Oil from algae

On Jul 20, 5:45 am, Nai`a <mjw...@lava.net> wrote:

> And by virtue of it being a hydrocarbon, it still emits CO2 when burned.
> I'm still taking the bus (for the most part) until I can get a decent
> plugin hybrid. Or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
> (My current locale produces all electricity thru hydro)

We couldn't have hydro or nuclear power in Hawaii. Our Hawaii
constitution rejects these power sources. Hydro power dams in
Washington have caused a lot of environmental damage to the salmon.
The fear in Hawaii is that IIRC the reservoirs created by the dams can
not only damage natural habitats but also cover archaeological sites
of the ancient Hawaiians.

We probably have more energy available in OTEC power to all the
Hawaiian islands because warm Pacific surface waters. I would guess
much more OTEC than that is available in hydro to you folks in
Washington. We chose not to develop OTEC power. When the opportunity
to build a 50 Mwat plant for $50M arose about 50 years ago, the state
got cold feet because the price of oil fell to $20 a barrel. We didn't
look upon sustainability as being important then.

On Jul 21, 7:25 pm, Maren at google <m.pur...@jach.hawaii.edu> wrote:

> You may not have the rivers to feed large hydro plants on Oahu, but
> there's 3 hydro power plants on the Wailuku River between Piihonua
> and the river mouth alone (that's about 3 miles). As it rained again
> the Piihonua plant may be producing again too. The Waiau plant and
> the one downtown never stopped (this year yet). I'm pretty sure the
> 'mini-plant' on the Ainako Stream (that isn't even big enough to be on
> a topographic map) has been producing the whole time as well.
>
> We may not have the large scale hydro power plants like the Pacific
> Northwest, but that doesn't mean that we can't or don't have any at
> all.
> If it was easier to feed back into the grid I'm sure more people would
> invest in producing some.

I'm aware that we have had some experiments of hydro power.

I'm not certain that "feeding back" to the grid makes sense unless the
load takes the power. For tiny power plants, it may just be energizing
the grid rather than doing useful work. It would be nice if the power
company could have a constant adjustable load which just charges and
stores energy for anything that is pumped onto the grid. IIRC it
probably involves good control of the power factor for all parts of
the net. And the stored energy could be released at peak hours when it
is needed. For photovoltaics and wind power, the company could buy the
energy at that time and use it later when the sun goes down and the
demand goes up. Talked to an engineer about this.

Problem is that the Hawaii PUC would not permit the company to sell
the power at the higher rates when it is used rather than the lower
rates when it is collected. Since each island's grid is relatively
small, having stored energy would greatly improved reliability, but
the law doesn't see it that way and doesn't provide the financial
incentive. The company uses estimates for power consumption at
different hours in billing. To implement this plan it would need
instantaneous monitoring at the customer or an additional meter for
nite usage. An extra meter is what is proposed in California for the
new pluggable hybrid and electric cars that will be coming out this
year. Presumably they will be charging at nite when the rates for
power would be cheaper.