Another Millennial “Clean” Power Source for the Fleeing Woman
July 7, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
My comments on Ezekiel 47:11 blend well with the Negev Solar Power Facility discussed in the Arutz Sheva article following my comments. I have believed for many years that the power generated in Israel during the Millennium will be of the “clean” variety. Two types of the “clean” energy are discussed in this Blog – One that began in Israel in the late seventies and another that is being developed in Israel today, which is discussed in the Arutz Sheva article.
Ezekiel 47:9-11 – And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.
[10] And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as
the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. [11] But the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.
When I first interpreted verses 9 and 10 in my first book some 30 years ago, I felt very confident as to how these two verses would be fulfilled to become reality in Christ’ s Millennial Reign.
However, verse 11 was a real puzzler to me.
I asked myself, why would God let part of the Dead Sea remain as salt? I did not question that God would do it, but I had tremendous curiosity as to why.
I did not get my answer until I spent some time at En Boqeq, which is located on the very shallow, very salty, southern end of the Dead Sea. I put it in my lecture series in the mid-eighties, and continued to include it until my health forced me to stop traveling in 2005.
At En Boquq I discovered that technicians from Ormat Turbines, Ltd., an Israel based firm, had developed a system that uses heat gathered and stored in a salt water pool to generate electricity up to 150 kilowatts of power. I extracted the following portion of a report on the project from the May/June Issue Number 63, 1980, “Mother Earth News.”
Begin Extracted Portion from Mother Earth News
Ormat’s entire system is actually quite straightforward. The firm’s pilot project-located at En Boqeq on the Dead Sea—utilizes a man-made pond measuring 75,347 square feet and extending to a depth of just over eight feet. This pool is lined with a reinforced rubber “skin” that prevents seepage of the briny liquid into the ground—and into the fresh water table—below. (The En Boqeq installation uses no insulative layer between the earth and the water . . . however, under certain conditions, such thermal protection may be desirable-in order to maintain optimum water temperature-in addition to the brine barrier.)
The pond itself is filled with a dense salt solution, which naturally separates into gradient levels: In other words, a weaker salt mix exists near the water’s surface, and the higher—and thus denser —saline concentrations settle to the bottom. The topmost layer is, of course, relatively fresh water. As the sun beats down on the brine reservoir, its thermal energy passes through the “lighter” surface levels and heats the heavy saline mass below. Because of the intense density of the solution at the bottom of the pond, the mixture resists the convection process which would cause mixing, and thus uniform warming, in a body of fresh water . . . and the result is that the dense salt solution-held at the bottom of the pool and thermally protected by the surface layer-can reach temperatures as high as 194°F (year-round working temperatures generally fluctuate between 158 and 176°F). The water at the surface of the pond, of course, stays at a warmth that’s “normal” for the desert region: between 68 and 90°F, depending on the season.
In order to take advantage of the heat stored in the salt gradient pool, Ormat engineers utilize a three-cycle (evaporation, drive, and condensation) system. Here’s how it works: The hot salt water is pumped through a heat exchanger, which is surrounded by a vessel filled with a substance similar to Freon. This, in turn, is connected to a turbine that’s specially designed to be driven by a much lower-temperature propellant than that used in a conventional steam turbine. Since the medium changes from liquid to gas at a relatively low heat, the sun warmed water instantly flashes the fluid into a pressurized vapor . . . which drives the turbine and its 150— kilowatt AC generator.
After the vapor has done its work, it passes on to yet another chamber where it’s condensed to the liquid stage again by cooler water—taken from the surface of the pond—that’s pumped into a second set of heat exchange tubes within the vessel. The drive fluid is then ready to be recycled. In this manner, the “refrigerant” fluid—and both the cool and hot water reserves—are used repeatedly, within a closed system, to eliminate waste.
The only liquid that has to be replenished now and then is—because of evaporation losses—the upper layer of fresh water.
The beauty of the En Boqeq installation—and of any solar pond—is that it will function day and night, winter and summer, regardless of whether or not the sun is shining steadily . . . since the pool provides such a massive heat sink.
The Ormat pilot project has been so successful, in fact, that the Israeli government is working with the firm to build a 5,000-KW power station that should be completed within two years, and the nation eventually hopes to use a 154-squaremile portion of the Dead Sea to generate enough electricity to supply all of Israel’s power requirements for the future! (Of course, in a body of water this size—and even in a pool as relatively small as the En Boqeq test site—winds can cause undesirable disturbances. The problem is minimized by the use of plastic nets strung across the surface of the pond.)
It’s not difficult to imagine that solar ponds might just be the “new wave” of alternative energy . . . especially since costs (calculated by Ormat to be in the $2,000-per-kilowatt range) are even now competitive with conventional utility-supplied power.
But if the technology can be reduced to a “backyard tinkerer’s” level-and the environmental danger of brine leakage into the water table can be eliminated-there’s no reason why anyone with even a few acres of land can’t be totally energy self-sufficient . . . or, at the very least, enjoy the benefit of reliable solar heat at a minimum of cost.
End Extracted Portion from Mother Earth News
Begin Arutz Sheva Article
Israel to Begin Building Solar Power Facility in Negev
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 / 2 Tammuz 5766
Arutz Sheva National News Service
Israel is about to begin construction on the country’s first solar-power facility.
The station will be built on a 2,250 acre area in the Negev desert. The preparation for the station is expected to take a year and the actual construction another two years, at which point it will become operational.
The power station will be constructed by Solel Solar System Ltd., an alternative energy firm that built and maintains the world’s largest solar power facility in California’ s Mojave De
sert.
The facility relies on hundreds of thousands of curved mirrors – each with a diameter of almost 20 feet and with a 4 inch diameter specially-insulated oil-filled tube. Each mirror heats the oil to nearly 750 degrees, which turns water into steam. The steam drives a turbine, which produces electricity.
Since the last stages of the process are similar to those in conventional power plants, the facility can also be operated on gas when sunlight is unavailable, such as during the night or when the panels are undergoing maintenance.
“Israel is prominent on the world stage for developing solar technology, but until now, we haven’t really harnessed that knowledge for our own needs,” said Prof. David Faiman, director of the Solar Energy Center when the project was announced several years ago.
The Negev station will initially supply 100 megawatts of electricity – enough to supply power for 200,000 people – and will eventually have an annual output of 500 megawatts – enough to meet the needs of 1,000,000 Israelis.
End Arutz Sheva Article
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