Archive for August 15th, 2010

FREE ENERGY

More on Free Energy

Energy is important to me.  I have to generate ALL my Own Power, as I live on an English canal narrowboat.

I never connect to a “Landline” source of electric power, as I am always cruising on the canal network and rarely visit a Marina.

Up to last Christmas, all my energy was produced using my Main boat engine.  This is fitted with a large powerful 24-volt alternator, rated at 100-amps.  It is American design.

For those who are interested, it is “Prestolite” make, Type “Loadhandler” SC series (110-302 8SC3015U W/ATTACHED REG. 105-229), which is the RF suppressed model.  (This means it will not interfere with radio reception etc).

I was running the engine for around 4 to 5 hours daily, to replace the energy used and keeping my battery bank charged, until I fitted Solar Panels.

I fitted 4 Voltic Solar Panels x 130 watt rated (12-volt output) on my cabin roof at the beginning of 2010.

The solar panels are wired in pairs giving me a 24-volt output to match my 24-volt DC installation on my boat.  I was able to wire the panels directly into my main power inverter, as it has a solar regulator built in, (Lucky me!)

This has reduced my engine running from 4-5 hours a day, to about 1.5 hours a day, (A considerable saving).  I do run my engine for longer when I am using my washing machine, or cooking with my induction hob and electric oven etc., so that the load is shared between the battery and alternator; (That’s being kind to the batteries, so that the last longer).

I am intending to add a “Wind Generator”. The particular one I am interested in, is German manufacture and it is called “Superwind”  It does appearf to be more efficient than many other types of wind generator.

However, I may change my mind!

Read on and you will see why I might invest in something more interesting!

Now I have just “Discovered” another fascinating source of energy – FREE ENERGY – Yes, according to the inventors, it IS free energy.  Now I am personally interested in this, because it would make such a difference to my fuel bills – It does seem a large claim.. I have just read all I can about this new product and have become quite enthusiastic about it.

After reading everything I could find about it and the Australian inventors, I believe they may have something that is immensely interesting to me and I  am going to build their “free energy” electric generator and instal it in my narrowboat!

Now there may be some readers to my Blog that are also interested in reducing their  energy bills, so I am including a link <Click Here>, and go directly to the “MagniWork” web site.

You can also read about this fascinating, (And for me, potentially valuable), generator.  It is so interesting and includes some YouTube videos as well as explaining how it works.

After you have had a look at this new invention, I would be interested to have your views, so do please let me have some comment, (Feedback), on this new exciting energy potential.

NOBODY’S DOING MUCH ABOUT IT UNTIL NOW!

I was browsing the Internet this week and came across some interesting information about “Free” energy from the weather (Wind Turbines) and “Free” energy from the sea, (Water Turbines).

I became immersed in the complexity and found the subject matter extremely interesting, so I thought I would share it with you.

It seems that the largest Water Turbines are about to take advantage of the energy produced by the sea off the coast of the Shetland Islands and off the coats of Ireland. Apparently the water around the British Isles has the second highest rise and fall of tides in the world.

Rather than form large barriers, which would almost undoubtedly change the “Wetlands” around our coasts, affecting the wildlife and migrating birds, a totally different approach is foreseen, with little disturbance to nature. I like this idea!

I have copied and pasted a few published articles below, (The Authors and Publishers have been included, as well as the source of the information, so you are in a position to delve deeper in these most interesting technical achievements, should you wish to do so.

I personally find modern technical achievements almost beyond belief these days and consortiums, companies and financial wizards, making all this possible, should be commended.

One thing puzzles me though in the articles! Two companies, both claiming the largest energy producing invention, cannot be right! I will be watching these two quite different water turbine plants, still to be brought in commission, with great interest. The ideas are quite different and both have their merits, (To a non-engineering person like me!)

Regarding Wind Turbines, I have copied some articles about early results in various parts of the world, where there has been quite severe difficulties regarding the death of wildlife and migrating birds, with some of these. This is due to two main points, One being the turbines themselves and the other, the locations picked for the turbines.

There are potential ideas to improve the situation, making them more acceptable but all the possibilities seem to be quite expensive and in some cases, prohibitive, cost-wise.

I cannot see any way that the visual look can be tackled. I love the beautiful sculpture like designs of modern wind turbines but not everybody takes my view.

