Category Archives: Energy/Technology

Bye Bye, North Dakota Economy – Obama plans to “bankrupt” the coal industry

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Let’s not start spending those trust fund dollars yet! In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, the Obamessiah promises a global warming agenda so aggressive it will bankrupt the coal industry. We get 49% of our nation’s energy from coal-fired power plants, so you can imagine what his policies will in turn do to the rest of the nation as well. Listen to his own word:

“If someone wants to build a coal power plant they can, it’s just that it will bankrupt them.”
How a North Dakotan could vote for Obama can only be explained by: dementia; habitually voting Democrat; getting their news only from the Bismarck Tribune or NBC/ABC/CBS/CNN. This guy will wreck one of the largest industries driving our state’s economy (one which helps insulate us from economic troubles in other parts of the country) while thumbing his nose at North Dakota’s mainstream opposition to things like gun control and abortion.

North Dakota boasts its “Energy Corridor” to attract new people to our state, as a reason for new industries and businesses to come to our state, and as an integral part of North Dakota’s strong economy. Want to make life in North Dakota miserable? Enact the Obama global warming plan.

Hazy shade of summer

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I don’t think the Bangles will mind me mangling the title of one of their biggest hits to suit my purpose. I could also say, “If you can’t beat ’em – join ’em” in reference to the ubiquitous power lines.

North Dakota, especially the “energy corridor” in which our fair cities reside, provides electricity for a very large area. Although lignite coal isn’t necessarily the “best” coal, the people in charge of converting it to electricity continue to strive to extract the most out of it in as clean a fashion as possible. Since we need wires to get all that electricity somewhere, there are power lines wherever a hopeful photographer may point his camera. And there still aren’t enough, by the way.

That’s why somewhere along the line I fell in love with power line towers. Perhaps it’s because I know what they mean to our state. Maybe it’s the way they stand fast across the rugged prairie, or what they deliver to thousands, if not millions, of hopeful customers. In any case, I’ve got LOTS of power line tower photos.

This particular morning, from about a week or so ago, was quite hazy due to the humidity. That same haze was giving me a rough time in my quest to spot Perseid meteors, so I was happy to be able to at least use it to my advantage. I was getting ready for an all-day video shoot, so I ran to work early. Along the way I spotted these towers, and dashed out for a quick click of the shutter.

The electrons whizzing over my head probably heated up some Minnesotan’s breakfast that morning, or kept some little kid’s life support machine running in a hospital. Maybe it powered someone’s computer so they could read my blog!

Rocket, baby…yeah

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I couldn’t resist dropping a Def Leppard lyric into the title of this post! I had some time on my hands Monday, so I geeked out and perused the National Atomic Museum, also known as the National Museum of Nuclear Science and Technology. What can I say…I’m a nerd! While there were large sections of the museum devoted to nuclear medicine, nuclear power, and even nuclear weirdness, I of course focused on the fireworks. If it’s space-based or makes a very big explosion, I’m there!

Ever wonder what a GPS satellite looks like? Wonder no more. There was also a display highlighting the different types of satellites used to detect other nations’ nuclear tests and stuff, such as the Vela and DSP (Defense Support Program) satellites. They even had sample payloads on display.

These are the three stages of rocket motors of an ICBM. Note that the fourth stage has cones where the warheads would go. I didn’t see anything resembling Boston hanging around the third stage, probably because I would make an 80s music reference if they did. Oops, I did it anyway!

The portable, or “suitcase” nuke. Designed to be humped into enemy territory by SEALs or other special forces. Doesn’t look very light… I’m not sure I’d want to have to lug that thing into a hostile area!

Cones. These are nose cones from missiles, the left having been tested to see the effects of reentry from space. I can’t believe I actually touched something that’s been in outer space! Hey, there weren’t any signs…

I won’t bore you with all the rocket, missile, bomb, and warhead photos I took. This is just a sample. The one in the back is released from a plane and parachutes down. That wicker-looking bundle in the background is the chute. The chute decelerates the 2,500 pound bomb from 920mph to 50mph in about two seconds!

