- Joined
- Apr 16, 2005
- Location
- Sharon, SC
long term we need totally new sources. We need a car that runs on water, or dirt, or something that we seem to have plenty of. then we can abuse that resource for 1-200 years and when it is in short supply we will find something new.
Short term there are some very cool projects going on that no one (or relatively no one) hears about. For example I just finished securing a project that will be going in a major SE city, that will utilize a balloon canopy over existing landfills. This canopy will catch and collect escaping methane gas. This gas will then be funneled into a tank and used to run a very large electric generator that will parallel with the local utility and reduce overall demand specifically at peak usage times.
Now having said that, it illustrates how silly our government is. The municipality in question is currently subject to 80-100k in fines PER MONTH for excess Methane release.
The generation solution costs approximately $5M to design install and maintain for 10 years. So it seems like 5 years to payback, right? Nope! The US government has incentives in place for alternative energy solutions and this municipality stands to collect 50-100k/month for having this solution. Then the local utility (Duke Power) will pay them a premium for the power they generate and return to grid. My point in all this, sure it is a cool solution but why is the government funding a local municipality's income making process? With this logic the solution will never be found.
Short term there are some very cool projects going on that no one (or relatively no one) hears about. For example I just finished securing a project that will be going in a major SE city, that will utilize a balloon canopy over existing landfills. This canopy will catch and collect escaping methane gas. This gas will then be funneled into a tank and used to run a very large electric generator that will parallel with the local utility and reduce overall demand specifically at peak usage times.
Now having said that, it illustrates how silly our government is. The municipality in question is currently subject to 80-100k in fines PER MONTH for excess Methane release.
The generation solution costs approximately $5M to design install and maintain for 10 years. So it seems like 5 years to payback, right? Nope! The US government has incentives in place for alternative energy solutions and this municipality stands to collect 50-100k/month for having this solution. Then the local utility (Duke Power) will pay them a premium for the power they generate and return to grid. My point in all this, sure it is a cool solution but why is the government funding a local municipality's income making process? With this logic the solution will never be found.
