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Thread ID: 56151	2005-03-28 11:59:00	Crazy power hungry Aucklanders	Strommer (42)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
339097	2005-03-29 10:03:00	What an interesting thread! We get people south of the Bombay Hills trying to tell Jafas that they should grow up because the rest of the country is fed up with them. I think some 'others' need to farm a proper brain. Aucklanders are fed up with you because you always seem to moan about things that indirectly benefit you as well as directly benefiting Jafas. I'd be really interesting to see the state of the nation if Auckland didn't exist.... you'd all be in your 1900s farming life. And I could bet PressF1 wouldn't exist :p Farming can still go on only because the business economy centrally based in Auckland provides the finance for it to continue. Go ask a school kid studying economic and I'd be pretty certain he or she can teach you something. BTW, what was the point of the thread anyway? Just another excuse to start up an argument?	techie (7177)
339098	2005-03-29 10:05:00	Auckland is no economic powerhouse - and is unlikely to become one. Eh?! Auckland is by far the biggest city in New Zealand, with around a million people living there. They must be producing quite a bit of GDP as well as tax revenue and world-class rugby players. According to the Department of Statistics (www.stats.govt.nz), Te Ara (www.teara.govt.nz), and the CIA Factbook (www.cia.gov), agriculture and the rest of the primary industries, and tourism are dwarfed by the services and manufaturing sectors in contributions to total GDP. These manufacturing and services industries are concentrated in cities, of which Auckland is by far the greatest.	vinref (6194)
339099	2005-03-29 10:07:00	Allmost as you suggest we have enourous potentual to harness tidal energy by placing submersable turbines in the cook strait . By memory, a 20 metre turbine can produce up to 1 . 5 MW in predictable bursts of a few hours@a time . Personthingy, are such tidal turbines merely futuristic fancy, or are they actually in use somewhere, perhaps in the UK ?	Strommer (42)
339100	2005-03-29 10:16:00	I'd be really interesting to see the state of the nation if Auckland didn't exist . . . . you'd all be in your 1900s farming life . And would that be a bad thing? And I think the world class rugby players you have in auk . come from the Pacific Islands Come to think of it, it's a pity they don't raise cricketers up there too .	JJJJJ (528)
339101	2005-03-29 10:34:00	Personthingy, are such tidal turbines merely futuristic fancy, or are they actually in use somewhere, perhaps in the UK ?My source of information on this one was a CHCH Press feature i read when i was bored about a year ago. The figures were theretical because no-one has actually put such a turbine in the Cook Strait, but such devices have been built and tried in less desirable locations, and resemble a computer cooling fan, only much much larger. We have a unique situation here because of the strong and regular tidal currents that are focused through the gap between the islands. :thumbs:	personthingy (1670)
339102	2005-03-29 10:35:00	No-one is saying Auckland is insignificant. It contains a quarter of our population. Lets agree to disagree because there are more interesting matters in this thread. Nuclear power. I'm for it, but politically can't see it for a couple of decades at least. Nuclear fusion is even better, and the ultimate is anti-matter reactors. This isn't science fiction. Do a Google on the subject. Tidal power is a very interesting solution. Put turbines in the water at the entrance to the Manakau Harbour and you'd get megawatts daily. The main problems are engineering. The sea is a very hostile environment for moving parts. And it is immensely powerful. So far as I know, the only tidal generators so far are all experimental. There is an interesting project in San Francisco. Instead of putting a turbine in a tidal race, they put a large pipe into the water under the Golden Gate bridge. Very strong currents. As the water moves across the mouth of the pipe, it sucks air out of the pipe - a venturi. Much as a carburetter works. The airflow turns a propellor on the land end of the pipe, which generates electricity. Brilliant. Basically wind energy using the tide.	Winston001 (3612)
339103	2005-03-29 10:44:00	This on ocean power. www2.technologyreview.com	Cicero (40)