Fat Man, right. Little Boy, left. Just like the ones that stopped World War Two. Thankfully it only took two, since there were some extras left to put in the museum I guess we probably had some more queued up and ready to drop.

The Titan rocket. This was my last stop before the gift store. I somehow resisted the urge to buy all kinds of positively geeky things there! That left just enough room in my carryon bag to bring home some toys for my little boys.

The museum is working toward building a new facility and expanding quite a bit. They also have a lot of science classes and special activities there, something that would be really cool for the kids. So if you’re in the mood to fly to New Mexico, stop on in! The geek in you will be pleased.

Towers of Power

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With North Dakota producing so much darn energy these days, it’s hard to find a landscape that doesn’t have a power line or tower in it somewhere. On a day like this, they can be a photographic asset rather than a nuisance. With the right angle of light in the sky and clouds, these fellas look more like they’re ushering in the new day. That could be quite a metaphor for North Dakota’s 21st century economy, especially the central part of our beloved state!

Sub-stantial damage

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I found this video while rooting around on the hard drives tonight and thought I would pass it along. I’m not sure who shot it, but kudos. Considering that the transformers in this substation still contained PCB’s, I’m not so sure I would want to be anywhere near them as they burned, at least not downwind. I’m sure they were replaced with more environmentally friendly ones.

You may remember a semi trailer parked in the Kirkwood Mall parking lot with temporary substation equipment on it. That’s long gone now, with a new (and presumably beefier) substation built in the location of the old one. I hope you enjoy the video.

Pink & Purple Power

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My little boy and I were out in the truck the other night and pulled up to the Burnt Creek boat dock. The sun had already set, but it was still casting color to our sky, and it was a suitable backdrop for MDU’s power plant north of Mandan.

Remember the stereotypical image of stacks belching forth acrid black smoke? Those days are long gone, thanks to pollution control measures. In fact, the only thing you’re likely to see from today’s power plants is steam…which makes sense, because that’s all a power plant really is: a steam factory. Once they’ve made the steam, they force it through the turbines of some very large generators, but the process of the plant is the liquefaction and ignition of coal in order to heat water into steam. As cleanly and as safely as possible, I might add.

Another reason why E-85 is a joke – one that isn’t very funny

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The ethanol craze is driving up the price of corn. As a result, more farmers grow corn. That means fewer acres of other crops are planted, driving the prices of those grains up as well. Not only is the cost of feed increased, so is the cost of other food products. Ranchers and dairy farmers have to raise their prices to make up for their increased production costs. So all our food prices go up.

I have a hard time believing the farmer or rancher is going to come out successful in the long run, and it’s obvious the consumer is getting robbed. So who’s making money? Simple: the people collecting the government subsidies on ethanol blended fuels.

In ND, E85 can contain as little as 70% ethanol. Check the text on that orange button on the E85 pump. That means an E85 producer can hedge 15% of the ethanol in the fuel he makes and collect a 50 cent per gallon subsidy on 15% more product! What a racket, eh?

Why do you suppose they give it 15% leeway? Perhaps it’s because the ethanol evaporates and/or absorbs water. That’s why they can’t transport it using pipelines. So if it will absorb water in a pipeline, what do you suppose it’s going to do in the underground tanks at the gas stations?

What about putting a hygroscopic fuel in your gas tank? Do you feel like replacing a $500 fuel pump in your General Motors Flexfuel vehicle every winter when the water absorbed by the ethanol freezes up and takes out the impellers of your fuel pump? Since 1995, GM has integrated the fuel pump with the gas gauge sending unit in its vehicles. Trust me, I had to replace one. I couldn’t believe the $670 bill! Look forward to more of those if you’re going to start making ethanol ice cubes in your gas tank.

Let’s not forget that E85 is a thermodynamic loser as well. That means you get less energy out of gallon of E85 compared to a gallon of gasolene. Simply put: your car doesn’t have much power, your mileage goes down, and you save ZERO in the long run. But you get to feel better (until you crunch the numbers) and some fatcat gets to collect a government subsidy. E85 is a joke, plain and simple. Anyone who tells you otherwise has a purely financial interest in doing so.

