Solving the World Energy Problem
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Did you know that if you fart constantly for 6 years and 9 months, you’ll create as much energy as an atomic bomb?
If only you created a fart capturing widget, you would become a multi zillionaire (Ha!)
The point I’m trying to make with this silly useless fart fact?
The energy problem has never been: scarcity of energy. We have energy in abundance*! The problem is: controlling the energy’s usage. At the lowest cost possible. Lets look at some of the possible solutions to this problem.
* In one hour, more solar energy hits earth than is used by our entire population in one year!
Perpetual Motion / Energy Machines
Only a handful of people know this. One of the things that interests me a lot is perpetual motion/energy machines! In fact, some years back, I’d even tried to create a perpetual motion machine of my own using magnets. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out.
Shouldn’t the magnets’ constant attraction force make the wheels go round-and-round?
Most perpetual motion widget ideas surround around using magnets or gravity. The idea behind perpetual motion machines is not to create energy out of nowhere. But to create a mechanism that doesn’t stop ever. Can’t we leverage the energy forces that never cease - for our benefit?
Sure we can. In fact, it’s already been done too!
1. The Cox Clock
Its 1760 and James Cox has made a grandfather clock that never has to be wound. Its an awesome breakthrough! Is it the world’s first perpetual motion machine?
James Cox sincerely thought that he had created a perpetual motion machine and his clock worked without energy! Of course, he was only half right. His clock was perpetual. But it did require energy.
The clock worked on a perpetual source of energy!
How did the clock work? It worked because of the difference between the day temperature and the night temperature! As the temperature changes, the barometer in the clock drives a ratchet mechanism. Which keeps the clock wounded and in motion!
2. Refrigeration Using Noise Energy
If the difference in temperature can create energy (as in the Cox clock), can energy create difference in temperature too? Thats the question professor Orest Symko asked himself. And came up with an ingenious solution! He has managed to use the noise energy for refrigeration!
a_?The beauty of this is that you have heat that is so disorderly and you have sound which is orderly and one frequencya_? - Symko explains.
One of the many uses of this new technology? It’ll be added to all the computer devices. As your computer functions, it heats up. Symko’s technology will convert this heat into sound waves. And then re-convert the sound to produce cooling! In effect, the computers will cool themselves and thus become much more efficient!
Read more at: The temperature of sound
3. Solar Vending Machines
Solar energy is being used since a long time now. But its always been very expensive to use it. Yet, because many governments provide subsidies, many people have installed solar panels on their roof tops.
SEV (Solar Energy Vending) also used solar panels on vending machines. So that vending machines can be installed anywhere - on top of hills, in golf courses etc. To make these solar panels affordable, SEV came up with an idea: display advertising on the vending machines too!
Solar Vending Machine
4. Solar Windows
But the coolest news regarding solar energy has been the research done by Professor Vivian Alberts. He has gone a long way in reducing the price of solar panels!
Instead of using expensive silicon, the solar panels use cheap customized glass! (Glass is made out of sand.) Pretty soon, we’ll see all the windows being made out of solar energy powering glass! The windows of all the houses and buildings will help generate its electrical energy!
5. Perpetual Windmills
When solar energy has seen such tremendous advances, can wind energy be left behind?
Norsk Hydro has plans to create floating wind turbines in seas!
Wind Turbines in Water
By installing wind turbines in water, its prices can be reduced drastically (and its almost always windy over the waters). And other benefits include: birds won’t interfere with these wind turbines!
Another idea that has come forward is converting express ways into wind farms! By installing wind turbines over the passing cars, the wind energy generated by the movement of cars can be used to generate electricity! This idea doesn’t look too cost effective though.
Expressways = Wind farms
6. Windbelts
But perhaps the most interesting advancement in using wind to solve our energy problems comes from Shawn Fraye. Shawn proposes using of thin membranes instead of huge turbines to generate electricity out of wind. Let the wind vibrate belts. And at the two ends of the belt - attach magnets that oscillate between metal coils as the belt vibrates - creating electricity.
This windbelts technology brings the cost of using wind energy down enormously! And makes it possible to use wind energy in household devices like radios!
7. Leveraging Bacteria to Produce Ethanol (and Energy)
Professor Pengchen Fu is using cyano-bacteria to produce ethanol from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide! This ethanol can then be burned cleanly to produce energy, water and carbon dioxide!
Cylinders containing bacteria that create ethanol
Its a cool idea for a renewable source of energy. And there are plans to construct kiloliter tanks that create a lot of ethanol everyday!
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Isn’t it wonderful to think that we might all be saved by alternate energy sources?
Unfortunately that is not the case.
Why?
Because we will not slow our consumption of resources or human reproduction. We keep consuming resources like issues such as “peak oil” are not real. We - Americans as a whole - are living in a state of blissful denial.
Sadly, the only thing that is going to solve the worlds energy problem is
A) the collapse of the American way of life/economy. Thereby allowing the exhorbitant amount of resources to be distributed more evenly across the globe. And allowing us more time to come up with a VIABLE alternative fuel and “reprogram” the masses.
B) a massive human die off (which will occur as a direct result of extreme world wide oil scarcity). Nature has a way of derastically re-adjusting the supply and demand ratio.
I do think the alternative presented here WILL be useful and required… I just think it will be in a local economy environment.
And, here in America, it will happen after a complete collapes. I believe that is unavoidable at this point. War machine be damned.
But, honestly, I don’t think the fall of America and our greediness, will ultimately have that great of an impact. The new big boy on the block - China - will simply eat up the spoils of our fall.
Side note: I also think that we, as marketers, should be learning a great deal about local economies and geographically restricted marketing. The longevity of the global economy/marketplace is questionable.
Posted 16 Oct 2007 #
Everyone can make a difference! If you are passionate about stopping global warming and the environment you should check out this website http://www.nvisioncfl.com . Changing to CFLs is a great way for individual people to really make a difference! You should also check out this site http://www.youtube.com/user/helpourworld for more ideas on how to help our world!
Posted 16 Oct 2007 #
this is a waste of time….half the items here have no technical merit or value whatsoever…perpetual machines. etc….you really need to get down to the laws of entropy, and then all this garbage will not make sense anymore…
Posted 16 Oct 2007 #
Shaun: Thanks for your opinion. If only you would have read the post properly before commenting, you would have realized that the post talks about inventions that seem perpetual - but are not. They don’t create any energy out of nowhere, but use perpetual energy already available (like temperature change and sunlight and wind and bacteria reproduction.)
Posted 16 Oct 2007 #
Sean: Thanks. Is it ok if I don’t agree with you? Years ago, most people thought that there can be no protection from earth quakes. But today, we have 100 floor buildings that aren’t affected by earthquakes at all. Humans are ingenious because they find ways to overcome whatever nature throws at us.
As I stated at the very beginning - scarcity of energy is not the problem. Controlling of the energy at the lowest cost is. Because scarcity is not the problem, we won’t see a massive die-off. But if we don’t find a good cheap alternative to oil before we run out of oil (highly doubtful) - we could see recessions and adjustments all over the world. Which would only be temporary though. Because the more acute the pain, the quicker inventions will happen. And the quicker the world will get back to where it was.
Posted 16 Oct 2007 #
Yep. It is perfectly fine if you don’t agree with me. Most folks don’t. Heck, just 6 months ago I wouldn’t have agreed with me. But, I’ve spent some time watching the numbers - both oil and the markets - and have consequently migrated towards the Doomer Camp.
It has become one of those topics I tend to get all worked up about. lol
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my little tangent.
Posted 16 Oct 2007 #
Love the title of your post! I get tired of all of the doom and gloom–not that it might not be warranted, but who knows, things just might swing the other way. Your writing seems better every time I pop over here.
Posted 17 Oct 2007 #
I think that by castrating humans that have more than 1 kid will solve the energy problem. Think about it! One kid only watches a limited time of tv. Start seeing the savings. If you want to save the planet, start by going to my blog and posting comments. If you comments suck, I will promise to turn my computer off for a WHOLE MONTH.
Here is the site:
The benjamins 101 dot blog spot dot com.
Use your brain and do not put the spaces and replace the word dot for ..
Thank you! And help the planet by making me shut my computer off!!!!!
Posted 23 Oct 2007 #
the wind belt is great but i think another interesting way of creating energy would be from temperature change. an atmos clock can function for 2 days on a 1 degree change in temperature. James Cox’s pendulum clock worked for years without human interference and he built that in the 1760’s.throw a little technology into that.
Posted 01 Feb 2008 #
A week spent with a pint of Guinness, some Twitter…
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Posted 10 Feb 2008 #