Vertical Wind Power, fluke or future?

Perhaps its just my bitterness at loosing Chevron's willyoujoinus.com's Energyville game. . .but I stand by the fact that they disregarded the current value of renewable energy too much. It seems to me that wind, at the very least, will soon be competitive and perhaps more than competitive with traditional fuel sources. Backing up my claim, ENN (the Environmental News Network) sent me a little piece this morning (and by morning I mean noon) about a new wind turbine, called the Maglev turbine which may increase wind power efficiency, decrease operating costs and revolutionize traditional turbine design.

The Maglev turbine is different from most other designs because its turbines are vertically oriented and are nearly freefloating. The turbines rely on magnetic power in order to stay in position, and this magnetism also decreases the (usually) inevitable loss of power due to friction. It is also able to tap relatively gentle winds, a current stumbling block for the technology. Pretty nifty. The company claims that Maglev turbine could power 175,000 homes while only taking up one acre of space. This is in comparison to the 100 traditional turbines which would generate an equivalent amount of power, taking up far more space.

However, you know me, always the cynic. So, I will just mention that while there are a number of blogs covering this story, its representation in more legitimate channels is limited. For example, you need a username and password to access the actual website of the Maglev corporation - maybe because they are still trying to keep the technology under wraps?

So far, only the Chinese have taken Maglev up on its offer and begun construction of the turbine. This may be because although the company claims that the operating costs of the machinery are low, the initial investment of building the turbine is really, really high. Which brings up another point - the magnets used to suspend the turbines are rare and also used in computers, a competing market. In fact, the magnets themselves are not a renewable resource.



Just to note - Magnetic levitation systems have been used in the past, largely to power trains. Currently, there are functioning Maglev trains in Shanghai and Japan. However, the technology has never much caught on past that point due to high initial capital costs and the difficulty of building an entirely new infrastructure for the trains.

Chevron's version of the SIMS

I don't know if you guys remember the SIMS before it became an excuse to watch digital people use the bathroom and have sex (kinda gives me the creeps even though a discrete digital cloud covers the vital areas of interest). Anyways, back in the day, the game was all about building a city from scratch and watching as things went to hell. As I remember, there were never enough firemen and the energy options were a bit limited. Anyways, Chevron has since partnered with The Economist to come up with a SIMS-like energy game entitled "Energyville." The game can be found on Chevron's green-propaganda page, www.willyoujoinus.com.


I recommend that people try it out and see what they think. In the game, you get two rounds (now, and 2015) to decide upon an energy portfolio and then you get ranked depending on how you succeed. I didn't do very well, possibly because I put too much wind, solar and biomass into my energy portfolio without very much petroleum or natural gas. I also pursued an aggressive energy efficiency policy while sacrificing GDP. It is hard to take the results seriously when Chevron is the one behind the game - making me suspect that they wanted a higher percentage of petroleum earlier, and more renewable options later. For example, they seem to assume that solar power will not become viable until 2030 based on their own research.

I do like the idea of having a game like this to spur debate and open-minded thinking. I assume that it is in this hopeful spirit that The Economist lent their name to the project. However, for such a game to be successful, it has be both vastly more complex and also more transparent.

Chevron actually makes their own E-cards now, a regular Hallmark. They were published in the New Yorker - check out this one below. . .

A More Expensive Turkey

A smattering of energy related Thanksgiving tidbits for you all to enjoy along with your leftover turkey.

Everyone paid a bit more for their Thanksgiving feast this year, due to higher turkey costs. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation the traditional holiday meal cost 11 percent more. Most of this cost increase came from the price of turkey itself. Less birds were kept in cold storage, meaning that the cost of each turkey was higher and fewer people bought them. Additionally, fuel is more expensive, meaning that delivering food items is more expensive than before. To see the source of the article, check out:
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1532573220071115?rpc=24

Additionally, the EPA gave a bunch of tips for saving energy during the Thanksgiving meal. Check out these tips, which can also be used at any time of year.

Skip preheating the oven and limit the number of times you open the oven door.
Make the most of your hot oven by cooking several things at once.
Make sure stove top burners and reflectors are clean before you start cooking.
Use pots and pans that match the size of your burners.
Use your microwave when possible because it uses only half the energy of a conventional oven.

