Powering The Planet In The Future And Getting Away From  Fuel Oils And Coal Fired Plants

The following posting is a synopsis from National Geographic, Vol.208, No.2 August 2005 With the cover citing After Oil,Powering The Future, while the article is tiled Future Power, by Michael Parfit.  With the enthusiasm for new electrical sources in isolation or on islands etc, during the energy crisis of 2005 due to th cost of oil and gasoline, inventors and researchers geared themselves toward renewable sources of energy. The all around instability in the Persian Gulf oil fields, the difficulties of natural gas supply and to ship it led to leading edge technologies to generate electricity. Having plenty of coal, tar sands and shale oil and gas, these green house gas effect with fossil fuels also drove the back bone of researchers to develop better sources of clean energy, hence solar panels came into being as a source of plenty of energy and utilizing energy conservation. From page 6 of the article ".....and others have no doubt: It's time to step up the search for the next great fuel for the hungry engine of humankind." A drive toward searching for energy from space and the earth's core, such as solar power, then wind power biofuels and nuclear created a collective push by experts to succeed like never before. Everything is essential for maintaining energy from solar to biomass, from page 7 of the article, "The world used some 320 billion kilowatt-hours of energy a day." and consumption could triple as the coming century passes.Nothing like fossil fuels, they are one of a kind but we are doing ourselves in with green house gases and their detrimental effects on our weather patterns as recognized by most concerned Scientists.
Solar Panels And Wind Turbines
Thus the solar panel/photo electric cell or photovoltaic panels came into being across territories and can generate 5 megawatts of power replacing coal fired plants, investment in these designs of solar cells was under way. Modest installations at a price tag of $15,000 at $10/watt capacity, batteries included for when the sun shined was getting cheaper to produce energy, and a constant research to improve semi conductors of solar cells was on the way to making them a success. With trying to make solar cells more competitive to the utility companies, to make cheap and easy energy, dubbed "disruptive technologies", technology that replaces another way even more enhanced in research. The need to improve battery design to store generated electricity for cloudy skies and night time periods also drove research. By 2005 solar panels produced less than 1% of the Earth's electrical needs and one does not always need land mass for solar panels, roof tops etc work just as well.
A company called Nanosolar developed a new semi conductor that worked at 50 cents/watt. The design is a foil like product, that can be cut and spread over a concave dish as I figured, Then with a fish eye lens on top, through following the sun with a gyro for the sun's solstice, no doubt megawatts can be generated. As an Engineering Technician, I must say we got to watch what we do with nano science and keep it limited to practical use as not to poison ourselves with this technology.
Other green electrical generation systems that have evolved are wind powered turbines. The wind  is warmed up by the sun or made cold by the Canadian arctic air when our winter season comes around and our wind velocity gets more powerful as the fall rains come upon us which can drive a wind turbine. Wind turbines to generate electricity are an alternative to solar energy for cloudy days and winter darkened skies. Megawatts of clean power can be effectively generated. Wind turbine blades vary in size and dimension. One effective turbine which is wind powered can crank out 2 megawatts of power, half the power generated in a Leipzig solar farm. Denmark as of 2005 generates more than 3,000 megawatts, nearly 20% of the country's requirement for electricity. The wind boom is taking Europe by storm as a world leader with 35,000 megawatts in stead of 35 powerful coal fired plants.
With 7,000 megawatts being generated in North America it comes in a distant second place for wind turbine electric generation. Wind is the winner for renewable energy success.

