. . . ENERGY FLASHES .. . ENERGY FLASHES . . .
November/December 1980
By the Mother Earth News editors
HEAT FROM A FORMATION OF GRANITE located two miles beneath the earth's surface has been used — by scientists from the Los Alamos, New Mexico Scientific Laboratory — to generate electricity. Simply stated, water — under pressure — is circulated through two deep holes bored into the granite . . . creating a closed-loop system in which the liquid's temperature can reach well above the boiling point.
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. . . ENERGY FLASHES...... ENERGY FLASHES...... ENERGY FLASHES. . . September/October 1982 POPEYE W...
SOY SQUEEZINGS: Scientists at Ohio State University are operating a campus bus with a 20-80 blend of soybean cooking oil and diesel fuel. The mixture gives better MPG and produces less smoke than does the petroleum product alone! And, there's an additional benefit: The price of the soy "booster" is right. The oil is recovered — after it's been used to cook French fries — from the school's cafeteria.
"HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME . . . ." Ironically, the crippled Three Mile Island nuclear plant has become a popular Pennsylvania tourist attraction. Between 1970 and 1979, a total of 150,000 visitors stopped at the nuclear facility's observation center. But since March 1979 — when the accident occurred — some 67,000 people have come to view the plant.
TREASURE OF THE DEEP: Canada has announced plans to build a $46 million experimental tidal-power plant in the Annapolis Basin of the Bay of Fundy. The facility — scheduled to be operating by 1983 — will have a capacity of 1,200 megawatts . . . roughly the equivalent of a modern nuclear plant. When completed, it'll be the largest tidal-power plant in the world.
DROP THEM A LINE: If you operate an alcohol fuel installation — or are building or plan to build an ethanol plant — the Department of Energy's Solar Energy Research Institute would like to know about it. SERI is developing a data base on U.S. fuel distilleries. Contact: Art Adams, SERI, Dept. TMEN, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, Colorado 80401.
TUCK IN YOUR PLANTS? Tests at Penn State, Cornell, and Rutgers indicate that greenhouse owners can realise savings of up to 60% in energy costs if they pull thermal blankets (made from air-inflated polyethylene or other materials) over beds of growing plants to limit the influence of chilly nighttime temperatures. Researchers estimate that fuel savings will recover the material and installation expense in one to three years.
A DEGREE IN ALCOHOL? Colby Community College (Dept. TMEN, 1255 South Range, Colby, Kansas 67701) is offering a two-year program in alcohol fuel production technology. The curriculum is designed to train persons to operate and manage ethanol plants . . . and requires 18 hours a week of experience in an actual working facility.
THE FIRST SAIL-EQUIPPED OIL TANKER was launched in Japan this summer. The 1,600-ton ship is skippered by a computer that automatically determines whether the tanker should be powered by sails and/or its engine . . . depending on the strength and direction of the prevailing winds. The ship consumes only about half the oil of a conventional vessel of comparable size.
