User:Johnfreez

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[edit] Guide for the Self

  • Each morning ask yourself, "What do I want to be when I grow up?"
  • Beware of finishing. Once one is finished, one may become stuck. Be sure to enjoy the process.
  • Wisdom is tolerance of cognitive dissonance -Robert Thurman (translation from religious script?)

[edit] Quotes

[edit] Energy 1

Here are some thoughts and links about energy. These are merely my thoughts attempting to organize a bit.

Preface: the US EIA "Energy Information Administration" has some great highlights of world energy use. Note that the British Thermal Unit (BTUs) seem to be the standard unit of energy used, but I converted to Joules below because I'm more familiar with them (1 BTU = 1,055.05585 Joules or about 1 kilojoule).

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/highlights.html


Some of this data is from wikipedia, so be sure to add salt and a bit of healthy skepticism.


Population of Earth's human race: ~6.7 billion

Energy consumption of humans on Earth: ~500 exajoules (5 x 10^20 Joules) or as average instantaneous power consumption (AIPC, let's call it): ~16 terawatts (16 x 10^12 Watts)

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/archive/ieo00/world.html


Population of Africa: ~900 million

Energy consumption of Africa per year: ~15 exajoules or as AIPC: ~0.5 terawatts

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/energyconsumption.html


Population of United States: ~300 million

Energy consumption of United States: ~102 exajoules or as AIPC: ~3.2 terawatts

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/energyconsumption.html


Population of California: ~36 million

Energy consumption of California: ~9 exajoules or as AIPC: ~0.3 terawatts

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/states/_seds.html


From the above data:

Earth's human race power per capita: ~2,390 Watts per person

Africa's power per capita: ~556 Watts per person

United States power per capita: ~10,800 Watts per person --wow!

California power per capita: ~8,330 Watts per person

Looks like we Californians are ~20% below the national average, but still 3 to 4 times the world average.


These figures include all sectors of energy use, which can be denominated as follows:

~40% - industrial (~27% via oil derivatives)

~20% - transportation (~66.6% via oil derivatives)

~10% - residential

~ 5% - commercial

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/enduse.html

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/oil.html

~75% - total


Where is the other 25%? Wikipedia says it's "lost in energy transmission and generation" but I'm not sure exactly what that applies to each sector.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_resources_and_consumption#By_sector


So what are the sources of all this energy? Well...the sun! But we extract most of it in a form much different from its initial age-old recipients:

~37% - Oil

~25% - Coal

~23% - Natural Gas

(total: ~85%)

~6% - Nuclear

~4% - Biomass

~3% - Hydroelectric

(total: ~98%)

~0.5% - Solar thermal

~0.3% - Wind

~0.2% - Geothermal

~0.2% - Biofuel

~0.04% - Solar photovoltaic

~0.76% - Unknown

100% - Total

A bit on solar energy. The highest efficiency for photovoltaics (solar panels) in the lab is ~40% but these systems are rarely mass-produced. 10% - 15% efficiency is typical of most photovoltaic arrays. The majority of direct-sunlight electric energy production does not come from photovoltaic electrochemical conversion, but from concentrated solar thermal conversion. In fact, the highest capacity solar power plants on Earth were built in the mid-80's in the Mojave Desert in California. The 9 installations together are called Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS). The array's efficiency is ~20% and total capacity is ~350 megawatts ( http://www.flagsol.com/SEGS_tech.htm ). For comparison, a small nuclear power plant or a typical coal power plant produces about 500 megawatts.

Another example of concentrated sunlight generation are the two arrays of large parabolic mirrors being developed and built by Stirling Energy Systems ( SES, http://www.stirlingenergy.com ) in California. One is a 300 megawatt system in Imperial City, California and the other is a 500 megawatt system being build in the Mojave Desert, east of Barstow. Each unit produces 25 kilowatts of power with 30% efficiency. SES has "project and technical development offices" in Tustin, California. Here's some video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYKOjnCwmG8 .

The first energy independent city in America is Rock Port, Missouri, via wind power. Cost them a pretty penny... http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1568/

[edit] Energy 2

  • The human body radiates on the order of 100 Joules per second, or 100 Watts. It does this to the keep-a-kindle the inner fire, to maintain body temperature. This estimate is reasonable since 2000 food Calories (kilocalories) consumed in the period of 1 day, 2000 kilocalories / 1 day, equals ~96.85 Watts, meaning that you radiate energy at about the same rate as a 100 Watt incandescent light bulb. The difference is that the incandescent light bulb converts around 10% of that energy into visible light, and about 90% into heat, whereas, while a rest, the body converts almost all of its energy into heat.
  • When traveling long distances, an increasing number of humans use an artificially energized vehicle. They want this for several reasons. They may want to get to their destination in a very short time. They might not want to get sweaty. They may not be physically able to transport themselves the desired distance. If the human does not use their own energy for travel, from what energy source does the vehicle derive? There are several:

[edit] Ideas

[edit] Survival of an American

Necessities

Typical American disconnected from food and water supply.

Typical American offered loan from banks. Debt results. Buys car and other things to facilitate employment to pay debt. Works to make interest payments. From where do the banks get their lending power?

Non-necessities

Hopes, desires, values, behavior originate from media consumption. Advertisements appeal to subconscious urges and emotions resulting in see, want, envy, buy. Climb social status latter through materialism. Repeat. Real values and principles have no chance to develop.

To be continued...

[edit] Book List

Read (past tense)

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