Geothermal Energy

Here's an interesting video on geothermal energy. Geothermal got touched on a few times in the class, but I feel like this video gives a little more insight to what we have learned. To sum it up, the video states that geothermal electricity is generated by pumping water down into the Earth and harnessing the resulting steam to power a turbine. Some of the pluses to using geothermal consist of not having to burn any fuels to generate electricity for the public, plus the fact that geothermal energy is always readily available-it doesn't depend on the sun being out or the wind blowing. One of the drawbacks is an increase in earthquake activity due to the drilling and water injection at geothermal plants.

Philadelphia Eagles Go Green

http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/green-sunday-philadelphia-eagles’-stadium-to-go-energy-independent1119/

I thought this was very interesting and a huge step in making renewable energy more well known and popular.

Electricity generating gyms Idea

Some reading this will notice that their comments were alongside my own, which is what this post is- how the idea of the gym I thought of could become possible.
Continuing the thought of having this equipment in a public area where anyone can use them by joining the gym, and paying a small fee, I would like to explain how this would work. Government sponsored gyms could pay for these facilities, which would be incredibly expensive and need a certain amount of investing to get started, would do the following: stimulate jobs, more efficient technology (if the electricity generated would even be enough to be stored and if so storing it to the most efficient way), getting the obesity problem down, so long as the cost of membership and availability of membership are appropriate, and also help awareness of electricity usage. For example: "Oh leaving the TV on while I take a shower wouldn't hurt," type of thought would be phased out if after a workout a person sees that they generated X amount of watts of electricity while leaving that TV on used this much. Also the more electricity generated a person would receive a discount on their membership fee or some sort of incentive system to generate its' popularity. Keeping in mind a professional would need to work out for hours a day to get maybe a few cents worth of electricity and the cost of an average gym membership, if using a discount system, it would not be possible for a person working out to profit, meaning cash, from working out- good news for the gym and those invested in them.

Turning Trees to Street Lights

Why spend space and resources to make and place street lights on roads when there are many perfectly good trees already around roads. A Taiwanese post-doctorate, Yen-Hsun Su, seems to have found a way to use gold nanoparticles to turn trees into street lights. By implanting these particles into certain plants, Su was able to cause a chain reaction that allows the chlorophyll to emit a red-ish glow. He along with his colleagues believe that development in bio luminescence efficiency may eventually lead to environmental protection and energy conservation. The idea is questionable, since Yen-Hsun claims that the use of bio-LED (light emitting diode) has environmental benefits by decreasing CO2 emissions yet these gold particles may effect tree health/growth. Whether or not glowing trees are reliable to light pitch-dark roads is also a problem. Nevertheless, with more research and development, it would be interesting to see our roads lit up by "nature" in a somewhat artistic way (look at the glowing tree picture).



http://www.gizmag.com/glowing-trees-using-gold-nanoparticles/16917/

Huge Gas Find in Israel

Israeli officials found an enormous field of gas about 135 kilometers off of their Mediterranean coast. After being largely unsuccessful in the nineties in their attempts to find oil, Isrealis finally found a decently sized (up to 22 bcm) gas field in 2004. Just this past year, they have found a much larger gas field (up to 453 bcm) now called Leviathan. Leviathan is on the norther edge of Israel's sea border and there has been much dispute over where the border actually is. (Between Israel, Lebanon, and Cyprus.) If Israel can keep hold of this newfound natural resource, they should be able to provide for their own energy needs, and export some gas to countries such as Greece. This would definitely increase Israeli security, and the wells would be completely underwater, manned by robots. This find has huge implications for Israel's international relations, as Greece could provide a jumping board for Israel to provide gas to other countries in the European Union.

Here's the article:

http://www.economist.com/node/17468208?story_id=17468208

Questioning the "Smart" in Smart Meters

Smart electric meters — those digital devices favored by utilities and efficiency advocates for their contribution to a more precisely and economically measured, monitored and managed electric grid — got a big boost last year with a $3.4 billion injection of stimulus cash. Over the last year, as utilities around the country have installed an estimated two million of the new digital meters, power companies have received plenty of complaints — and in some states have been hit by class-action lawsuits — most of them from consumers saying the smart meters are overstating their electrical usage.Using digital technology and computer networking, smart meters can transmit real-time data that is supposed to enable utilities to conserve electricity and better allocate power during parts of the day when overall demand is high. Utilities can also then vary the price for power, by time of day or time of year, based on when it is being used; some are already offering this option to customers.But because of faulty technology in some cases, and more often through general shortcomings in consumer education and customer-service support by many utilities, smart meters are leaving many customers dumbfounded. So how "smart" are these smart meters?

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/questioning-the-smart-in-smart-meters/?ref=energy-environment

Human Power

Throughout this whole semester we've talked about different ways of producing energy. From solar power, to wind power, to biomass, etc. but i don't think we've talked about how humans themselves can solve this energy problem. I don't mean walking or biking to work to save gas and energy. Nor am i talking about unplugging your electronics to reduce "vampire power." I am talking about actually using humans as an energy source! Depending on what you're doing you generate different amounts of electricity. Maybe we can't power an army of robots like on the matrix but we can power some devices. Perhaps using humans as batteries is too radical of an idea. but what about paying people to sit on a bike and pedal to generate electricity? These are just some ideas I've been thinking of. what do y'all think?