montt.marshall.energywiki.spring.2010

​Problems: 1. Fossil fuels are not renewable 2. Further consumption of fossil fuels adds to global climate change 3. World population continues to grow as we continue to consume 4. Fresh water supplies are diminishing 5. Most of what we consume is dumped as waste 6. Not enough action is being taken

Solution: 1. There are abundant sources of energy everywhere on the planet 2. The sun drives every source of renewable energy on the planet 3. Changing our current ways of living will create many new jobs 4. By changing the way we consume energy the US can will decrease foreign dependency and increase productivity

The enormous population of the world is the driving force behind all of our water, energy, and food problems. Every year the world's knowledge and technologies become even more advanced. So we could go with a crazy radical idea like mass genocide...

Or we could put our brains to use and make the world healthier, cleaner and more efficient. The world uses fossil fuels as its primary means of producing energy.

Unfortunately the consumption is not only causing significant climate change, the supply is also predicted to run out in 20-30 years. Fortunately nature has virtually unlimited supplies of renewable energy. The earth's main source of renewable energy comes from earth itself and the surrounding celestial bodies. The core produces gravity, the moon produces tides, and the sun produces seasons; because the energy produced from these sources if virtually unlimited, harnessing them would yield unlimited supplies of energy. The most important forms of renewable energy that can be harnessed are solar, wind, and hydro energy. The most ideal situation would be to have a self-sustaining nuclear reactor, which would basically be our own sun. This reactor would produce enough energy to supply for the whole world. The dilemma is that to get the reactor started would require incredible amounts of energy.

The total world production of oil is 73.1 millions of barrels of oil per day, with Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United States leading the pack. The world consumption of oil is 60.3 millions of gallons per day with United States, China, and Japan in the lead. The current average highway miles per gallon of mid-sized cars and SUV's is 21.4. The average MPG of mid-sized cars has gone from about 14 in 1970 to about 26 in 2009; and the average MPG of trucks and SUV's has gone from 10 in 1970 to an average of 16 in 2009. So in about 40 years the average MPG of our automobiles has not even doubled. And today we have companies and states who are pledging to get to 45 average MPG in 6-10 years. Seems like its too little too late. It took people almost four decades to realize that oil is not a renewable resource and that we are running out. Well making automobiles two times as efficient in under a decade is nice but that doesn't account for planes and trains and construction vehicles. It also doesn't address the fact that we WILL run out of fossil fuels!

Our lack of energy for the future is not the only problem, but finding fresh water in the future is also going to be a big issue. Our consumption of fresh water is not just limited to drinking, we are using huge amounts of fresh water in ways you would never expect. 1,425,600 million gallons of water is used to process the beef of one cow. This huge number may present a worry of how we are going to get fresh water in the future because similar to fossil fuels, fresh water does not fully replenish itself. Salt water makes up 97.5% of all water on earth, leaving 2.5% for fresh water. About 70% of this fresh water is trapped in the polar ice caps, and about 29% of the remainder is trapped in soil or is deep underground and unaccessible to humans. Leaving less than 1% of fresh water that is in lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. So this fraction of a percent is from the fresh water source, which is only 2.5% of all the water on earth! Yet this fraction is enough that we can use 1,425,600 gallons of it to process the beef from a single cow. What about the water that every person on earth drinks in a single day? It sounds like the amount of salt water on earth is more than enough to meet our needs. Shouldn't it make sense to utilize the rest of the 97.5% of water on earth? In fact the amount of salt water on earth is 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons (or 326 million trillion)! Currently, what is being done to solve the energy problem is not enough. We are only delaying the problem that we will still eventually have to face. Toyota and Honda are making Hybrid cars, which run off gasoline but utilize the battery to a much greater extent, so that when traveling at low speeds the gasoline can be reserved. Many automobile companies are using "High gas mileage" as a selling point, and plastic companies are using reduced plastics. States in the US like California have pledged to have their cars averaging at 43 mpg by 2016. The "Eco-Shape" bottles with 30% less plastic and caps with 20% less plastic are the attempts to reduce plastic waste. But none of these ideas are solving the "real" problem. We can make cars that use less oil and bottles that use less plastic but if we do not STOP using these items then it is still all going to end up in the environment. The environment will still be filled with CO2 and our oceans littered with plastic even if we "reduce". Reducing is only procrastinating. What we really need to do is switch to using pure renewable energy and biodegradable plastics, and recycle ALL of the plastic that is currently produced.

