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Non-Tech : Alternative energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gg cox who wrote (4445)	3/18/2008 8:21:59 PM
From: sageyrain	Respond to of 16955

Backup power mandated for 210K cell towers * Date: December 10th, 2007 * Author: Paul Mah * Category: News * Tags: FCC, Battery, Backup, Cell Site, Telephony, Backups, Federal Government, Telecom & Utilities, Telecommunications, Networking There is an article at Data Center Knowledge that explores the ramifications from the FCC’s decision a couple of months back to require backup power for cell sites and other parts of the telecom infrastructure. According to the article: The new measures, prompted by an FCC review of telecom outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, are likely to increase demand for generators, batteries and other power protection equipment. Also, The FCC says central offices should be able to operate for 24 hours without grid power, while eight hours of backup power is required for cell sites, remote switches and remote terminals. With more than 210,000 cell towers in the United States, as well as 20,000 telecom central offices, it is certainly no small feat. Municipalities are already bracing for disputes as carriers try to add generators or batteries to cell sites on rooftops or water towers. The other concern is that the rules will further boost demand for generators, where there are already lengthy delivery backlogs for some models. I admit my initial response was, “Huh, no backup battery?” What is your opinion on the ruling? blogs.techrepublic.com.com

To: gg cox who wrote (4445)	3/18/2008 8:32:30 PM
From: Eric	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 16955

GG I'm on your wavelength. Solar thermal works right now. The pieces are here now, NOW. No fancy physics (my major in college) Scalable. It's so simple. Why in the world would folks build nuke plants?.. Unless you lived on the North and South poles.

To: gg cox who wrote (4445)	3/18/2008 9:25:24 PM
From: grusum	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16955

"there is no battery available anywhere today that can cycle over 10,000 times to depth of discharge down to 20 percent as VRB can...none." compressed air in metal tanks can.. i know it's small scale and not a battery, but it does function as one in this circumstance. points 7 and 8 are the most pertinent. theaircar.com Advantages of compressed air as an energy vector A vehicle powered by compressed air offers a lot of advantages in comparison with a normal combustion engine or an electrical motor. The idea of using compressed air as an energy vector can, for example, also by applied to a hybrid vehicle, with cylinders functioning on compressed air and an additional battery working on electricity, creating a vehicle powered solely on electrical-pneumatic propulsion. Advantages of vehicles powered by compressed air: 1. The costs involved to compress the air to be used in a vehicle are inferior to the costs involved with a normal combustion engine. 2. Air is abundant, economical, transportable, storable and, most importantly, nonpolluting. 3. The technology involved with compressed air reduces the production costs of vehicles with 20% because it is not necessary to assemble a refrigeration system, a fuel tank, spark plugs or silencers. 4. Air itself is not flammable. 5. The mechanical design of the motor is simple and robust It does not suffer from corrosion damage resulting from the battery. 6. Less manufacturing and maintenance costs. 7. The tanks used in an air compressed motor can be discarded or recycled with less contamination than batteries. 8. The tanks used in a compressed air motor have a longer lifespan in comparison with batteries, which, after a while suffer from a reduction in performance.