If there is a "free and open forum" dealing with new technologies, then why can't I get an answer to my question: Why are propeller windmills used instead of the much more efficient and safer vertical-axis windmills? It looks like deals are being made under the table, because prop mills are stupid in comparison. See sauerpower(dot)com.
While negawatts are cheaper than megawatts for the time being. They may not support a world population of 8 billion at a standard of living equivalent to current first world standards. Solar, wind and biofuels as well as nuclear, clean coal, and garbage incineration (and garbage to oil) all deserve research money IMO. It looks to me like we're moving from a petroleum energy based economy to a heterogeneous energy based economy, and all energy sources deserve at least a shot at research.
We need GOD not solar power. We need FAITH not dissent. We need NUCLEAR not hippie power. As a stockholder in normal regular energy companies I dont like these liberals telling people fossil fuels are wrong or expensive. War creates more jobs than peace. Think about that next time you buy a hybrid because you think youre helping.
Don't you love how along with the amazing freeing of information the internet facilitates, it also allows the most deranged, nutty and misinformed to broadcast their ignorance on a global basis!?! A warmongering religious nut,....whats next? Not censorship, at least not in this quarter. Although with comments like the previous,it sure seems tempting at times!!
Irony? Sarcasm? I think that we need to see nuclear power as having enormous potential. Gen I and gen II power plants (those that have been built up till now) are too expensive, use too much fuel,and produce too much waste. Next gen plant designs won't have the same problems. Gen IV thorium plants would produce a small fraction of the waste, be much safer, use cheaper fuel, and potentially much cheaper to build. Inertial electrostatic confinement fusion looks very interesting as well.
The Rocky Mountain Institute hasn't solved any problems. It's a quack organization that makes it's money by fooling the stupid. Give me an idea of something they have done? I repeat. They have solved NO problems. NONE. QUACK, QUACK, QUACK. This is a total fraud. Give me some examples of what they have done? Sure you can do things in a Greenhouse at enormous costs. FRAUD Alert!
I'm not sure what your game is, but all I had to do is type into Google "what are RMI accomplishments?" and I ran across a huge deal for WAL MART and the US Military (Pentagon). How is he a Quack again? Wow, if I actually did some research...
Tell me what he's done. Don't give me some crap about a deal for Wal Mart and US Military. He probably told then to cut off the lights when not in use. He was probably paid handsomely for that wisdom. Has Lovins invented any new energy producing device? Has he made any energy breakthrough? No all he does is serve up platitudes. Technologically imparied people think he says something but when you really understand energy and power you realize this creep is pulling wool over people's eyes.
So, saving WalMart millions and the country all the oil they save now is nothing? You said "ANYTHING" I've given you two huge ones and you want to belittle that? How about the US Government, Hypercar and ALL the auto companies over the last 30 years. Why don't YOU do a second's worth of research into this instead of just spouting out useless arguments to keep yourself at the top of the list. What have YOU done to make an energy breakthrough? You DON'T UNDERSTAND ENERGY AT ALL obviously.
So I don't understand Energy? I've been a graduate EE for 25 years. I worked in and around the area of Electrical Power/Energy for a good deal of that time. I've put together programs for the reduction of energy use in industrial plants by the introduction of very high efficientcy motors and better lighting in addition to heating and cooling systems. These systems must have cost benefit analysis and I've done my share of this. With this backgroud I can recognize hype when I see it.
Don't forget to add to your resume that you troll around on YouTube and spread misinformation about people who are actually doing something with their educations.
In addition to the things I've done in the Energy/Power area, I've done my fair share of advocacy. I supported Diablo Canyon when others opposed it. California would be rationing power today if not for DC. However I've been alarmed by the general stupidity of the MSM around the area of Energy/Oil etc. So I'm doing what I can to fight the stupidity and quackery that's out there today. We are starting to see the same type of conspiracy theorists who crop up in other areas. Go Nuke!
That's good info. Hope Mr. Lovins is right and some automaker listens to him. Also hopefully they can make it work. I guess we'll see when CF cars are involved in accidents.
If I understand Mr. Lovins correctly, he is saying that we can continue our current lifestyle, just do it smarter. I don't know if that's possible or even desireable. I guess we will see. Anyway, thanks again.
