Published Opeds

Comment

Comment by Jim Mller on August 19, 2009 at 9:45am

Mutual Aid Society of America,Inc., (MASA) and Drum Roll Steamer CHP+, LLC, are preparing an application for funding of the Solar Furnace CHP System and the Drum Roll Steamer System pursuant to DE-FOA-0000065. We are in need of a letter committing matching funds (20% of project cost) from a financial institution or a qualified investor. Our last application to DOE under DE-FOA-0000016 was for just under ten million. We can scale the budget to match the matching funds available so as to obtain 80% leverage with federal funds.

Contact: Jim Miller, jimmiller5417@yahoo.com

This is not an offer to sell securities. All offers to sell securities will be made in accordance with applicable Federal and State securities laws.

Comment by Jim Mller on August 19, 2009 at 9:32am

The LRES/SCSHTLTEBSTPDRSCHP-GHG+COWFLOP System

Dear Folks at the Whitehouse and beyond:

We, in the great hinterland of America, sit on our haunches and wonder what really is happening at the Whitehouse and beyond. I think I have finally figured it out, at least, the energy side. What DOE, USDA, -- almost the entire Obama Administration – is trying to do by throwing billions of dollars at the foreign oil problem, is to re-invent the past, make little or no change in the electrical generation capacity infrastructure (production and distribution), in order to live happily ever after. By catering to the oil, coal and biomass industries, the votes in Congress are thus obtained for massive bail-outs of these soon-to-be-obsolete industries. Boy, how that really makes my day – throwing good money after bad, using Las Vegas odds (Jimmy the Greek would be pleased).

There are really only three large sources of non-fossil energy, each with their sets of problems and promises:

Atomic energy has massive waste disposal problems, high infrastructure cost, massive regulatory hurdles and not all that cheap when figuring in the decom of the old production units. Needless to say, atomic power is not the most popular source of mass energy, despite what the French think. Also, these plants have siting problems and do nothing to reduce the need for massive “smart” or “dumb” national electrical grids. Lastly, Atomic Energy is not really “renewable”.

Next, we have wind, wave and geothermal, all of which are great improvements over atomic energy. Again, these solutions require massive investments, siting problems, huge base load facilities and, again, do nothing to reduce the need for massive “smart” or “dumb” national electrical grids.

Then we have solar energy, which is clean, widely distributed around the Earth, does not involve GHG and is, in the long run, the only massive source of energy for the next five billion years before the Sun starts dimming. I call solar energy “Locavore Energy” because it is locally produced and consumed. Take PV on the home roof – the electrical energy runs a very short distance to the converter in the basement or garage or old closet. We are really talking “Locavore Energy” with PV, notwithstanding the approximate $10,000 per kW/hr capital cost. Then there is “concentrated solar power” (CSP), which so far is confined to huge plants, in the deserts, which suck up what little water there is and then send the electrical energy over miles of transmission lines, which waste about 50% of the energy getting from A to B. Also, they have to be careful not to run over the endangered Desert Tortoise. See: http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/ivanpah/documents/others/2009-07-11_Kevin_Emmerich+Laura_Cunningham_Basin+Range_Watch_Comments_TN-52380.PDF

I would like to suggest a simple, (well, not all that simple) Locavore Energy Solution (LES): THE SOLAR FURNACE CHP SYSTEM. Not to compliment myself, I predict that this solution will be adopted around the Earth where the Sun shines most of the time during the day. Simply put, the system consists of Solar Collectors (SCS), Heat Transfer Liquid (HTL), and a Thermal Energy Battery (TEB). The combination stores HTL in the TEB produced from the SCS. One might call it the SCSHTLTEB system. The SCS is a set of eight parabolic reflectors inside eight cases or troughs which are gelcasts of air-entrained ceramic, about four inches thick. Each case or trough has a “lid” of two panes of thermal glass through which the Sun's radiant heat strikes the parabolic reflector, bounces and penetrates the two inch stainless steel tube (Receiver) filled with HTL. Each trough is a foot wide, a foot deep and three feet long. You follow me so far?

The SCS are nested in a frame which is mounted on a SunTracker Platform (STP). Now we have the SCSHTLTEBSTP system. The SunTracker tracks the Sun and in bad weather, turns the edge of the SCS array into the storm wind. The TEB is a tank holding, say 5000 gallons of HTL, at about 450 – 500 degrees F. This mass and heat is enough to carry most full loads until the Sun shines again. Now for the kicker: the Applications.

There are many, off-the-self- applications which can transform the heat into other forms of energy: electricity, hot and cold water, refrigeration, steam, and rotational horsepower, commonly referred to as Combined Heat and Power (CHP). We now have the SCSHTLTEBSTPCHP System. If you count the fact that the system does not produce GHG (-GHG for “negative GHG”), then we have the SCSHTLTEBSTPCHP-GHG, which ought to make most Washington bureaucrats happy with the name alone, and worthy of funding.

Which brings me to the main topic – funding. The Federal bureaucrats in charge at the operational level have marching orders: spend huge amounts of money, fast, in as many Congressional Districts as possible, on old, obsolete technology (i.e. “Clean Coal” -- no such thing), Atomic Energy, high mileage internal combustion engines, and wind machines isolated from the grid (Pickens Plan). Such goals are not only silly, but stupid, not thought-out and will ensure the de-election of President Obama in 2012. If there are any Democrats listening, your chances of maintain your current majority in Congress is doomed in 2012 when the Republacrats or the Demacans regain their power seats in Congress. I can hear their campaign song: “All I want for Christmas is our Thirteen Trillion Back”.

