Wind energy

I was looking through my facebook and happen to see a post from my friend posting about wanting Entrepreneurial ideas and the will to do it and so I wrote to her mentioning the idea of starting a green energy company and installing Honeywell's Wind turbine. http://www.windtronics.com/

I dug around information of cost for this innovative design (no gears, it has the magnets on fan blade tip and coil generators are surrounding the tips to cut the flux and hence generate electricity) and came by this interesting article:

http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/2871-would-you-buy-honeywells-home-wind-turbine

Many good points were pointed out and debated (from financial aspect, to turbine design types, to even a political view point), a good resource of references, calculations and even a free software to help you determine what's the best bet / feasibility of renewable energy: http://www.retscreen.net/ang/home.php

Check out the various designs advantages & disadvantageous in wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine

Overall I think Honeywell does have an innovative design, though the cost is quite very pricey and it's huge... about 6 feet / 1.8 meters diameter and weighing up to 150 lbs. And as usual there will be aesthetic debates as neighbors / residential management community may sue you for "putting that ugly windmill" thing.

I'm now in Seattle WA, checked out the wind maps and Seattle is so - so:

http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=wa and I know MO from where I was before this, only the NW corner would be viable and not downtown St. Louis.

Reposting from green Jobs now / wecansolveit.org

http://www.wecansolveit.org/page/community/post/biodiesel2008/BxW

I believe that the future for America is to adopt distributive generation and switching to diesel powered automobiles. Distributive generation is based on powering a house or a block or more of houses locally and this cuts down on transmission line losses. Home heating oils are nothing more than "dino-diesel" which contributes to additional carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Biodiesel is derived from either used or new vegetable oils, and hence it's combustion does not contribute to the net carbon emission unlike petroleum based fuels which should have stayed underground.

With help from local leaders and Washington, financial incentives are needed to help encourage the adoption of clean and renewable power generation. For now, already thanks to www.renewmo.org we have the legislation of Missouri grant net metering whereby excess energy generated from clean sources may be reversed on your electric meter, and hence you only pay the net actual usage of electricity.

What I envision in future is that Americans are almost completely weaned off gasoline from the middle east, consume more biodiesel and be energy dependent free. What I know I can contribute is my knowledge and experience with biodiesel and biomass.

I urge anyone who is considering starting a biodiesel company to consider my services and expertise, or if you are wanting to do research and are looking for a Mechanical Engineer who has a passion for biodiesel and biomass power generation, do not hesitate to contact me.

The idea that I have is based on the fact that 60% or more of household energy is used for refrigeration, heating and cooling. Why not produce the fuel and have an integrated system which takes care of that and also for your diesel vehicle? It's never too late, but the sooner we adopt it, the better.

Reposting from Green Jobs now 2008 expo in St Louis MO

Original posting: http://www.wecansolveit.org/page/community/post/biodiesel2008/BCy

Repost:

http://events.greenjobsnow.com/greenforall/reports/5376

More pictures can be seen here:

http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u264/bambi_seller/2008_09_27_green_jobs_now/



It was good to see the amounts of individuals with renewable solutions and educational / demonstration units, renewable energy vehicles etc. There were some companies which offered solar and wind renewable energy consultation and installation, and many advocate organizations.

Although it's good to see people taking initiative on renewable energy, the only low point about the event is that it just shows me that the Mid West and America in general is seriously lacking in aggressively encouraging renewable energy initiatives and efforts.

Picture below is landscape and you may click it to see the full picture.