Actually, that's not the case. He has accomplished at least one thing. Two or 3 yrs ago Discover mag. did a piece on Lovins. If my memory is right, his electric bill on a 4K ft2 place at 7K ft elev. was $5. I live at 4K ft in a small house and my bill was $100/mo. He got my attention. To make a long story short, I got busy and cut my electric bill in half, and I'm not doing without. I'm paying $50-60/mo. As you are an EE, I'm sure you are paying even less.
My electric bill is very low. The dollar value is not a measure of electrical energy used. The number is kilowatt-hours. My power Co. PG&E charges $.11/KW-HR. I use about 120 KW-HR per month and I have a swimming pool with a 1 HP motor. How do I do it? I use Flourescent Light Bulbs, LED Light Bulbs, Energy Star appliances, and I have installed Motion Sensors on my lights so I don't have to remember to keep turning off lights when I leave a room. I did all this without help from Avery Lovins.
Yes I know how it's measured, but I pay in $. The point is, after I saw that Lovins had almost no bill while living in the Rockies, I was inspired to get busy. Lovins is an inspiration to others and he has a $10 mill consulting business.
Now, please, show me where Lovins is wrong. Are capitalists investing in nuclear? Is it impossible to build light safe cars? Is it impossible to "win the oil endgame" as he calls it? Please direct me to your sources. Have a good week, man.
The fact is this. We can't go on living like this. We can't drill our way out of this one. (3% of the world's reserves & use about 25% of the oil) Right or wrong the public has rejected nuc's. Wind and solar power are growing fast. Have you checked any of the sites I've mentioned? If Lovins is wrong, see communitysolutiondotorg. If both are wrong, we're toast. If your only solution is to build 200 nuc's in 20 yr, we're toast. I don't know if we have 20 years. We all need to get busy.
Being the 'poster' of this vid, I am completely within my prerogative to delete this uninformed, unsubstantiated comment. But that would smack of censorship. Besides the rebuttals make some valid points about RMI and Lovins track record. I suggest 'juscurious' watch (or rewatch) the video in it's entirety before making such ignorant comments. Vic Aguilar aka UpBeatnik
Hi UpBeatnik. Please don't do that. Look at the good that has been done. Instead of everyone saying, "what a great vid" we are talking. Perhaps juscurious has an ax to grind. Fine, if he can show where nuclear is such a great idea and it will save us, I'm all for it. Because of your post, the people of the country can have a discussion. That's amazing. Think about it; we don't know each other, but we can bring our individual education and experience online to work on problems. Way cool.
Don't worry. I firmly agree in a free and open forum. I just wish we could attract more informed, edifying participants instead of all the usual naysayers, poopooers, and generally uninformed voices that seem at times to predominate. No censoship, but a lot of consternation on my part on how we have to waste time correcting these people who clearly have not taken commensurate time in advance to properly inform themselves before they speak.
Hi UpBeatnik. I appreciate what you've done. If you find anything else on Lovins, RMI, or energy solutions in general, please post it. He certainly inspired me. Now, if I can only get Rio Grande Electric Coop to buy power from me. They have some idea that a home owner with his own power generating system might hurt their grid. Lovins is right, but nobody said it was going to be easy. Thanks and good luck.
Anybody out there had any experience talking sense to an electric coop?
What RMI did with WMRT was show them that natural lighting not only saved electricity (that would have been used for lighting, and that would have been used to cool the heat that the lighting put out) but also increased same store sales by >10% (consumers buy more in a daylit store). He worked with WMT and their truck provider to get trucks that were ~25% more efficient (from 5 to 6.5mpg) saving WMT tens of millions a year.
WOW what a revelation. Natural Lighting is less expendise than using electrical energy for lighting. That ought to win him a nobel prize. This is such common sense and newer buildings have been doing this for some time. However there is a trade off. Too much natural light in warm climates will bring in heat as well and this will cause your air conditioning to work harder. On a cold sunny day this works to your advantage, but on a hot sunny day it will hurt. Things are as simple as you think.
