Articles by
Paul Gipe
Electrification: Dumping Fossil Fuels
By
Paul Gipe
This is the first in a series of articles on electrifying our house so we can “stop burning stuff.”
Yes, we already have electricity, but we use fossil gas for heat, hot water, and cooking. That’s what we plan to electrify, eliminating fossil gas from our home.
Our gas is provided by PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric Co.), our notorious utility company. Notorious because it killed eight people in San Bruno, California in a massive gas explosion in 2010 then they followed that up by killing another 85 people by starting the Camp Fire in 2018. In 2020 the company filed for bankruptcy, and since then been resuscitated. However, to its customers it’s still the same old PG&E.
What was the Diameter of Charles Brush’s Wind Dynamo?
By
Paul Gipe
Historian Robert Righter and others have noted that the diameter of Charles Brush’s wind dynamo was 56 feet or about ... Read more
EV Charging: Where it Can Lead You
By
Paul Gipe
Stopping to charge your EV on a road trip may seem an inconvenience to some, but not to us. True, ... Read more
Sweden’s JBA Vind Now Open Source
By
Paul Gipe
Sven Ruin, an engineering consultant with the family firm TEROC, has notified me that the former Swedish wind turbine manufacturer ... Read more
Charles Brush and Some Notes on Early Wind Turbine Development
By
Paul Gipe
In preparation for an interview with British journalist Henry Sanderson about the significance of Charles Brush’s windmill in Cleveland, Ohio ... Read more
2024 California Rooftop Solar Now 10% of State Consumption
By
Paul Gipe
Wow! California homeowners have installed a total of nearly two million rooftop solar systems, representing a staggering 18,000 MW of generating capacity.[1]
One of every six homes in California now uses solar energy directly from their own rooftop.
At an estimated capacity factor of 17%, rooftop solar generates nearly 10% of California’s total electrical consumption of 281 TWh.
Ball State University Ground-Source Heat Pump System
By
Paul Gipe
The ground-source heat pump system began delivering heated and cooled water to the BSU campus in 2012. A decade in ... Read more
A Decade of Driving Electric—EVs Have Come a Long Ways Baby
By
Paul Gipe
Driving electric has worked for us. It’s been fun, saved us thousands of dollars we would have paid for fuel, and we’ve done our part to clear the polluted air of the San Joaquin Valley, one of the most polluted locations in the United States.
We plan to continue driving electric.
Updated Italian translations in Multilingual Lexicon of Wind Energy
By
Paul Gipe
Giacomo Piovano has updated the Italiano to my Multilingual Lexicon of wind energy terms. Piovano is a student at the ... Read more
Jimmy Carter, the White House, & Me
By
Paul Gipe
I’ve been invited to the White House only once. Jimmy Carter was the only President to ever invite me. For ... Read more
Are EVs a Fire Risk?
By
Paul Gipe
A relative was recently considering an EV when a neighbor suggested if they did buy an EV not to park ... Read more
DAF-Indal: The Canadian Darrieus
By
Paul Gipe
DAF-Indal[1] began working with Canada’s National Research Council and provincial utilities to develop Darrieus wind turbines using Canada’s abundant aluminum in the mid 1970s.[2]
They constructed about a dozen small prototype Darrieus turbines less than 5 meters in diameter and about 9 meters tall in the mid to late 1970s, rated variously from 4 kW to 12 kW.[3] One was installed in the Arctic for Canada’s Defence Research Establishment.[4] Another was installed in Texas at the USDA’s Bushland Experiment Station in a wind-assisted pumping test. Another was installed on Block Island, Rhode Island.[5] One was still standing—inoperative--outside Toronto in 2007.[6]