With wind turbines being an eye sore for some local residents, they have been installed off the coast which is a more expensive installation and maintenance cost but there is more constant wind out to sea to generate megawatts. One still has to have a cost effective way to store wind and solar energy. Technology advances thus uses of this abundance of electricity as found, to create hydrogen or ethanol. One can generate their own electricity with a wind turbine to power their house or industrial complex at less cost than mega power plants with transmission lines. In Arizona USA a small hand held size wind turbines are being manufactured for homes, sail boats and isolated places like light houses and weather stations while powering a 400 watt capacity. Some generate power and when they are not consuming it, they sell it to the local power grid. Within a few years, a $3000 hand held size wind turbine will bring back returns. There are huge returns for combining solar and wind power.
With combining solar and wind turbines on can power an electro-magnetic brake on their wind turbine so it will not turn during the day, but be there for you at night. If you produce electricity you have to use it, and one would be faced with the hunting effect of the wind turbine which would cause power surges which when happening, one can not even keep a clock running to keep the right time. One needs to have a static converter and or rectifiers to control there AC to DC power consumption and and storage with batteries to giving your utility company electricity for profit. It is ideal for Canadian installations like community centers for when we are without power during our ice storms as our seasons change, heating elements to cook and serve coffee could handle power surges from a solar,turbine energy system. A community center or arena would have licensed electricians to handle the power supply and distribution of the power supply. One can not under mind the constant regulated power supply of the likes of Hydro Quebec.
If the Mayor of Montreal was to build a wind tunnel at the west end of our made made island, and put in wind turbines with the housing of the wind tunnel being covered with the foil type solar panels from Nanosolar. We could in effect generate electricity for the island with employed electricians. The wind tunnel could have a wind restricting orfic at the back end to increase wind power to turn over our last turbines at a supercharged wind velocity so to speak. The wind tunnel could be installed on a giant turret controlled by a servo motor to catch the swirling wind that flows down the St Lawrence valley. Thus we could create mega watts to power the man made island while working closely with Hydro Quebec. For military operational needs where they have qualified electricians, one could install a solar wind tunnel at the end of the air force's air strip, thus using the military jet take off to power wind turbines. Caught up once again with power surges but that is for the electrical engineer to figure out with high capacity capacitors and relay firing system to stabilize power surge during jet take off and landing on air strips.
Biofuels
Biodiesel has been burned in several countries for some time now, from page 22 in the article, "Germany uses about 450 million gallons of biodiesel a year, about 3% of its total diesel consumption." The use of biomass is as old as the hills, modern day biomass refers to ethanol, biogas distilled from plants. The States make ethanol from corn, 50% of the fuel for vehicles in Brazil use ethanol made from sugar cane, the USA as to several nations burn vegetable oil as cut in diesel, usually in unmodified engines. With the fuel system we have today, biofuel is simple to incorporate into the various grades of fuel. Biomass is limited by land mass for harvesting crops slatted for fuel,solar panels are more effective use of land mass as to using it to create biomass. One would have to double farm size around the world to feed the biomass need for world consumption. Efficiency of fuel farming has to be improved, plant starches make the base for biomass fuels along with plant oils and sugars, thus researchers are looking into plant life with more liquid fuel per yield of crop. North America's native plant,switch grass, grows fast and requires less fertilizers than corn, USA base source of ethanol. Hybrid cars with biomass based fuel is the way to go, lobbyists on all fronts stifle transition to improved technology with the many biomass options.
