Mr Energy aka Nate Luis

Nate Luis was very detailed in his research and will help me a lot as I do my own. As I was looking through my research I could not decide which green energy or other energy solution I should choose. I was tied between wind and solar for quite a while as wind will probably be introduced on the Neighbors ranch, and solar panels were almost installed on our house. In the video, he showed that wind power does not provide that much power, even if we covered our planet with it. Then showing us the amount of solar panels we would need.

Although he pointed out that not all the solar panels would be concentrated in one location, I believe that that option would be the highest potential at this time. But we are still behind in finding options about transportation of that energy. Our solutions range from local panels on each house and stored by battery to further options such as a globalized source running large high gauge cables.

Too concentrated of a power facility (taking up a state his his map) seems a little bit unfeasible as it is like "putting all your eggs in one basket". Creating a threat if that one facility had to replace a crucial component, terrorist incident, cloudy day and so fourth... Paint on houses seem like a great option, but towns without sun (such as Oregon and Washington that rain every other day) are in for a big surprise. A mixture of transportation and localized solutions need to be addressed.

Touching on Harmatz' topic for a second, I believe that we need a major break though in that technology to even be considered a possibility 50 years in the future, let alone 100 years. If we somehow stumble upon some miracle reaction, than this option could possibly knock itself into a placement, but it would have too be monumentally better. (then again, so would solar)

More sources

"NRG Expands Its Renewable Energy Business - WSJ.com." Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com. N.p., 27 Nov. 2009. Web. 13 Feb. 2010. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091127-704709.html>.

This article is more of an inspiration article showing the NRG cooperation about to heavily invest in Solar technologies in 2009 and expects to be finished some time in 2009. The companies only interest in renewable energy is due to the tax cuts. Including a “30% investment tax credit and loan guarantees” as it quotes in the article. Not exactly breaking away from the companies numerous coal and nuclear plants it uses to gather electricity.

This article makes me want to focus towards Solar panels (NRG's choice for renewable energy), because they find it to be the best investment right now. Getting a company such as NRG to make a choice to place in solar panels instead of the many other choices shows that solar panels have a lot of potential (at least from their business research).

[As a side note: I didn't realize why they called the company NRG until the very end of the article, that was sad]

Allen, Pam. "GE's renewable business adds 650 jobs - The Business Review (Albany): ." Business News | bizjournals. N.p., 1 Feb. 2010. Web. 13 Feb. 2010. .

This article explains what GE plans to do to increase jobs for renewable resources. It explains that they hope to make 650 jobs with an average salary of $75,000. But it seems that the only reason why GE is going this route is due to the company receiving money from the government to do so. As well as to get public attention to buy their product to ring in the buyers head when they product that “they did the right thing by buying from a company that supports renewable resources.

With the grants from the government “$750,000 grants from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to help offset construction costs of the $45 million building.”

"Economic Crisis and Renewable Energy - News Summary." Sustainable Business, Green Business, Renewable Energy, Organic & Green Investing, Green Capital. N.p., 13 Oct. 2008. Web. 13 Feb. 2010. .

Going a little bit back in time to see their predictions (October 2008). This article was published right when the stock market crashed all the way to the bottom (and while it was still declining). The article was a little worried that due to the stock market crash, some of the stocks for renewable energy went down about 30%. That's quite a lot and hindered the green energy companies.

It seems to me that from the articles I posted from the last blog and these articles that solar panels seem to be the most promising. The solar panels are favored over wind due to the small compact spaces it can fit (as well as out of site on roofs). Solar panels are very effective option I have seen yet. Wind Power is still a great option, but not for the heavily populated areas such as San Diego. Wind power has to be strategically placed in very windy regions.

For my project I will I am heavily considering showing the public the way we should make our population look like with green energy. The path of energy we are on is getting better as we constantly increase our technology towards greener energies such as solar and wind; but it is not enough where we can let it slide. We are running low on our dominant fossil fuel resources which generate our cars and create electricity. Without another energy alternative, we will either run out, or we will suffer other consequences from our atmosphere.

