

Dean Kamen Takes His Island Off-Grid - mhb
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/empire-off-the-grid

======
jimfl
Is Dean Kamen turning into a Bond villain, or what?

~~~
dave_au
I'm hoping that he's turning into a Bond villian, considering the
alternatives. He's been building terminator-style arms for a while now, out in
the open, hiding in plain sight.

------
andyking
Even more interesting than this one-man band is the progress being made on
Eigg and other remote islands off the West Coast of Scotland. Many have never
been on the grid (they're islands with 10-100 people living on them) and
they've previously relied on mucky diesel generators and such like.

Now, solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric are being installed to give
these communities a stable energy supply.

<http://islandsgoinggreen.org/>

------
proee
His "off-the-grid" system is really not very innovative (for an inventor that
is). He should consider finding another means to store his reserves beside
using a massive battery bank.

Some ideas:

1\. Large Flywheel (on magnetic bearings, in vacuum)

2\. Water Tower (pump sea water up to a tall tower, release at night)

~~~
bulanga
> 2\. Water Tower

I have though of doing this for my house in the past.

Before I start building the tower I wanted to have a feel for how much energy
one can store using this method. I live next to the sea so water is no issue.

Say to power 1 low energy 20watt light bulb for a few hours how large would
the tower have to be and how high from the ground.

I'd really appreciate a link to a resource explaining the maths behind this.

~~~
kirubakaran
Just (potential energy) * (efficiency)

I am going to assume 100% efficiency for simplicity. [1]

mgh Joule = 20 Watt * 4 hour * 3600 s/hour

(Joule = kg * m^2 / s^2 = W * s)

Lets say you pump water to a height of 10 meters.

m = 20 * 4 * 3600 / (9.8 * 10)

m = 2938.77 ~= 3000 kg

So you need about 3000 liters (1L = 1kg for pure water) of water at a 10m high
tank to power a 20W bulb for 4 hours. This about 800 US gallons. Considering
other inefficiencies, you'll need more.

[1] <http://www.jcmiras.net/jcm/item/93/> (first google result for _efficiency
of a generator_ ) says typical efficiency of a water generator is 0.95.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
And compare that to the battery solution: 20W light at 12V: 1.7amps continuous
4 hours x 1.7A= 7 Amp-hours

That's about the capacity of a _small_ 12V lead-acid battery that you can
carry in one hand. Weighs about 4 lbs. I use one to provide LED lighting in my
chicken coop because it's too far from the house to run AC power out there.

No contest: in the absence of extenuating factors, a cheap battery is better
than the "innovative" (?) water storage method for such a small amount of
energy.

------
jeroen
single page link: [http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/empire-off-the-
gr...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/empire-off-the-grid/0)

------
asciilifeform
It is a very interesting definition of "off the grid" which involves semi-
regular shipments of semiconductors - an artifact of high civilization,
notorious for its energy-intensive manufacturing process.

To me, the phrase "off the grid" does not necessarily imply living like a
prehistoric savage - just something which one could reasonably hope to
maintain if civilization collapses. LED lighting certainly doesn't fit the
bill.

------
pj
Dean Kamen is my hero. I'd love to work with him and his team. I'd probably be
the dumbest one there and I'd love every minute of it.

------
RK
_Heating is not really an issue, because the island isn’t accessible on the
coldest days, when the swell in the surrounding seas can reach 9 meters._

That probably makes his energy independence problem a lot easier of the coast
of Connecticut.

------
jasonkester
After reading the first paragraph about having a lighthouse on the island and
seeing the photo, I thought: "Ah, that must be what that ugly tower is in the
middle of the island. Too bad he can't get rid of that."

Turns out it's his windmill.

It's really a shame that wind power has to look so ugly. I mean, those huge
turbines they have in Spain are cool to look at, but even if you're a
zillionaire with your own island, you can't get a house-sized windmill that
looks like that. His looks like an ugly little cell tower.

There's gotta be a market there.

------
ct4ul4u
He's got a model of Stonehenge and it's not 18" high.

------
trefn
I first read the title as "Dean Kamen takes His island off-grid" and found it
amusing.

~~~
pj
huh?