Perhaps you didn't read what I wrote. The secondary effect of the natural lighting (and IR insulating glass is available) was that same store sales were up dramatically. A big part of RMI's push to companies is to allow their engineers to solve problems rather than having their business people block the problems. In office spaces where natural light was used, sick days were reduced by >5% (paying for the change in lighting conditions in the first year).
RMI started up Fiberforge, you can look them up on line, they've invented a way to rapidly form carbon(or aramid) fibers into products (solving an existing problem of hand shaped carbon fiber being prohibitively expensive) which is making a huge change in the way many products are built today. What business have you started?
Show examples of products that are made from this that save energy. I want specifics and not some vague terms like products. Some others have commented that CF cars are viable but the auto makers just won't see the light. Look I guess all the people at Ford, GM, Toyota, BMW, Nissian, Mercedes Benz etc are just dummies and won't get with the program. I guess you will have to proscribe some Lovins Kool-Aid for these stubbon and recalcitrant types. Go Nuclear, it's the ONLY solution.
re: "I guess all the people at Ford, GM, Toyota... just dummies and won't get with the program: No they're not dummies, they are working with a material that they understand AND that they have shaping equipment for. Moving to CF is expensive: it means billions of dollars of retooling, learning a new set of skills and a new set of suppliers. There was an article in Business Week Jul08 suggesting Japanese Co. moving to CF. We did the research for hybrids then threw it away (PNGV) is CF the same?
If there is a "free and open forum" dealing with new technologies, then why can't I get an answer to my question: Why are propeller windmills used instead of the much more efficient and safer vertical-axis windmills? It looks like deals are being made under the table, because prop mills are stupid in comparison. See sauerpower(dot)com.
JBC814 4 months ago
While negawatts are cheaper than megawatts for the time being. They may not support a world population of 8 billion at a standard of living equivalent to current first world standards. Solar, wind and biofuels as well as nuclear, clean coal, and garbage incineration (and garbage to oil) all deserve research money IMO. It looks to me like we're moving from a petroleum energy based economy to a heterogeneous energy based economy, and all energy sources deserve at least a shot at research.
commandersprocket 3 years ago
We need GOD not solar power. We need FAITH not dissent. We need NUCLEAR not hippie power. As a stockholder in normal regular energy companies I dont like these liberals telling people fossil fuels are wrong or expensive. War creates more jobs than peace. Think about that next time you buy a hybrid because you think youre helping.
LatteLiberal 3 years ago
Don't you love how along with the amazing freeing of information the internet facilitates, it also allows the most deranged, nutty and misinformed to broadcast their ignorance on a global basis!?! A warmongering religious nut,....whats next? Not censorship, at least not in this quarter. Although with comments like the previous,it sure seems tempting at times!!
Vic Aguilar
aka
UpBeatnik
UpBeatnik 3 years ago
Irony? Sarcasm? I think that we need to see nuclear power as having enormous potential. Gen I and gen II power plants (those that have been built up till now) are too expensive, use too much fuel,and produce too much waste. Next gen plant designs won't have the same problems. Gen IV thorium plants would produce a small fraction of the waste, be much safer, use cheaper fuel, and potentially much cheaper to build. Inertial electrostatic confinement fusion looks very interesting as well.
commandersprocket 3 years ago
The Rocky Mountain Institute hasn't solved any problems. It's a quack organization that makes it's money by fooling the stupid. Give me an idea of something they have done? I repeat. They have solved NO problems. NONE. QUACK, QUACK, QUACK. This is a total fraud. Give me some examples of what they have done? Sure you can do things in a Greenhouse at enormous costs. FRAUD Alert!
juscurious 3 years ago
I'm not sure what your game is, but all I had to do is type into Google "what are RMI accomplishments?" and I ran across a huge deal for WAL MART and the US Military (Pentagon). How is he a Quack again? Wow, if I actually did some research...
Whaaat2008 3 years ago
Tell me what he's done. Don't give me some crap about a deal for Wal Mart and US Military. He probably told then to cut off the lights when not in use. He was probably paid handsomely for that wisdom. Has Lovins invented any new energy producing device? Has he made any energy breakthrough? No all he does is serve up platitudes. Technologically imparied people think he says something but when you really understand energy and power you realize this creep is pulling wool over people's eyes.
juscurious 3 years ago
So, saving WalMart millions and the country all the oil they save now is nothing? You said "ANYTHING" I've given you two huge ones and you want to belittle that? How about the US Government, Hypercar and ALL the auto companies over the last 30 years. Why don't YOU do a second's worth of research into this instead of just spouting out useless arguments to keep yourself at the top of the list. What have YOU done to make an energy breakthrough? You DON'T UNDERSTAND ENERGY AT ALL obviously.
