Solar Notes

A reader of UrbanSurvival.com made the following comments yesterday:

George, a quick note on sourcing alt. power. Sun Electronics (www.sunelec.com) in Miami is THE place to buy solar panels and inverters. Learned about them from my brother-in-law, a long-term cruising sailor. Great prices, and they have stuff in stock. They have tremendous volume, lots of business to S. America, apparently.

Don't expect them to help with installs or educate you on basics, they are too busy. I exchanged some emails with John Kimball, the Pres of Sun Electronics and he said he was working 7 days a week from 7am to about 2- 3 am (!!!!!) they are that busy.

Seems a lot of folks wonder if "The Grid" will be stable much longer, myself included. My system is NOT grid-tied, don't want anyone messing with my stuff, I even plan on wiring separate household circuits to be completely isolated.

Your point of not telling your power company (or local gvmt) about your PV system is well-founded, I hope to keep my panels hidden from street view also. I have a 48 volt system I am in process of installing, with 6 Evergreen/SUN 190w panels and a 3600 watt Outback Inverter. Battery bank consists of 8 L16 6 volts in series, purchased locally from Batteries Plus+.

The BEST place to buy cable that I have found is (really, this is not a joke) a place called Genuinedealz.com in Brunswick, GA. Great prices, FAST shipping never an order screw-up, although I seem to remember they used to be in KY. I am also a (currently land-bound) liveaboard sailor so tend to go marine grade with everything I do.

My background is in electronics so it is a lot more fun doing this for myself than for an employer or client. Keep up the great writing about "the great de-leveraging" - sounds like a PT Barnum call to get folks to head to the exits. Hmmmmmm, how appropriate..."

Just to make sure we're clear on a couple of points here: 1) If you don't know with absolute certainty what you're doing with electricity hire a professional licensed electrician to do the work. and 2) As long as you are not using the grid-tie function,. an inverter-charge can be used without notifying your power company - it's just a great big scaled-up uninterruptible power supply. However, when you turn on the grid tie function, then you've got regs and rules to comply with.

Grid Problems Loom For Wind Power

It appears that our antiquated electric power infrastructure could be a problem in the distribution of electricity from proposed "wind farms." My question is, does this work better if the power is generated at the point of consumption, like having solar or wind generated power produced by the homeowner or business owner?" Of course there are capital costs for installation which would limit this capability at least initially, but maybe it is something that should be a goal.

One thing is certain, we needed to start something sensible yesterday.

Why Offshore Drilling Can Bridge The Gap

Here is an interesting article by Popular Mechanics' James Meigs on how offshore drilling can bridge the gap to the U.S. energy future. There are many incentives already on the table, but a few more could speed things up.

Physics For Future Presidents

Here is an interview with Richard Muller, author of "Physics For Future Presidents."

The Global Confidence Game

The following is an excerpt from George Ure's Urban Survival:

Thus, properly braced with a double-shot of context, we're now ready to explore the rather peculiar behavior of the U.S. dollar was actually up a bit this morning.

Remembering how the Global Economic Confidence Game is a zero-sum affair as long as it hangs together, we recall that when the "dollar extends gains vs. Euro, pound falters" that something else on the other side of the equation should go down. Enter oil and the precious metals.

Because there's a chance that Hurricane Gustav, which is headed toward Hait, then Cuba, and perhaps into the Gulf of Mexico Oil Patch, could cause some production issues, the price of oil is not falling as far or fast as otherwise could be expected int he face of a Dollar rally.

So that leaves Gold and Silver to be a whipping this morning as there's got to be this quid pro quo of the markets.

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It's about here that you could raise a hand and ask a sensible question: "So if the US is continuing to print up promised-backed debt paper, why is the dollar going up?"

To put it simply, there's a global confidence game underway.

Pretend we have all just pulled up chairs to a poker game, and the table stakes are pieces of paper which have strange symbols and incantations on them. While we think these will have some meaning in the future (symbols and incantations appear through human history, after all) we have not absolute assurance that this will always be so.

Nevertheless, we all start to play our card game, and as long as no one brings up the issue of convertibility to anything absolute (as in x ounces of gold or silver, or better, so many BTU's of energy) the game continues. Thanks to the miracle of inflation, every so often, we get to dump another basket of paper into the game so it appears the stakes get bigger over time.

