January 5, 2008
Elaine Meinel Supkis
Nice news today! India is going to mass-produce cars that run on compressed air. This costs much, much less than gasoline and since many countries tax gasoline very high, this car is revolutionary in several ways. One thing is certain: either we adapt or go on foot. And in this case, coupling air compressors with solar energy panels means very cheap transport in the long run! On top of this, these cars don't create smog in heavy traffic. They are, if coupled with better hybrid technology, a great future auto transport system.
After fourteen years of research and development, Guy Negre has developed an engine that could become one of the biggest technological advances of this century. Its application to Compressed Air Technology(CAT) vehicles gives them significant economical and environmental advantages. With the incorporation of bi-energy (compressed air + fuel) the CAT Vehicles have increased their driving range to close to 2000 km with zero pollution in cities and considerably reduced pollution outside urban areas.The application of the MDI engine in other areas, outside the automotive sector, opens a multitude of possibilities in nautical fields, co-generation, auxiliary engines, electric generators groups, etc. Compressed air is a new viable form of power that allows the accumulation and transport of energy. MDI is very close to initiating the production of a series of engines and vehicles. The company is financed by the sale of manufacturing licenses and patents all over the world.
I have a pretty big air compressor. I could use this car right away! I would love to see this technology be mass-produced. I suppose we will see a flood of such cars here? India may overtake Japan as the top exporter of cars? For years, I have had to drive a big 1 ton truck for business but always, for my own self, I drove a variety of great milage cars because I hate burning good money for nothing. The psychotic need to drive huge hulks in the hope of killing anyone and anything in one's path while remaining safe behind a wheel has never appealed to me.
So I have a lot of experience driving small cars surrounded by crazed drivers seeking to intimidate or crush anyone driving anything smaller than a Sherman Tank. When I drive my big truck, it is taller and heavier than the biggest SUVs but I drive it very conservatively because it is a diesel that huffs and grinds along and being kind of top-heavy, dangerous if I were to stupidly zig-zag or play tag in traffic. If I was towing a backhoe, even more so. Even with air brakes, you need lots of room to stop if towing heaving equipment!
Before cell phones, people who would see my Sirroco VW or Geo Metro would tailgate or do other hazardous things they never do when they see the big Ford diesel. More than once, I took down license plate numbers and called the State Troopers. Now, people are more cautious because of so many cell phones. But we still live in a nation where there are far too many big vehicles driving all over the place.
Small cars have small chances here. But due to both high prices and our collective incomes dropping as globalization flattens everyone, we will not be able to continue this mad massive-vehicle fad much longer. And good riddance! These monsters eat up parking space and obstruct the view in heavy traffic and make heavy traffic much worse and you can't see pedestrians very well. And worse of all, they pollute. Like crazy. Despite the anti-pollution devices, they still pollute like crazy!
The compressed air cars wont' foul the air in NYC or at the Holland Tunnel entrances or any place with rush hour traffic. For this alone, they should be REQUIRED. Any fossil-fuel vehicle should be FORBIDDEN ACCESS to any city or even perimeter of any major city! They should be double-taxed and indeed, there should be laws forcing automakers to subsidize the sales of non-pollution cars so that the profit margin on polluters be reduced.
Investors meeting at MDI, Nice, April 2005.
On Friday 22nd April a number of investors from America, Europe and Asia met at the MDI factory in France. Interested in different applications of the MDI compressed air engine and its vehicles, those in attendance were:Mr Balaji Ranganathan, Representative of Sona Group, interested in producing cars in India.
Mr Asgier Leifsson and Dr. Valdimar K Jonson, Co-ordinators of an EU supported research project investigating alternative energies and evaluating the possibilities for the Air Car in Iceland.
Mr Alfredo León, ex-Director of Business Development for Toyota, interested in purchasing a licence to manufacture the car and buses in Venezuela.
Mr Amadeu Calbò and Mr Juan Manuel Tinoco Sastre, interested in distributing the MDI cars in Andorra.
Mr Sam Ferguson, from Vancouver, interested in purchasing a licence to manufacture the cars in Canada.
Mr José Mª Guerrero and Mr José Matas, professors of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, investigating applications such as public transport and energy storage and the line of study opened by this compressed air technology.