Gorgeous Three Gorges

Happy almost-Thanksgiving! I am at school enjoying the delightful situation of having only 2 days in the week --> we get off on Wednesday for Thanksgiving break. Somehow, when I know that there are only two days in the week, it makes it that much easier to relax Sunday night. Too bad I have to somehow write fifteen pages by Tuesday for my thesis. Any thoughts on adaptation to climate change, anyone...anyone?

Anyways, there are a number of interesting things to read in the New York Times from the past few days which I wanted to draw your attention to. First of all, definitely check out the article on the Three Gorges Dam in China entitled, "Chinese Dam Projects Criticized for Their Human Costs." The article does a decent job at delving into some of the complications between balancing a growing economy and its need for new power and energy supplies with environmental and social concerns. It also explains that dam building has become a huge business in China - which I didn't realize. Apparently, although there have already been many problems with the dams (including mass dislocation, social unrest, and growing environmental issues) China is still planning to greatly increase their hydropower capacity with large scale dam building. One thing to know about the Three Gorges Dam is that when it was built, ancient buildings and historical sites went under water, and hundreds of thousands of people were dislocated. Additionally, there are worries about the buildup of sediment in the reservoir and a gradual decrease in the dam's power capacity. See pic of Three Gorges Dam below...





Anyways, you should also look over the article on the "Sleep-Industrial Complex" and the debate over sending in a swab of your DNA and being able to analyze your SNPs. More later!

Concerned Scientists

I am up in the beautiful, and freezing cold, state of Maine celebrating my Dad's birthday. In fact, at this morning I am at a little bookstore with free wireless (whatever happened to this concept in Maryland (my home state) - now you have to pay for wireless at the Barnes and Nobles there). Anyways, do not fear, I have found a little internship opportunity for you all with the Union of Concerned Scientists. In their own words. . .

"The Union of Concerned Scientists is a nonprofit partnership of scientists and citizens combining rigorous scientific analysis, innovative policy development, and effective citizen advocacy to achieve practical environmental solutions.

Established in 1969, we seek to ensure that all people have clean air, energy, and transportation, as well as food that is produced in a safe and sustainable manner. We strive for a future that is free from the threats of global warming and nuclear war, and a planet that supports a rich diversity of life. Sound science guides our efforts to secure changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices that will protect and improve the health of our environment globally, nationally, and in communities throughout the United States. In short, UCS seeks a great change in humanity's stewardship of the earth."

Sounds like something you might be interested in? I couldn't find any information on compensation, a key concern. However, check out the website below for internship and job opportunities.
http://www.ucsusa.org/ucs/about/mission.html

Sustainable Biofuels?

Biofuel is a word that nowadays pretty much just means ethanol. But, to be complete, the category also includes wood chips, peat...pretty much anything made from biotic matter that can be used to generate energy. People (especially in the biofuel industry) argue that biofuels are a sustainable and climate-friendly way to generate energy. However, we sometimes can forget that biofuels are more complicated than they appear - after all, when envisioned on a large scale, biofuel production requires either the systematic heavy usage of a natural resource (such as the peat swamps) or the cultivation of a monoculture of plant products. If this monoculture is grown traditionally, it will require fertilizer and other petroleum products and will be energy intensive. Making the situation worse is the fact that right now, ethanol (the most popular form of biofuel) only comes from plants such as sugar, which are intensive crops to grow. The hope is that sometime in the future ethanol will be produced from cellulose, which would allow processing of a much wider variety of plants. To put it simply, the danger with biofuels is that although they are good for the environment in some respects, they may enlarge upon the dangers and negative effects of industrial agriculture. Cutting down rainforest in order to power our transportation system with ethanol does not seem like a great idea. Check out bbc.com - the nature section for a great set of articles on this issue.