There are many others that think these turbines destroy the beauty of the natural countryside. However, not many people complained about the 1000’s of miles of high tension electricity lines that criss-cross the countryside in the past; surely these have more of a detrimental effect on nature’s beauty?

Perhaps we have become an unhappy civilisation, ready to complain about anything? (Further food for though perhaps?)

Now have a look at these manufacturing reports below and let me know what you think?

WORLD’S LARGEST MARINE TURBINE

(Thursday, 12th August 2010 – Greenmuse staff)

PICTURE (1)

The Atlantis Resources AK1000

The world’s largest tidal turbine was recently unveiled in Scotland, weighing 130 tons, 74ft (22.6m) tall, with two 60ft (18.3m) diameter rotors and generating 1MW on both tidal ebb and flow. The Atlantis Resources AK1000 can supply power to 1000 homes, and is to be installed at the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkney Islands, and has taken more than ten years to develop.
Atlantis Resources’ chief executive Tim Cornelius explained that, ” The turbines turn at six to eight revolutions per minute, so are incredibly slow turning and will have zero impact on the surrounding environment.” Theoretically, the turbine rotors should not harm marine animals.
Visit: Atlantis Resources Corporation
Via TreeHugger

1.2 MEGAWATTS: WORLD’S LARGEST TIDAL TURBINE TO BE INSTALLED

PICTURE (2)

A company called Marine Current Turbines will be installing a 1.2 megawatt tidal turbine in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough in August. The SeaGen turbine will be the world’s largest ever tidal current device by a significant margin. It will generate clean electricity for approximately 1000 homes. The turbine is a prototype to be replicated on a large scale over the next few years. The rotors on the SeaGen turbine turn slowly: about 10 to 20 revolutions per minute. A ship’s propellers, by comparison, typically run 10 times as fast. The risk of impact from SeaGen rotor blades is small, because the marine creatures that swim in strong currents tend to be agile, and can avoid slow-moving underwater obstructions.

PICTURE (3)

Future turbines will generally be rated at from 750 to 1500 kilowatts (kW), and will be grouped under the sea, at places with high currents, in much the same way that wind turbines in a wind farm are set out in rows to catch the wind.

PICTURE (4)

Commenting on the future prospects for tidal current energy, Martin Wright, Managing Director of Marine Current Turbines said: “We will build on the success of SeaGen to develop a commercial tidal farm, of up to 10MW in UK waters, within the next three years. With the right funding and regulatory framework, we believe we can realistically achieve up to 500MW of tidal capacity by 2015 based on this new SeaGen technology.”

USA TODAY
By John Ritter, USA TODAY
Posted 1/4/2005 11:17 PM Updated 1/5/2005 3:23 PM

WIND TURBINES TAKING THE TOLL ON BIRDS OF PREY

ALTAMONT PASS, Calif. — The big turbines that stretch for miles along these rolling, grassy hills have churned out clean, renewable electricity for two decades in one of the nation’s first big wind-power projects.

Picture (5)

(SeaWest Windpower wind turbine generators stand near Tracy, Calif.
By Ben Margot, AP)

