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TR: Do you think it will be possible someday to apply this to aviation? Jet engines?
MI: Someday.
TR: What are the challenges?
MI: Weight. It will take a while. To stay in this business long-term, we have to take big bets. And that's a big bet.
TR: This will make existing power plants more efficient, and so reduce carbon emissions. What about renewable energy?
MI: We're going offshore, making large offshore wind turbines. Today offshore wind is much more expensive [than onshore wind] because the platform for the turbine is so expensive--basically you have to build an oil platform. [To bring down costs] you have to put together technologies that allow you to extract the most from wind.
TR: I've been told by some experts that wind turbines can't be made much more efficient than they are now. Can you make them much more efficient?
MI: Yes, you can. If you look at a wind turbine, there are a couple of things. One is the blade. The blade has to get larger. It has to be much more aerodynamic. It has to be able to take twist-bend coupling. It has to look more like a wing, although it's actually more complex than a wing, because your velocities vary from the hub to the tip. We believe there are a lot of opportunities in the next-generation wind blade. We are developing low-cost composites to be able to build a spar--the core of the blade--that handles the loads. And then we believe that the next generation of wind blades will have active flow control, to be able to shape the airfoil for the conditions, to get maximum power out of it.
TR: As in shapeshifting materials?
MI: There are many ways to get active flow control. One way is just to blow air from the leading and the trailing edge. We just need to find a way that will get us there at the lowest cost and the highest reliability, that can withstand lightning strikes and all the environmental considerations.
TR: So that's the blades. What else could you do?
MI: The generator. Today you go through the gearbox, to the generator, into the inverter to get to the right voltage, the right frequency. We believe in going to direct drive [without a gearbox]. That can lead to very big generators, 8 meters in diameter. We are working on changing the paradigm, making these generators smaller, to be able to handle low speed with a high efficiency. We are also developing better power electronics to produce higher voltage for transmitting the power to shore. We are working with a number of technologies to make the wind turbine out in the sea economical.
The cells might eventually replace the turbines in high-efficiency power plants.
New direct-drive turbines promise to lower the cost of offshore wind energy.
GE is pushing the smart grid and thin-film solar, but don't expect new kinds of nuclear reactors.
It was a very good article and i cant wait for the continued improvements to efficiency to be implemented. I also dont believe in waiting for the energy revolution. If everyone waited for it, it wouldnt come. Only moving forward will bring the changes needed for this revolution.
He hit all the right notes on things that need to be done to get renewables bigger. And only a company the size of a GE can pull this stuff off. I'm heartened that we got a player of this size and technological heft working on it.
will be that someone else develops an even better technology earlier and you're stuck with a tech that can't get market share.
If someone develops a solid oxide fuel cell that is robust, low cost and more efficient, for example, then this ignition thing will be useless for power generating markets.
This risk is the most difficult to deal with, since it is exogenous to the development cycle, and can thus not be managed by the inventor/company... except for developing the alternative themselves of course! That is in this case, if GE increases development effort of SOFCs as well. Or buy up succesful SOFC companies if GE is feeling lazy...
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
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Mapou
357 Comments
Seismic Shift Ahead
It was a pleasure to read this inteview. It felt good because Mr. Idelchik gives the listener/reader a taste of the passion, ingenuity, and steadfast dedication that can exist in such a big corporation as GE. It's a tribute to humanity as a whole, as I'm sure this sort of enthusiastic can-do attitude exists elsewhere.
Nevertheless, I can't help but feel somewhat saddened because there is reason to believe that Mr. Idelchik's life as an energy researcher and that of every other energy researcher around the globe will soon undergo a seismic paradigm shift. We are on the verge of a breakthrough in physics that will make almost every current approach to energy production and transportation obsolete.
There is clear evidence that we are swimming in an ocean of clean energy, lots and lots of it. A new form of transportation and energy production technology will arrive soon, one based on the realization that we are immersed in an immense lattice of energetic particles. This is a consequence of a reevaluation of our understanding of the causality of motion. Soon, we'll have vehicles that can move at tremendous speeds and negotiate right angle turns without slowing down and without incurring damages due to inertial effects. Floating cities, unlimited clean energy, earth to Mars in hours, New York to Beijing in minutes... That's the future of energy and travel.
My advice to Mr. Idelchik and his colleagues is this; they would do well to meditate deeply about the writing on the wall and prepare themselves for the huge change clouds appearing over the horizon.
The Problem With Motion:
http://rebelscience.blogspot.com/2009/09/physics-problem-with-motion-part-i.html
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DJTal
154 Comments
Re: Seismic Shift Ahead
Unfortunately mapou there is no time to wait around for a great new 'ENERGY REVOLUTION'. People have tried this before and it just doesn't happen. We need to make use of existing technologies.
Reply
chemistry
5 Comments
Re: Seismic Shift Ahead
Yea this energy revolution sounds epic! I cannot wait! Do you think Obama will discover it? I'm sure he will hes going to fix everything!!!
Reality is harsh. Wake up and realize the only energy revolution that will occur is the one created by us. God, Obama, Bush, and MIT all combined will not produce what our society needs. The engineers (young and old) are the key to our energy revolution. Quit reading blogs about the revolution and being a rebel!! and start reading about how to actually contribute. understand what is going on around you on a daily basis, and understand how to fix the flaws.
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Mapou
357 Comments
You Don't Understand Motion Even If You Think You Do
Thanks for the advice. My advice to you is to try to grok the true causal nature of motion. The same goes to Obama, Bush and everyone else. And why not? Even politicians will have no trouble grasping the concept. It's not rocket science. Heck, it will make rocket science obsolete overnight. One thing is certain:
You don't understand motion even if you think you do.
This is true, especially if you're a physicist, a chemist or a rocket scientist. Sorry.
Understanding the Lattice:
http://rebelscience.blogspot.com/2009/09/understanding-lattice-part-i.html
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GaryB
119 Comments
Re: You Don't Understand Motion Even If You Think You Do
Yes! Big science is completely wrong because [(insert one) they won't publish my papers; a conspiracy of the scientific priesthood; the Jews] and this is being suppressed by [(choose one) big oil, GM, the military industrial complex] because [(choose one) they hate me, it upsets existing monopolies, of a government secret reserved for the military, it would free humanity from government control, of the Jews]. If only good and free men would take up the blogger's mantle and pontificate on free and abundant [energy, transportation, dark energy, quantum lattice/foam, higher dimensions, other buzzwords, the Jews].
Reply
Mapou
357 Comments
Re: You Don't Understand Motion Even If You Think You Do
Man, give me a break. I don't give a rat's posterior whether or not the scientific community takes me seriously. They don't put food on my table. And what's with the Jewish thing? I love Jews and everybody else.
Reply
pao2
6 Comments
Re: You Don't Understand Motion Even If You Think You Do
Hello Mapou,
I will like to read your dissertation or published article on this subject. The link you post is to your blog. A published article in a scientific journal or an approved dissertation by the dissertation committee in your school that can be accessed online via the school library will give you more credibility than a blog you set up by yourself.
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Mapou
357 Comments
Re: You Don't Understand Motion Even If You Think You Do
You're kidding me? You obviously haven't read my stuff.
Reply
Scottar
25 Comments
Re: You Don't Understand Motion Even If You Think You Do
Been to your site and looking at your background you are just an armchair physicist, no peer reviewed published papers, not even a prototype.
As the commercial goes, where's the beef?
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