Freeing energy from the Grid- Here's how, Watch

[whalesong]

Fascinating idea by Justin Hall. His vision for a better source of clean energy is shared in the TED video link below.

Some of our most serious planetary worries revolve around energy and power -- controlling it, paying for it, and the consequences of burning it. Justin Hall-Tipping had an epiphany about energy after seeing footage of a chunk of ice the size of his home state (Connecticut) falling off Antarctica into the ocean, and decided to focus on science to find new forms of energy. A longtime investor, he formed Nanoholdings to work closely with universities and labs who are studying new forms of nano-scale energy in the four sectors of the energy economy: generation, transmission, storage and conservation.
Nanotech as a field is still very young (the National Science Foundation says it's "at a level of development similar to that of computer technology in the 1950s") and nano-energy in particular holds tremendous promise.
He says: "For the first time in human history, we actually have the ability to pick up an atom and place it the way we want. Some very powerful things can happen when you can do that."
"By working in the universities, right at the coal-face of nano-energy research, we can spot discoveries that otherwise might disappear without leaving the lab."
Nanoholdings.com

http://www.ted.com/talks/justin_hall_tip..._grid.html

[Hunt Stoddard]

Interesting talk, though he doesn't go into much detail. More can probably be found by searching the web. It's pretty obvious we have to stop burning oil/coal at some point if for no other reason than oil fields deplete, and sooner or later it's all going to run out. The scary thing is that the petroleum industry not only supplies most of our energy, but has also artificially boosted the carrying capacity of the earth by way of pesticides and fertilizer. If it should all run out before we're prepared for it, the consequences would be dire.

[PaulW]

Interesting but let's see if it works in practice. He only talks about getting power from the sun, but there's a limit to how much of that there is per square yard, and it's only sometimes. The fact that he mentions that they've solved the battery problem as an aside makes me a bit skeptical.

We will never run out of oil, but cheap oil may get harder to find.

[jackson]

Here's a unique concept: It was the dinosaurs and their mass extinction that provided us with oil. Good possibility that we are the fuel for whatever will follow our sorry asses.

[Hunt Stoddard]

"We will never run out of oil, but cheap oil may get harder to find."

Do you mean the price of production will outstrip the willingness to buy it, or are you subscribing to abiogenic oil?

[PaulW]

Abiogenic! That would be nice. No, as the oil price rises then more and more of it becomes economically viable to extract.
Alberta alone has more oil than the world could use in a long, long time. And as the price rises, the more people will look for alternatives - like geothermal here in Hawaii or even burning trash.

As science improves it will also become easier to find oil. The current method is basically guesswork. Who knows how much is down there, possibly more than we've ever found.

The last bit of oil on Earth will never be extracted because it would be incredibly expensive to do so. Hence we will never run out.

[terracore]

quote:

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Originally posted by PaulW

Interesting but let's see if it works in practice. He only talks about getting power from the sun, but there's a limit to how much of that there is per square yard, and it's only sometimes. The fact that he mentions that they've solved the battery problem as an aside makes me a bit skeptical.

We will never run out of oil, but cheap oil may get harder to find.

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There's functioning alternatives to batteries. Electrolysis from solar and seawater makes hydrogen which can be turned directly into electricity and drinking water by a fuel cell at night. I saw that used on an island in Puget sound over 10 years ago when both technologies were more primitive than they are now. The French use the "unused" off-peak (nighttime) electricity of their fission plants to pump water to an uphill reservoir and when they need extra electricity during peak times they let the water flow back down, spinning generator turbines. Another option is to use "extra" daytime electricity to compress air which can generate electricity when released at night. I understand that they will need to make solar more efficient to compete with other alternatives but my point is that batteries aren't required.

[jackson]

I assume that most know that HELCO still uses the old water turbines when there is enough rain.

[terracore]

quote:

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Originally posted by terracore

quote:

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Originally posted by PaulW

Interesting but let's see if it works in practice. He only talks about getting power from the sun, but there's a limit to how much of that there is per square yard, and it's only sometimes. The fact that he mentions that they've solved the battery problem as an aside makes me a bit skeptical.

We will never run out of oil, but cheap oil may get harder to find.

---

There's functioning alternatives to batteries. Electrolysis from solar and seawater makes hydrogen which can be turned directly into electricity and drinking water by a fuel cell at night. I saw that used on an island in Puget sound over 10 years ago when both technologies were more primitive than they are now. The French use the "unused" off-peak (nighttime) electricity of their fission plants to pump water to an uphill reservoir and when they need extra electricity during peak times they let the water flow back down, spinning generator turbines. Another option is to use "extra" daytime electricity to compress air which can generate electricity when released at night. I understand that they will need to make solar more efficient to compete with other alternatives but my point is that batteries aren't required.

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Here's a car that runs off of compressed air. http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/new...?series=19

The "problem" with electric cars is that the batteries are so heavy and using solar to charge them is impractical because most people are at work when the sun is out, so the panels on the roof of your home are useless for charging them. But solar panels could run an electric air compressor so your tank will be full when you pull into your garage, and it takes only a few seconds to charge the air compared to all night with electric cars.

[Rob Tucker]

I've been watching the development of the air powered cars for some time. Very interesting. They would seem to make the most sense on an island such as ours.

There is another in development in France. MIDI