Mind you, not one player at the table has any incentive to call out the paper for what it is. The reason? If at any point the foolishness of the game were revealed, then all table stakes would drop in value and thus all the players would lose.

This is precisely the position China finds itself in today: Here's a country with huge human capital which has bootstrapped its economy up by trading paper for its goods and services. Logically, for China to announce to the world that "Paper is worthless!" would endanger their stakes in the game just like anyone else.

But with recent events in Georgia, Russia may be getting a little edgy about all this paper floating about. In fact, Russian lawmakers are asking for recognition of two breakaway areas in the Georgia region. Of particular concern is that next week, BP Dick Cheney is going to the area, the analog to pulling up a chair at the table. Then there's the matter of missile "defense" systems being put into Poland, which the West has turned into a marvelous 'create your own enemy' situation; one we're getting unfortunately skilled at.

Thankfully, US voters are pretty forgetful, perhaps because we're the most highly medicated society on earth. That's how the ruling corpgov paradigm can get away with 'stacking' the pseudo-elections in November such that they offer no anti-war candidates, no plan to concentrate on the transformation of America's economic model, infrastructure, or revitalize farming along the organic meme. Instead, both parties are tacitly pro-war, anti-change, and desperately pumping up the old paradigms.

This pumping old paradigms is useful, however, because it keeps the liar's poker game with all that paper with the symbols and incantations on them going. If you think the recent headline that "Antidepressants impair driving ability of the depressed" is worrisome, you'll notice how there's corresponding headline in the MainStreamMedia that logically extends the research to the area of political choice.

Thus, police stop people for drinking and driving, but who gets pulled over for being on an antidepressant? Reason: There's a lot of lobby money on the table from the pharmaceutical industry.

Food Irradiation Controversy

The technology of irradiating food is, to say the least, quite controversial. Here is an article that gives some interesting background information on the subject. I am not sure which side to take on this issue. Obviously more research needs to be done.

In a follow-up story, the USFDA has approved irradiation on some produce in this country. No doubt the recent salmonella problems with peppers and tomatoes was a factor in this action.

Gasoline Produced From Biomass In Two Years

Researchers at the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and Byogy Renewables, Inc. have found a method to make gasoline out of everyday waste. It seems to me that this would be carbon neutral since the waste would break down anyway.

This seems to be another option to bridge our way to electric vehicles by cutting out foreign oil. I have noticed at least one good thing that has come out of $3+ gasoline prices and that is innovation and implementation of alternative energy sources. These types of stories seem to be coming out every week. Some public support and pressure on the nitwits in the District of Corruption to not get in the way would be helpful.

A Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road Soon

Shia Agassi has a plan to get electric cars on the road and it is much more aggressive than the big auto's plans. His ideas on the implementation of the charging and battery infrastructure is cutting edge and it is getting a lot of attention from leaders in governments and industry around the world. They guy is thinking out of the box and it's catching on. This is a long but interesting read.

Affordable Solar Power

This is some news on solar power from back in April of this year. Seems like there are alternative energy breakthroughs almost every month. It will be interesting to see if the latest drop in oil prices has a slowing effect.

IMHO, cheap energy prices mean less expensive research, so it should be full speed ahead on alternative sources. The payoff will be the next time oil prices ratchet back up to $120 per barrel or higher. Kind of like buying low and selling high in the financial markets.

Progress In Radiation Protection

Here is some interesting news on the radiation protection front. There are potential benefits for patients undergoing medical treatments that use high doses of radiation. There may be implications for the use of lengthy space missions like humans traveling to Mars and back.

So You Think You Know Oil....

Well, I have to admit I didn't know much until I read this.

So You Think You Know Oil: Maybe Not
By John David Powell

Here we are with a new week and another round of posturing, politicking, and punditry regarding the price of petroleum. As happens when folks do a lot of talking, very little is said.

I hang around educated and talented people. Each individual has at least one university degree. Most read, watch, or listen to more than one news source every day. They span generations with ages ranging from the 20s to the 70s.