Mr Bob W Greenyer, engineer from The Image Refinery, UK.
Mr Ferran Freixas and Mr Marc Arus, private investors from Barcelona.
Mr José Colomar de Betacar, from the Europcar group, interested in the purchase and hire of the car in the Balearic and Canary Islands.
Mr Darek Laszczak, engineer, interested in producing the cars in Poland.
Mr Michael Moynihan, engineer interested in producing the cars in Ireland.
Mr Jim Snell, representative of a group of investors interested in setting up the project in Western Canada.
Oh, look at all the American investors! HAHAHA! Fooled you! There were none. Note that TOYOTA is one of the investors, not Ford or GM. The US kills millions of people via pollution. My son, born in NYC, has asthma and car pollution is probably the cause of this. It is very irritating. I wish I could sue the US auto industry for foisting on us these disgusting machines that have made my son's life worse. We know that people die from this, trees in cities struggle to filter the filthy air and even though it is cleaner than before, it isn't that clean, I live in the country and it is much cleaner here than in any city!
Physical space matters, too. And cars that use up two or three spaces are hogs. I feel that the only one-person cars allowed in cities should be minicars! When I have to wait for someone, I count the number of SUVs, vans and pick-up trucks with only one person in them. It averages at 50% or more. And three years ago, it was 70% or more.
Here is a French video of the compressed air car concept:
Tata's Rs 1 lakh car: Power to the people
On January 10, the Tata Group will unveil the People’s Car, based on the 1998 concept. Even as you read this, Mr Tata is busy inspecting the microcar models himself at the Pune plant and giving all the Tata Motors managers involved in the project the heebie-jeebies. “A truck with all models to be displayed at the Auto Expo has already reached New Delhi,” says a source at the plant.Expect the reaction to be even more dramatic than what happened after the Indica launch. For one, the auto industry will come out of denial. With only a few days to go before Ratan Tata pulls the wraps off what is to be the world’s most effective automobile, there will be no place to hide and ignore this segment.
Micro cars were tried out in Europe but like the US, Europe is in love with empire and power and want to ignore reality which is why they are content to bark at Russia and Iran while demanding more cheap energy. So micro cars failed. But in the developing world, there is no sense of entitlement so people are happy to have anything at all. Eventually, we will all be like this, too. And quite frankly, this will be good for us. The carnage on our roads despite huge advances in safety systems, is still astonishing. What sort of entertainment value do we ultimately get if it means death?
Daniel GrossIt's becoming evident that the rising price of oil has little relationship to anything Americans do, or don't do.
As we are endlessly reminded, Americans, about 4.5 percent of humanity, account for about 25 percent of the world's oil consumption. Historically, the consumption habits of these power users have had a huge effect on the commodity's global price. But we matter less and less each year, macroeconomically speaking. Oil nicked $100 the same day the Institute for Supply Management reported that the manufacturing sector—you know, that energy-intensive sector that burns up lots of oil—contracted in December. In theory, it should be hard for the price of oil to rise at a time when the world's economic engine is idling and plotting a shift into reverse. But that's exactly what happened in 2007.
Prices in the market are determined by supply and demand. Even with demand in the United States stagnating, global demand for oil is booming.
We are responsible for not only high energy prices but also, high pollution levels. We over consumed for the last 60 years and this means we are very responsible for everything. On top of this, we increased consumption even when we pumped less and less oil compared to this consumption! We import lots of our energy, over 60% and rising. For this reason alone, we must change ourselves even if this means we can't live out fantasies of being race car drivers or hot rodders or whatever. I once beat a hot rodder who wanted to jump ahead of me at a traffic light. He has a souped up engine that throbbed and I had a 3 cylinder Geo Metro. But I popped my clutch and jumped him and he couldn't pass me. It pissed him off and I laughed. But frankly, we don't need to prove manhood via muscle cars, not if this is bankrupting the USA.
Also, I am endlessly annoyed with the mainstream media. Why do they pay these idiots to analyze things that baffle them? Our industry isn't why we import oil so much, we de-industrialized some time back! India and China produce our industries which we have sent out due to the need to kill inflation caused by our desire to guzzle gas no matter what!
