Talk-Polywell.org

Ah yes, algae biodiesel, in my opinion the only biofuel worth seriously pursuing. If you havent already seen this it is a worthwhile analysis of algae biodiesel. http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html -Eric And note that the yields given are for open ponds, which are largely discredited ...

Till the sun stops shining and we can't grow stuff anymore. I guess you're talking about biofuel? Some biofuel has promise, especially algae, but most of the current biofuels are pure boondoggle. I'm a big fan of bioreactor algae though. Now to get the costs down and ramp production up. Just a matt...

but most of the current biofuels are pure boondoggle. This was true when gas was <$2 gal, but at current prices even the least efficient conversions (like corn) make economic sense. Cellulosic ethanol is a no-brainer if they can ramp up production; there are several large facilities being built eve...

Just remember that a smallish tokamak running on deuterium has a power density comparable to the sun. If it came down to having a tokamak or a star in your back yard, which one would you think is the better concept? Luminosity of the sun: 4*10^26W Mass: 2*10^30kg Volume: 10^27 cubic metres Power de...

Till the sun stops shining and we can't grow stuff anymore. I guess you're talking about biofuel? Some biofuel has promise, especially algae, but most of the current biofuels are pure boondoggle. I'm a big fan of bioreactor algae though. Now to get the costs down and ramp production up. Just a matt...

MSimon wrote:

I'm not sure that the idea will work out myself, but one could fund all of the fringe wind ideas out there with less money than the US spends on oil every hour.

That may be so. But the oil gets you some where.

For how much longer?

The cable will certainly be a big part of the weight. Kevlar has 3GPa and 1.44 grams per cc. At 10MW for the turbine and a windspeed of 30m/s (guesstimated by going backwards from the energy density measurements on the site.) You'd need a force of 300KN just for turbine drag. This is minimum. A Kelv...

Big enough to prove net energy production both with D-D and with H-11B. IIRC, no. DD, breakeven at 1.5 meters, 2 meters for 500mw net power. PB-11, breakeven at 2 meters, 3 meters for 500Mw. Well, then 2 meters instead of 1.8 (only 37% bigger in volume/cost) and capable of doing both. Although ther...

Most people don't realize the Japanese bombed Idaho. They attached bombs to balloons and sent them over to fall at random, but we barely noticed. They didn't really grasp how big and empty the United States is compared to their own country. IIRC, they were incindiary bombs intended to set fire to t...

If it works this could be as big as polywell for terrestial use. I don't think it has any chance of working on a commercial scale. There's just too much to go wrong sitting way up in the air 24/7, with a tether reaching all the way down. It's an overly dynamic and uncontrolled environment. That's t...

Jet streams run at 10 to 15 km altitude. Let us say 10 km. Are you going to tell me that you can keep a 10 km long tether coordinated with another one .5 km away? Seems iffy. I think 2 to 5 km is more like it. I could no more do that than build a device that could trap electrons in a magnetic bottl...

F=ma. So how much mass do you have to decelerate to get the required energy? Actually I was using P=F.v (notation is lacking, but this is the vector dot product) and simplifying to scalar. Then if you have the rated power claim and the average wind speed is 90km per hour (25m/s) then you'll need at...

How many could one fit in a given area? Assuming one per a box 500m*500m, that's 400 in a 10km square. At 10MW each, that's 4GW. Of course one would need a no fly zone around it. I essentially pulled these numbers out of my ass; anyone have beter ones? The other issue I haven't been able to figure i...

If somebody questions polywell containment, they just need to be convinced. If it's a flying wind station, then cables and windshear make it impractical... I see... I suppose you can always claim that you're doing the other guy a service by making him constantly explain himself. Not just buying int...

$500 a bbl assumes that energy prices will not choke off economic activity. A doubtful assumption. Now I'm at a proper keyboard I'll give a little more detail. I used this clip in my English class today with my 1:1 student, who happens to be the CFO of Samsung asset management. Hopefully it'll get ...