Mining for sunshine

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One doesn’t need to travel far on Highway 83 north of Bismarck to see a pair of these behemoths scooping overburden away from the two coal seams supplying Coal Creek Station. While I have crawled around this mine with my camera before, I don’t recall being on the draglines. I’ve climbed around on draglines at other mines, and it’s a blast, but these are even bigger yet!

Photography is about being at the right place at the right time, and that’s how this photo came into being. The sun was just setting as I came up good ol’ 83 in my truck. I’d been eyeballing everything on either side of the road the entire time, looking for photo opportunities, and this one was not about to escape! I found an approach on which to park, sauntered over to the fence line, and here we are. I have a bunch of different angles and zooms, of course…but this one highlights the sun’s rays streaming from behind the clouds the best.

Something old, something new…

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While out on Saturday’s photo excursion, our travels took us past the wind farm at Regan. Among the wind generators, of which there are more every time I visit, we found this old school windmill. It seems like an anachronism among the high-tech towers, and makes for a great image.

I read in Prairie Business, a monthly regional magazine, that the only place in the USA which makes the blades for these things is in Grand Forks. LM Glasfiber is based in the Netherlands with their American facility here in North Dakota.

AC electric line current, by the way, works on a set frequency. Anything that generates power, whether it be a power plant, wind turbine, or hydroelectric generator, needs to be operating on the same frequency as the power grid. It also needs to be “in sync” with the oscillation of the power grid in order to be connected. If things get out of sync, the grid shuts down to protect itself. So how do you take a farm of 30+ wind turbines and synchronize them to the grid?

On many of the wind turbines you might see around North Dakota, the blade tips pivot to act as a speed brake of sorts. I believe the rotor pitch is also variable, so that the turbine spins at just the right speed to synchronize with the desired frequency. That’s a pretty low-tech way to do it, and requires a lot of mechanical measures to pull it off, so there’s another way…one I think is pretty innovative.

Instead of generating power and pumping it to the grid, while synchronizing to the grid mechanically, some turbines generate DC current and convert it to AC current before putting it into the line. They’re able to synchronize the power they generate electronically, without having to worry about moving parts and mechanical pitfalls. I’m told that the company which came up with this idea is a familiar one: the horrible Enron.

I’m just a layman, but that’s my primitive understanding of wind power in a nutshell. Feel free to correct me or clarify my explanation if you’re more knowledgable about such things. In the mean time, please enjoy the photo!

Thursday night sunset, and an ACC update

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This is another from my new super-wide lens, but from the room which has a more scenic view of Bismarck than any other: the conference room at the Schafer Leadership Center at the University of Mary. A bunch of us artists participating in the ACC Art Show have our business cards and stuff available in this room, as well as a liturgical display in the adjacent lounge area.

The show is taking off to a grand start, as the building saw a lot of activity for tonight’s meet’n’greet night. There were so many folks in the long room where the main exhibits are held that I really didn’t feel like intruding for a better picture. We’ll see what happens Friday night or Saturday.

This is the piece that moved me the most: “Revelation” by artist David Christy of Fargo. His written description of this piece says that he started out intending to paint one 40-inch by 30-inch panel, but it then developed into this nine-panel masterpiece. I bet I went back to it at least three times.

The work in this show spans pretty much every medium that you’d imagine. I watched Nebraska artist David Belitz talk with show patrons while bending a spool of wire into a rose for them. There are sculptures in metal and ceramic, paintings, photography, cloth…you name it, it’s there. Artists have come from the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. Student artists from local schools have participated as well. One can walk the halls of the Benedictine Center from one end to the other and enjoy rooms of artwork along the way.

The show runs from 1:00 to 10:00 Friday afternoon and 9:00am to 9:00pm on Saturday. A variety of musical entertainment will perform from 1:00pm to 4:30pm on Saturday, with a bell choir concert at 5:00pm.

I’m told that the show was started by artists who had submitted work in other art shows but were overlooked, despite their quality, most likely because of their Christian theme. Here’s a show where the whole point is to give glory to God, and the work can be judged on its merits as well as enjoyed. Don’t miss this opportunity!