Electrical Power productions are about to change soon

Electrical Power productions are about to change soon enter the box:

http://www.kindredpartners.com/portfolio-news/1068

The money invested in alternative is starting to send us in new directions.

 

briliant

 

http://voices.allthingsd.com/201002...akthrough-or-silicon-valley-hype/?mod=ATD_rss

This one talks about methane (nat gas) not hydrogen for the box.

 

Hydrogen is not a particularly good fuel. Its light and small molecule is difficult to contain, and requires very high pressure to maintain it as a liquid (which would be the only practical way to carry it around, say in a car tank, which would be almost prohibitively heavy and bulky for transportation use.) I'm ignoring the energy density of pure hydrogen as well, it is low on a mass basis compared to almost any other burnable. But I think you knew all that.

Now, it isn't clear to me what excess hydrogen you are thinking of in this instance. Sridhar is making gas on one side of the day and recombining it on the other side. The recombination is in exactly the same ratio as the products. In fact, that hopefully ideal cycle will be a net user of resource (pure water and sunlight) not a producer. Leakage will cause that. That does NOT mean it wouldn't work. However, it WOULD require a pretty heavy investment in collectors to power the (also expensive) compressors (one for H2, the other for O2) during the day. In short, it is another form of energy storage akin to batteries with similar, but greater, losses. Practicality is a long way off, I fear.

By the way, hydrogen IS fed to electrical generators as a coolant, not as fuel. (I'm being a wise guy here, but truthful.)

 

The amount without power is pretty good news for wind. Many states have set (unreachable IMHO) goals for renewables.

 

Setting a goal is one thing, reaching it is entirely another pot of bouillabaisse. It can be forced with massive infusions of money into inefficient (read as hurried) research that will produce the desired effect. One might inquire about where that infusion will come from. Methinks it will take an effort on the scale and expense of JFK's moon mission vision. I don't think we can afford that these days.