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  • Author Author: COMPACT
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"Remember Me Always!" - Part 005

COMPACT

Back from Isolation

image

I've been isolated from one of the few places left on the planet from the Internet - A cruise ship (and here is a picture I took from it)

Internet reception can be patchy and damned expensive when out and sea. Far too unreliable to post any reports.

A Cruise ship is a great place to deploy energy harvesting sensors and switches. There is plenty of background vibration and rocking energy that can be tapped.

 

 

 

One question that I always have about energy harvesters - What is the amount of energy harvested versus the energy required to make the harvester?

Is one able to recover the energy required to find, mine, refine and transport the raw materials and then manufacture and deploy it for operation?

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  • Hi Monte,

     

    Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

    I ask the same question about electric vehicles.  From an energy efficiency standpoint, an electric car is one of the most energy inefficient vehicle on the planet.

    I have always thought that wave generators could provide a lot of energy, but most implementations have been conducted by academians.  They need to engage real engineers instead of students.

     

    Well, now that you are back in the connected world we should see more updates soon.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to DAB

    From an energy efficiency standpoint, an electric car is one of the most energy inefficient vehicle on the planet.

    Hi DAB,

    I was thinking the other way. Could you please tell me why is it so?

  • in reply to vish

    Hi Vishnu,

     

    Everyone thinks that the electrical grid is an efficient source of energy, far from it.

    Most countries still use coal fired steam.  The energy conversion of steam to electricity is not as high as it needs to be so when you combine the line loss, thermal efficiencies and other losses, only about 50% of the available energy is available at your plug.

    Now, when you charge the battery, you will notice that the battery gets very hot.  More loss.

    When you drive the electric vehicle, the battery gets hot, more loss.

     

    So when you total it all up, you are only getting about 20% of the initial energy to drive around with the illusion that you are running green.

     

    A tank of gasoline and a well tuned combustion engine runs at about 80% efficient and only contributes about 15% of the pollution that your electric vehicle creates.

     

    Plus there is still the battery disposal issues.

    So electric vehicles are not a good idea despite the hype.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to vish

    Elon's got plenty of dosh and wants to make more.

    Electric and Steam powered cars were around at the start of the Auto age in the 1800's.

    Do you know how much electricity is required to mine, transport and extract aluminium??

    One positive note is that HVDC is now used to improve electricity transmission.

    Was Edison correct?

    Just don't get too close to it.

  • in reply to DAB

    Agreed.

     

    You also didn't include the vast energy needed to make the batteries, or their life expectancy.

    Sure the gasoline engine needs maintenance, but few cars require the entire engine block scrapped a new one made.

     

    As you indicated the coal to electricity conversion is inefficient, and the BBC had a very interesting program on the gains the biggest coal user in england (I can't recall who) was doing to improve this.

    The figures they were quoting were less than 1 % and saving hundreds of tons every week.

     

    While I'm sure there will eventually be a happy medium, the cost of electric cars is much higher than their equivalent (in most countries without subsidies), so improved development is not being driven by consumer demand.

     

    Mark

  • in reply to COMPACT
    Do you know how much electricity is required to mine, transport and extract aluminium??


    I know that we have an entire Hydro Electric power plant (Manapouri) dedicated to running Tiwai Point smelter here in NZ.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Aluminium_Smelters


    There are some interesting figures on consumption here.

    http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/can-we-replace-tiwai-smelter-giant-data-center-cs-138024


    Mark

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