Betty asks…
Is Obama going to help us Layfolk tinker around with alternative energy stuff?
to try to come up with new ideas? I need a job. a green job, preferably.
The Expert answers:
Nope.
Mark asks…
Now that the price of oil is rising don’t you wish you had an alternative source of energy which you voted no?
The price of gas is going up just as predicted after the election but many people still voted no on prop. 87 thinking that it would make the price of gas go up. The oil companies spent over 100 million dollars on the campaign to upset prop. 87 by distorting facts and practically scaring people into thinking that it was not necessary for a plan for alternative energy sources. It was a magnificant con job that the voters fell for. Now when you see the price of gas rising anyway and the atmosphere not getting any better, don’t you feel kind of stupid?……..
The Expert answers:
Not really. The higher the price of gas, the more reasonable alternatives become for the average guy. And there are ways…
It costs all of about $6000 to convert a gas guzzler into a nice clean electric car that gets about 50 miles to a charge. Add one of the many free energy devices that are being explored AND DOCUMENTED ONLINE, and you get electric cars that cost NOTHING to drive, other than insurance, registration, and maintenance.
Then we can smile as we drive by those expensive dinosaur juice dispensaries!
Donna asks…
Where can I learn/help design wind mills and alternative energy systems.?
I would like to find a company willing to take me on as an apprentice in designing home/business alternative energy systems. I have some designs in my head and I enjoy desinging efficient systems. My skills are mostly electrical troubleshooting, but I work with mechanical systems as well at my current job.
I can design from home and transmitt across the internet any desired drawings. I have a garage I could build prototypes in(and a wind tunnel at work with solar loading I could sneak into during the off hours)
I would like to keep my current job, at least for now. I expect a reputable company or some cash up front to show me you are serious. I know and use excel and have evidence I can use solid works successfully and excel spread sheets for design tables. I even looked up wind statistics for my area and learned what a rose chart was. Deanrwhite@comcast.net(put the word “banana” in the subject.
The Expert answers:
Http://www.scoraigwind.com/
Good starting place
Maria asks…
whats wrong if someones makes money through alternative energy?
I know it sounds like a quick way to make money when they scare us with global warming, but who even wants to work on an oil rig out on the open sea? I rather have a job in the city. what about all the coal miners that die for our electricity? how many die during installations of wind turbines and solar panels? at least you can survive the fall, not many survive when methane pockets explode and mines cave in.
The Expert answers:
There are several basic logic errors in your concepts about alternative energy sources. First is solar cells and the fact that they will not produce as much energy in their lifetimes as they use in being produced and the disposal of manufacturing waste from them. The original concept for solar cells is they would be used in huge satellites, produced in orbital factories from lunar or other orbital materials sources. Here they would operate at 4 times the efficiency they can on earth because the filtering affect of the atmosphere is removed. Also in orbit they would operate 24 hours a day where on earth over a year they might average 6 to 7 hours a day. And then there is the waste issue, in orbit the materials can be easily turned into something else usable where on earth because of environmental laws they must be put into a dump instead of being recycled. Because of silly environmental laws the US now recycles less than one third of the manufacturing waste they did just 50 years ago and it costs more to dump it instead of recycling it.
Wind turbines are also very inefficient and currently their power costs more than any other because of just a few basic facts that are due to design flaws in the machinery itself. The main problem is the propeller on a post design copied from the old Celtic windmills of 1000 years ago. There are new and better designs out there that could be used but they are not acceptable to the environmental community because they are not visible. So the why things are not proceeding is mostly because the major environmental organizations are only letting those programs that pay them off with enough money proceed. And the fossil fuel producers pay the best so the real answers like nuclear and space based solar have laws written to keep them from doing what they could, at least in the US.
Http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/CoEvolutionBook/
http://www.nss.org/settlement/ColoniesInSpace/index.html
http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/spacepower/index.html
http://www.permanent.com/s-index.htm
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/868/1
Sandy asks…
seems like combining the housing market and all this hype about alternative energy is a no brainer isn’t it?
studies show that the slump in building new homes is what is keeping the economy down and unemployment up and Obama is pushing for alternative energy for homes……seems like if they pulled their heads out of their butts then they would combine the 2 in a single jobs bill….every new home creates 3 jobs for a year studies show……..well 3 million new homes is 9 million jobs created………
The Expert answers:
You are right and actually support the argument that the Republicans are blocking everything so they can claim Obama has failed. See, early this summer there was a bill doing exactly what you are talking about… What it did was put some of the stimulus money in to houses going green… Summary. Well guess what, the Rs blocked it saying no more spending.
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