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RE: A Modeling Study Predicts That Solar Farms Could Produce Rainfall

DAB — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 18:23:10 GMT

Interesting, but I doubt that the rain would fall where the updraft is located.

When you watch weather patterns, an updraft just starts the process.

You still need the moisture and accumulation over time to reach a point where you have a cloud with rain potential.

It would be more economical to equip tankers with rain collectors and sail them into precipitation over the ocean.

You would get good clean water and then be able to take it to where you need it.

RE: A Modeling Study Predicts That Solar Farms Could Produce Rainfall

dougw — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 17:45:19 GMT

It sounds like even just darkening land surfaces would have a similar effect.

RE: Deep Fission is Burying Nuclear Reactors One Mile Deep

DAB — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 20:16:06 GMT

They must be using funny math, because I do not see how this approach can make a power plant less expensive.

There is also a lot of security concerns about this approach.

RE: Engineers Build a Alt Energy Device That Generates Power at Night

michaelkellett — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 18:08:35 GMT

"This demonstrates that sufficient energy can be harvested from the night sky."

No it doesn't - it demonstrates that energy can be harvested from the earth warmed by the sun - it's a solar powered device - not a dark powered device.

The power output is very low and there is no indication of energy output over a full 24 hour cycle.

"Year-round measurements show that the engine’s plate temperatures, temperature differential, and rotation rate correlate with the weather."

Next you'll be telling us that bears poo in the woods !

RE: Japan’s Sidewalks Converts Human Footsteps into Useable Electricity

DAB — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 20:22:19 GMT

Even in high traffic areas, it would take a long time to repay the costs of installation and I don't even want to think about how much maintenance this type of system might require.

RE: Engineers Build a Alt Energy Device That Generates Power at Night

DAB — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 20:16:01 GMT

Interesting, but the efficiencies are just horrible.

RE: Japan’s Sidewalks Converts Human Footsteps into Useable Electricity

chloro — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 12:18:06 GMT

So basically every time I miss my train and run across the station, I’m secretly powering Japan’s electricity grid? [emoticon:0f36700dfeb3494fa10d47dd9e1f90a1]
Imagine a display board saying: “This station is currently powered by 3 late commuters, 2 tourists, and one guy chasing the last train.”
Pretty cool idea though, turning everyday footsteps into energy!

RE: Japan is Working on Three Surprising Hydrogen Projects

DAB — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 19:17:12 GMT

Hydrogen is the only future fuel worth pursuing for reliable on demand power.

It is easy to get, easy to use, just not easy to store.

Once you have hydrogen, it is also fairly simple to make more complex hydrocarbon fuels, that are more easy to store.

Kudos to the Japanese for thinking long term, especially since they lack a source of oil.

RE: Japan Extracts Rare Earth Elements from Seabed Mud

DAB — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:40:30 GMT

Ishii may not be concerned with cost, but any investor will be. Yes the mud has a lot of material, but it will be very costly to extract the mud, then extract the MP materials from the mud. The US investment was based upon a usable quantity of rare earth materials within a reasonably extractable ore with fixed processing costs. The Japanese mud is not either of those.

RE: 100W USB Type-C Power Delivery Source: Getting Started

Canto26 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:40:02 GMT

I've been wanting to build something just like this for my RV! Did you run into any issues with this design?

RE: Energy left in "dead" batteries?!

DAB — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 20:01:30 GMT

Very good post.

It is amazing how much power is wasted in batteries after they fall below the usable voltage level.

RE: Energy left in "dead" batteries?!

beacon_dave — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:21:57 GMT

Nice post.

It would be interesting to do a load test with one of the Li-ion rechargeable AA batteries that has a built-in buck convertor. In theory they are supposed to give a stable output for around 95% of their capacity.

I have been known to take two dead AA batteries in series at a time and connect it to a joule thief boost convertor to output 5V which then re-charges a USB power bank. One battery will fail first so just swap it with the next one and keep going.

Apocalypse ready [emoticon:599cc6d89e2145289084ee73d7cb364b]

RE: Energy left in "dead" batteries?!

beacon_dave — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:06:42 GMT

"...Otherwise, looks like there is not much use to these dead batteries..."

Using Dead Batteries to Test for Dead Batteries [emoticon:c4563cd7d5574777a71c318021cbbcc8]

RE: Energy left in "dead" batteries?!

battlecoder — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:51:50 GMT

This was a very interesting post to read. I regularly "save" batteries that were in power-hungry devices (that no longer have enough juice to power them) to use them in those that don't drain that much current, hoping to squeeze as much energy as I can from them. Not to save money but rather to spare the environment from more e-waste.

Love how you actually took the time to measure how much energy was still there in your batteries. Very nice work!

RE: Energy left in "dead" batteries?!

dougw — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 13:55:06 GMT

Great work - I always wondered the same thing...