A lot in the Engineering News this week.
First, DPE minister Barbara Hogan supports the PBMR: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/minister-re-affirms-that-government-is-behind-pbmr-nuclear-programme-2009-07-30. She argues that it is a great way to develop a product to export. It is not. And it wont be for electricity any more, but for heat. See also: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/sa-nuclear-company-concentrates-on-core-competences-and-diversifies-markets-2009-07-31
Then, a new “miracle” vertical axis turbine (VAWT): http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/sa-researcher-develops-new-vertical-axis-wind-turbine-configuration-2009-07-31. It is presented as increasing energy yields by 400%, but this is an unfair comparison to normal VAWTs as this configuration has more than 2x the wind area than a normal VAWT, so at best ,maybe a 30% increase, but this would probably put it beyond the limits of what can actually be harvested from the wind, so there is something else happening here. Not to mention that the configuration of the “blades” is awful in terms of vibration on the main shaft! I cannot see this design practically working versus a traditional VAWT of the same area.
And lastly, a summary of an energy caucus I went to: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/civil-society-should-be-directly-involved-in-determining-sas-energy-future-2009-07-31. Worth a read. The main outcome is an argument for openness and transparency in all that ESKOM and the DoE are doing – at the moment, most of the energy happenings happen behind closed doors.
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