In the wake of last week’s massive blackout that darkened 6 US States plus Ontario, electricity users throughout the region are being asked to cut their power usage until the grid can come back up to full capacity to prevent rolling blackouts. Generating stations which were shut down last Thursday, particularly the nuclear powered stations, take time to restart safely, so power production is still well below normal levels.

As we conserve, there are several websites which report on current electricity usage and capacity. Current Energy is an American site showing hour by hour values, while the IMO (Independant Market Operator) shows the current values for Ontario. In the meantime, shut off the lights, wind down the A/C and cross your fingers.
Read the rest of this entry »

Last week’s blackout showed just how dependant we all are on electricity. Local blackouts are common and usually short-lived. But when half the country (and a quarter of the country to the south) goes dark, the things you take for granted become serious issues. For those of you that weren’t in the affected areas, here are some things to think about:

Transportation – With traffic lights out, the intersection is supposed to be treated as a 4-way stop. In the early minutes after the blackout hit, it’s amazing how many people forgot this simple rule. After repeated pleas over the radio, most people eventually figured it out. All subways and streetcars shut down. Commuter trains are diesel powered, but the track switches aren’t. Millions of people were stuck with no way home. Airports were shut down, not only because of the air-traffic control and runway lights, but also because the security and x-ray devices weren’t available.

Radio, TV and Gossip – With no power, you couldn’t watch TV, and about half the radio stations were off the air. In your small part of the world with no communication, you wouldn’t have known the huge magnitude of this outage. Amazingly, most people knew that it was widespread, affecting locations including New York, Detroit, Toronto and Ottawa. Telephones continued to work throughout the outage; the cell phone networks continued to run, but were often busy and with weak signals. If you had a UPS, Internet access was fine (at least mine was until my UPS conked out 75 minutes in).

Shortage Fears – These events usually result in rampant fears of shortages of everything from water and gasoline to bread and meats. Quite a valid concern.

• Water: We were told not to worry, that we had enough water in the city’s supply to last 24 hours. Hmmm.. that begs the question of what happens if the power doesn’t come back. Better go to the store and pick up some water just in case. Store is sold out? Ahhhh!

• Gasoline: Gas pumps wouldn’t work. When the power first came on in small pockets, people came from all over to get gas at a small number of stations. At one, I waited in line for an hour, and they ran out of gasoline when I was 4 cars from the pump. I went to another where I successfully gassed up afer only a 45 minute wait. The power outage shut down the refineries. Stations that ran out are still waiting for the trucks to replenish them.
• Food: Health officials came on TV cautioning that food will be okay in the fridge for 5-6 hours, in the freezer for no more then 12 hours. So, you empty out your fridge and freezer, hop on down to the grocery store and realize that their fridges and freezers were out too. Even their warehouses were out. So now you have to wait a week or more before new supplies come through the system. Pasta and soup again tonight.

On the other hand, it was a welcome change of pace, not unlike a “snow-day.” Most people took the inconvenience in stride. While waiting in an hour-long lineup at a hot-dog vendor on Thursday night, I was able to talk to other Torontonians about the “surreal” environment we found ourselves; the streetlights and traffic lights dark, the silhouette of the dark Toronto skyline at dusk, the people walking down the street with flashlights in hand, and the dark abandoned streetcar sitting still and empty on the tracks.

Best of all, absent of the usual “urban-glow” which normally prevents you from seeing anything in the night sky, except for the moon, I was able to sit on a bench by the harbour gazing at the stars, and the brilliant sight of Mars as it approaches us.

Four days after Blackout 2003, things are getting back to normal in Toronto. The only things still not running are the subways and streetcars, but they are still threatening rolling blackouts as the grid is brought back to normal.

It really makes you realize how much we depend on electricity as a society. More to come…

Researchers at Tufts University have found that they can reduce the cost of Hydrogen that will power fuel cell technology. Fuel Cells combine Hydrogen and Oxygen to produce electricity, and the only emission is pure water.

Gold and Platinum are typically used as a catalyst to split water into its component Hydrogen and Oxygen, and these expensive elements drove up the cost of the Hydrogen. Now, researchers have found they can conduct this reaction with only traces of these elements in non-metallic form.

US based Changing World Technologies claims they have perfected a Thermal Depolymerization Process to convert any carbon-based material into water, gas, oil, and minerals.

They have experimented with various feedstock including tires, plastic bottles, old computers, cornstocks, sewage and turkey guts, each producing varying amounts of the output materials. They are about to open a large plant next to the Butterball plant in Carthage, Missouri, which is expected to digest 200 tons of turkey guts per day.

Nuclear Fusion is the process that powers stars, and could provide almost limitless, clean energy if harnessed. The problem is that Fusion requires such high-temperatures that any known container would vapourize immediately to contain the reaction.

Physicists have successfully demonstrated a “Z-pinch” to contain the nuclear reaction. Although the reaction was small, yielding only about 4mJ, the theory works and hopefully it could be scaled up to a usable size.

Researchers have found a new seismic fault line under the city of Los Angeles, running for 50 kilometers between Orange County and Beverly Hills, running right under downtown LA.

The good news is that earthquakes along this fault are relatively infrequent. They point to the last major earthquake that occured 7-8,000 years ago. The bad news is that the nature of this fault would make it a very strong earthquake when it does happen.

Scientists in the UAE have successfully run tests on jojoba methyl ester in a standard diesel engine. Created by mixing jojoba oil with a small amount of methanol, the fuel performed as well as diesel, and ran cleaner and quieter than its diesel counterpart.

Jojoba oil is extracted from the nut of a desert shrub, and as such is considered to be a renewable resource. It contains less carbon and no sulfur, cutting carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid emissions to much lower levels.

Lake Kivu is a deep lake in Rwanda, whose water contains high amounts of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide (from volcanic activity) and methane (produced from deep water bacteria).

Engineers have devised a system to remove these three gasses, then re-introduce the carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide back into the water, leaving only the methane. This methane (85% pure) will be used as fuel to generate electricity.

This system could produce enough electricity to meet Rwanda’s needs for the next 400 years, instead of burning wood from logging which currently accounts for 90% of Rwanda’s energy production.