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re: i challenge your logic (long)
3 may 2001
steve lowe wrote:
>...the basis of our economy in the u.s is in part due to cheap energy,
>especially when producing capital goods. this is not to say that
>we are not wasteful in many areas, especially in the energy use
>in our residential and commercial buildings.
i suppose you noticed the eia report that concluded that overall
residential energy consumption declined 27% from 1978 to 1997...
i see energy wasted all over the place. i agree that higher energy
prices can change this. as an ee, i can envision switches and routers
and pcs that don't use much more power than hearing aids, but where's
the incentive now? has most of the energy waste already been squeezed
out of capital goods production?
>there have been (essentially) no new powerplants built in the last 10 years
>out west. the only possible plants that could be built due to environmental
>consideration is natural gas...
what's your take on small-scale cogen, eg $30k 30 kw capstone turbines?
they say only one moving part with air bearings and air cooling makes
maintenance costs extremely low over a 40,000 hour lifetime.
>right now, diesel is 1/2 the cost of natural gas delivered to ca
>powerplants, but they can't burn it due to scaqmd and other air authority
>restrictions. if only to buy time, i suspect we must allow a "bending of
>the rules" to keep the lights on this summer.
that may change with better pollution controls. capstone says their
turbines emit nitrogen oxides and unburned hydrocarbons with "less than
25 parts per million per volume for diesel, significantly less than the
1,000 to 3,000 parts per million emission standard of a reciprocating
diesel fuel generator set." and using the cogen heat energy can mean only
burning half the fuel, with half the emissions, compared to separately
buying electricity and natural gas for space and water heating.
>...solar looks ugly at 10 times the utility rate.
solar heating looks good at 1/100 the price of pvs :-)
nick
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