We will eventually, if things go well, live in a world where we will feel happy just to get around without walking everywhere like medieval Japan, or using rickshaws like in the 19th century in Asia or carriages with horses which is very expensive and requires lots of staff--stable boys, ferriers, coachmen, footmen, etc.
If we downsize our ambitions now, we can live for a long, long time quite comfortably, without much strain. and today's energy news shows us how! And no pollution, if this is done with solar panels? Wow. I can't wait, I just can't wait!
Australia to get Air Car as well as India!
www.itmdi-energy.com has announced their first factory to be set up in Melbourne, Australia to produce Air Car and also Air Engine for power generation. Power generated at point of use (home or business) using compressed air engine, solar technology and meshed network grid will give about 80% efficiency compared with today's power generation at about 20% efficiency.
NEW COMPRESSED AIR ENERGY with Thermodynamic cycle. Enables impressive cost reductions for manufacture, operation and maintenance of low cost, zero emission vehicles and environmentally sound distributed power generation.
The MDI is set to become the biggest technological advancement of our time, as it is every environmentalist dream.
A new business model will be used to produce cars in small factories close to markets. The start-up business partners will build cars in their countries which is a new concept.
See Video clip: http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/science/20080104-car-runs-compressed-air-France-India-environment-oil.html
Posted by: Chris | January 05, 2008 at 10:05 PM
What is the military industrial complex's yearly oil demand? The Iraq war alone must be really sucking it down.
Posted by: krn | January 05, 2008 at 10:31 PM
Hi Elaine,
The Japanese would love this type of car - it reduces their reliance on oil and gas supplies from Russia and ME!!
On top of this, they stand to gain the most when US and EU finally throw in the towel for trying to control ME oil supplies!!
We stand to gain most from health point of view!! Less pollution in the cities and the reduced impact of acid rain on nature!!
The only losers are the big oil companies. Well, not really - we still need oil for things like fertilizers and plastics etc...
This decade would be most interesting - US energy security and efficiency vs interests of big oil companies
Posted by: OC | January 05, 2008 at 11:04 PM
What few people in the world realise is that we have reached Peak Oil and while demand increases and supplies decrease, the planet will face serious consequences unless we act NOW. I was shocked recently to watch DVD "A Crude Awakening" it made me realise just how serious the situation is.
The world needs Plan B - The Air Car and iPower generation are a great place to start.
Posted by: Chris | January 06, 2008 at 12:06 AM
The average miles driven per day of Americans is approx 115.
A 20 gallon tank of gas is enough for between 300 and 600 miles of driving.
9 hours of driving on the interstate = 600 miles. A fillup takes about 5 minutes ( 15 if there is rented coffee that needs to be recycled and refilled also ).
If that 2000 kilometers is accurate ( 1242 miles ) then this air powered car would sell to the american market. The reason most electric powered cars have not sold is their perceived short range and long recharge time. ( Even though most cars are driven less than 115 miles a day, the consumer seems to believe that 5 times that amount is the only convenient amount of miles to have available to drive between short interruptions.
I would like to see an analysis of this car including all the costs and energy usage to compress the air. My first impression is that much like biofuels, it sounds good until you count all the costs and all the energy inputs.
Posted by: CK | January 06, 2008 at 02:32 AM
Ah without a regular motor also the air powered car gets about 200 kilometers ( 125 miles ). That is a deal breaker.
Posted by: CK | January 06, 2008 at 02:45 AM
Is this of interest?
The Tata family are Parsees. They regard fire as sacred. (Parsees were around before Abraham left Ur.) Now they will involved in developing a car that doesn't burn fuel.
Posted by: Bokonon | January 06, 2008 at 05:19 AM
Don't forget the second law of thermodynamics!
It takes ENERGY to compress air (almost certainly provided by an electric motor), and the amount of energy to compress the air will always be greater than the amount of useful energy we can extract from the compressed air in powering the car.
It would be a useful exercise to compare the total energy used for ICE (internal combustion engine) vs. compressed air.
Gasoline:
Energy for oil extraction.
Energy for oil refinement.
Energy of gasoline transportation.
Energy lost through heat in the ICE.
Compressed Air:
Energy for coal extraction.
Heat energy lost burning coal for the power plant.
End-to-end transmission line loss.
Energy to compress the air.