Sick at (and of) school

Sorry that I have been MIA lately. I have been pretty much spending all my time in bed, alseep, or in my thesis carrel, in the dark, hunched over my laptop. My carrel is in the basement of the Science Library here - and the lights are motion-sensored. So, when no one has moved in there for a while (ie there is only me and my computer), the lights tend to go off. But the 3 hour presentation that I had to give is over, a thing of the past. Also, I have been sick, and hopefully now that I can relax and cook veggies, I will get better. Actually, I have realized that it is not just me who is sick - but nearly everyone I know. Also, the airborne is selling out faster from Weshop than nearly any other product, including the fat free frozen yogurt. I tried airborne for the first time last week - my lil sis has been raving about it and so I decided to give it a try. I didn't work for me, but then again, I took it when I was already very sick, as opposed to before entering into high risk situations.



I read a little bit about airborne on Wikipedia (the Internet oracle) and apparently it is the number 1 selling flu medication out there and is considered one of the "fastest selling health products in retail history." Pretty incredible. However, there is more controversy than I realized over its health properties - particularly since consuming Vitamin C in the quantities advised by Airborne (1 tablet every 3 hours as necessary) has been linked to diarrhea, kidney stones and other more serious conditions. On the other hand, there is no agreement over the appropriate amount of Vitamin C to take, or in what levels it might be dangerous. It is funny to think that we still know so little about some of the most basic levels of human nutrition and health. Anyways, this is just a post going out to all you sickies out there.

Oh yeah, and for some energy/environment news - check out the NY Science Times (its tuesday!) - and look for the video on "Moderate Environmentalists" and the article about Lomberg and Newt Gingrich's new book.

Have a great week!

Employment in Oil

I realize that I tend to be a bit biased towards the environmental perspective of things - so from time to time I chastise myself and write a bit about oil, natural gas - you know, the energy sources that our country actually runs on. In this vein, I am going to spend this post giving you all information about career opportunities in oil companies. It is actually refreshing for me to research this because unlike environmental places, oil companies actually have the money for summer internship programs and extremely well developed professional programs. Keep in mind that the oil company operation is huge - and prepare to be specialized into either engineering, business or retail (working the gas stations).

Let's start with Chevron. Here is what they have to say about a career at Chevron,

"Imagine a career at one of the world’s leading energy companies, with operations that span the globe and cover the entire spectrum of industry disciplines. More than just a place to work, Chevron represents a world of opportunity, challenge and fulfillment.

You’ll bring passion and ingenuity to your work every day. In return, we provide you with a comprehensive range of competitive salary, benefits and programs to help you get the most out of work and life."
For more of a glimpse into what Chevron has to offer, check out:
http://careers.chevron.com/career_and_benefits/


Be sure to check out Chevron's career and internship opportunities...!

How about BP (Is it British Petroleum, or Beyond Petroleum, now?)
Well, similarly, BP has entire page dedicated to employment opportunities with them in a variety of disciplines. They are looking for science, engineering and business majors, and it is much easier to apply if they are recruiting on your campus. (What else is new...where is the love for the small campus??) Anyways, there is something here for nearly everyone - internships as well as job opportunities...They even have a self-assesment quiz, in case you wandered onto their site by mistake.
Check out:
http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9019361&contentId=7036054



That's all for now. I can't bring myself to do Exxon. More later, and good luck!

Energy News

This past weekend was parent's weekend, and I ate so much that I may have to be rolled out of the library. However, I begin this blog post by reconnecting with the outside world...so....
What's the news in Energy and Utilities?

Well, a number of the major oil companies actually took at hit this week as they began to report earnings. Exxon experienced a 10% drop in 3rd quarter earnings and Chevron disappointed analysts as well. This is despite relatively high oil and gas prices.

Another cool news tidbit is that Equador (OPEC's newest member) warned that that most pressing future challenge for OPEC would be to “preserve a price equilibrium that keeps crude oil positioned favourably against other alternative energy sources” (quoted from Galo Chiriboga, Ecuador's oil minister.) It will be interesting to see what happens if high oil prices really do stimulate alternative energy growth, and how OPEC counterbalances against that pressure.

Finally, a report was published recently in the International Journal of Nanotechnology that nanotechnology could revolutionize the natural gas industry by increasing the efficiency of extraction and helping to purify the gas. There is also a possibility that this type of technology could help protect gas pipes and equipment against corrosion.

Here is a picture of what a natural gas processing plant looks like:
(from http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2007/images/energy-4.jpg)