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youtube.com - Musician and Best Buy employee, Keith Parsons, rocks his Best Buy holiday campaign audition.
32 Comments
- grumpyrain, on 11/08/2008, -0/+14Every MW/hr from the wind is a MW/hr that doesn't need to come from fossil fuels. No-one ever said it was the silver bullet, in fact most projections are for at most 25% load coming from wind farms. But come on, does the glass always need to be half empty?
If this invention pans out and achieves 10% efficiency improvements without adding any measurable cost, then wind power just got nearly 10% cheaper. - kekemortson, on 11/08/2008, -0/+12Wind Farms are supplemental power and while they will not make a continuous supply, their added kilowatts are invaluable to the grid.
- greenfyre, on 11/08/2008, -0/+8Batteries
- jerryjamesstone, on 11/08/2008, -3/+10nice...now we just need some death start monitoring system
- tamman2000, on 11/08/2008, -0/+6In the near term, yes, we will need traditional power plants, but the long term, if fuel cell technology becomes cheaper, we could build even more wind power capacity, and split water when we have excess wind, and then run the fuel cells when the wind dies down...
- DrummerAndrew, on 11/08/2008, -2/+8The sun seems like the best solution in my opinion. Of course, a good combination would probably be preferred. It just seems like the sun is more reliable than the wind. There's a point where it can be too windy, but I don't think that it can be too sunny for solar power.
- atdigg, on 11/08/2008, -0/+5Coal has released more radiation in the air than Chernobyl
That being said I'm not a fan of nuclear power if solar and wind can be used (even if it's more expensive at the beginning) fusion power should also be be studied and developed... - tamman2000, on 11/08/2008, -0/+53 mile island wasn't a real disaster... in fact, 3 mile island is the worst case scenario for a water moderated (US style) reactor, and no radiation was released... The real problem with nuclear power is the waste generated, but i think most people blow that out of proportion too (not saying it isn't a problem, I just think the waste/kWhr of nukes is better than the waste/kWhr of coal).
- Iamdigginyou, on 11/08/2008, -0/+5I've heard both candidates during the presidential debates make reference to "nuclear power." Sure those are two pretty 'dirty' words, but nuclear power is used in many countries around the world. Well, something to consider as long as there's no Churnoble or 3 mile island debacles.
- palehorse864, on 11/08/2008, -2/+6Wait, this is crazy. Those things are dangerous enough already!
Imagine this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3FZtmlHwcA&feature ...
With lasers! This is like some secret James Bond Villain domination plan. - tmyprod, on 11/08/2008, -1/+4The Laser!
Duct Tape for the 21st century! - FairDinkumMate, on 11/08/2008, -0/+3American Nuclear power plant technology is virtually non-existent now. Basically, no new reactors have been built for so long that the infrastructure required would need to be started from scratch. France has the best infrastructure in place but the companies with that infrastructure in France are flat out building new plants for Europe. This is why 'realistic' cost analysis of new power sources has nuclear as very expensive, simply because of how much it would cost(& how long it would take) to train enough Americans to build nuclear power plants again. There is no doubt that this can be done & the cost would then be mitigated over decades, but is it worth it? 20 years of building expensive plants & developing the knowledge just to catch up to the French in nuclear power plant capability & pricing? Surely that money & time would be better invested in new technologies(solar, wind, wave power, etc) so that in 20 years time the US has the world's best technology & workforce in sustainable energy rather than the equal best nuclear technology & infrastructure.
- captaingary, on 11/08/2008, -1/+3You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have wind turbines with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here!
- jasdf, on 11/08/2008, -0/+2This is sort of like what we use in the aviation industry to detect turbulence and wind shear except we use the weather radar instead of lasers. I'm not convinced that this would work without some sort of aerosol particulates in the air.
- madwaxer, on 11/08/2008, -3/+5they could improve even better by making vertical windmills instead of wasting materials, space, time and money on a project that is creating deadly pressure fields that are killing unfortunate wildlife.
- Godlike, on 11/08/2008, -0/+2He said fiber optic laser system not superlaser... duh...
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/geekend/?p=277 - jftitan, on 11/08/2008, -0/+2can we make enough batteries to harness lightning strikes? We have lightning storms all the time, so where are the gigantic capacitors and batteries to harness that lost energy.
(I know i so went in another direction, but when you mentioned batteries, and Wind, Solar power has their limits. Lightning came to mind) I've read many times over, about how a single lightning strike can have enough power to power a city for a few days... common, how can we harness that. - S5S5S5, on 11/08/2008, -0/+2Article really doesn't explain what the "adjustments" actually are. From the manufacturer page:
"Utilizing control algorithms, the control system will decide how to best exploit the wind that is approaching the turbine and command internal systems to either change blade pitch and/or re-orient the entire nacelle in an effort to maintain efficiency, reduce the effects of wind shear and gusts, or maintain a constant blade speed. Without the Vindicator™ laser wind sensor, wind turbines will continue to be out of phase with changes in the prevailing wind. " - forcedfx, on 11/08/2008, -0/+2Dust.
- 1professional, on 11/08/2008, -0/+2more or less.......but do not forget that most countries in the world, if they wanted, (IF), could be major suppliers of alternative energy
IF...............
think about it - grumpyrain, on 11/08/2008, -0/+2I personally believe hot rocks is one of the most interesting technologies and that is capable of base load power.
- grumpyrain, on 11/08/2008, -0/+2I lol'd, but please understand that this would not happen with a commercial wind farm (well no more than the stack of a coal plant could be blown over by a hurricane). The turbine blades can be angled to capture as much or as little of the wind as desired, so as to keep it within designed operating limits.
- grumpyrain, on 11/08/2008, -0/+2No, lightening strikes may have an incredibly high voltage, but only last for a tiny fraction of a second. The number of joules that could potentially be stored from a strike isn't near the level you are imagining, I would be very surprised if a strike had enough energy to power a single house for a month.
- grumpyrain, on 11/08/2008, -0/+2So you believe that they will be using a 200KW laser? Hmmm...
- palehorse864, on 11/09/2008, -0/+1That might have helped this if they could have angled it. What happened here is that the brakes were supposed to engage if the wind got too high. The brakes failed though and the thing couldn't stop.
- sjm20k, on 11/08/2008, -1/+2Sorry I didn't realize you were qualified to be making calls like that.
- mbatterham, on 11/09/2008, -0/+1Unless we have some way to store the energy and make it a constant release
- acontorer, on 11/08/2008, -1/+2The 10% figure seems highly optimistic. They are simply trying to correct for an efficiency loss that happens when turbines fail to anticipate shifts in wind. For areas where wind direction doesn't shift often, or shifts slowly, the gains would be much smaller.
- phillip34, on 11/09/2008, -0/+0Progress!!!
- inactive, on 11/08/2008, -4/+2Wow! 10% more of very little power output. These eggheads need to be working on coal plant efficiency.
- DaemonNivas, on 11/08/2008, -4/+2So, they boost for 10%, and then they spend that power to run the laser. Hmmm ....
- inactive, on 11/08/2008, -8/+5Wonderful. What does one do when there is a "dead calm" ?This type of system cannot produce "continuous" power. Wind farms need to be backed up by other types of generators such as gas or coal.
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