I myself came up with a biofuel of vegetable oil and varsol to burn in a wee oil lamp, it was effective and a clean burning unit to replace candles during power outages. Canada's Province Nova Scotia has an abundance of kelp that they can harvest from the sea for the country's food lines as well as making it a base from their Province's biomass. The milk industry have their cattle dung with straw that can be put through a steam drier and more than likely extract methane in the process, when dried out it can be put through a grinder then blown into a boiler through a rotating cup to produce steam for steam turbine generating stations. Every Canadian Province has their milk production  thus cattle dung and straw, a renewable energy source can be burned to generate electricty. The Alberta cattle industry for beef has the same with cattle dung and straw to produce steam for generating electricity.  I will be covering another story from the National Geographic, Vol.212,No.4, October 2007 on growing fuel, The wrong way, The right way, as the article is promoted on the cover of the publication, in a soon to be posted blog posting.
Nuclear and Fusion
Decades old, nuclear fission was a leader as an energy source other than coal fired plants. 16% of the world's electricity came from about 440 nuclear plants by 2005. Certain countries like France depended on nuclear energy where 78% of its electricity was derived from this process. Nuclear, with having no carbon dioxide emissions and the occasional containment dome and cooling tower as an eye sore to locals was evident. Nuclear accidents are deadly though, like three mile island and Chornobyl and then Japan after the tsunami. With having the costly nuclear waste to dispose of, it is hardly a renewable energy source. Uranium fuel is not in abundance and will not last for ever.
Growing countries economies like China, are turning to nuclear resources. The USA sees nuclear plants as a source of energy to make hydrogen from water for hydrogen - car boosters. Japan with its short falls of oil, gas, and coal see nuclear fission as a pillar of the future as of 2005. Japan with its $20 billion nuclear complex has there fair share of spent fuel rods, the fuel of the nuclear reactor, which it tries to salvage as reusable energy as a mix of uranium and plutonium. These two sources of energy are made into MOX, which could give life to nuclear reactor fuel supplies. Government watch dogs look into nuclear waste so it does not go to nuclear war heads, Japan is committed to peaceful use of nuclear waste. With the limited but deadly nuclear accidents, there is a strong lobby group against nuclear plants. Getting more controversial is the move to breeder reactors, breeder plants make fuel as plutonium for reuse as spent fuel, the program has its draw backs with plutonium production, that lobbyists and Governments don't want it in circulation. Reprocessing of nuclear fuel seems to be a must if countries are going to depend on nuclear energy.
I must admit there is a need for large powerful electrical generating plants but the down fall of the nuclear power plant is the amount of heat it generates for global warming. They have multi-stage cooling in pipe work to contain radiation and maintenance costs are high to ensure radiation containment. On the positive side the medical community gets medical isotopes for nuclear medicine from our nuclear power plants. You gain some and lose some with each form of energy production in the form of electricity.
Fusion is the least hopeful as a "....human hearth.", from page 27. Fusing two atoms to form one, it could produce energy for future electrical needs and there is a millennia's supply of fuel. There is no radioactive waste but fusion needs "...the most complex machinery on Earth.", from page 29. There are scientific claims that cold fusion is promising high energy but there is no success at this so far, both hot and cold fusion takes billions of dollars of investment for any thing to be achieved from this process. Fusion of atoms takes "...a hundred million degrees celsius....", at these elevated temperatures hydrogen fuese creating plasma which is unstable and hard to work control. For all the energy put into the fusion process, there has been only a 65% return rate. Scientists are learning to control the process of fusion and getting higher returns for an actual production plant 50 years down the road. finding the right material for the inside of the fusion reaction chamber for heat transfer is the greatest challenge. With all the fusion research being done to conquer the challenge of the process, between finding a site to build and politics involved, it proves to be a handicap enterprise. Without the support from government to help fusion research, it will have its problems, for governments take risks privite investment will not. Without the push for fusion type research some scientists feel we will be dependent on fossil fuels and the system will fall apart as we know it.
Renewable energy sources are being pushed for by governments, especially by developing nations coming out of poverty.  A certain degree of urgency is present, fueled by the excitement of researchers, solar , wind turbines and biomass work is getting cheered on the most.

