Posts by Andrew Stevenson
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Good story David, we tend to overlook firewood as a bio fuel in favour of the oil replacements. The BRANZ HEEP study said something like that another Huntly power station would be needed if all solid fuel heating went electric.
I did notice that George never did get around to saying what the energy yield ratio for the pellets was, other then indirectly saying the inputs for the mill and auger were low. Any firm figures?
The consumer website (premium content) has recent updates of home heating fuel cost comparisons; a pellet fire is about mid range of the options according the them, not among the most cost effective as reported.
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Don Christie wrote:
Next week on Public Address Science: the equally emotion-provoking subject of biofuels.
Well, next week is going to have to be one hell of a show.
Can't wait for the fun to begin, but is there really that much emotion invested in biofuels? Should probably try to stay on topic, tune in next week.
Michael, there seems to be some powerful emotions waiting to be expressed, please go on...
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Raymond A Francis wrote:
And it will be even more interesting to see how this would balence out in energy terms ie energy needed to produce charcoal, carbon released into the atmosphere compared with carbon locked up in the soil
Not only to produce the charcoal, but also energy (and $) costs for transporting the wood/charcoal and incorporating it in the soil. Transport is one of the problems in dealing with wood waste and residues from the forestry sector.
What effects would mechanical tilling of very large areas to 40cm depth have on soil stability and sediment runoff?
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Has fusion cooking jumped the fence to journalism?
Throw dangerous dogs and P together - voila, a new story.
Any takers for what the next dish/news will contain?
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it would be nice to have a wind farm out of sight, just over the horizon from the shore
Interesting that you assume that a wind farm out of sight would not have any problems with the RMA or other pieces of legislation. There would be issues over rights to the seabed, fishing, access etc.
And there is always the BANANA brigade too.We'll leave aside the issues of the cost of marine structures and cable runs longer the the HVDC link...
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There are any number of small turbines on the market for power, the problem is it costs more then mains electricity. So unless its going to cost you a lot to run wires to where you need the power its cheaper to use mains.
Direct use of wind for pumping is viable, or you can get solar powered pumps.
On the bird chopping, that appears to only be a problem if you site it in the migratory path of the birds - as they did with a wind farm in the US. Your car or house will kill more birds then a turbine.
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But anyway, the above conditions don't apply to every country that has nuclear power plants
No, but they are the sort of thing you think about before spending a couple of billion setting up an industry in NZ.
Related tangent: what's the longest you can run an underseas power cable?
As long as you like - might not get any energy out the other end though...
Before you even think about running a cable from Australia, work out the cost of the conductor metal alone, probably be cheaper to ship charged batteries over, particulary at the rates they would charge us for power. Anyway, they will need it all the power to run desalination plants and pumps.
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So why do we have to align ourselves with Australia?
They have uranium, we don't
They have places to store the waste, we don't
They use lignite to provide baseload, we don't
They have larger power demands suited to current nuclear plant, we don'tI must confess I'm not seeing your logic here Juha
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Ok, I'll bite
Why do we have to align ourselves with Australia?
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David Haywood wrote:
Do you work as an accountant for an electricity company, by the way -- this is exactly the sort of conversations I used to have with them when I was an energy engineer!
Ahhh no, not an accountant, actually I'm an energy engineer...
Juha - stop stirring!