Whaaat2008 3 years ago
So I don't understand Energy? I've been a graduate EE for 25 years. I worked in and around the area of Electrical Power/Energy for a good deal of that time. I've put together programs for the reduction of energy use in industrial plants by the introduction of very high efficientcy motors and better lighting in addition to heating and cooling systems. These systems must have cost benefit analysis and I've done my share of this. With this backgroud I can recognize hype when I see it.
juscurious 3 years ago
Don't forget to add to your resume that you troll around on YouTube and spread misinformation about people who are actually doing something with their educations.
Whaaat2008 3 years ago
In addition to the things I've done in the Energy/Power area, I've done my fair share of advocacy. I supported Diablo Canyon when others opposed it. California would be rationing power today if not for DC. However I've been alarmed by the general stupidity of the MSM around the area of Energy/Oil etc. So I'm doing what I can to fight the stupidity and quackery that's out there today. We are starting to see the same type of conspiracy theorists who crop up in other areas. Go Nuke!
juscurious 3 years ago
Don't forget the company Lovins spun off to stamp carbon fiber and try to cut auto weight in half while making them safer. That should be enough.
FreesWorld 3 years ago
Fiberforge: If/when those cars get built,
Pros:
1. far fewer parts,
2. be easier to assemble,
3. weight savings will also mean a much smaller engine (which in itself will save a lot of weight).
4. designers have more freedom (steel weakens when it's deformed too much).
Cons:
1. Strength of CF is very directional and designers and engineers will need to understand those limits.
2. CF production currently too small for auto applications.
3. More expensive material (balanced out by Pro's 1&2)
commandersprocket 3 years ago
Thank you Commandersprocket,
That's good info. Hope Mr. Lovins is right and some automaker listens to him. Also hopefully they can make it work. I guess we'll see when CF cars are involved in accidents.
If I understand Mr. Lovins correctly, he is saying that we can continue our current lifestyle, just do it smarter. I don't know if that's possible or even desireable. I guess we will see. Anyway, thanks again.
FreesWorld 3 years ago
Actually, that's not the case. He has accomplished at least one thing. Two or 3 yrs ago Discover mag. did a piece on Lovins. If my memory is right, his electric bill on a 4K ft2 place at 7K ft elev. was $5. I live at 4K ft in a small house and my bill was $100/mo. He got my attention. To make a long story short, I got busy and cut my electric bill in half, and I'm not doing without. I'm paying $50-60/mo. As you are an EE, I'm sure you are paying even less.
FreesWorld 3 years ago
My electric bill is very low. The dollar value is not a measure of electrical energy used. The number is kilowatt-hours. My power Co. PG&E charges $.11/KW-HR. I use about 120 KW-HR per month and I have a swimming pool with a 1 HP motor. How do I do it? I use Flourescent Light Bulbs, LED Light Bulbs, Energy Star appliances, and I have installed Motion Sensors on my lights so I don't have to remember to keep turning off lights when I leave a room. I did all this without help from Avery Lovins.
juscurious 3 years ago
Yes I know how it's measured, but I pay in $. The point is, after I saw that Lovins had almost no bill while living in the Rockies, I was inspired to get busy. Lovins is an inspiration to others and he has a $10 mill consulting business.
Now, please, show me where Lovins is wrong. Are capitalists investing in nuclear? Is it impossible to build light safe cars? Is it impossible to "win the oil endgame" as he calls it? Please direct me to your sources. Have a good week, man.
FreesWorld 3 years ago
The fact is this. We can't go on living like this. We can't drill our way out of this one. (3% of the world's reserves & use about 25% of the oil) Right or wrong the public has rejected nuc's. Wind and solar power are growing fast. Have you checked any of the sites I've mentioned? If Lovins is wrong, see communitysolutiondotorg. If both are wrong, we're toast. If your only solution is to build 200 nuc's in 20 yr, we're toast. I don't know if we have 20 years. We all need to get busy.