City of Montreal Urban Planning Concerns By Islanders For 375 Year Anniversary Of City, As To News Article I Read In "Montreal Times" 

As to the article in the Montreal Times on Saturday March 7th/2015, Vol.20, No.26 written by Sergio Martinez, titled 'Grandiose Plans For Montreal', I got the drift of what is transpiring for the celebration in two years for the city of Montreal's 375th anniversary. It is of grave concern for all Montrealers even although we seem to have a very competent Mayor.
Indeed the Mayor did reveal several projects that he has in mind, and not all are enthused about his ideas, the general public are fixed on getting the Montreal road work repaired, also with improving the transit system some more. Montrealers are very much concerned with the daily reports on how their infrastructure needs repaired for it is starting to fall apart  the people are questioning how to celebrate their 375th birthday with the city faces a multitude of complex problems as the anniversary approaches. With many a family moving off island for houses that they could afford, Montreal is left with a smaller tax base, along with the tax loss from the assortment of commercial and industrial spaces that are vacant.
According tom the article by its author, the Quebec Governments, no matter who they are takes Montreal for granted under each own Government's light that is unfair to the metropolis' funding needs, and the National governments when elected, see the various metropolis' across the country and as a Provincial matter and is not concerned with financing their needs.
Our Mayor seems to what more pedestrian areas thus discouraging the over use of motor vehicles in the down town core. I feel that the Mayor must look around his city and put to use earlir urban planning designs like at the Angrignon metro station where one can drive to a metro station and park their car for free, to take the under ground transit system to the center of the city. To accomplish what the Mayor wants with less automobiles down town, he has got to acknowledge this type of urban planning that is already in the city and create more such parking lots in the out skirts of the center core, with ample municipal transit system to accommodate the public's need. With all these car dealerships around the city, tax breaks could be given to them to create parking complexes with tiered garage system like what is used at the Montreal General Hospital, the parking complexes owned by car dealerships could utilize car wshes and a general mechanic's garage for people when they leave thre cars to take public transport down town.
Our Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre is slating $80 million to celebrate our anniversary according to Sergio Martinez's article which has become common knowledge around Montreal with all the media exposure around our birthday bash in 2 years, part of the money goes to public consultations. I should submit a consulting fee to our friendly Denis that always has a chuckle on the news, hope this article of mine make him chuckle three times over. Any way the way I see it we should develope Iles St Helene the former site of Expo '67, the 375th bash for Montreal is also the 50th birthday of Montreal man made Island, hhhuummm Denis, I can smell city halls brains working over time now. Really a permanent job creation project with an environmental sound mini mall for the specialties of Montreal, organic foods, artisans with there workshops, our Musicians that go busting all over the down town core and metro system can have a year round place to play in our new environmentally friendly strip mall where people can pick u[p Montreal goodies to take home for supper during summer fun on the island, and an engineering conference center with a technical library with construction techniques etc that built the fine city that we have. An esquist Montreal multicultural center for the world to gather in. Just these thoughts alone Denis, how many year round full time jobs are we creating out of our birthday bash. With revenues created over time from our newly renovated man made island, perhaps we could have the tramway you say there is no money for. Wind Farm for hydro to help power the island, the wind does blow down the St Lawrence valley. Dreams of our extended under ground metro system could come alive with new found budget. Then Denis you could light up the our islands with your LED lighting with some budget at hand there too.
To read Sergio Martinez's article turn to my link on my side bar for the Montreal Times, and thanks Sergio for being such a great inspirational source with your article.

The Hospital Kind Of Made Things Up To Me On The Psychiatric Ward

Here it is ten days after being admitted to the psychiatric ward and things have changed, for one today is the first day since Febuary 18th of this year that I am allowed to wear my clothes with being granted phase three. On the lighter side I no longer have the involuntary muscle contractions while taking my daily medication so I feel a lot better over all due to this. The really dumb side of being in hospital again is that I started smoking cigarettes again, it is the only thing to do when you get of the ward for a bit and the P.A.B.s know I stay a lot more relaxed on the ward with my cigarettes, the ward can be a very stressful place. The Psychiatrist that I despised so much with putting me away in long term care, seems to have a renewed understanding for me and there is more mutual respect. I see his Intern/Resident more than the over seeing Psychiatrist and have a chance to speak to the Intern/Resident on a daily bases about my stressors in life. He came up to me with a smile this afternoon and asked me how my smoke break went, it made me feel good expressing my gratitude.

With getting off the ward for a cigarette I got to the coffee stand on the 6th floor today, there was quite the line up for coffee so I went over to the Hospital Book Nook run by Volunteers and bought this little book called, "Hugs For Dog Lovers" by Willie and Kordie Robertson, personalized scriptures by Leann Weiss, published by Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster, New York,London, Toronto, Sydney,2007. The first chapter that I read after supper was really enjoyable and touching to the point it brought a tear to my eye, for all readers a must.