But for just as long, massive fiberglass blades on the more than 4,000 windmills have been chopping up tens of thousands of birds that fly into them, including golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls and other raptors.
After years of study but little progress reducing bird kills, environmentalists have sued to force turbine owners to take tough corrective measures. The companies, at risk of federal prosecution, say they see the need to protect birds. “Once we finally realized that this issue was really serious, that we had to solve it to move forward, we got religion,” says George Hardie, president of G3 Energy.
The size of the annual body count — conservatively put at 4,700 birds — is unique to this sprawling, 50-square-mile site in the Diablo Mountains between San Francisco and the agricultural Central Valley because it spans an international migratory bird route regulated by the federal government. The low mountains are home to the world’s highest density of nesting golden eagles.
Scientists don’t know whether the kills reduce overall bird populations but worry that turbines, added to other factors, could tip a species into decline. “They didn’t realize it at the time, but it was just a really bad place to build a wind farm,” says Grainger Hunt, an ecologist with the Peregrine Fund who has studied eagles at Altamont.
Across the USA — from Cape Cod to the Southern California desert — new wind projects, touted as emission-free options to oil- and gas-fueled power plants, face resistance over wildlife, noise and vistas. The clashes come as wind-energy demand is growing, in part because 17 states have passed laws requiring that some of their future energy — 20% in California by 2010 — come from renewable sources.
Environmental groups, fans in principle of “green” power, are caught in the middle. “We’ve been really clear all along, we absolutely support wind energy as long as facilities are appropriately sited,” says Jeff Miller, Bay Area wildlands coordinator for the Center for Biological Diversity, which took 12 companies to court.
Wind energy is a tiny but fast-growing share of U.S. energy — 0.4%, up from less than 0.1% five years ago. Since November, when Congress reinstated a key tax credit for wind producers, the industry is poised to expand by as much as a third this year, the American Wind Energy Association says.
In 2004, wind generated enough electricity to power 1.6 million households, the association says. Altamont’s turbines are the nation’s No. 2 producer. Few energy experts think environmental concerns will discourage wind development long-term because the tradeoff is too appealing.
“When you opt for wind turbines, you don’t opt for pollution that harms children and crops from fossil-fuel power plants,” says Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California-Berkeley.
But windmills — derisively dubbed by some “toilet brushes in the sky” — draw fire when they’re planned in areas prized for their pristine landscapes:
• Cape Cod groups are fighting what they call visual pollution from 130 turbines, each taller than the Statue of Liberty, sought for Nantucket Sound. Fishermen fear loss of prime fishing grounds from the USA’s first offshore project.
• Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., asked the Government Accountability Office to study the effects more windmills would have in the Appalachians. Research found that existing turbines killed up to 4,000 bats on Backbone Mountain last year.
• In the Flint Hills of Kansas, the Audubon Society worries that windmills could despoil views in one of America’s few remaining stands of native tallgrass prairie and harm habitats of migrating prairie birds.
• Acting Gov. Richard Codey last month ordered a 15-month wind-power moratorium on the New Jersey shore, where the desire to preserve Atlantic views has collided with plans for offshore turbines near Ocean City and other sites.
Altamont Pass bird kills have been known for years, but turbine owners and federal regulators ignored them except to urge more research, says Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity. But a California Energy Commission study in August found bird fatalities much higher than had been thought and laid out steps to limit them.
At the same time, 20-year-old county permits were up for renewal, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to crack down. “Twenty years has just been too long to resolve this problem,” says Scott Heard, the agency’s chief Northern California enforcement agent.
Fish and Wildlife can prosecute those responsible for kills under federal laws that protect eagles and migratory birds.
The center’s lawsuit was withdrawn but filed again in November because the wind companies’ bird-protection plan was “not a serious attempt,” Miller says. The center is appealing Alameda County’s approval of new permits.
The state study’s key recommendation would be costly for companies: replace old turbines with fewer, larger-capacity modern ones, relocate them away from favorite bird haunts and build them more than twice as high so blades rotate above the birds’ flight paths.
Environmentalists want 3-year permits that can be renewed only if companies show progress. The companies, citing financial pressures, have proposed at least 13-year permits and want their own timetable for installing new turbines.
Alameda County is trying to broker a deal. “We can’t put them out of business by telling them to take out all their old turbines,” says assistant planning director Steven Buckley.
Turbine owners say Altamont’s 4,000-plus windmills are outdated and eventually will be replaced by 1,000 or fewer new ones. G3 Energy, a small Altamont operator, is replacing 180 obsolete turbines with 38 larger ones.
Others are more cautious. FPL Energy, Altamont’s biggest operator with 2,000 turbines, wants the study’s findings tested. “Certainly the turbine owners hope fewer, taller turbines reduce collisions,” says FPL spokesman Steve Stengel. “But there has not been research done to verify that.”

If you want to look at the photographs (MOST INTERESTING), until

I can add them to my blog please go to these URLs below

PROS

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/12_megawatts_wo.php

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/13/world-largest-tidal-turbine

http://www.greenmuze.com/climate/energy/2939-worlds-largest-marine-turbine.html

I thought you might be interested in both sides of a debate.

Below is the URL below about the wind generatorsCONS

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-01-04-windmills-usat_x.htm

MY OWN COMMENT

It seems that “Free Energy” is gaining momentum. The recent deep sea oil Tragedy, in the Gulf, may speed this up.

I like the idea of sea turbines, especially around the coast of GB where we have the second rise and fall of the tides in world, which in turn must increase water flows and currents in this area.

Have a nice day, ~Allan~