After a much unintended absence from my blog I have finally decided that it is time to get back into the groove and let the world know my thoughts. Throughout the years I have become more and more interested in energy and the need for a clean energy now and for the future. With this blog I hope to let the world know my thoughts about energy, the environment, outdoors and the great unknown. Stay tune
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The time has come to revamp the blog
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012Thoughts while sitting by the fire
Thursday, January 12th, 2012Well today has been an exciting day up in the Valley in the Green Mountains. With the beautiful snow falling and changing the landscape I could not help, but think about the beauty of nature and winter. Many people do not take the cold and the snow as postively as myself but for me it is nights light these that I charish. Sitting by the wood stove, drinking a nice dark porter beer is something that I dream about doing all summer long.
Now this winter has already been quiet interesting with the unusually weather that we have been seeing up in Vermont so far this winter. With this snow storm that arrived early this morning and will continue on and off through Friday has made it feel a lot more like winter and the forecast seems to tell the same story. I believe that this winter is a true example of the severity of climate change from a global prospective. Northern California (Lake Tahoe has zero natural snow), which compared to last year this time when the western USA was nearing 100 inches total snow fall around this time last year. Now that winter has arrived I think that it is only right to say that the snow dances around the country have paid off and happy winter.
Why do some bums not try and make an effort to be someone in life?
Friday, November 18th, 2011Three years ago while my neighbors had a party someone decided to go into my car and ultimately steal my gps that I had worked for and wanted for years. This evening I was looking at gps devices for the hell of it and came across the one that I did have which was the Garmin 60csx mapping gps. Now you might wonder how they got into my car in the first place and its quiet simple I forgot to lock the doors. In Vermont you would think that people would not steal and crime would be low but in Burlington, Vermont there is a huge problem with theft (did not know this being born and raised in Georgia). The reason that I know that it was a bum or “low life” was because they left a butane refile cartrage with paper wrapped around the nozzel to I would assume “huff the butane”. What drives me even more crazy is that the fact that I know that the person was in my car and other could of been as well. Why cannot people respect other peoples property and not even think about stealing especially something valuable like a gps which for the record this was the first time I had left it in my car EVER. Now i have to wait and have been waiting years to get another gps that is comparable to the one that was stolen or better and it just SUCKS.
Now to my question about why do some bums not try and make an effort to be someone? Well its quiet simple when someone is always given support whether that be from family or the government why would there be that urge to make an effort to be someone? Whats sad about Burlington and dont get me wrong Vermont and Burlington are very special to me is that there is a huge crowd of people who think that doing drugs all day long and asking people for money on the street is a normal way of life. Well news flash to those people you are very very wrong and will eventually realize that they will be more happier if they get off their asses and try and do something with their lives.
I appoligze for my rant but this has been on my mind for sometime now.
Enjoy the brisk air that is hopefully hear to stay in Northern New England and which has already taken hold of much of the west coast.
The Benefits of Public Transportation.
Friday, November 4th, 2011While driving on this greyhound bus back up to the mountains of Vermont I have been thinking a lot about the benefits of public transportation and how it could benefit the world more specifically the US. One would think that more people would consider taking public transportation when you are driving into lets just say downtown Boston. While I was driving into Boston to catch my bus there was a huge traffic jam not with a bunch of buses or public transportation vans but single occupupied personal cars. Now on a side note everyone is driving directly into downtown Boston and many will be parking within a mile or 2 of eachother. So now thinking about public transportatin in mind if everyone choice to use the park & ride service that many places have;
1. the congestion on the highways would be dirasticay less.
2. The emissions would be drastically less
3. Everyone would still get to work on time and if it ran late everyone would be late meaning no one would be held accoutable.
4. Instead of enduring the stress of rush hour traffic people could enjoy the beginning of the day and relax before work.
Just an idea and alternative to the American way that so many people never consider.
Wind Turbines at Ski Resorts?
Thursday, June 16th, 2011This has been a subject that I think the whole ski industry and thought about for years and has recently begun to act on the idea of using the wind to power these resorts. Many people do not realize that ski resorts use huge amounts of electricity to power those lifts to carry those ski enthusiast up a mountain to enjoy the fresh pow. These resorts like any other business are trying to come up with creative and efficient ways to reduce there environmental impact and also reduce their utility bills.
Wind energy is the perfect way to not only reduce a ski resorts environmental footprint but also drastically reduce there power bills. Ski mountains are perfect for wind turbines for many reasons but there are two that really make it great. The first is the altitude which plays a key role in how effective a wind turbine will perform. The higher you go in our atmosphere the higher the wind speed is which makes ski resorts ideal. Many ski resorts on the east coast and specifically Vermont are ideal locations for these turbines. An example is Bolton Valley Ski Resort here in Vermont. This resort has a Northern Power 100 kW wind turbine that is capable of generating 250,000 kWh annually. That is enough energy to power. In the near future Burke Mountain Ski Resort is also planning on installing a Northern Power 100 kW wind turbine. Its a no brainier for ski resorts to take advantage of this wind resource and in the future there will be many more ski resorts that will have a wind turbine standing tall supplying them will clean renewable energy for many years.
