Calif. wants third of its power renewable by 2020

AP via SFGate ^ | 9/23/10 | JASON DEAREN, Associated Press Writer

[Nowhere Man]

If they are, I would expect a boom in conversion accessories to let you power your house using your car/truck electrical system.

I know in the 1950's and 1960's, many amateur radio operators and others added an extra alternator to their cars that will provide 120 volts A/C so they can run their ham radios. I have a Fall/Winter 1969 Montgomery Wards catalog that had one for sale that provided 3500 watts 120 volts A/C. I've also seen "dynamotors" where a motor converts 12 or 24 volts D/C into 120 or 240 volts D/C and them convert that to 60 cycle A/C. Other dynamotors only provided what the appliance required, usually the various voltages a radio needs for its vacuum tubes. Dynamotors used one set of windings for the 12/24 VDC input and the other winding put out the higher voltages needed. I saw a jeep from the Korean War with such a setup. getting back to the alternator, you just idled your 1950's/1960's era car and you get your electricity. Even some new cars do have inverters, the Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix has one, 115 volts A/C at sometime like 70 or 100 watts, I'll have to look at the one we have at work. It's good for plugging in laptops and "wardriving" for free Wi-Fi spots. B-)

[Kickass Conservative]

No Budget, a 20 Billion Dollar Deficit and the chance that Moonbeam Brown might be elected Governor and now we have to worry about a made up number to make Liberals think we are saving the World.

I love California, but most people living here are either nuts, illegal, or both.

[Always Independent]

How will they develop geothermal energy if they won’t let them drill anywhere.

[saganite]

It’s doable. They can just keep closing power plants until solar and wind represent a third of what’s left. About enough to light up downtown Lodi a couple of hours each night.

[Jeff Chandler]

Maybe they should build railroads?

[Dem Guard]

"I lost the schematics for turning a cars' alternator into 110 Volts."

Go to your auto parts store. They sell cigarette lighter adapters for that. I have one I use all the time on the road.

[Steely Tom]

If they had 3500 watt aftermarker alternators back in 1969, they probably have 10 kW alternators (or more) today of the same size. Electrical machinery has gotten a lot smaller per unit output then it was then, although the shrink ratio isn't as much as for chips (if it had kept up with the shrinkage of circuitry, you'd be able to hold a 10 megawatt alternator in one hand; finding a 15,000 horsepower prime mover to hook it to might be a bit of a chore).

Dynamotors are old technology. Really old, we're talking WWII and before here. I've been told that they are quite inefficient, like 65% net. They're also quite heavy.

I use a little solid-state inverter I got at BJ's to power stuff in the car; it converts 250 watts and cost $29.95 two or three years ago. Plastic case. Weighs maybe a pound and a half. I've used it to power my computer for hours with the engine off; the battery seems to handle it fine. That's about the most you can draw from the cigarette lighter, at least in my car. If you need more than that, you need to do the kind of mods you were talking about.

Compared to the solutions that were available when I was a ham, 40 years ago, it's miraculous. Tiny, cheap, light, quiet, and efficient. Doesn't get hot. Doesn't buzz or hum.

[screaminsunshine]

I would expect anyone with a brain to get the hell out of there.

[Kozak]

Is that the 1/3 of power they vampire from their neighbors?

[bert]

.....I would expect anyone with a brain to get the hell out of there.....

When there is exodus, the need for power by those gone will diminish. Thus goes the thinking, the green effort for renewable power is self feeding when it coerces people to leave. Less people, less need for green power

Then there is “nature abhors a vacuum. The vacuum of the exdous will suck Mexicans to use more power than the green efforts cam produce. The state will resume failure mode

[screaminsunshine]

It needs to collapse and start over. California is beyond redemption.

[yesca]

Dad says, "Oil is produced deep within the planet’s mantle and forced back into the pockets from which we drilled from."

Dear ol'Dad is one smart boy!

"Every well is renewable if you wait for it ti refill, it's a pressure thang."

Even the green meanies understand this now.

They won't admit it 'till they can spin it their way though.

Port of like Evil Al's plan now to keep pushing the carbone'head scam with the plan to say "See we saved the erf'" when nothing happens (i.e. no globalls warming).

[ridesthemiles]

“California wants rolling blackouts by 2020.””

Rolling blackouts triggered the recall of Gray Davis.

[ridesthemiles]

Will the last civilized human being leaving California please turn out the light?)’

That leaves out all the illegal intruders.......

[Nowhere Man]

If they had 3500 watt aftermarker alternators back in 1969, they probably have 10 kW alternators (or more) today of the same size. Electrical machinery has gotten a lot smaller per unit output then it was then, although the shrink ratio isn't as much as for chips (if it had kept up with the shrinkage of circuitry, you'd be able to hold a 10 megawatt alternator in one hand; finding a 15,000 horsepower prime mover to hook it to might be a bit of a chore).

I don't know. I know you bolted it on your engine and had an extra pulley and belt to drive it. Dunno if they had any 10kW ones now or in 1969. I might have a scan of it somewhere. I also have a picture of an alternator like that from 1959 in an old radio book.

Dynamotors are old technology. Really old, we're talking WWII and before here. I've been told that they are quite inefficient, like 65% net. They're also quite heavy.

I remember seeing them used for radios. I remember a John Wayne movies where Wayne and his Air Force crew were down in Northern Canada, their DC-3 (C-47) crashed and they still managed to keep their radio running for a while and when they had to transmit, they had to kick the dynamotor on. Their battery eventually died and they had to use the handcrank emergency generator. They also had a problem with an AM station from Montreal interfering with their radio compasses. Eventually Ed Nolan and Slim Pickens did find them as they used their DC-3's (C-47's) to search for them.

I use a little solid-state inverter I got at BJ's to power stuff in the car; it converts 250 watts and cost $29.95 two or three years ago. Plastic case. Weighs maybe a pound and a half. I've used it to power my computer for hours with the engine off; the battery seems to handle it fine. That's about the most you can draw from the cigarette lighter, at least in my car. If you need more than that, you need to do the kind of mods you were talking about.

I work as a delivery driver for an auto parts store. We have those inverters, 75 watts, 400 watts and 700 watts I think. I'd like to get the little one, would make a good source of laptop power. B-)

Compared to the solutions that were available when I was a ham, 40 years ago, it's miraculous. Tiny, cheap, light, quiet, and efficient. Doesn't get hot. Doesn't buzz or hum.

I know, I do admit there is charm in the old stuff, but I do like the compactness of the newer stuff.

[Almondjoy]

I knew as soon as I completed that post that I might have a Waterboy type moment. :)

[Almondjoy]

Again you are right but the part about hydroelectric is that the sun’s energy causes it to rain which comes down on the mountains and then back down the rivers and over the dams... you get the point.

Rain is Mother Earths Natural solar panels. It converts solar energy into other things that can become of use. For the purpose of this discussion.. Hydroelectric power.

[Almondjoy]

I wish I did. I was just watching a program on Discovery Channel which in spite of having other information could have painted a very rosy picture.

[SkyDancer]

MM, K, seems logical - but it’s just water over the dam ...LOL

[GOPJ]

Mandating unicorns is not the same as creating them.

...