FreesWorld 3 years ago
Being the 'poster' of this vid, I am completely within my prerogative to delete this uninformed, unsubstantiated comment. But that would smack of censorship. Besides the rebuttals make some valid points about RMI and Lovins track record. I suggest 'juscurious' watch (or rewatch) the video in it's entirety before making such ignorant comments. Vic Aguilar aka UpBeatnik
UpBeatnik 3 years ago
Hi UpBeatnik. Please don't do that. Look at the good that has been done. Instead of everyone saying, "what a great vid" we are talking. Perhaps juscurious has an ax to grind. Fine, if he can show where nuclear is such a great idea and it will save us, I'm all for it. Because of your post, the people of the country can have a discussion. That's amazing. Think about it; we don't know each other, but we can bring our individual education and experience online to work on problems. Way cool.
FreesWorld 3 years ago
Don't worry. I firmly agree in a free and open forum. I just wish we could attract more informed, edifying participants instead of all the usual naysayers, poopooers, and generally uninformed voices that seem at times to predominate. No censoship, but a lot of consternation on my part on how we have to waste time correcting these people who clearly have not taken commensurate time in advance to properly inform themselves before they speak.
Vic Aguilar
aka
UpBeatnik
UpBeatnik 3 years ago
Hi UpBeatnik. I appreciate what you've done. If you find anything else on Lovins, RMI, or energy solutions in general, please post it. He certainly inspired me. Now, if I can only get Rio Grande Electric Coop to buy power from me. They have some idea that a home owner with his own power generating system might hurt their grid. Lovins is right, but nobody said it was going to be easy. Thanks and good luck.
Anybody out there had any experience talking sense to an electric coop?
FreesWorld 3 years ago
What RMI did with WMRT was show them that natural lighting not only saved electricity (that would have been used for lighting, and that would have been used to cool the heat that the lighting put out) but also increased same store sales by >10% (consumers buy more in a daylit store). He worked with WMT and their truck provider to get trucks that were ~25% more efficient (from 5 to 6.5mpg) saving WMT tens of millions a year.
commandersprocket 3 years ago
WOW what a revelation. Natural Lighting is less expendise than using electrical energy for lighting. That ought to win him a nobel prize. This is such common sense and newer buildings have been doing this for some time. However there is a trade off. Too much natural light in warm climates will bring in heat as well and this will cause your air conditioning to work harder. On a cold sunny day this works to your advantage, but on a hot sunny day it will hurt. Things are as simple as you think.
juscurious 3 years ago
Perhaps you didn't read what I wrote. The secondary effect of the natural lighting (and IR insulating glass is available) was that same store sales were up dramatically. A big part of RMI's push to companies is to allow their engineers to solve problems rather than having their business people block the problems. In office spaces where natural light was used, sick days were reduced by >5% (paying for the change in lighting conditions in the first year).
commandersprocket 3 years ago
RMI started up Fiberforge, you can look them up on line, they've invented a way to rapidly form carbon(or aramid) fibers into products (solving an existing problem of hand shaped carbon fiber being prohibitively expensive) which is making a huge change in the way many products are built today. What business have you started?
commandersprocket 3 years ago
Sprokethead,
Show examples of products that are made from this that save energy. I want specifics and not some vague terms like products. Some others have commented that CF cars are viable but the auto makers just won't see the light. Look I guess all the people at Ford, GM, Toyota, BMW, Nissian, Mercedes Benz etc are just dummies and won't get with the program. I guess you will have to proscribe some Lovins Kool-Aid for these stubbon and recalcitrant types. Go Nuclear, it's the ONLY solution.
juscurious 3 years ago
re: "I guess all the people at Ford, GM, Toyota... just dummies and won't get with the program: No they're not dummies, they are working with a material that they understand AND that they have shaping equipment for. Moving to CF is expensive: it means billions of dollars of retooling, learning a new set of skills and a new set of suppliers. There was an article in Business Week Jul08 suggesting Japanese Co. moving to CF. We did the research for hybrids then threw it away (PNGV) is CF the same?
commandersprocket 3 years ago