This article from ESPN talks about the wind turbine that will be getting installed at Burke Mountain this summer. http://sports.espn.go.com/action/freeskiing/news/story?id=6443611
Misconception of renewable energy
Sunday, December 26th, 2010This is a problem in the United States and the different instances where I have seen this first hand never seem to amaze me. Recently over the holiday weekend I had a conversion with an old lady who was interested in talking about renewable energy. To sum up the conversation she thought that renewable energy was pointless and did not understand that the sun is energy. I think the one comment she made that really proves my point about the misconception was when she told me that she heard that after wind turbines are “finished” that they are kept standing. First of all most wind turbines will be running for awhile unless certain circumstances occur, but 9/10 will run for much longer than the 20 years that the engineers are marked for the life of the turbine. 20 years is the standard for how long a turbine can run but its a low ball number and all it indicates is when some parts will need to have maintenance/repaired or replaced. Wind turbines that are community/utility scale are never left and abandoned like this lady believed. They are decommissioned just like a power pant.
Internship – Week 2
Thursday, September 30th, 2010I have finally had the chance to work with wind energy and what an enjoyment it is to get involved in an industry that has interested me for years. Over the past 2 weeks I have been involved in working on a project with google SketchUp and Google Earth. I have learned a lot about both of these programs and I am able to impose a site plan onto google earth and include models as well. Working with these tools will only be beneficial to me because these will prove to be important tools as both google and the wind industry continue to grow.
Oil Spill in the Gulf worse than Exxon Valdez in Alaska?
Thursday, May 27th, 2010While doing my everyday news search on the internet I came across an article that gave an griem outlook on the oil spill in the Gulf. It states that the oil spill in the Gulf could be already twice as big as the Exxon Valdez which released 11 million gallons of oil. That would mean that 29.5 million gallons of oil have spilled into the gulf. If this is a true fact, which I believe it is than there is a serious serious problem not only for the marine life, but the wetlands on the whole gulf coast including florida. BP has not only failed at stopping this well but continues to play it off as if they have it under control when they clearly do not. It is obvious that they not only never planned for anything like this, but think that the media and the US will let up on them which is false. Recently I saw on tv that people were lobbying for the government to step in and take over the clean up operation which the US government has declined. I believe that the government could do a lot better job and also has a the support of people of this country although its not very much. I really hope that something is done to stop this and that BP holds keeps their promise to “clean up every single drop of oil”, but I must say that I have a lot of doubts.
Day 1 – ASES Solar Conference
Thursday, May 20th, 2010I knew that attending a solar conference would benefit me a lot especially as I continue to get involved in this industry. Today was an interesting day filled with a lot of forums and technical sessions that covered a wide range of topics. Two of the sessions that I really enjoyed today were the Biochar session and the Solana Solar Generating Station that is planned to begin construction in 2010. I attending several other forums that were focused around community solar, active solar aplication and geothermal and wave energy.
The Biochar session that I attended was about an up and coming technology which is made by the pyrolysis of waste biomass or a less scientific term than pyrolysis would be partial combustion or heating in the absence of oxygen. Biochar which is a type of charcoal is used to sequester carbon as well as improve agricultural production. When a plant dies and decomposses it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but when biochar is applied 40-50% of that carbon and be retained as charcoal.
Solana Solar Generating Station is planned to begin construction in late 2010 and will be located 70 miles from Phoenix, AZ. The plant will product 280 megawatts of electricity when fully operational which will be enough power to provide electricity to 70,000 households. It uses solar collectors which are large mirrors that have a tube in the middle of filled with a liqued that is heated to extremely high temperatures, transfered through a heat exchange and evaportor that turns it into steam and then passsed through a turbine. This is an amazing step for the solar industy in the U.S. because although there are big solar systems already operatiing here this is another big step in the right direction. An interesting fact about this power station is that there will be a thermal storage tank which is molten salt. These tanks will allow the station to run at full capacity six hours after the sun goes down which will allow the plant to provide electricity during peak hours. This conference as been a great opportunity to learn and this next several days will only be that more interesting.
http://www.solanasolar.com/
http://www.ases.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18&Itemid=147
Famous people can make a difference
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010Today I read an article about Ted Turner whose company Turner Renewable Energy and another company First Solar Inc. are planning to build a solar plant in New Mexico near Ted Turners ranch. The plant is going to generate 30 MW of electricity and will consist of 500,000 modules.
Having the support of Ted Turner to bring about change in this coutries energy infrastructure is a great accomplishment that this energy movement needs because Ted Turner and others like him such as Boone Pickens have a lot of power in this country and can bring about change just from their actions. Turner is also the largest individual landowner in the country and plans to use his land for different renewable energy projects.
I wonder if this will be a common trend for large investors like Ted Turner and Boone Pickens because I believe that the private sector of this country can make the biggest change not only to the system but to our society because more people will believe in renewable energy sources and support the change of our energy system and stop off shore drilling.
Source:http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea//news/article/2010/03/southern-company-ted-turner-acquire-first-solar-project