Sunlight Energy

It is common knowledge that if you are outside on a mid-summer day, you do not need light bulbs and you do not need insulating clothing. The sun is a massive ball of energy that heats up our planet and provides us with plenty of light. So if we could harness this light and heat efficiently then we could virtually make our homes run purely from the suns energy. Solar panels are the most well-known design for producing electricity from the sun. A photovoltaic cell, which is made of a semiconductor such as silicon, is used to generate electricity from photons of light. Silicon in its crystalline form has 14 electrons configured in three different shells. When the photons strike the silicon it excites these electrons and knocks them loose. The electrons are then harnessed and moved along a wire to create an electrical current.

One of the arguments against using solar energy to power our homes is that at nighttime and during prolonged periods on minimal sunlight we would not be able to power our homes. But new discoveries use a method of converting electricity gathered from solar panels to separate water into the components of hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then stored in tanks so that during the night and during periods where there is very little sun the stored hydrogen acts as a battery. Hydrogen gas acts like a battery because when it is combined with oxygen by passing it through a fuel cell, an electron is released, which is then harnessed as electricity. The by-product is water, which is then cycled through to be split again.

2(H2O) (cycled water) + Energy (from solar panel) --> 2(H2) (tanks) + O2 (atmosphere)

--Process Reversed-- 2(H2) (tanks) + O2 (atmosphere) --> 2(H2O) (cycled water) + Energy (electron)

The 10-12 tanks of hydrogen gas can run an average sized house for a week without the suns help. Hydrogen gas storage is the most efficient way utilize sunlight energy because it allows the energy to be used indirectly and stored in efficient space. So while your solar panels are converting the sunlight to electricity then to hydrogen power, you will need other means of heating and lighting your home while the hydrogen is being stored.

By insulating everything possible in your house you can get the most out of those sunny days. Using insulating material such as fiberglass or even a natural substance like wheat straw, which is a very cheap and efficient insulator. Also by making more of the house with glass, the sunlight can heat more of the house effectively with a "greenhouse effect" and not have to use indirect energy to provide heat. This way the heat and energy from the sun enters through the glass and heats the house by heating the objects inside it, which will slowly emit the heat into the air. Water can be placed in tubes or jugs (even stone floors) throughout the house in order to make the absorption and emitting of the sun's heat more efficient. Also, solar panels can be place throughout the house, or even in furniture, in order to power small heaters or air conditioners.

Solar panels can be used in other ways to heat the home. Certain designs use the energy from the sun to heat tubes of liquid directly and circulate it through a house or use for hot showers, much in the way that house heaters today work. The downside of this is that you would need a backup heater for when the cold days are cloudy and do not produce enough heat to warm the house. But if you have the hydrogen tanks set up, you can utilize this solar panel when possible and use the hydrogen to help get the extra heat. All of these small ways to use the suns heat and light add up and can bring down our energy consumption.

Some scientists believe that solar power is not good to use because it is the least inefficient of the renewable energies. 40% of the sunlight that hits a solar panel is absorbed. 15% of it is actually converted to usable electricity. New technologies are being investigated that will allow for more efficient solar utilization, with numbers like 80% absorption. The ideal scenario would be to be able to use 100% of the solar energy that hits the panels. Hopefully a discovery will make solar homes much more efficient and cost effective so people will be more motivated to install solar panels which would get us another step closer to using 100% renewable energy.

WIND ENERGY Wind energy is the most common form of renewable and one of the most debated. It is a very simple idea that the wind blows a turbine, which spins and rotates a magnet inside of a coil. This cause electrons to move through the coil which creates and electrical current. When harnessed this current creates the power that can run your household appliances. One 280 foot turbine produces 1 kilowatt of power, which is enough to run 500 toasters at the same time. These structures would probably be the make up the bulk of our renewable energy source because of their efficiency. But it would still require one to two thousand of these turbines to generate the same power that a coal or nuclear plant generates. But at the same time it would be completely clean for our environment and eliminate carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, which cause global warming and acid rain. An average gas power plant emits 1.2 million tons of CO2 per year. So by replacing a fossil fuel run power plants with 1-2000 wind turbines, you save 1.2 million tons of CO2 emissions in only one year. Not to mention the fact that it is free power that will never run out. Many people have realized the beneficial and profitable outcome of using wind turbine plants and have begun to set the transformation in motion. Massachusetts Maritime Academy has a turbine installed that generates 1/4 of all the power needs on campus. Cape Wind has the ok to begin building 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound. Slowly people are realizing that these turbines are NEEDED, and every one that is put up is a step in the right direction.