Yet, not a single person among them knew the answers to some basic questions pertinent to the growing discourse regarding the rising price of oil. A few knew some of the answers, and some knew a few of the answers

To be fair, I had to look up the answers, or else I would have been among the shoulder shruggers.

For instance, how big is a barrel? Answer: 42 gallons. So, now you know that when the price for a barrel of crude oil hits $140, that’s the same as $3.33 a gallon.

What nation supplies the most crude oil and petroleum products to the United States? Answer: The United States. According to the Energy Information Agency (www.eia.doe.gov), our country supplied 41 percent of the oil we consumed in March of this year.

What nation, other than the U.S., supplies the most crude oil and petroleum products to our country? Answer: Canada. Our northern neighbor accounts for 12 percent of our nation’s oil and 20 percent of all the oil we import. The rest of the top five include Saudi Arabia (7 percent and 13 percent); Venezuela (6 percent and 11 percent); Nigeria (6 percent and 10 percent); and Mexico (5 percent and 8 percent).

How much oil do we import from Persian Gulf countries? I’m glad you asked. Persian Gulf countries accounted for only 16 percent of our foreign oil imports each year from 2005 to 2007. In fact, our Persian Gulf imports declined most of this decade, from a 15-year high of a little more than 1 billion barrels in 2001 to 791.9 million barrels in 2007.

What’s the difference between crude oil and petroleum products? Answer: Crude oil provides, among other products, gasoline, diesel and jet fuels heating oil, liquefied petroleum gas, lubricants, asphalt, plastics, synthetic fibers, detergents, fertilizers, ink, crayons, bubble gum deodorant, tires, and heart valves.

One barrel of crude oil (which is 42 gallons, remember?), yields about 19.6 gallons of gasoline. The other 22.4 gallons go into the products just mentioned.

How much of the cost of oil goes into the price of gasoline? Answer: A bunch. We consumed about 390 million gallons of gas a day last year in our cars, trucks, recreational vehicles, boats, farm implements, and construction and landscaping equipment. Back when crude was $68 a barrel (that was just last year), it accounted for about 58 percent of the price of a gallon of gasoline. The rest of the price came from refining costs (17 percent), federal and state taxes (15 percent), and distribution and marketing (10 percent). By the way, the price of crude accounts for about 77 percent of the cost of gas at $4 a gallon.

Here’s a little something you may not have considered. What products that you buy on a regular basis are sold with tax included? Answer: Gasoline. For everything else, you add the tax at checkout.

The folks in California pay 63.9 cents a gallon in state and federal fuel taxes, the most in the nation. That’s just the base, though. Motorists there also pay an additional 6-percent state sales tax, with some paying another 1.25-percent county sales tax plus applicable local sales taxes. Same in Illinois, where Chicago motorists pay 12.75 cents per gallon on top of the 57.9 cents per gallon in state and federal taxes. Some Illinois motorists also pay a 6.25-percent sales tax.

Politicians, pundits, and other TV talking heads don’t like to provide these answers, because facts get in the way of positions that pander to the mob. We don’t point fingers at Canada, because it’s de rigueur to paint the Saudis with the broad brush of blame. Folks float the idea of a moratorium on state and federal gasoline taxes without explaining its minimal impact on gas prices, or without mentioning the $3 sales tax some motorists pay on top of a $50 fill up. Policymakers don’t explain that oil trades in the dollar, which is weak vis-r-vis the Euro, because that would require solutions for strengthening the greenback.

Rep. Don Young (AK) Urges Producing American Energy

Rep. Young doesn't mention flex fuel but I think he is basically correct on dealing with the supply side of oil production. Click here to watch the 5-min. video.

Fun In The Sun

Growth in the photovoltaic industry these days is phenomenal. The consulting firm Solarbuzz reports that world photovoltaic installations last year amounted to 2,826 MW of electricity-generating capacity, up 62% compared with 2006 and valued at $17.2 billion. More than two-thirds of the installations were in Germany and Spain, where tax incentives favor solar panel installation. -- Chemical & Engineering News 8/04/08

Hiroshima/Nagasaki Anniversary

Rick Moran has some thoughts on the use of nuclear weapons 63 years ago.

Zubrin on T. Boone Pickens' Energy Ideas

Robert Zubrin offers his thoughts and analysis on proposals by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens.