Alternative energy

[Parodite]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kahih8RT1k

0kahih8RT1k

[Typhoon]

BoE Report | Did Henry Ford’s success come about because he demanded the execution of horses?

[Doc]

What it will take to go 100% with renewable energy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBVmnKuBocc

MBVmnKuBocc

[Typhoon]

Chem World | Water-splitting device solves puzzle of producing hydrogen direct from seawater

[Typhoon]

IEEE Spectrum | "Mainspring" linear generator

Flameless compression reaction

[Doc]

IEEE Spectrum | "Mainspring" linear generator

Flameless compression reaction

The efficient, clean, flameless reaction at the heart of the Mainspring generator works with nearly any fuel, including carbon-free ammonia as shown here. The ammonia reacts with oxygen in air to produce nitrogen gas and water, and the resulting force pushes against the walls of the box. MAINSPRING

-- The process to make ammonia is 40% to 60% efficient. Electrolysis is 50 % to 80% efficient. With a maximum theoretical efficiency of 94% Electrolysis in a self pressurized vessel and I would guess it would be more efficient.

[Heracleum Persicum]

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next-gen solar cell

This so-called third-generation solar cell is said to be able to convert 50-75% more sunlight into electricity than the traditional silicon photovoltaic (PV) cell.

The product is also 95% cheaper than the silicon solar cell as its key raw material is methylammonium lead iodide, making it a potential great option for countries that want to switch to solar power to meet their carbon neutrality targets.

[Typhoon]

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next-gen solar cell

This so-called third-generation solar cell is said to be able to convert 50-75% more sunlight into electricity than the traditional silicon photovoltaic (PV) cell.

The product is also 95% cheaper than the silicon solar cell as its key raw material is methylammonium lead iodide, making it a potential great option for countries that want to switch to solar power to meet their carbon neutrality targets.

Even if solar power cells were to achieve a [an unattainable] 99% efficiency, the energy density would still be far to low to be of economic - practical use in most parts of the world.

[Doc]

Silicon to make PV cells is dirt that it really dirty to make

https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/mining- ... get-there/

MINING AND REFINING: PURE SILICON AND THE INCREDIBLE EFFORT IT TAKES TO GET THERE

[Typhoon]

Nature | A cleaner route to ammonia

A method driven by renewable energy [electricity, in reality] could end the need for fossil fuels in fertilizer production.

The schematic of the ammonia generator connected to a wind turbine is quaint, but removing fossil fuels, a precious resource, from use as feedstock would be a major advance.

NH3 reminds one of the eloquent and insightful former poster Torchwood.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I remember a post some time ago from Typhoon about geothermal energy and saw this post up at an aggregate site:

Creating fractures in rocks with low permeability....

Geothermal offers a virtually limitless, always-on source of emissions-free heat and electricity:

If the US could capture just 2% of the thermal energy available two to six miles beneath its surface, it could produce more than 2,000 times the nation’s total annual energy consumption.

But because of geological constraints, high capital costs and other challenges, we barely use it at all: today it accounts for 0.4% of US electricity generation.

To date, developers of geothermal power plants have largely been able to tap only the most promising and economical locations, like this stretch of Nevada. They’ve needed to be able to drill down to porous, permeable, hot rock at relatively low depths. The permeability of the rock is essential for enabling water to move between two human-drilled wells in such a system, but it’s also the feature that’s often missing in otherwise favorable areas.

Starting in the early 1970s, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory began to demonstrate that we could engineer our way around that limitation. They found that by using hydraulic fracturing techniques similar to those now employed in the oil and gas industry, they could create or widen cracks within relatively solid and very hot rock. Then they could add in water, essentially engineering radiators deep underground.

Such an “enhanced” geothermal system then basically works like any other, but it opens the possibility of building power plants in places where the rock isn’t already permeable enough to allow hot water to circulate easily. Researchers in the field have argued for decades that if we drive down the cost of such techniques, it will unlock vast new stretches of the planet for geothermal development.

A noted MIT study in 2006 estimated that with a $1 billion investment over 15 years, enhanced geothermal plants could produce 100 gigawatts of new capacity on the grid by 2050, putting it into the same league as more popular renewable sources. (By comparison, about 135 gigawatts of solar capacity and 140 gigawatts of wind have been installed across the US.)

[…]

Creating fractures in rocks with low permeability means that the water in the system can’t easily leak out into other areas. Consequently, if you close off the well system and keep pumping in water, you can build up mechanical pressure within the system, as the fractured rock sections push against the earth.

“The fractures are able to dilate and change shape, almost like balloons,” Norbeck says.

That pressure can then be put to use. In a series of modeling experiments, Fervo found that once the valve was opened again, those balloons effectively deflated, the flow of water increased, and electricity generation surged. If they “charged it” for days, by adding water but not letting it out, it could then generate electricity for days.

AFAIK, still no real solution to the earthquake problem

[Typhoon]

I remember a post some time ago from Typhoon about geothermal energy and saw this post up at an aggregate site:

Creating fractures in rocks with low permeability....

Geothermal offers a virtually limitless, always-on source of emissions-free heat and electricity:

If the US could capture just 2% of the thermal energy available two to six miles beneath its surface, it could produce more than 2,000 times the nation’s total annual energy consumption.

But because of geological constraints, high capital costs and other challenges, we barely use it at all: today it accounts for 0.4% of US electricity generation.

To date, developers of geothermal power plants have largely been able to tap only the most promising and economical locations, like this stretch of Nevada. They’ve needed to be able to drill down to porous, permeable, hot rock at relatively low depths. The permeability of the rock is essential for enabling water to move between two human-drilled wells in such a system, but it’s also the feature that’s often missing in otherwise favorable areas.

Starting in the early 1970s, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory began to demonstrate that we could engineer our way around that limitation. They found that by using hydraulic fracturing techniques similar to those now employed in the oil and gas industry, they could create or widen cracks within relatively solid and very hot rock. Then they could add in water, essentially engineering radiators deep underground.

Such an “enhanced” geothermal system then basically works like any other, but it opens the possibility of building power plants in places where the rock isn’t already permeable enough to allow hot water to circulate easily. Researchers in the field have argued for decades that if we drive down the cost of such techniques, it will unlock vast new stretches of the planet for geothermal development.

A noted MIT study in 2006 estimated that with a $1 billion investment over 15 years, enhanced geothermal plants could produce 100 gigawatts of new capacity on the grid by 2050, putting it into the same league as more popular renewable sources. (By comparison, about 135 gigawatts of solar capacity and 140 gigawatts of wind have been installed across the US.)

[…]

Creating fractures in rocks with low permeability means that the water in the system can’t easily leak out into other areas. Consequently, if you close off the well system and keep pumping in water, you can build up mechanical pressure within the system, as the fractured rock sections push against the earth.

“The fractures are able to dilate and change shape, almost like balloons,” Norbeck says.

That pressure can then be put to use. In a series of modeling experiments, Fervo found that once the valve was opened again, those balloons effectively deflated, the flow of water increased, and electricity generation surged. If they “charged it” for days, by adding water but not letting it out, it could then generate electricity for days.

AFAIK, still no real solution to the earthquake problem

As far as I know there are two competing methods: open systems which involve fracking rock then injecting water into the fractured rock be heated and closed systems which involve drilling a sealed hole and injecting water down the hole to be heated.

The closed system would be best if one could as your former POTUS Reagan said, "Go deep".

New Atlas | Gyrotron powered mm wave deep drilling plasma

Have to say that I'm a big fan of this concept. Unlike wind and solar, it would provide stable baseload, i.e., always on, power.

[Typhoon]

Hossenfelder| Fusion - quasi isodynamic stellarator