Energy lost in extracting the energy of the compressed air.
Which is more efficient?
We love to praise zero emission technology for local environmental quality, but with out the above numbers, we are only blowing smoke out our asses.
Posted by: bruceleh | January 06, 2008 at 09:32 AM
CK's restatement of the three basic laws of thermodynamics:
1) You cannot win
2) You cannot break even
3) You cannot leave the game.
It is these three basic laws that DOOM agricultural alcohol in the USA and worldwide. Likewise they doom any other process that uses internal combustion created energy to create energy storage units ( gasoline, compressed air,)
CK's basic law of energy:
Every energy but two is solar energy. Either it is immediate ( solar cell derived energy ), slightly delayed ( wind ), longer delayed ( ethanol from annual plants ) or frozen ( wood, coal, natural gas, oil ).
The two current forms of energy that are not directly solar are nuclear and tidal power.
CK's basic law of energy politics:
NIMBY + Inertia = imported energy until the wells run dry. Remember all those pictures of Beijing in the 80's and 90's? Bicycles everywhere and trucks. Cars were for police and party heirarchs. Look at a picture of Beijing or Shanghai today, cars everywhere ( mercedes, BMWs, Lexus not Chevys or fords ) way fewer bikes and LOADS of trucks. Increased demand for the stuff, plus a depreciated and willfully depreciating dollar = lots of bikes in our future. On the good side bikes are a fine way to burn calories taken in from higher priced foodstuffs. ( Food inflation this year approx 20%,ask whoever buys the household food. Food inflation next two years I project approx 50% ). Oil in nominal dollars ( what you get in your paycheck fridays ) up 300%, oil in nominal Euros ( what Raoul and Jacques get in their paychecks ) up 200%, oil in oz. of gold = no increase. Money's first use was as a portable store of value. Value in relation to something that had few uses but was widely loved and widely available. Remove money from the value it stores ( gold or if you will frozen labour equivalent to gold ) and all that is left is promises. But you already know this and it was reiterated last night to the willful ignorance of the audience.
Deflation is the middle and working class person's friend, inflation is its deadly enemy but is a good friend to whoever controls the printing presses and gets to the newly printed money first. The USA had a deflationary economy from the end of the war of 1812 until the creation of the Fed, and that coincides with the period of time when the tide indeed lifted all the boats. Oh well. We have had a FED for almost 100 years and that is a lot of inertia to overcome.
Posted by: CK | January 06, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Urban sprawl is also an underlying problem. How far we live from all the things we buy, sell, and use is just plain stupid. And yet we keep moving farther and farther away. Maybe we're hardwired to self- destruction.
Posted by: namvetted | January 06, 2008 at 11:53 AM
I have the solar energy panel AND the air compressor. My costs will be, after this, around $0...the panel is old so it paid for itself some years ago.
But if you do buy this system, an investment of only $1,500 can give you YEARS of 'free' fill-ups: this cannot be beat! I mean, wow. I love it.
I can't wait to get my hands on this car.
Posted by: Elaine Supkis | January 06, 2008 at 01:17 PM
Peak oil...anytime the government and big business agree on anything, besides checking my wallet to see how much lighter it is, my bullshit meter starts ringing really loud. And it's been ringing since I first heard the term. Could the peak oil theory just be a cunning way for them to say and keep something really important (though hardly) "scarce" thereby manipulating the availability and price?? (No, they wouldn't do THAT, would they??)
Regardless, ideas such as the compressed air car are great, worthy, needed and all of that. I just wonder at what price for a barrel of oil will it take before you see real change in Americans driving habits? Apparently, with $3+ (and going up) a gallon gasoline and diesel, we ain't there yet...
Big cars/trucks and cheap gas prices aren't the only things Americans are "addicted" to. They just happen to be the most visible.
You know, the BIG vintage car auction is going to happen in a week or so in Scottsdale AZ. Barrett-Jackson puts on quite a spectacle there (it'll be on the SPEED channel for hours on end), auctioning off to the highest bidder, prime examples of what some would call "American excess" that now can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars for an original. I'm wondering how many of those buyers are thinking of soft financial markets, financing problems and of their newly purchased vintage vehicles losing value in the long run due to financial market problems not of their own making?? (How many compressed air cars will we see there?)