There are many categories of energy to cover and each need its own energy solution.

• House

• Portable / Hand-held devices

• Automobiles

• Aircraft

• Business'

• Sea Transportation

• City lights

• and more

With a lot to cover, we need to get started to finish all that in time.

To show all this information in a presentable project, I am thinking about showing two countries in contrast to another, one that successfully went green, and one that kept the old ways. The new ways looking like a combination of a big city with solar panels on the sky scrapers. No flying cars, but maybe cars that look like the Prius (but with a different sticker).The other side, well, that's not too hard to get.

Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera

Tending

1. Requires very little water to grow
2. (cannot grow in heavy snow or cold weather, not a problem for us)
3. Impervious to many insects
   

Medicinal Purposes:

1. Treat wounds (*1)
   
2. Treat burn wounds (*1, 2nd degree only)
3. Treat heartburn
4. Irritable bowel syndrome
5. Anti-bacterial
6. Improves blood glucose levels in diabetics
   
7. Used with dentifrice, significantly reduces plaque and chance of gingivitis.
   

*1: limited and contradictory

Other purposes:

1. Gell for lotion
   
2. Drink?
   

Energy annotations

I think I really want to do my environmental science project is to focus on the topic of energy. More specifically around electricity, and I have been wondering about the topic.

http://www.greenenergychoice.com/green-guide/history-of-green.html
Nice easy laid out time table of what has lead us to where we are with "green energy" (one must look behind before looking ahead)

Shaer, Matthew. "Will the future of green energy sprout from the dry, arid Sahara Desert? / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com." The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com. N.p., 13 June 2009. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .

This publication shows the possibility of Europe installing solar panels in the Sahara Desert. The current cost will be about $555 billion dollars, and most likely take decades. This article seems great as this project will take to 2110 to complete, and takes 15% of Europe energy bill off. This is not meant to be the primary energy source, but only provide energy relief. Right now, this option seems a little over our current technology status, but is a great goal to have, especially in 2110.

Beecher, Melissa. "A green energy effort has the wind in its sails - The Boston Globe." Boston.com. N.p., 22 Feb. 2007. Web. 22 Jan. 2010.

This article sounds strikingly familiar to me as I remember my Dad talking about some airport installing solar panels on their roofs to reduce their electricity bills. This article however brings in a school and residential community to install solar panels. Reminder to look up "federal Rebuild America grant" as it was mentioned in the text to help get the solar panels.

Wee, Heesun. "BW Online | September 25, 2002 | Can Oil Giants and Green Energy Mix?." BusinessWeek - Business News, Stock Market & Financial Advice. N.p., 25 Sept. 2002. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .

Even though this news article is quite old, we still get to see some information that is still fairly accurate to today. Especially today, companies are trying to become greener (even the oil companies like shell as they advertise their program for greener energy all over tv).

Farmer in Chief

The reading “Farmer in Chief” was very interesting as it brought in very many aspects of farming to me that were unheard of. With the numerous quotes that went with the article to constantly back up the authors opinion, it is safe to say that this article has a lot of factual evidence that will prove very useful to the trend we want our future to lead towards. But more focused on how improving the farming industry can help achieve our goal that we are trying to meet.

(since I was at a BBC interview showcasing RESCUE Helicopter, I will be discussing the concepts that I would try to bring up during the seminar)

First topic to bring up, the convoluted route of traveling from point A, to point B to point C back to point A again. In the article, it addressed this point by stating that with the current economy, this current traveling plan is effective. However, this plan is only effective based on the money aspect of the sense Economy. Producing a more localized solution for transportation would seem more cost effective to the environment. This production strategy proves only useful due to the other country (either point B or C in this analogy), has opted to provide them selves with a short stick (as in a short analogy). The money displacement of the production costs have to be less than what it would cost at a more localized solution.

