The Secret's out about Pahala's biofuel plant

[dobanion]

quote:

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Originally posted by PaulW

Steam cars do not "run on water". They don't get energy from steam. Water-powered cars are a hoax. Physics isn't bendable.

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Ah but statistics are bendable. [V]

A steam car "running on water" is like saying a gasoline car "runs on air." Somebody will believe it, parrot it, and before ya know it, "everyone knows its true cause I heard it somewhere."

[dugger]

Just for the sake of argument, water could be heated with solar power to the point of creating pressure (steam). Water than becomes the fuel.

[Bullwinkle]

Solar heating heating water to steam to turn turbines is how the big energy plants do it

steam was replaced by internal (rather than external) combustion, because steam boilers had a tendency to explode when the safety (over pressure) valve fails - shrapnel for all my friends - grin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy

edit for added wiki

[MarkP]

No the water does not become fuel even when boiled into steam. Whatever was burned to boil the water is the fuel.

[PaulW]

Rubber is bendable too, but that doesn't affect the laws of physics.

In the same way, electric cars don't really run on electricity. It just stores the energy that has to come from somewhere else. Like biofuel!

[dugger]

Okay, I guess my point is that using water and solar would be free and non carbon polluting. As far as the laws of physics, they may be unbendable as we know them. Wasn't it Einstein's life's work to prove the existence of "other" physical laws or mutable physical laws thus proving the existence of a higher power? One should also qualify the unbendable statement with "as we know them" or "as they are on Earth".

[MarkP]

Sorry for coming on so strong. I am an engineer and get bent out of shape by what appears to be magical thinking, which we humans despite our impressive brains, or perhaps because of our impressive brains, seem to have a fondness for.

I think that many forms of alternative energy could be almost practical as long as we limit our demand for power to the quantities and availability unique to each source. Doesn't sound hard but it is when we have become used to what is possible with fossil fuels.

[dugger]

Thanks Mark. An engineer looks at how and why things work. They look at how to make things work or work better. But most of the great "advances" of man have come from what some would call "magical" thinking. There have always been those visionaries who knew instinctively that something could work but it was left to the engineers to figure it out. Room for both.
Engineers make me crazy j‌avascript:insertsmilie('[:p]')

[robguz]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Tucker

Sounds interesting. Let us know how it goes. Do they maintain the system for the life of the agreement?

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Sorry for my bit of thread hijacking but yes they do and they remotely monitor it via the internet. You can even buy out the system in any year at a certain price. By year 20 you can buy it out for $0.

[Greg]

Is Raj the lead guy for "Sunrun"? He's done the Solar installations at Cash&Carry, HAAS, and other commercial sites. Last time I talked to him he hadn't started residential installations yet.