Hint: I'm betting not one. And EVERY vehicle that crosses that auction block is going to sell for more than one could imagine. EVERY one of them. What does that say about the state of affairs in the U.S. today??
Posted by: chux01 | January 06, 2008 at 01:49 PM
It says about the same thing that buying an original Tiffany lamp or an original Philadelphia HighBoy says or a rare baseball card or first edition Superman comic says.
Elaine if your calculations are correct ( and I have no reason to doubt them ) then this car will never be allowed to infect the American landscape. The Federal Highway Administration will find some reason to forbid it to be imported or driven on american highways. Most likely safety reason "for the children." Local municipalities will find some way to make roof top solar systems either illegal or highly taxed. Insurance companies will find a reason to have high rates on these cars ( compressed air is dangerous and in some sort of collision or another the compressed air can all release at once turning the car into an unguided missle.
Good God woman you are proposing to DESTROY GM Ford and the oil refining giants and the local electrical utility monopolies and the auto insurance industry all in one swell foop.
Posted by: CK | January 06, 2008 at 02:03 PM
Energy conservation
Just remember, corporations don't pay taxes--people pay taxes.
It has been my observation that those in favor of restrictions, somehow believe that utilities will absorb the costs, cut profits, and keep the price of electricity steady. Electricity is a commodity that everyone needs, and everyone will pay a higher price--perhaps a MUCH higher price.
It would be interesting (shocking?) to see a realistic projection regarding future electricity prices and the effect on the economy in general from the various legislation being proposed.
New laws should be a result of well-reasoned thinking, not knee-jerk reactions or bandwagon jumping.
I don't see any analysis of the downside risks to the economy of pulling out all of those billions in higher electricity costs and investing them only in energy-related projects. This is not a strong economy any more. 2012 is an "inconvenient target year." No new nuclear capacity can come on line by 2012, so no real cuts in fossil fuel generation can be practical. That means all the coal stays and all the increases are made up with natural gas. People will not tolerate electricity rationing
The Green Line
While I applaud the efforts of companies buying these green credits, there should be a parallel path to improve their stores energy efficiency. Right now with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT) giving $.60 / square foot tax credit for energy efficient lighting retrofits, every company should be taking a serious look at this! There is no other initiative they can do that would have the bottom line impact as this lighting retrofit AND TAX credit for one year. Unless Congress extends, this TAX credit is only good through end of 2008, so wake up corporate America and call a local energy/lighting consultant today!
Saving energy and reducing fuel costs are completely commendable from an economic point of view and for stretching out finite natural resources. But to go through costly contortions to be "green" by reducing carbon dioxide outputs is to believe that carbon dioxide is driving climate change. As revolutionary is the following idea might sound, there is no scientific that carbon dioxide is having anything more than a miniscule effect on climate. Various solar effects quite possibly are responsible for any observed climate changes, effects including El Nino, Le Nina, and numerous other cyclical phenomena, in addition to the possible interaction of the sun's magnetosphere and cosmic rays to vary cloud cover. This information is available to anyone who spends the time to look and read. All hypotheses relating climate warming to carbon dioxide concentration is confusing association with causation. We have to remember that temperatures have varied independent of CO2 concentration, even in the past century, and there are indications that there has been no warming since 1998. Some climate experts feel that we may be heading for a cooling phase. We just don't . The idea of anthropomorphic global warming is conjecture and belief, not proven fact.
I am not receiving ANY funding from any energy or other company. This includes untrustworthy weather ground station installations and personnel (particularly outside Western countries) and thus untrustworthy temperature data; shenanigans within the IPCC process that screen out any views not in conformity with its predetermined message that everything is Man's fault; a similar process within some of the most influential scientific journals; the inaccuracies and outright deceptions in "An Inconvenient Truth"; the ignorance of the media in covering the question of climate causation; and the acceptance of the notion that a "scientific consensus" is equal to scientific proof. First, such a notion is bad science. And second, we have to investigate how much of the "vast scientific consensus" is real and how much merely the creation of warmist advocates who can make more noise and get the attention of the media better than quiet and sober true scientists and climatologists (and those who are concerned about their livelihoods if they speak out against the prevailing orthodoxy). Endless repetition does not equal proof or reality.
We must keep an open mind on whether any of these heroic efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions has any useful function, or if they are driven solely by herd mentality and the desire to appear to the public to be "doing something", good PR but accomplishing nothing in the real world (shades of the Emperor's new clothes). My feeling is that the entire carbon-credits business is a giant edifice erected on the sands of a flood plain. Eventually a wave of reality will hit and cause a total collapse.
Posted by: Yehuda Draiman | January 06, 2008 at 02:24 PM
Ok so I went hunting for specs on this vehicle. Elaine will your compressor generate 350 bars of pressure? ( 5075 PSI )
http://www.theaircar.com/tests.html
scroll to the bottom for tank specs to obtain a 242km distance between refills.
http://www.centauro-owners.com/articles/psibar.html
Tank of 400 litres at 350 bars. Maybe I am missing something here but that does appear to be a hellofalot of pressure to expect a home compressor and some solar cells to generate.
Here is a nice $9000 air compressor it will do 175 PSI
http://www.aircompressorsdirect.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=710
Posted by: CK | January 06, 2008 at 02:30 PM
1 bar = 14.5 psi.
350 bar = 5,080 psi.
Posted by: bruceleh | January 06, 2008 at 04:14 PM
Quick google gives $8-$10K for a 5K PSI compressor.
Most likely uses three phase or 220 power.
Posted by: bruceleh | January 06, 2008 at 04:17 PM
I also did a quick google, best I could come up with were the compressors used by Paintball operations. 6000PSI for around 6000 dollars.
Posted by: CK | January 06, 2008 at 04:34 PM
As Elaine knows, I have been researching resources and methods for survival in an ultrapostindustrial world. Basically, this ultrapostindustrial world will take us back to the Iron Age. I suppose it may come as a shock to some readers that I am proposing a need to develop a new Iron Age economy, however, with any luck, or perhaps with much luck, we will retain much of the scientific, technical, and other knowledge that we have achieved in the semipostindustrial age in which we find ourselves presently. I have been posting stuff about this here and there on the web, and expect to collect and coordinate all these little pieces on a website of it's own:
communitysurvival.wordpress.com (under construction)
and:
communitysurvival.info (a place to go if the bandwidth gets to be too much for the free-hosting WordPress.com people.)
(I have a bad cold, so this post is not as complete as I would like it to be.)
I am researching the questions pertaining to community survival in an ultrapostindustrial world comprised of revertant Iron Age communities. Life in such a world will not be easy. It is possible that breakthroughs in nuclear fusion energy production could avert the advent of a revertant Iron Age, but the viability of that prospect is rather questionable. So, I am looking into solutions for survival in an ultrapostindustrial world. There will be little, perhaps no petrochemical fuel available in such a world. There is no telling what will become of our present financial systems, so I will, at least at first, focus upon the challenges that will be faced by basic energy and productivity systems. First, let us contemplate a stark description of life in such a world:
_________________
Life After the Oil Crash
"Deal With Reality or Reality Will Deal With You"
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
Dear Reader,
Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists, bankers, and investors in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global "Peak Oil."
[..........]
"Are all forms of modern technology actually petroleum products?"
Yes.
It's not just transportation and agriculture that are entirely dependent on abundant, cheap oil. Modern medicine, water distribution, and national defense are each entirely powered by oil and petroleum derived chemicals.
In addition to transportation, food, water, and modern medicine, mass quantities of oil are required for all plastics, all computers and all high-tech devices. Some specific examples may help illustrate the degree to which our technological base is dependent on fossil fuels
[..........]
"Is the modern banking system entirely dependent on ever-increasing amounts of cheap oil?"
Yes.
The global financial system is entirely dependent on a constantly increasing supply of oil and natural gas. The relationship between the supply of oil and natural gas and the workings of the global financial system is arguably the key issue to understanding and dealing with Peak Oil. In fact this relationship is far more important than alternative sources of energy, energy conservation, or the development of new energy technologies, all of which are discussed in detail on page two of this site.
[..........]
"Is there any reason to remain hopeful?"
As far as the fate of society or the world as a whole, the most honest answer is "no." Our political processes are entirely controlled by massive corporations in the petroleum, defense, automotive, agribusiness, construction, and media industries. Most of the responses to this situation that would be favorable to you and me (such as mass transit or large scale urban gardens) would be at odds with the interests of these corporations. Thus, there is little realistic hope they will ever be aggressively pursued. The end result is likely to be a large scale societal collapse not unlike what happened to the Roman, Viking, Mayan, and Easter Island societies.
_________________
Here is a great, unique, little novel circa 1967 that portrays the nature of life in such an ultrapostindustrial world:
_________________
SCI FI Weekly Reviews
Week of January 14, 2008 [next week]
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/books/classic/sfw854.html
The Einstein Intersection
by Samuel R. Delany
Psychic alien mutants play out an inventive riff on an ancient Greek myth amid the wreckage of a ruined Earth
Review by A.M. Dellamonica:
Lo Lobey is an alien living on an earth long abandoned by humanity. He and his people exist among the remnants of human society: ruined cities, intriguing scraps of advanced technology and, most of all, myths about ancient heroes from Billy the Kid and Jean Harlow to Elvis and Ringo Starr.
_________________
I have discussed several ultrpostindustrial issues in my comments (as blues) here:
http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/money_matters/2007/12/the-chinese-noo.html
Photovoltaic solar energy will not be of much use in revertant Iron Age communities. It is, in many ways a fragile technology. And it would ultimately require the paving of vast tracts of land with solar panels. Much more importantly, revertant Iron Age communities will not possess anything like the extreme chemical, energetic, and precision production systems that would be required for the manufacture, repair, and replacement of photovoltaic energy facilities. However, reflective solar concentrators for production processes requiring extreme high-temperature thermal concentration could prove to be viable, and attainable, assets. Passive solar heating would be viable, apparently.
The answer is going to be windmills using "raised weight" energy accumulators. Each windmill will be equipped with multiple winches suspending bobs (weights), so that when one bob reaches its winch screw, the next one will begin to be pulled up to the height of its winch screw. That way, complicated "transmission" gearing could be avoided. If all the bobs were then coupled, their weight would combine to produce a "modestly extreme" amount of force. This would be a static energy source; you could not realistically transport winched-up bobs around.
For portable energy, you would use compressed air. This is a little tricky; there are many odd quirks involved with the use of compressed air. The compression, and subsequent decompression of air entails the heating, and subsequent cooling of the air, and this is more "lossy" than other processes, such as the energy lost to entropy in moving gears, etc. But it's still not prohibitive. The biggest problem will be the pumping operation. If you think you have "infinite" energy, as contemporary semipostindutrial people seem to, this pumping operation is not a problem. But contemporary pumps are incredibly inefficient. There are many different kinds of air pumps, but most of them must be able to handle the problems of variable force compression. Consider the bicycle pump. When you first start pumping, the force of compression is too small, so you feel like you are getting nowhere. If you achieve a high pressure, you might be exerting all the force you can muster; so the force of compression varies greatly. Constructing any pump that can cope with this variable force of compression would require extreme levels of machining precision that would be unavailable in an ultrapostindustrial community. So what we need is a pump that only requires a constant force of compression. With some minor hassles and risks, this is achievable.
Fluid columns are probably the answer. I suggested using very large columns of water to Elaine, but she thinks that is ridiculous. Of course, "ridiculous" is relative. One point: an ultrapostindustrial community would not have access to very many extreme processes; but it would have access to massive processes. Remember, the Romans had very little extreme technology, but they built their aqueducts. And the Egyptians -- how did they build those pyramids? So now for the Devil, and his habitual details!
Mercury. It is a rather toxic heavy metal. But toxicity has ever been the companion of extreme processes. Remember the silver-mercury fillings we all had in our mouths? Remember that all of our super-efficient fluorescent lights must contain mercury vapor? Mercury is quite toxic (I know, because I saw all those mad hatters who were poisoned by it through working in the hat factories of my home town of Danbury, Connecticut). But in its liquid, yet metallic form, it's not that dangerous. Kids played with it when I was a kid. And, for a liquid substance, it has extreme density. My (very back-of-the-envelope) estimates are as follows: To achieve about 1,100 pounds of pressure at the base of a column, you would need about 2,400 feet of water depth (almost half a mile). For about 1,100 pounds of pressure, you would need about 175 feet of mercury. Why does this matter?
