PowerSwitch

[Mark]

Mad inventor type claims the secret to clean and cheap energy:
http://www.kadir-buxton.com/page2.htm

[Andy Hunt]

Sounds great! Is it nonsense?

The Starlight Technologies link doesn't go anywhere.
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Andy Hunt
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net

[adam2]

It is not complete nonsense, but is unduly optimistic re costs and energy produced.

They propose a well 10KM deep, and state that at that depth the temperature is 3 times boiling point.
That is only true in a few places, in most districts much deeper wells would be required to reach such temperatures.
The cost of drilling a well is not proportional to the depth as they imply, the cost increases greatly with depth.
As a very rough guide, a 10KM well will cost at least 4 times as much as a 5KM one, and not twice as much as might be expected.

The amount of heat available is often very limited due to the poor thermal conductivity of many rocks.
Water or steam from below ground is liable to contain many toxic, corrosive, or otherwise objectionable materials.
This corrodes turbine blades and other machinery, and may require that the spent steam/water be re-injected to avoid pollution.

Certainly worth considering in some cases, but by no means the cure all suggested.
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"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"

[Mark]

My initial feeling was that it's nonsense, but I don't like to rule anything out 100%......

Elsewhere, he's claimed that one of his turbines has been built in Germany and generates as much electricity as a nuclear power station.
No publicity resulted as it's classified as an official secret........
http://www.4ecotips.com/eco/article_show.php?aid=1014&id=244
If true (& so marvellous), why haven't the Germans built any more....???

The story of Starlite is more intriguing though:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/5158972/Starlite-the-nuclear-blast-defying-plastic-that-could-change-the-world.html

[Andy Hunt]