As the article read on, it also stated that our cheap oil solution is coming to a close, as our oil reserves may be put to the test. As our oil run out, we need to find another strategy to fuel our mainly oil based transportation vessels. Our available options are to either, increase the shipping efficiency, change the fuel type, or use a more localized processing. Our shipping efficiency is coming very close to reaching the plateau of efficiency, and changing the main fuel source for the entire shipping industry seems a little unfathomable, and the cost of using localized processing plants is too pricy for the industries liking. Either option will not happen over night.

The option of creating a more efficient oil based transportation is a very fathomable topic, as the shipping industry constantly modifies the designs of their ships to meet bigger expectations. The average age for a ship is nearly 30 years, which gives us no noticeable change until some years pass by. Even with the introduction with new efficient ships, if the efficiency of the ships will take that long to cycle through, we might be efficient enough to slow down the oil usage enough to even make a difference or even make it better.

Making ships with a better fueling structure is no easy task either. But more or less falls apart due to the fact that we actually haven't found a reliable fuel source for transportation ships. Sure we could possibly use nuclear, but it has its own troubles that it has to deal with itself. Besides, how would you feel if some industry got their hands on nuclear material. On that, we also have over 400 shipping accidents a year based on 2004's figures; those accidents with a nuclear generator aboard will deadly results. Sure enough, the sea will turn into Chernobyl! And terrorists will have a greater reason to go after those ships. Besides the nuclear aspect, if we did by chance find a alternative energy solution, if this alternate was not a hybrid using the gas solution, I believe that we could phase it out enough to reduce the cost of travel. But the solution will probably not be out by tomorrow, and on that, the production, testing, and refinement will take longer still. Leading down to a spierling path of delays.

The most reasonable solution is to make shipping more localized, but that is a lot more complicated than just changing shipping routes. Companies need to find a benefit to switch to the localized solution, or an inefficiency to stay with their globalized shipping routes. The way counties have done this in the past was to increase the tax upon intercontinental shipping. This of course cannot be done all at once, or companies will collapse under their contracts that they made prior to the taxation. Instead over the period that would gradually receive the economy from such heavy dependency from other countries. But by taxing the county out of their position also makes that country at a worse political aspect, and more prone to war.

My solution, just like how we nurture plants with soil; we do not have 100% of any one mixture, we have the combination of multiple mediums. However, fining that sweet-spot takes a little bit of practice, and changes with different occasions.

My Agricultural Background

My family owns the Neighbors Ranch. This ranch is currently being maintained by my dads side of the family, including: his Mom, Brother, and Uncle. Which will also be handed down to us when we get to age. We are not involved in this farm too much, but occasionally we are introduced to some of the plans that we are thinking about doing for the farm. The most current matter is wither or not to put windmills on the farm or not. It is very costly to produce windmills, as well as to provide power to each windmill. Each windmill is approximately 100 feet tall, and is at max 25% efficient. But even with 25% efficiency, we are still quoted a great income after 10 years.

Our Property is not that big, at is in White Deer, Texas (it is not too big, so don't try to draw out a map of it from Google earth). We currently grow mostly Wheat and Milo, very desolate crops. Our Ranchers on our property have a contract that more or less is along the lines of "the farmer pays no rent, but in return, must tend to the land". I am not too sure to what extent we pay the farmers for, but it is good enough to pull people in.

If your wondering, white deer is in the "handle", or "tip" of texas.

The Solar Sytem as it is

The solar system is quite large, but this is not a new concept to me due to the numerous videos such as "The Powers of 10" and my trip to the Griffith Observatory. I have actually seen a blown up scale of the galaxy clusters (it was about the size of a football field on the wall!) that fits in eyes view of about the size of your pinkie finger nail at arm-distance away. I found it quite funny with the fact that all my for-fathers were hansom enough to find a mate and successfully reproduce. It's a really simple fact to look at, but is often overlooked and bushed aside. This philosophy takes a more like the "randomism" approach to life, which is a lot different that what the churches would tell you only 400 years ago. The ideas discussed in this lecture would have lead to an execution if it took place in that era. God bless America for freedom of speech and getting us out of that way of thinking.