Reuters has an interesting story about a project to put solar panels in North Africa, with power lines to transmit this electric to Europe. The story states: The European Union is backing projects to turn the plentiful sunlight in the Sahara desert into electricity for power-hungry Europe, a scheme it hopes will help meet its …
Category Archive: Engineering
Jun
21
When Failure Should Not Be An Option
In the script for the movie Apollo 13, one of the sayings fundamental views of the people working during the program was distilled into the quote “Failure is Not an Option”, and was spoken by Ed Harris, playing Gene Kranz. Kranz notably used it to title his autobiographical history of the events. But the lesson …
May
12
The big blow ups?
Margaret Wente, in the Globe and Mail this week, writes that we live in an era of big “blow ups” that cannot be stopped. The problem, as I see it, is not that Wente’s smartest people in the world have no idea how to stop it. It is a combination of: People who think they …
Apr
21
Don Braid on in-situ combustion
Don Braid, a columnist in the Calgary Herald, writes from a position of minimal knowledge about a complex subject and thinks that we should listen to him (and the NDP who raised this question in the Alberta legislature). He thinks the government of Alberta should prohibit the use of in-situ combustion (i.e. injecting air into …
Apr
14
Three heroes tell Obama he is wrong
Today, there is an open letter to President Obama from two of the twelve men who walked on the Moon and a third who was supposed to but instead survived perhaps the most harrowing ordeal of them all: The United States entered into the challenge of space exploration under President Eisenhower’s first term, however, it …
Apr
06
Bad Science in the MSM
Once again, I am frustrated by the mainstream media’s insistence on turning every science story into a crisis or disaster. The Globe and Mail today has the headline: BPA Widespread in Ocean Water and Sand containing such gems as: Japanese scientists testing ocean water and sea sand have found widespread contamination with high levels bisphenol …
Mar
16
Oil Sands Facts
Here is a good link to some facts about oil sands operations and their real impact on the environment. Please read. And avoid the over-hyped nonsense about the oil sands bringing doom to our world…
Dec
15
Good points on energy efficiency, but it’s not free
Jim Harris, former Green Party leaders and columnist in the Financial Post, actually makes some good points in today’s column. He is correct that most thermal power plants have efficiencies in the 33% range, rejecting two-thirds of the energy in the fuel as waste heat. Newer plants, like Capital Power’s Genesee 3 near Edmonton which …
Dec
05
Green Car is a DIESEL
So much for all the talk, money and effort put into hybrid cars. The LA Auto Show has awarded their Green Car of the Year award to a diesel for the second year in a row. If diesel engines are so “green”, why the effort to build expensive hybrids, with their expensive batteries, risks of …
Nov
18
On Harper’s nuclear deal with India
This could be a very good plan, depending on how it plays out. Here are the reasons: The world wants to build more nuclear plants, but there is a problem – the availability of fuel (uranium) and enrichment capabilities may not grow as fast as demand, which could drive up the cost of nuclear …