Month: October 2011

Het is best relevant voor duurzaamheid dat er robots komen met menselijke bewegelijkheid. Dit vanwege het werk in onder andere vervuilde rampgebieden (denk aan Fukushima) en het werken in onbegaanbare gebieden. Als we daar in de toekomst robots voor kunnen inzetten dan is het herstel van de ecologie misschien een stuk makkelijker te maken.

Het enige probleem met de hieronder getoonde PETMAN van Boston Dynamics (waar hij ontwikkeld werd om beschermende kleding te kunnen testen voor het leger) is dat hij hydraulisch aangedreven wordt, maar er is ook een versie met een kleine motor (waar waterstof in verbrands zou worden). De energie behoeften van een metalen robot zijn doorgaans groot. Toch een opmerkelijke prestatie.  

Wie de schulden van onze financiele sector en overheden wil zien hoeft alleen omhoog te kijken, onze atmosfeer zit voor minstens 180 ppm CO2 die we er niet zomaar uit kunnen trekken en terug verkopen aan de olie maatschappijen. Omdat dat niet kan hebben we een schuld bij de mensen die ons dat geld hebben geleend, de financiele sector. Omdat deze sector zeer traag is met het herkennen van nieuwe resource uitdagingen, en deze lijkt te willen oplossen door mensen het brood uit de mond te stoten is het verstandig dat overheden inspringen en hen de schulden doen inslikken, zoals nu met Griekenland (ook al gaat het volgens sommigen om maar 28%).

Willen we Griekenland echt helpen dan zorgen we voor een renewable boom in dat land. Dat kan heel goed, het is een zeer zonnig land met veel ruimte. 

De rechter oordeelde dat de tijdelijke vergunning voor een schaliegas proefboring in Boxtel onterecht was verleend, omdat indien gas gevonden zou worden deze vergunning de periode van vijf jaar zou overschijden. Dit is zeer positief nieuws. In de VS is de ervaring dat de boringen waarbij grondlagen hydraulisch worden gekraakt met chemicaline rampzalig is voor het grondwater, het maakt stoffen als uranium uit het gesteente vrij, en de kans dat methaan en h2s langs andere weg ontsnapt (en ook in het grondwater terecht komt) is zeer groot. 

In Spanje en Frankrijk zijn bedrijven al bezig met deze moormethoden, en dat terwijl er volstrekt geen noodzaak is dat te doen. Het kan voor verzakkingen zorgen en levert over het algemeen minder op dan beloofd..We kunnen ook al ons meubulair in brand steken om het warm te krijgen : Waarom zouden we ons waardevolle drinkwater in gevaar brengen als we al een gasmarkt hebben?

CIS Thin Film PV panels are always critisized because  they produce a little less power per m2 compared to the more expensive silicon panels. Anyone that cares to look at a roof with PV knows there is plenty of space, so what does it matter if the output is a bit less, but that is how selling points work. CIS panels are hard to come by because you need to order a large amount to convince traders to order them. The lesson is negative propagande is more effective in producing beliefs than positive reality, or maybe truth that is handed to us is more easily accepted.

Silicon PV is still energy intensive. It requires glass, plastic, heating, aluminum soldering and of course silicon. That energy cost is actually a positive thing, a driver for a product, in our carbon/credit economy. The coal and gas industry prefers solutions that generate revenues for them, revenues that the banks channel for them. Keynsian Economics has in its core the drive to maximize carbon fuel use. This is another reason why CIS is impopular, why it is a small player now for years.

This is all about to change now that Shell and Aramco have secretivly created large production capacity for CIS panels, that will shortly start flooding the market. They are being distributed through a company called Solar Frontier. How this came about will be studied in some more detail, but this is a positive thing for Shell and Saudi producer Aramco. They are LATE, but this is one way for them to also reduce fossil fuel use where it is not absolutely necessary to preserve liquid feuls for vehicles. And it makes business sense. Now let’s hope they wise up over Clathrate gas exploration..

Robo(eco)nomy is the future economy in which machines (robots) produce everything using renewables (eco) and we humans will be left to choose what it is we want in a clean and prosperous world. That is if we find a solution to the pollution and runaway climate change and if we stop listening to the maniacs that want us to work, that use ‘jobs’ as a carrot in elections, because ‘jobs’ don’t mean usefull work, it means money to consume. Roboeconomics maintains that machines already do most of the important work, driving people into unemployment, and because banks (through the principles of the carbon/credit system) feed these machines carbon fuels without anyone being able to stop them the result is that people compete with machines for work.

Simply said our carbon/credit based economy prefers to give the carbon to the productive

machine instead of the unproductive people, and because it is a zero sum game this means that people will starve

 Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew P. McAfee reached a similar conclusion, and have written a book about it.

"Faster, cheaper computers and increasingly clever software, the authors say, are giving machines capabilities that were once thought to

be distinctively human, like understanding speech, translating from one language to another and recognizing patterns. So automation is

rapidly moving beyond factories to jobs in call centers, marketing and sales — parts of the services sector, which provides most jobs in the economy." 

So these two economist seem to attribute the problem to the increased capacities of robots. That is not the source of the problem, the problem is limited energy to drive those robots, because if there was no energy scarcity the products could be given to the people that lost their jobs. This is the core of the argument for renewables in robo(eco)nomics. Make energy free and abundant, and automation of production is no longer a problem, because there is still plenty of energy to keep the ‘jobless’ people alive. The reserachers conclude:

 “the key to winning the race is not to compete against machines but to competewith machines.”

The key concept of comptition is kept in the picture, but that is the fundamental mistake. People only need to compete if resources are scarse, they don’t have to be if we use renewables. This is not to say renewables will create equality, but there is a big difference between having poor people starve and having them live a rather poor life. Stuff and property will always be devided according to the agressiveness and merit of people in society. What needs to be altered is the belief competition is good and necessary. People are not going to compete ‘with machines’ they are going to use them to relieve them of shitty jobs and to help them create products that add quality of life. 

If renewable power development becomes unrestrained the competition for energy and thus for resources will dissapear

Litium polysulfate flow battery

The girl suggests the grid market is prioritized, which means this market can play with it as long as it likes. The girl works for the existing energy oligarchy that wants to delay and/or own any competing and renewable enabling technology. One strategy is overresearching it and taking a ‘risk averse attitude’, like when adopting nuclear without insurance.

The lifetime of flow batteries depends on wear and tear on pumps and on deposits in the electrolyte.
Those deposits can however be easily removed (or avoided by good design). Why would that be a hindrance to implementation?
“We couldn’t throw you the lifejacket, it had the old logo on it…”

Flow batteries are easy technology and have been build since the 80’s. The girls demands for grid reliability are of course designed to make it as difficult as possible to meet these demands. The 20 year lifetime to be equal to turbines is also a rediculous demand. Cost as a concept in itself is patrial to the banks that now mainly depend on the fossil fuel industry.

The best thing would be to prohibit carbon energy where renewables are feasible, and simply take the funds for building out of the coal/oil and gas subsidies.

Als er een sector is waar Nederland innoveert is het in de landbouw. Neus daarom ook eens rond op de website Boerderij.nl, de denktrant van veehouders en landbouwers zou misschien meer vruchten afwerpen dan gangbaar economisch denken, omdat daar het welzijn van de levende have een essentiele factor is en blijft.

De Fotonenboer wekt stroom op en heeft zelfs energie opslag in de vorm van een Vanadium Flow Battery