So, what to do? First of all, put out an FOA which has no requirements other than name, rank and serial number with no matching requirements. Do not condition it along the lines of the DOE's Unsolicited Proposal schema which can instantly kill any application which is “similar” to any FOA, past, present or future. So many FOA's have been issued so that there is little or no ground left upon which an innovative application can stand and avoid the “similar FOA” appkiller. Again, the bureaucrats have created a very convenient shield around their job performance – just say no, and they don't have to do any real work.

Surprise! You might have guessed that I, James E. Miller, a humble recovering attorney and ag engineer, would have thought through the Locavore Energy Solution (LES) mentioned above. We now have the LES/SCSHTLTEBSTPCHP-GHG solution. Oh, I almost forgot, we are also working on getting funding for the Drum Roll Steamer CHP System™ (Richard Hundley, inventor) or DRSCHP. This system uses any cellulose to produce syngas, steam, rotational horsepower and biochar. The latter can be infused with BioOil from the pyrolysis operation to make pellets or briquettes of clean(er) burning BioCoalLite™. Alternatively, the biochar can be infused with nutrient (compost tea or black liquor from dairy cow flop lagoon) (Agrichar), then worked into the soil which during the next crop season, will yield up to eight times the normal yield than if seeds were sown in plain dirt. How? Micro-organisms like to sit down to eat, and “Feed the soil – the stomach of the plant”.

So, there you have it – the long term, best solution to our energy and food needs using the Locavore Renewable Energy System (LRES), the solution to the proper use of cow flop, and the solution to our coming Peak Food Crisis. Finally, we have LRES/SCSHTLTEBSTPDRSCHP-GHG+COWFLOP. Now, let's get real; get some funding for the LRES/SCSHTLTEBSTPDRSCHP-GHG+COWFLOP™ System [ http://algaloildiesel.wetpaint.com/page/DAIRY+PRODUCTION+OF+SYNGAS+AND+BIOCHAR ] and start enjoying the Sun, breeze, and food while relaxing in our lawn chairs watching the Sunset, with a glass of orange or pineapple flavored ice tea at ready.

Jim Miller
jimmiller5417@yahoo.com
August 3, 2009
Copyrighted, 2009, James E. Miller. All rights reserved.

Comment by Leslie G. on August 19, 2009 at 4:53am

Letter to the Editor was published Sunday August 16, 2009 in the TCPALM. Mark Hedke was kind enough to let me us his letter of which I added and subtracted very little.

Comment by Jim Mller on July 22, 2009 at 5:42am

Missy,
Thanks for the message. I have downloaded and read the Pickens Plan. It is a good start in the right direction. I have some OpEd articles I can contribute, but not sure of the format and length. Please advise on topics, format and length. thanks,
Jim Miller
jimmiller5417@yahoo.com

Comment by Missy Steichen on July 21, 2009 at 7:20pm

Hello Jim ~

Please send me a message with your email address and I will send you the PP Pledge in a pdf or word file, whichever you need.

Missy :-)

Comment by Jim Mller on July 17, 2009 at 1:34pm

Will someone please email me the full text of the Pickens Plan. I went to the download site and the server was down for maintenance. -- Strange, in the middle of the day, I need the File, not the URL.
Jim Miller

Comment by David Apperson on June 30, 2009 at 8:48am

Looks like all is going as planned -

Comment by W. Dan Chance on May 21, 2009 at 8:20pm

You're doing good work.

Comment by Michael P. Dolan on May 2, 2009 at 9:32am

Nice Job, Joe! Keep up the good work.

Comment by Joseph Campbell on May 2, 2009 at 5:31am

PA-17 got an OpEd letter published in our local paper, the pottsvill e Rebublivan Herald.

Promised energy plan slow to be implemented


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Published: Saturday, May 2, 2009 4:14 AM EDT
To the Editor:

It’s time. Time for a national energy plan. Time to take action.

Since at least President Nixon, every president has promised that their administration would create some form of a national energy plan that eliminates America’s foreign energy dependence. And it still has not happened.

Now it is up to us. You and me. One way is to join the more than 4 million people who already support and work to promote the Pickens Plan. The plan is practical and doable. It promotes legislation and actions to:

1. End our dependence on foreign energy so we stop shipping our money overseas.

2. Create American jobs and industries that stay right here in America.

3. Better utilize our own natural resources such as converting 350,000 commercial vehicles to run on natural gas instead of oil. That alone will save over 150 million barrels of imported oil each year.

4. Improve our national security because we will be producing our own energy rather than relying on areas of the world that have a less than favorable opinion of doing business with the USA.

In Schuylkill County, we know about using our local natural resources and the jobs they can create.

First, we have the coal industry that put most people to work in our county for a hundred years. Then, the cogen plants that effectively used the waste from coal mining and again, created local jobs and did not rely on foreign energy. Now, we see a number of wind farms throughout the county, tapping another local resource and creating — again — more local jobs.

Let’s hold our elected officials to the promises that got them elected. Improve our economy, reduce our dependence on foreign energy, create jobs and sustainable industries for the future.

The Pickens Plan is one way to do all of that. Help change your world. Do something today that makes your world better. Do more than take a position, take action! See PickensPlan.com for more ways you can take action!

Joe Campbell

Ringtown

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