Time to Get Off the Grid! Ken Rieli, Phoenix Turbine Builders Club, Tesla boundary layer turbines

Time to Get Off the Grid

August 20, 2003

Summer is almost over and we've witnessed significant events happening all over the world. Heat waves are causing blackouts here in the U.S., and thousands of deaths in France and other parts of Europe. There is ongoing strife in the Middle East over oil & lands, and the U.S. is caught right in the middle of the whole mess.

All of these events are just the beginning signs of a general breakdown in global resources, fuels, food, water, etc.

Most people have the attitude that there is no end to fossil fuels. Well I've got news for them -- by the end of this decade we are going to see gasoline and diesel prices go right through the ceiling. They'll be lucky to buy gasoline for $5.00 per gallon anywhere in the world. Already we've been put on notice this summer that natural gas and propane will go up 50% - 100% over the winter.

All of this leads me to one and only one conclusion -- it's time to get off the grid! This year we need to begin pulling the plug on both heating and electrical utilities.

This month we are finishing up our turbine construction manual with the lubrication section.

With all of the information we've posted over the past couple of years, anyone interested in Tesla turbines should have plenty of construction suggestions to go on. It's now up to each one of us to push the development envelope faster and harder to come up with turnkey motive power solutions.

	Since fossil fuels are limited and will become very costly in the near future, it's time to concentrate our efforts on alternative fuels, such as growable plant products or solar energy. One of the beauties of designing a low-horsepower engine is that it can be powered from relatively small energy resources such as backyard solar collectors. In the next few months we need to focus on powering up disk turbines with steam & direct combustion. We need all of our club members to participate in the development process by brainstorming ways of obtaining high velocity gas from innovative sources.

Together we can head off the coming energy shortages.

Ken Rieli

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