Ways to solve global warming
POSTED BY: SignyM
UPDATED: Sunday, June 16, 2024 03:19
VIEWED: 6297
PAGE 11 of 13
Oh, hey... BTW- welcome back to RWE Finn!
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It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
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The reason I've heard from environmentalists against hydropower is that damming up streams changes their ecology and causes declines in native species and invasions of non-native species.
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Youre right: dams have all kinds of negative effects on river ecology. They prevent silt from being carried downstream, leading to (riparian) beach erosion, release COLD water, prevent fish migration, drown valleys etc. Maybe modern technology has a way around these issues. I don't know. But so far, there is an ongoing program to take down old dams.
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It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
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Quote:Not really. A dam backs up enough water behind it and is generally built on major rivers that are fed by many tributaries. Runoff fluctuations are likely to have little effect.
Originally posted by chrisisall:Quote:As river origin points lose snow & ice, hydropower may fluctuate some, I conjure.
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
I`m not sure what would be unreliable about hydropower.
The laughing Chrisisall
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
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Quote:So a dam might have been taken offline several summers ago, which doesn't really compare to the irregularity of wind and the day/night cycle. Dams are more reliable, because their source of energy flows almost constantly, whereas wind and the sun produce energy at a certian point only somtimes.
Originally posted by SignyM:
BTW_ Electricity generated by boilers and turbine is not more reliable. Just look at the outages California had several summers ago when power plants were taken offline during peak season. Or just google major+ power+failures
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
...I wonder if one can use biological materials to heat up the waste to such a high temperature, or if one needs to use fossil fuels for that.
Emphatically , yes...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1125_031125_turkeyoil.
html
http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/2003/Anything-Into-Oil1may03.htm
There was a fuels plant built in the United States that was adjacent to a turkey-processing facility , where the offal and feathers were bioreacted at over 600 degrees F to produce gasoline and diesel fractions....Part of the fuels were used to heat the boilers...
"This is a solution to three of the biggest problems facing mankind," says Brian Appel, chairman and CEO of Changing World Technologies, the company that built this pilot plant and has just completed its first industrial-size installation in Missouri. "This process can deal with the world's waste. It can supplement our dwindling supplies of oil. And it can slow down global warming."
"...The process is designed to handle almost any waste product imaginable, including turkey offal, tires, plastic bottles, harbor-dredged muck, old computers, municipal garbage, cornstalks, paper-pulp effluent, infectious medical waste, oil-refinery residues, even biological weapons such as anthrax spores. According to Appel, waste goes in one end and comes out the other as three products, all valuable and environmentally benign: high-quality oil, clean-burning gas, and purified minerals that can be used as fuels, fertilizers, or specialty chemicals for manufacturing."
Also , there used to be a significant 'bone ash' industry here in the States for disposing of animal bones , while producing a soil-amendment product--'biochar' , as it's now called...
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Quote:Well I probably won't be visiting as much as I have in the past. I've gotten very heavy into my dancing. I compete and perform regularly now. And between that, my family and work, I don't have any free time.
Originally posted by SignyM:
Oh, hey... BTW- welcome back to RWE Finn!
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It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
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"I`m not sure what would be unreliable about hydropower. It runs or can run constantly. It produces a steady, usually unbroken, stream of electricity."
MMMMmmmm ... not true. For one thing, no power generation plant - whether coal gas, hydro or nuclear- runs 100% of capacity, 100% the time.
When it comes to hydropower specifically, look at Niagara Falls for example: "To balance the need for power with a desire to preserve the beauty of Niagara Falls, the United States and Canada signed a treaty in 1950 that regulates the amount of water diverted for hydroelectricity production. On average, more than 200,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), or 1.5 million gallons of water a second, flow from Lake Erie into the Niagara River. The 1950 pact requires that at least 100,000 cfs of water spill over the Falls during the daylight hours in the tourist season, April through October. This flow may be cut in half at night during this period and at all times the rest of the year."
In other words, during daylight hours April through October, the falls power units operate at half-capacity. In addition, at night the hydropower is used to pump water to a reservoir, so that during the day power production will be maximized.
"Solar and wind power do not. They are intermittent, whether they are in Kansas or the coast."
If the standard you use is that each unit be on line 100% of the time, you're right. But that's not the correct standard to use. As above, no power plant operates at 100% capacity, 100% of the time. Additionally, there are power plants built to run only briefly - they are called 'peaker units'. So the idea of a part-time unit is not so novel as you might think.
"A dam backs up enough water behind it and is generally built on major rivers that are fed by many tributaries. Runoff fluctuations are likely to have little effect."
But siltation behind the dam does - it limits the lifespan of all dams, unless they are taken out of service and dredged.
Even more than that - see the post below.
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Silence is consent.
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Salazar: Eastern wind could replace coal for power
By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press Writer Wayne Parry, Associated Press Writer – 4 mins ago
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Windmills off the East Coast could generate enough electricity to replace most, if not all, the coal-fired power plants in the United States, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday.
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Silence is consent.
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Quote:Dance well, my friend.
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
Well I probably won't be visiting as much as I have in the past.
The laughing Chrisisall
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