What causes carbon emmissions?

A wide variety of things cause the release of carbon emmissions into our atmosphere. Many of these things we never think about...like fertilizer factories and concrete factories...like the one pictured here.

One of the reasons we can clearly link air pollution to global warming...or lets just say changes in the weather...is that a great deal of pollution puts carbon into our atmosphere and results in CO2 suspension that starts the green-house blockage that we keep talking about.

Do we have to stop using cement? No, but we do need to find a way to trap that minute carbon burst that happens...and is so difficult to filter...when we mix the ingredients needed for concrete.

As the sky lightened this morning, blacks to grays, grays to greens...I watched with interest as the leaves became more familiar in my window.

Here we are in winter, with our days shortened...our occasional cool period...while much of the rest of America braces against the wind and shields themselves from what may be the coldest winter to recall.

Is this the result of Global warming or is this its antithesis?

And now you see why I focus on pollution and not Global warming... it is easier to define our situation of planet peril by what is making life more difficult, rather than declaring an irrefutable 'scientific fact' that isn't irrefutable at all. Many of our problems, no mater their long term impact, come from our blatant disregard of our planet and our willingness to pollute and let the next generation or the one after that handle the mess we have caused.

Oceans will not clean themselves, nor will the air be filtered in some mysterious way...while the Earth may heal through its natural forces, we need to help by reducing the ills that we have brought forth. We need to stop our polluting cycle...of casting off things and materials, waste and sludge...and stop expecting nature to cleanse the toxins from our soil.

Now is the time to solve our problems. Now, not later... if not now then perhaps never.

Scott

Supporting his platform

Our President is showing that he is committed to saving the environment...and I am truly behind him. Where do you stand?

Reports today suggest that it will take up to a thousand years to correct our global warming issues...Should we reduce the pollution that we suffer, or should we just learn to adapt?

William Wallace commented...

Every man dies, not every man lives!

So, how do PV Cells work anyway?

We take for granted that a PV, or PhotoVoltaic Cell will generate electricity...but how does this process work?

First we need to recall that energy can be converted from one form of energy to another...So just like Chemical Energy which exists in a battery can create electircal energy as a byproduct when the acid reacts with the led or carbon (wet or dry) within the cell, so can the sun's light rays create electricity when the rays cause the crystal structures of the PV to resonate.

Yes, that's it...the crystal structure of the PV Cell receives the light energy (sun light) and the cell is excitated (vibrates due to the frequency of the light) and it resonates, which causes the cell, which is wired, to release electrical energy in a very low DC signal. This energy is ampliphied through the use of many cells in a PV Bank of panels (Basic electrical theory here, Ohm's Law...) and by putting some of this structure in Parallel we raise the voltage...and then by tying these banks in series we raise the apmlitude. Oh, generally this is a DC circuit, or Direct Current, but we can take tap the circuit and make it an AC (Alternating Current) circuit through the use of a converter.

So the creation of electricity is really just a conversion from light energy (a frequency) to electircal energy and it can either be used as it is produced or saved to a battery system or put back on the Grid (commercial electrical supply net).

There are some drawbacks...like you have to design a storage system (battery) that will be able to support you during darkness and even poor weather. You also can't grow tall shade trees as they will block the sun from hitting the pannels...and preventing the sun from working with the panels. Shade will reduce the performance of the system by 60% or more!

And as with most energy conversion technologies, there may be some heat shedding from the system as these panels focus sunlight on their hearts. Heat, as a side effect, may reduce the effectiveness of the process...that is the crystals may work less effectively if they can't easily release this heat, so the use of pannels that are raised off of the roof or mounted in a stand alone pattern is critical to equalizing system temperature.

There are several types of PV Cells, but generally they are made of some type of Silicone, and then they are cut, treated appropriately, and wired to optimize their performance.

Following the Green

With about half of our nation bathed in sunlight everyday, and a significant section of the United States located south of the general snow line...it is a wonder that we are not generating solar power by the Triliwatt...let alone the Megawatt... after all, think of all those roof tops in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Southern California, Florida, even Alabama and Mississippi...

There are millions of buildings with many millions of square feet facing south...and most are just soaking up the sun with no PV generation going on at all.

But take heart everyone...there is a project that is about to get underway in March that will put Megawatts on the grid in Orlando Florida. The Orange County Convention Center's North/South facing center (one of three key centers in the complex) is situated to effectively exploit the sun and generate more power then other commercial sites in the Southeast...if not all of the US and most of the world.

But don't stop there. There are three planned, and about to be executed, solar farms being initiated in Florida by Progress Energy which will make Florida second only to California in the commercial production of solar power for the grid. Solar may not be the only answer...but it is one of the answers that we need to acknowledge if we are going to take hold of our destiny and generate the energy that we need to keep the United States in the forefront of World development and growth in the century ahead.

Are we on the right track? Have you told anyone?

These two questions are to you...

1. Are we on the right track?
2. Have you told anyone?

You see, we are on our way to a second Trillion Dollar bail out...and as we are not on the gold standard ... that is, as we simply declare that the dollar has value... well, that money is coming out of thin air and it means debt up to our eyes...debt that your children and my children will have to pay.

Not even in office and Obama is declaring that it has to be done... and he may be right, but this is going to be a real risk that we each will carry for several decades even if it works...

so:
1. Are we on the right track?
2. Have you told anyone?

You owe it to yourself, your children, and to America to come up with an opinion on the first question and then to go ahead and tell your President Elect and your Senators and Congress men (women too...not cutting you out here) just how you feel about the debt that we are about to enter into... and the debt that President Bush put us into as well...oh, and how you think it should be controlled and what it should be used for!

Take action now... be part of the solution.