Monday, August 19, 2019

Lightning Damage From Surges






Green energy production technology is one of the most promising energy production methods with regards to the future of mankind.  This may seem like a bold statement, but improving the world by creating better energy systems that ultimately harm the earth to a lesser degree must be viewed as an improvement for everyone on the planet.  All over the world, civilized societies rely upon electricity that is delivered to their homes and businesses through electrical grid systems.  This electricity is manufactured and stored until it is delivered to consumers.  The systems that deliver electricity are not the issue, and instead we find that the damage is caused during the energy mining and manufacturing process.  Electricity is created through the use of turbine technology, the simplistic way of explaining this that as the turbines are turned they create electricity.  The way that these turbines are turned in order to produce enough electricity to satisfy large populations of consumers has traditionally been through the burning of fossil fuels or by capturing the water flowing through a dam. While these methods have proven to be able to be reliable enough to produce the volumes of electricity that are necessary for metropolitan areas, they also one of the leading causes of disruption in terms of pollution, causing climate change and damaging clean water systems. While the proponents of fossil fuels will argue that the climate change aspect is not significant enough to justify higher costs, there is no denying that pollution is created. No matter what, it is globally understood that polluted air is not conducive to a healthy environment for humans or animals. Because of this fact, it is universally accepted that a method of creating the same electricity product with non-polluting methods would be superior. The reason that wider spread rollouts of green energy production technologies such as wind and solar have not occurred really comes down to two critical aspects. First and foremost are the costs associated with these methods, and second is the reliability of these methods to produce enough electricity to satisfy large amounts of customers.  Both of these issues are being solved through the use of advanced technologies, including but not limited to the use of industrial surge protection equipment.

Surge protection for green energy systems reduces the amount of damage caused to these systems by natural events such as lightning strikes.  While the acute damage that happens at the strike point is nearly unavoidable, this is not the largest cost associated with damage of this sort. Instead, we find the majority of damage costs come from the associated power surge that damages the sensitive equipment utilized in the process, and of course the taking of the systems offline. As surge protection equipment improves, there will be less damage to the components of these systems which will ultimately drive down costs of production. In the same regard, we find that keeping these systems online for longer periods of time can produce larger volumes of electricity to satisfy the growing populations. This can actually be done without increasing prices because in part the fuel sources that turn the turbines has no cost associated (ie: sun and wind). By simply keeping the systems online and functioning for longer periods of time the amount of power that is generated will be increased, and the costs associated with the production will be decreased.

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