able to heat HTF on the order of 5 deg/second at the top end. And that's a pretty conservative set of numbers.

And at 727 deg. C (1000 K ) we'd only emit 5x more radiation and people would be running molten salt and laughing, and the world would be very different.

EDIT: I pulled out Duffie and Beckman, 3rd ed, and the SEGS systems got up to 390 C, with average 92% reflective mirrors, and a 0.94 absorptivity/0.19 emissivity (at 350 C) selective surface. With a concentration ratio of 80.

Or at least a bit of familiarity with Valcav Smil's work.


A good recommendation for a nuts n bolts read is Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems. Good stuff, but it is a (fairly lightweight) textbook.

> In France, nuclear is considered as the pride of sovereignty recaptured

So it seems. I glossed over the book The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II (Inside Technology) where the theme is exactly that. It is a fun read, some insight into EDF vs CEA disputes etc. Though I didn't dive in full (was searching for specifics).

Well I haven't read Malthus, but I have read a modern take on it.

Bill Gates recommends this book. I wanted to but have not (yet) read it. https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Civilization-History-MIT-Press/dp/0262035774

You can buy it from Amazon India

Edit: that's the paper copy (hardback or paperback). I don't know which e-book retailers retail in India, so I can't advise where to look if you want an e-book. If you're at a university, check via your library.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0199759464 here it is... let me know if you have questions
-nuclear engineer

Chernobyl Unit 4 was a military plutonium-production reactor making weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear warheads. To do that, it needed to have its fuel rods changed out once-a-month (and then reprocessed to extract the plutonium), and thus couldn't have a containment-building around it. Leaving the fuel rods in for the 18-24 month fuel-cycle that commercial reactors use would allow too much of the wrong plutonium isotopes to build up, thus rendering the resulting plutonium in the rods non-weapons-grade.

No commercial nuclear power reactor has ever been used to make plutonium for warheads. See: Megawatts and Megatons by Richard Garwin and (Nobel Prize laureate {in Physics for 1992}) Georges Charpak: https://www.amazon.com/Megawatts-Megatons-Future-Nuclear-Power/dp/0226284271

You won't find (m)any online. Look offline; one book series I used in college was the "Taking Sides" books about controversial issues.

Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Energy and Society

http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Sides-Clashing-Energy-Society/dp/0078127556

All I've got for you a very dense textbook that my co-worker lent me:

Reliability Evaluation of Power Systems by Roy Billinton and Ronald N. Allan. Definitely not light reading, but my co-worker told me it is basically the Bible when it comes measuring, calculating, and understanding the reliability of electric generation, transmission, and distribution, from both an engineering and economic standpoint.

Probably not what you're looking for, but just thought I would throw it out there in case it struck your fancy.

If you get a 12 volt fan it will use about 1 amp, so 8amp hours for all night = 20% of carbatt capacity. Some car batteries will only do that every night for a week before they start to suffer, some will do it for a few months.

This sort of thing looks intresting:

https://www.amazon.com/Station-Portable-Inverter-Generator-42000mAh/dp/B074MN6YG3/

"150 Watthours" lithium Ion battery pack (rather good), "100" Watt solar input , built in 100 watt inverter (that's lowish power but still useful) and usb and 12 volt outputs. cost $160

the specification of the solar input may be questionable, limited to 25 actual watts and nominal 13~14 v level (MC4 connector). That may or may not be compatible with nominal 100 watt, 12v or 18v panel setups.

Then you'd just need a $20 12v fan, and bargain lightweight solar panel deal...

"50W" bendable panel kit for $100 ?

There is a "100W" version for $170 - possibly overkill.

1 kilogram, frameless :

https://www.amazon.com/ALLPOWERS-Bendable-Flexible-Lightweight-Irregular/dp/B013DZWDI0/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226320553/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_ZEjSCbADPDBJ5

Intentions are nice but Bernie’s policies are dangerous

> How's that?

We would have to exploit more of biosphere (rather then augment the parts of biosphere that we already use with such things as mineral fertilizers). We would need to use much more arable land, destroying remaining wilderness. The total efficiency of anything we do would be greatly reduced. Mass starvation would follow really fast.

Apparently no more then the half of current Earth population would be alive now if not for this invention http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process ( Vaclav Smil, http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Twentieth-Century-Innovations-Revolutions/dp/0195168747 )

Industrial agriculture allows as to have much lower impact on biosphere that would be possible otherwise.