Wrenched - The Movie

[Iceaxe]

I'm not a big Edward Abbey fan, but the movie does look really interesting......

Wrenched captures the passing of the monkey wrench from the pioneers of eco-activism to the new generation who will carry Abbey's legacy into the 21st century. The fight continues to sustain the last bastion of the American wilderness - the spirit of the West.



http://vimeo.com/64900586#

After five years in the making, we are happy to be finishing the film this summer. Here is a link to our new trailer, www.wrenched-themovie.com (http://www.wrenched-themovie.com/).

Lyseth Mitchell
Outreach Coordinator
ML Lincoln Films LLC

[Mountaineer]

Greed vs. saving the environment.

[Iceaxe]

Greed vs. saving the environment.

It's not nearly that simple, if it were the problem would not be so difficult and complex.

If you drive a car, light your home or cook your food you should know energy is more than just greed.

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

[Mountaineer]

It's not nearly that simple, if it were the problem would not be so difficult and complex.

If you drive a car, light your home or cook your food you should know energy is more than just greed.

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

True. Tough topics. Energy is a platform many of our politicians run on.

I wonder what the person doing the one finger salute with the refinery in the background would say? It seemed that picture painted a strong opinion on his position. Does he own a car? But alas, I suppose we need to watch the show to find out.

[Mojave Silence]

I wonder what the person doing the one finger salute with the refinery in the background would say? I think that's a nuclear power plant (?)

[Mountaineer]

I think that's a nuclear power plant (?)

Yes, I agree! I think you are right! Just took another look as I quickly scanned the trailer previously. And nuclear is greenhouse gas free and emission-free. Still, nuclear is also controversial.

[Iceaxe]

Back in the early 80's I worked as a structual engineer for a company that designed a couple nuclear power plants, one of them being Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California. In the end it was the environmentalist and scare tactics (3 mile Island) that shut down the construction of more nuclear power, so we built coal fired plants for the next 20 years instead. Intermountain Power Project near Delta and Desert Generation near Vernal being a couple I have worked on since the early 80's.

Anyhoo.... I find it kind of ironic that the environmentalist are now saying we should stop building coal fired plants and build more nuclear plants.... a lot of times the environmentalist would be way ahead to stay out of things they really don't know shit about and leave it to the engineers. Just tell the engineers what you want, and what you are willing to pay or sacrifice to get it and they will make it happen.... or.... what happens in reality is the engineers tell you what it's going to cost to make your rainbow fired power plant a reality and suddenly other sacrifices (environmental?) don't seem as extreme and that is the directions things head..... food for thought...


:soapbox:

[Mountaineer]

Interesting points. Cost, environment, technology,... All factor in for sure. Not taking the time to understand that whole picture, or being open to seeing the whole picture, cause some of the disagreements due to ignorance alone.

In town hall meetings, the argument is always "I'm fine with you building that, just don't do it next to my house".

At the end of the day, we are demanding more and more energy. ("We" being having/wanting/using a lot more in some countries than others). Compromise to a win win? Seems many times these hard decisions are perceived as a lose lose.

[deagol]

Concentrating solar power plants like the one in Granada, Spain have a lot of potential in the west and avoid many of the negatives of coal or nuclear. Concentrating solar is different than photovoltaic, as mirrors concentrate sunlight on a tower and heat a medium within (salt in this example) that flows like steam would and that flow spins a turbine. The heat capacity of the salt retains it's ability to spin the turbine well after the sun has gone down. There are also ways to generate power and store it for later use. Another efficiency benefit is the energy delivery: for solar, the fuel (sunlight) is delivered by the sun to the location it is needed in order to be converted. For coal: it must be mined, transported, and results in emissions such as sulphur dioxide (this is bad stuff). For nuclear, uranium must be mined and transported, waste such as spent fuel rods and lower level waste such as clothing used needs to then be disposed of (in a place such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada). This requires further transportation, not to mention construction of a facility such as this- which is also a huge and expensive undertaking. More on Concentrating solar:"..Other organizations expect CSP to cost $0.06(US)/kWh by 2015 due to efficiency improvements and mass production of equipment.[40] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power#cite_note-40) That would make CSP as cheap as conventional power. Investors such as venture capitalist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_capitalist) Vinod Khosla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinod_Khosla) expect CSP to continuously reduce costs and actually be cheaper than coal power after 2015.
On 9 September 2009; 3 years ago (2009-09-09), Bill Weihl, Google.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google.org)'s green-energy spokesperson said that the firm was conducting research on the heliostat mirrors and gas turbine technology, which he expects will drop the cost of solar thermal electric power to less than $0.05/kWh in 2 or 3 years"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power) in ...in "in just six hours, the world's deserts receive more energy from the sun than humankind consumes in a year."

[Iceaxe]

There are also ways to generate power and store it for later use.

As far as I know there is no way to store the massive amounts of electrical power required at peak times and this has always been a problem.

If you ever look at a power consumption chart you will see some interesting things, like at 6:30 am our use almost doubles as folks wakeup and start turning on power to get ready for work. How to handle these sudden spikes has always been a problem.



Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

[Brian in SLC]

How to handle these sudden spikes has always been a problem.


"Just tell the engineers what you want, and what you are willing to pay or sacrifice to get it and they will make it happen...."

Well, there you go then...

http://cityhomecollective.com/campbells-net-home/

Crazy...Jared just took 7th at Hard Rock...and his cross country route in Zion recently was nutty... Not bad for a full time engineer...!

His house thing...I can't even get my head around...he must not need to sleep...

[deagol]

Xcel energy stores power by pumping water uphill to a high reservoir during low demand time periods, then releases the power to spin a turbine during high demand periods. Also, on small (house) scale operations, there is potential of using a weight/gear mechanism to store power in a way that combines high tech with low tech. A large weight can be lifted by a motor through a gear ratio (similar to a climbing gear on a bike, but way less "gear inches" (and thus a better gear ratio) for the motor to lift the weight. When the sun is no longer available to drive the motor and power is needed, the system can be reversed where the weight falls slowly and in turn spins the gears with that same gear ratio and turns the mechanism to generate power. Also, PV is gaining promise: they can even do it in "sunny" Canada- http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/04/us-enbridge-firstsolar-idUSTRE6934SM20101004

There are also batteries that store the power, but the tech needs more advancement (don’t they all?). Another storage method is the fact that concentrating solar using a medium like salt store the heat energy well after sunlight is no longer being focused, and therefore retain the ability to generate well into the night. The specific heat capacity of dense materials is a storage medium in itself. This is evidenced in passive solar homes, as an example, with a dense wall that absorbs heat energy in the day and releases it at night. There are creative solutions out there (many from engineers, as expected) and we should not feel constrained to simply rely on the tech of yesterday.

[deagol]

"Just tell the engineers what you want, and what you are willing to pay or sacrifice to get it and they will make it happen...."

Well, there you go then...

http://cityhomecollective.com/campbells-net-home/

Crazy...Jared just took 7th at Hard Rock...and his cross country route in Zion recently was nutty... Not bad for a full time engineer...!

His house thing...I can't even get my head around...he must not need to sleep...also this quote: "With a small amount of thought, planning, and creativity, one can harvest all the energy they need for their home and commuting needs. And best of all, the simplest path to this independence involves taking advantage of the free and inexhaustible solar energy we are blessed with living in Salt Lake City"