What we need (in an ultrapostindustrial community) is a constant force compression pump (not a variable force compression pump). With a 175 foot mercury column, this is possible. Imagine a approximately "candy cane" shaped, 175' structure. It is "standing up," and filled with mercury, except for the "short end," which is filled with air. The column of mercury bears down on the air pocket, pressurizing it to 1,100 lbs per square inch. Three valves are involved. First, you close a "first" valve at the bottom of the "cane" (so the whole column can't drop through the bottom. Then you release the pressurized air into a cylinder through a valve that you open at the "short end" of the "cane." Then you release the remaining mercury in the short end by opening a third "intermediate" valve at the bottom (the tall column itself is restrained from release by the first valve). The pressure has now been harvested. Now you close the end valve, and also the intermediate mercury drain valve, and then open the "first" valve to allow mercury to compress the new air which has replaced the mercury in that short end. Then, your windmill scoops up the "remaining mercury" that was drained from the short end, and pulls it up into the column, thus retaining all of the mercury in the column. Then repeat the cycle to harvest more compressed air. The windmill only needs to pull up the mercury one scoop at a time. So it only works against a constant force. What you get is portable energy, in the form of the compressed air.
Here are some more links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_storage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_atmosphere
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_accumulator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_compressor
http://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/1978-07-01/Mothers-Air-Compressor-Build-it-From-Junk-For-Less-Than-60.aspx
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/air-car.htm
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/air-car3.htm
http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/global/new-generation-solar-technologies-report-289
Posted by: Elaine Supkis | January 07, 2008 at 08:28 AM
Thanks so much for posting this for me, Elaine!
-- blues
Posted by: blues | January 07, 2008 at 11:45 AM
The mercury column, windmill powered compressor I described only achieves 1,100 psi at about 175' of height. I haven't considered attaining higher pressures because I anticipate that ultrapostindustrial communities lacking extreme processes will simply have relatively lower expectations. However there are solutions for this issue also. We can keep the mercury columns at (roughly) 175' and still attaining about 4,400 psi with a little ingenuity.
All we need to do is just put four 175'mercury columns side-by-side. Then we can make them run "in series" (a "battery" of columns, if you will) simply by running mineral oil-filled (or alcohol-filled) columns between them. The base of the first mercury column is connected to the top of a second mercury column via an oil-filled column, so the pressure at it's base will be twice that at the base of the first mercury column. And a thus-connected "battery" of four mercury columns would yield roughly 4,400 psi at the base of the final mercury column.
The columns themselves could be rather narrow, since it is only the height, not the overall mass, of the mercury columns that accounts for all of the pressure. There would have to be a relatively broad "reservoir" of mercury at the base of each oil column to prevent any oil from leaking into the mercury columns (as it would then rise to the top, and "unbalance" the the system).
Posted by: blues | January 08, 2008 at 05:07 AM
Well, another of my infamous no-further-discussion comments! (Do they just make people think about hidden fears?) Just to cross the "i"s and dot the "t"s, one or two obvious details:
In a battery of multiple columns, you would not get the full (very roughly) 4,400 psi. you would wish for. You would be lucky to get 4,000 psi. The alternating oil (or alcohol) columns would give a little push-back, even though fluids they contain might be 15 times lighter than mercury. You would also need to use up a little of each energy cylinder to inject the mercury that the windmill pumped up from the drain pan into the top of the final column, since it would be the one to expel mercury, and the fluids of the previous columns would need to be pushed back into alignment.
I suppose I should get cracking on a new religion for the ultrapostindustrial age (of Aquarius, I guess).
Posted by: blues | January 09, 2008 at 09:01 AM
Blues,
What would you do with compressed air in the ultrapostindustrial age?
Wouldn't it be easier to ferment some methane gas from household waste in a low tech bio-reactor?
Posted by: Neuro Artist | January 09, 2008 at 05:44 PM
Maybe, Neuro Artist. The compressed air could be used to power simple vehicles, shoot guns, etc. There would be very little food, so there would be very little waste. The general point is that our profligate energy habit is about to become a non-option.
Posted by: blues | January 10, 2008 at 03:54 PM