Winter Cold Puts a Chill on Green Energy [wind turbine blades ice up, biodiesel congeals in tanks]

New York Times ^

[Sub-Driver]

Winter Cold Puts a Chill on Green Energy By KATE GALBRAITH

Old Man Winter, it turns out, is no friend of renewable energy.

This time of year, wind turbine blades ice up, biodiesel congeals in tanks and solar panels produce less power because there is not as much sun. And perhaps most irritating to the people who own them, the panels become covered with snow, rendering them useless even in bright winter sunshine.

So in regions where homeowners have long rolled their eyes at shoveling driveways, add another cold-weather chore: cleaning off the solar panels. “At least I can get to them with a long pole and a squeegee,” said Alan Stankevitz, a homeowner in southeast Minnesota.

As concern has grown about global warming, many utilities and homeowners have been trying to shrink their emissions of carbon dioxide — their carbon footprints — by installing solar panels, wind turbines and even generators powered by tides or rivers. But for the moment, at least, the planet is still cold enough to deal nasty winter blows to some of this green machinery.

In January 2007, a bus stalled in the middle of the night on Interstate 70 in the Colorado mountains. The culprit was a 20 percent biodiesel blend that congealed in the freezing weather, according to John Jones, the transit director for the bus line, Summit Stage. (Biodiesel is a diesel substitute, typically made from vegetable oil, that is used to displace some fossil fuels.)

The passengers got out of that situation intact, but Summit Stage, which serves ski resorts, now avoids biodiesel from November to March, and uses only a 5 percent blend in the summertime, when it can still get cold in the mountains.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Green Martyrs!

[sionnsar]

Doofus!

Depends on the situation. My sister lives in a beautiful big house back of nowhere where it would cost a LOT to get electric service run in. So her household runs on solar+generator+wood+propane. (With less snow than MN.)

[mylife]

Good. Dont force it on us all.

[fella]

I know lots of people in the Ozarks that use a locally available renewable energy resource each winter. Just the smell of it's fumes gives one a feeling of warmth and good cheer. It's called wood.

[idkfa]

Wind turbine’s deadly ice shower (UK Turbine Throws Deadly Ice Shards)

[bornred]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3FZtmlHwcA

[mylife]

The Pelosi GTX

[therut]

Yep. I live in the Ozarks and I have 3 (THREE) wood burning stoves. I LOVE them. Of coarse, I still use alot of elec on the hot tub!!!!!!! But I have many years of free trees available and they are re-newable.

[steve8714]

Only one proven green tech; geothermal. Drill in Yellowstone; drill in the Pacific ring of fire; be Iceland writ large. Drill anywhere there’s a town called “Hot Springs” or “Sulphur Springs”.
Solar and wind are pie-in-the-sky.
Oh yes, feature coal, nuke and NG also.

[therut]

I saw a lot of windmills in OK a month ago all up on a ridge and I must say they were an eye-sore. UGLY.

[sionnsar]

Good. Dont force it on us all.

No forcing here. Just don't become narrow-minded and automatically label those for whom it's a viable and perhaps even the best option as "doofuses." Some of these folks are doofuses and some are worse, but others aren't.

Why did you think my sister (or I) was forcing this on you?

[therut]

I would loved to have put in geo-thermal but the cost in prohibitive. It would have been easy to run it on the bottom of my pond 25 feet from my front door. But like I said the cost was horrible. So I got heat pumps.

[mylife]

Not you, but thats what the Greenies are trying to do

[tubebender]

Be forewarned...

[fella]

We have 2 places in Madison County Ark. but no woodstoves. I work in Texas so I can pay for the places. But when I retire I plan on woodstoves.

[farfromhome]

even geothermal is not all that effective. As heat is extracted from the hot rocks, they cool and new heat can only be conducted in to warm the area up at a certain limited rate.

[sionnsar]

Not you, but thats what the Greenies are trying to do

I'm all for options -- deciding what works best for yourself and using it. (Today I'm sure the libs would be upset with me because I've been heating the house with the woodstove and emitting lots of carbon -- regardless of the fact that the default household heat comes from natural gas.)

I am also VERY aware of what's going on in the "green" world, including things that, well, I'm not sure how to describe them. For example, there is this concept of "green" buildings (acronym is L.E.E.D.) and when designing or modifying your building you can get it certified to be "green" by earning points for various elements of its deign or operation. Some of these things make sense (automatically turn off unused lights), but some... take a look at how "You, Mr. Building Owner," can earn a point towards your building's "green" rating:

BTW, putting in bicycle racks (used or not) can earn you a point or two too.

There's more coming down the pike, believe you me...

[jacquej]

And, what are you going to do when the availability of wood pellets is nil, if you can get them at any price?

We are burning wood cut from our own lot in a nice soapstone/cast iron stove, and we can cook on top of it.

I know, I know...

cutting it, stacking it, carrying it in, loading up the stove... just all too much work, right?

[Uri’el-2012]

And, what are you going to do when the availability of wood pellets is nil, if you can get them at any price?

Biomass

Most wood pellets are from sawdust and "beetle kill" trees.

Walmart has tons of it here in the high rockies (7500 feet)

it is the only "green" that works every day.

[disposable hero]

Its standard practice with straight veg oil conversions to do a hot well with a loop from the cooling system. They even have a fairly simple co-axial system to run the fuel line through. You have to start (and stop) on diesel. It doesn’t do much either way on efficiency, you can dump the heat into the fuel tank, or into the radiator, the engine can’t tell the difference.

Some of the stuff sold as “bunker” grade, is essentially solid at room temperature. Its whats left after all the valuable stuff is taken out, and not always one step above what is used to pave roads. Got a tour of a big university co-generation plant. The fuel arrived in insulated trucks, held at 120F. They stored it in insulated tanks, at 160F.