Here is a line or two in the first chapter of the book that got me thinking a lot; ".....Mattie's spirit in the image of the dog struggling against feelings of worthlessness trying as hard as as she could not to show how alone she really felt, wanting to run, unable to escape the prison of her disabilities alone." I've felt feeling of worthlessness as a consumer of the mental health system, then there was the loneliness that came with it, unable to escape the prison of the stigma of psychiatry and the inherited disabilities. Alone as an adult thoughts of suicide creeped in like an Canadian war vet having thoughts of suicide dealing with his own mental health issues with his post traumatic stress disorder. Still kicking and having the sense to override those thoughts of suicide by always forged ahead like a good soldier from my Canadian Coast Guard training. The doggie love book as I will now dub it, refers the reader to certain scriptures, from being referred to Philippians 4:13, I read back a bit starting at scripture 10 which reads as follow through scripture 12 ; "But I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again: though you surely did not care, but you lacked opportunity. (11) Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: (12) I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Every where and in all things I have learned both to abound and to suffer need."   As one may curse their God in certain situations, I cursed my Jewish Psychiatrist when I felt he did not care for me, perhaps he lacked opportunity at the time but I over came because I know how to abound and learn from my situations as life is a lesson within its self.
As it turns out after having a chance to speak to my head Psychiatrist I am under detention by the Tribunal Administratif Quebec, I am restricted to hospital grounds as a political prisoner once again with all this psychiatric crap after being arrested by Lori Graham of CTV Montreal news for trumped up harassment charges many years ago.
I know what I hear at the Nursing desk one day when I was present there at the right time for me, I over heard something when my medication was being delivered, I will not repeat on the Internet what I heard about my medication, but it is the reason I do not have the debilitating involuntary muscle contractions between my stomach and up through my neck to my mouth. I am grateful for what my Doctor, the leading Psychiatrist over me did when the opportunity was there for him.
Still I am trapped on hospital property for a bit until my up coming Tribunal hearing, which should go a lot better due to the new found relationship with my Psychiatrist. I get to smoosh with Staff members from the hospital in the smoke hut, I do command a lot of respect there and many a hospital Staff member is there for me in a multitude of ways with their intelligentsia with me, it feeds me something special, I even have a special relationship with hospital Security that spend time talking to me over a cigarette.
I have a planned blood test to check as a precaution for cancer due to after urinating in the toilet, the shake and all but now getting a dribble in my shorts. The Psychiatrist said welcome to being over fifty,it's normal, I responded with no kidding.
One new medication that I am on which I started with a Doctor in the emergency department here at the hospital is Abilify to help me with my anger problem and help me relax more. When the Doctor put me on the medication she confessed herself that she had been on the same meds once before for a bit and that the drug had very little if mentionable side effects, so I then agreed to take the meds myself. This new drug with my other special meds that I mentioned earlier in the posting, I take with low dosage and feel just fine with no side effects to speak of. I just have to inform my medical specialised Lawyer that I am on detention again in psychiatry while being fed not bad, reading a lot, making engineering drawings for my building complex and using the computer for my blog postings and checking my email etc, while I got a wonderful view of the city of Montreal lights from my bed room, so that just about raps up this blog posting and back to continue my urban planning posting or making new posts.
Update: March 16th 2015, this is so stupid with the hospital, I am in court on March 19th this year over the hospital saying I am delusional over my media attention and water processing that I do. We will have to see how it goes in court, I have full confidence in my Lawyer to defend me.

Update: March 18th 2015 So it was mentioned to me that I was legally drunk by a blood test when admitted to hospital, so what I was having my evening beer watching TV and trying to take care of my Mum, so now I got to lie and bullshit to get out of hospital and promise to drink fruit juices and coca cola and become diabetic to suit the hospital. When I am cranked full off sugar consuming these two beverages I will not sleep and will have to get ativan to sleep and do in my liver worst than alcohol will damage me for what I consume, fucken idiot hospital wants to make me diabetic stipulating my life. Then when you take on the hospital they will restrict coffee and coca cola consumption on the ward come evening time so that patients can have some chance at getting off to sleep at night. When I think about it I can consume two 1.18 litres of beer in the run of an evening while watching the news and commenting about it on Facebook and Twitter, if it was water I took would I be faced with water poisoning consuming that much, No doubt the Psychiatrist and the hospital Lawyer will try rail roading me over alcohol consumption, At least my blood is still good to give to the blood bank with my evening alcohol consumption, I wonder if the Psychiatrist and Hospital Lawyer give blood donations like I do, So I have to listen to stupidity and come up with other medical problems to suit the hospital's dictatorship over me.
Update after court March 19th 2015 Psychiatrists rail roaded me in Court today through lying to the Judge,even my Lawyer said they lied. When they pump me full of their drugs as they plan with court ordered injections and give me extra pyramidal side effects or involuntary muscle contraction, I just commit suicide to stop the contractions....I never could win at anything. The Psychiatrist even said in court that I fake the involuntary muscle contractions,they like to play God with the Courts and when I get out of hospital with the involuntary muscle contractions that I don't fake, I will be at peace going to my God and being free of corruption. It is a double standard around here, they just took away my cell phone and other people have them to listen to music. Here is a thought,the Psychiatrist said in court that I used propane to process my water, this is his delusion there is nothing in my water processing section about using propane and the court proceeding were tape recorded.