Alternative energy meets Godzilla (er: rational science)
Technology Guru
Don Lancaster points out a new article about an old energy scam and writes this. Please note -- Don's website doesn't support permalinking; the article you want is dated April 2nd, 2007
Anyway:
The monumental cluelessness of the media on all matters scientific or energetic continues to astound me. As in this latest fiasco where energy and power are clearly confused.
We looked at the crucial differences in our Energy Fundamentals tutorial. Briefly, energy is "how much" and power is "how fast".
I'll gladly sell you a device that gives you a thousand watts back for every watt you put in. But so will Radio Shack.
It is called a "capacitor".
At any rate, we have this stupendous super wonderful 10 kilowatt power generator. All you do is drive your car over it. Golly Gee Mister Science! If the car is over the device for two seconds, this revolutionary energy breakthrough generates a staggering 20 kilowatt-seconds of energy.
Wow! This is 0.00555 of a kilowatt hour! Or just over 500 microcents worth of electricity! Needless to say, this neglects the loss of momentum of the car which will be significantly higher.
And, of course, the amortization, which clearly will be ludicrous.
Yup -- one born every minute and ten born to take them.
Posted by DaveH at April 2, 2007 9:37 PM