Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
business of “free energy” suppression. Gary McKinnon, a Scottish-
born computer hacker, is facing extradition from the UK to the US on
charges of perpetrating what one US prosecutor has called “the biggest
military computer hack of all time”. He is said to have hacked into
no fewer than 97 US military and NASA computers. Asked about his
motivation, McKinnon cited an anti-government initiative in the US,
called the Disclosure Project, which alleges a US government cover-up
of information about Unidentified Flying Objects (an echo of Tesla?)
and about “free energy”.
Electricity storage
The US government was nearly taken in by
Armenian-born “inventor” Garabed Giragossian, who claimed that,
using an area no bigger than Boston Common (48 acres), he could
develop enough free power to drive all the world's industrial machinery.
He sought legal protection for his “invention” from Congress and was
duly granted this in a resolution signed by President Woodrow Wilson -
providing that he could prove the practicality of his discovery. It turned
out that he had nothing more in mind than a giant flywheel releasing a
spurt of energy as it unwound.
However, flywheel rotors have been developed as a source and store of
energy, and are now being introduced into, among other things, Formula
1 racing cars. In order to be seen to do something for the environment,
the Grand Prix racing industry has allowed Kinetic Energy Recovery
Systems to be fitted to racing cars. These gadgets recover the energy
lost in braking - either mechanically, with flywheels, or electrically with
super-batteries - and re-use it as a boost to acceleration. In July 2009
Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to win a Grand Prix with a car
fitted with KERS.
Killers of the electric car
A 2006 documentary called
Who Killed The
Electric Car?
explored General Motors' ill-fated production of an electric
car, the EV1. It was built in response to California's 1990 mandate for a
zero-emissions vehicle standard; the car company eventually decided to
discontinue production of the EV1 and attempted to recall all models
that had been sold.
The film suggested that GM had never really tried to market the car
and asked why the company had been so persistent in trying to recall
the cars. GM's answer was that, despite $1bn spent on developing
and marketing the EV1, only 800 people actually wanted to lease
it. Moreover because demand was so low, parts suppliers began to