339104	2005-03-29 10:53:00	Also in response to personthingy above, the myth of a solar panel never recouping it's original creation energy requirements has been busted some time ago. It's the $ that are hard to recover.I shall stand corrected, even though i am surprised because those that i know who have dabbled in such things usually find that the storage costs, ie lead-acid batterys, tend to make most small scale DIY power projects a waste of time and money The only DIYpower scheme i've ever seen work was on the West Coast. A small turbine powered from water piped from anotherwise disused and forgotten hydroelectricity dam which inturn ran a gentle-annie washing machine motor used as an alternator, and ultimatly powered a small dwelling that was $15,000 away from ever getting power from the grid, which was an 11,000 volt line a few hundred metres away. The rather clever inventer of this scheme had a constant supply of high pressure water, and used the surplis power to make heat. This worked far better than taking what he could when he could and trying to store it. :thumbs:	personthingy (1670)
339105	2005-03-29 10:53:00	My thoughts, as an ex Industrial Electrician from Auckland. Maybe Ak should have a large power station of it's own, so to speak. The available energy from tapping the Waikato is probably all used up. Huntly only uses river water for cooling. In any case any new supply from this area, or any other for that matter, will have to be carried on Pylons. Forget any other method of transmission. Electricity is 'made' by a generator, I use the word loosely. A large generator can only be turned by a turbine. A turbine can only be turned by water or steam. So we can forget water power. Steam is made using heat, yeah I know that is obvious. Heat is made by :- Nuclear energy. Gas Fired. Coal fired. Have I forgotten one? Any of these would need to be sited near water for cooling. So would need to be sited beween the Waikato river & Auckland. But... to get it into Town it would need Pylons at least, or if sited close enough could go underground. So there are problems already aren't there. Greenies will say none of these. Farmers will say NO to pylons. Then there is Maori permission to use the water that falls out of the sky, free. Who will pay for the power station?. Govt should to my mind. The MOW built all the Hydro Stations & were damned good at it. I expect other opinions about that. A Nuclear Plant will be the smallest in physical size, no coal storage reqd. Safety would be the PRIME issue. But todays plants are safe, an Ak one would not need to be that big would it? Coal powered? We have plenty of that just south of the Bombays. Stick it in barges & float it downstream. Definitely not by road. Surely by now we can get rid of, filter out any harmful emissions from the smokestacks?? Gas? There is more coming on line soon. As soon as NZ & the gas field operators can agree on a price. I am sure that is all that is holding it up. Gas from Taranaki to Auckland? Well that HAS to be pipeline doesn't it, so back to angry farmers. Again, surely we can filter out harmful emissions etc. So what to do for the best?? Perhaps King Soloman could have answered that one !!!. Whatever will be decided will not please everyone. Solar panels, wind power? I fear this is all wishful thinking for large scale power needs. Think solar panels...on every building roof!!! Think wind power....not near me thankyou. We are told continually to reduce our power usage, use power friendly appliances, be more efficient & save, ad nauseum.. There comes a time when it becomes impossible to be any more efficient than we are. It will be impossible so squeez any more out of a Kilowatt than we are doing... It seems to me that Auckland's only option is for a largish MOW/Govt station to be built nearby. If it ever happens that electic transport is used in Ak, I am thinking mass transport here, where will the electricity come fromm?? Just my 2 cents worth. PJ ( In a serious mood)	Poppa John (284)
339106	2005-03-29 10:57:00	I'd be really interesting to see the state of the nation if Auckland didn't exist . . . . you'd all be in your 1900s farming life . And I could bet PressF1 wouldn't exist :p Farming can still go on only because the business economy centrally based in Auckland provides the finance for it to continue . Go ask a school kid studying economic and I'd be pretty certain he or she can teach you something Sorry Techie but I can't help myself . Could you please tell us what you believe Auckland supplies to the provinces that we can't get anywhere else? Not money by the way, that is generated by exports from farming etc and is sucked up by banks and Dr Cullen . Do you seriously think that modern technology only arrives in the provinces because it gets to Auckland first? New Zealand leads the world in agricultural science - and the work is done at places like Invermay, near Dunedin .	Winston001 (3612)
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