Climatide

For years the public watched on a real circus performance. Yes and No conducted exasperating emotional inane arguments on the issue without the financials attached. This is just beyond ill-advised. The issue was never complete in form which would have allowed for some summation of the pro’s and con’s of the thing. And it still isn’t. The irrelevant Senator Kerry didn’t lend a hand. This situation caused breakdowns and an irrational fight.

Lost were deeper issues, and more important issues, such as “consortium” legal and economic bases for the offshore wind and wave industry. I have a consortium designed. Also lost were arguments of general feasibility of Compressed air, or 8,000 PSI and Hydrogen v wind and wave to electric grid. The question of “Yes” or “No” on what I have been calling “Jim’s Windfarm” remains frustrating indeed, as we still have no final finance package to say yes or no to. It’s like saying: “I’ll mow you lawn, and then we’ll talk about the price” Who does this? Why are we being made fools of? Why can’t we get the issue ironed out in proposal form first then come to a consensus or not. Yes or No to a half baked idea can’t be done. The research and development must come first.

My own systems designs are for Wind and Wave to CAES (compressed air energy storage) and Hydrogen, and oxygen rich compressed air (ORCA). These “green fuels” allow for industry growth. Wind to electric grid represents a need for a dual infrastructure, while this is not so with the sustainable energy fuels, as they both store and ship well. Wind to electric is comparably expensive too, with lots of very very costly copper cable, (years ago the extention cord to Nantucket costed 29 million dollars). Lots of small wind mills with their small expensive generators, and nowhere to dump excess capacity either. The costs of transmission line drop and distance issues, not to mention the fatal flaw of intermittancy add up to hard brick walls for anything but the smallest wind farms operationally.

These are comparisons, which are lost to the “Yes or No on Jim’s Windfarm Issue: or Cape Cod silly fight: Which has been frankly very embarrassing to me as an American. It has been a dirty fight, with misinformation and disinformation all along the way. There has been lots of bluster, and little real R&D. Cape Cod hasn’t done the country any favors. The coverage by the media has played to the yes or no only using very little imagination on the issue of our public future needs in a system. I am still available to speak on new concepts of interface for sustainable energy, and my Tripe system (Track-Pipe) report is 11 pages illustrated. Please consider the issue as for once, other than “Yes” or “No”. There’s a lot more to it. http://www.environmentalfisherman.com Steven JF Scannell

The problem of sustainable energy interface, has been fundamentally worked out by me, a Cape Cod fisherman. Most of our new sustainable sources of energy of such as geothermal, wind, wave, solar, etc. are remote and far removed from centers of population, by distance. The nature of the problem, or challenge, then is to convert and reconvert horsepower, and to deliver and store this horsepower. I have come up with the needed common denominator, three green fuels, and I think these are absolutely necessary to solving the energy crisis. Many people chant that “there isn’t a silver bullet” and that the energy crisis and global warming will be solved, if at all, with many little solutions, all these then “somehow” adding up to a grand solution. Well, I can’t see it, and I have never been comfortable with “somehow’s” in fisheries work: And so therefore I disagree with the sentiment as a baseline. It’s just a distraction. Yes, there can be, could be, just one main frame solution.

Ten years ago I started to draw up a collection of hundreds of deep water wind mill concepts, and wave generators. Growing up as a Cape Cod fisherman I was certainly aware of the wind and wave resources. But there were severe energy shipment, and energy storage issues, associated with the conventional wisdom. There were major expense issues using wind to electric grid directly. There were systems duplication issues. This problem then required an indirect approach, and I always did use and believe in pneumatics, so it seemed a good fit. Since there were no good hopes for a wind to electric grid scenario actually working, and just so many insurmountable problems, especially at full scale production, my designs shifted to wind to electricity to Hydrogen, and wind to CAES (compressed air energy storage). Offshore wind and wave will work well for many reasons: where as pipes are enormously cheaper and longer lived than cables, this is a good start. The oceans depths themselves lend very well to the compressed air storage and pipeage, in that the depths themselves are the compressive tool to refer to.

The Tripe, or Track-Pipe can be a dual or a monorail based energy and utility pipe. This allows for Mag-Lev and other fast trains too. The Tripe, or track pipe, of perhaps 4-5 feet in diameter serves a structural purpose in future transportation systems. The new gauge or standard for the two rail systems worldwide, for non major weight bearing loads, will be twenty feet wide. Old steel rails and standard 4′-8″gauges may be kept and all the old trains still used. I’m describing a new world energy order, complete with a utility and transportation component.

This is scale according to the problems I feel. The Track-Pipe is multi conduit, having a main line in the middle of about two feet in diameter, and then perhaps twelve built in smaller pipes of about three inches, within the main pipe wall. These are all long lasting composites capable of carrying capacities in the ten’s of thousands of pounds of pressure. Just as high voltage is shipped and stepped down, so too the compressed air is shipped in high volume high pressure modes, and then stepped down for common use. Any steam plant (coal, natural gas, oil, or biomass) would want to use compressed air, as a supplement, perhaps increasing electrical output by 300-500%. Stored hydro power does not use steam nor do the PV solar collectors, but most of our plants produce steam to drive the generators.

In addition, since the Track-Pipe has multi conduits built into one pipe other things can be carried. We will carry drainage and potable water, grey water, black water, urine and grey water for the fertilization of switchgrass which is a viable fuel, broadband and natural gas are not problems, but the multiplicity lends to the advanced systems synergy as we actually need diameter for strength purposes on the transportation end. But we started with a need to transport the three new green fuels of Compressed Air, Hydrogen, and Oxygen Rich Compressed Air (ORCA). Orca is for cars or for use in carbon sequestration of the coal smoke. Orca can also be used to feed algae along with the switchgrass CO2 or smoke.

So I’m suggesting that there is a solution, which we can all get behind with a little research, and a solution, or complex system, that both our old and new systems need and use. Try the Tripe. Especially examine the many positive cash flows that would justify the enormous expense. That is if you’re not too busy with yes or no for Jim’s windfarm. http://www.environmentalfisherman.com