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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 8, 1980)
eatures New solar generator doesn’t need water Device generates electric power from hot air, may solve solar problems THE BATTALION Page 11 MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1980 SVVENSEIS’S FLAVORS ^ OF CHRISTMAS PAST Pumpkin, Rum Raisin, Egg NugJc Divinity Pud go are available at Swenson’s Ice Cream Factory I United Press International BRUSSELS, Belgium — There’s to t ig hitch to tapping heat from fctn to help solve Third World uirgy problems. Or there was. He maintenance required by iijrent solar-powered generators is etond the technical capability friable in remote villages that need ^generators most. Physicists at the European Com- iilty’s Joint Research Center at ipfa, Italy, have developed a device iHnay solve that problem. It gen- rales electric power from hot air. “The major innovation of the de vice is that it does not require any water, like currently known de signs,” a JRC official said. “That makes it particularly suitable for arid areas where you want to make sure you don’t use a lot of fuel or water. “The simplicity of the device is another big advantage. It will re quire a minimum of maintenance. There is no complicated machinery involved. Moreover, it is flexible, so that a fuel-powered gas turbine can be used at night.” The JRC, established 20 years ago under the Euratom treaty as a nuc lear research center, began in the 1970s to broaden the scope of its work. It now carries out research into new techniques, investigates environmental problems and pro vides support in such fields as con sumer protection. More than 30 percent of the budget of its four establishments — at Ispra, at Geel in Belgium, Kars- Iruhe in Germany and Petten in Hol land — is now devoted to non nuclear studies such as research into alternative sources of energy. “We started such programs in the early 1970s, even before the oil cri sis,” an official said. Currently about $8.4 million a year is spent on testing potentially commercial equipment and explor ing new directions for solar energy research. Under the JRC’s 1980-83 program approved a few months ago, spending will be doubled. Two JRC scientists were responsi ble for the idea of a hot-air system to replace solar energy generators that in the developed world heat water in a boiler to produce steam for a tur bine. Their system heats air to suffi cient temperatures to drive a gas tur bine. The device works on the same principle as a jet engine: expanding air to drive a turbine blade. Air can be heated to high temperatures in a concentrator that focuses the sun’s radiation. In an alternative form, the hot air can be used to augment a gas turbine powered by conventional methods, burning an oil-based fuel. With this modification, sun power can be used by day and ordinary oil- based fuel by night, or when sunlight is insufficient. The scientists also found that using two solar “receivers” and a two-stage heating cycle — compressing the air and heating it before using it in the turbine — improves the thermal effi ciency of the device. JRC estimates the invention should be able to produce power in the 300 kilowatt-hour to 70 megawatt range. It has been patented and the possibility of commercial exploita tion is now being investigated. Culpepper Plaza College Station 693-6948 \s high as $250,000, still less than houses ^Condominiums—housing of the future? I .1 United Press International PACIFIC A, Calif. — If the San Francisco peninsula is an idication of future trends, there are condominiums down icfoad for a growing army of home buyers. niddle-class “bedroom” community of 35,000 just south fSan Francisco, Pacifica is spread along the northwestern ope of the peninsula’s coastal range. It’s a short commute from the heart of one of the nation’s jon economically active regions, but has little industry of its boto by Cfti^'iipesides the sea and what sunshine there is between days : f(| and wind. As in many other communities, the market for single family HHs is depressed in contrast to the rapid housing growth of Hte 1960s and early 1970s. Only one major subdivision of il enginet ] ijiiits W as completed in the last year. No major single land, TlieiM developments are planned for 1980. th commetoHndominiums are another story. alongstai ^ er Y available piece of property is being looked at by developers,” said Radford Hall, out-going chairman of the city planning commission. Close to 1,500 new condominiums are in the works. Eight hundred have already passed key review hurdles. A mono lithic 700-unit development planned for a quarry off Highway 1 is still several years in the future, but there is a proposal for a 238-unit residential development combined with a 50-room motor inn, restaurants and a small shopping mall. “Most other north peninsula cities have had almost every major piece of property developed,” said Hall. “Pacifica, for reasons of weather and access or what have you, has quite a few areas of raw land left. ” Developer Jack Lowe, a chamber of commerce member and a principal in four proposed or approved projects, favors condominiums over apartments. “The rents are nowhere near comparable to costs of con struction and land.” he said. “In the past eight months construction costs have gone up 13 percent in the five Bay Area counties. You build and sell as condos or there’ll be no new housing. ” Security, a sense of community, little maintenance and shared facilities make condos attractive to young marrieds and small families. The fact that new condominiums sell for about twice what an older single family Pacifica home with comparable floor space goes for leaves little doubt of that. “The prices (of new condominiums) have surprised me a great deal,” said Hall. “The commission was looking at some that will go for $250,000 a unit. “About the cheapest was going for $110,000, and they’re almost like apartments. Many of the homes here go for less than that.” Hall said the worst consequence of condominium develop ment would probably “be that it has the potential to over whelm our services.” He favors some kind of ceiling on development, a buffer to give the city time to adapt. r [jail bearings may protect ^ighrises in earthquakes United Press International ■N FRANCISCO — In this city latfcxpects a major earthquake in who is liglsMiext decade, a structural en- er. She is wRr proposes to protect high rise ticed mcdmlmgs by putting them on ball : 10 percenl tarings. ice cases, iq s “base isolation” method,, 0 {"■Caspe says a buildingcbuld roll doctors. ■[| le potion () f the quake. The r ul in S wou ^ be anchored to the f, inybotly,cM a { e( ] foundation with steel rods is thestii!w.;pi| l( , w bj c b can give or stretch. Hie idea of separating a building a very proulHb foundation in order to absorb j a child’s lB ( l ua ke shock is not new, but an meditto ^ sa y s his variation is. to pursue,si pc says many skyscrapers are cur rently protected from the hazards of earthquakes by long flexible support columns meant to “give” during a temblor. Unfortunately, the col umns don’t always “give,” instead suffering major damage. As examples, Caspe points to the destruction of the Olive View Hos pital in the 1971 San Fernando Val ley earthquake, and heavy structural damage to the support columns of the Government Services Building in El Centro, Calif, last October. “Both failures occurred to build ings that were designed to modern standards, during moderate earth quakes having less than one- thousandth the energy released dur- :ile," sheaf ow :e-to-fate#4 drive iresentsysn isumer aw# one percedf nt ce plans.’ v doctors »S nee premia: medical icr insuranif flue Cross mi i theypailf- ihavemdit: ir visits toll* ould pretlti. jrgery is pm iwed that H r. faced with* for operalinf , surgeon. ing the 1906 San Francisco quake,” he wrote in a publication of the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California. Caspe says his method might cost as little as $35,000 for a $25 million building but has so far been limited to mathematical models on a compu ter. 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