The design of a turbine is simple. If you rotate a magnet around a coil a current is generated. They are one of the most efficient designs of renewable energy. And one of these in your home will power all you needs and then some. So why are farms so controversial? Those against farms say that they kill birds, damage marine life, are a hassle to get around, and are not pleasing to look at. When in reality, studies show that very few birds are killed by these turbines, and they actually create protective reefs where marine life can grow. Most turbine farms you can drive your car and boats right through without a problem. The spacing between the turbines is between two to three football fields. And lets face it, which would you rather look at, or drive around, or have in the environment... Wind Power OR..... Crude Oil (Would wind turbines really be more dangerous, harmful, and toxic to the environment as oil is? Would it really slow down our days to get through them? Try getting through an oil spill)

New designs have been discovered for wind turbines, or rather just bought back to our attention. The ancient Egyptians used a design, that is currently known to us as Windspire, to grind their corn and wheat. This design works much like a wind turbine except it is a cylindrical in shape. This design does not reach nearly the height that a 1 kilowatt turbine does. A 1.2 kilowatt windspire stands 30 feet tall and 2 feet in radius. It will power about 30-50% of your household needs. It costs $4000 to buy and install and will pay itself off in 4 years. The 3 kilowatt design, yet to be released, will power an entire household and does not stand taller, only wider. It can generate 2 thousand kilowatts in only 12 mph winds. They are also silent, bird friendly, and can stand 8 feet apart (much closer than turbines) if you wish to install more than one. This is the next generation household wind design, that will hopefully make wind power much more common in homes.

Desalinization

The world supply of fresh water is dwindling. Around 40% of the world's population lacks fresh water. At the rate we are using water in roughly 15 years the demand will be more than 50% of what will be left. About 10 years from now, an estimated 800 billion dollars will be spent to get fresh water to those who do not have it. Hopefully people will realize that water is precious when this enormous amount of money is being spent, and will stop wasting water unnecessarily. The process of removing the salt isn't as easy as you would do in a high school chemistry lab. Simply Boiling the water to remove it from the salt would be impractical because the heat needed to boil massive amounts of water every day would use up more energy then we can afford to use. Scientists have figured a way to do this process in a controlled more effective and cost efficient way. If a vacuum is created to turn the water into a fine mist, this would lower the boiling point of the water vapor. The vapor is then sprayed through a heated source which instantaneously separates the salt from the water. Although this process will work, energy will have to be consumed, and this is where we can incorporate using the forces of nature.

Water distillate factories can be established at harbors and coastlines, so that direct access to salt water is possible. This will also allow us to directly harness the energy required for getting the salt water into drinkable form. Underwater turbines can be used so that the power of the ocean tides and currents is in our hands. The open water provides clear space to receive good wind speeds and sunlight. The sunlight can even provide heat so that not as much power is needed to get the vacuum temperature hot enough to evaporate the brine out of the water. Despite the simplicity of this method, new ones are being developed to purify water. Ion concentration polarization is a perfect example of a new system of purification.

The current method of desalination is called reverse osmosis. The way is works us to use big pumps to force a lot of water through a membrane and filter out the impurities. The problem with doing it this way is the membrane gets blocked by the accumulation of the impurities. It then requires even more energy to push through the membrane. With the new technology of ion concentration polarization a simple chip about the size of a quarter can filter out impurities on a microscopic level, using nothing more than gravity. The channels on the chip separate salts and other unwanted substances like plastic particles, protein, and blood from "the water by electrostatically repelling them away from the ion-selective membrane in the system." So no membrane is needed to purify and it is done without electricity. It yield 15 liters of clean water in an hour by using 1600 units in only an 8-inch diameter. Its electricity-free design and portability make it ideal to bring into natural disaster situations like Katrina in order to bring clean water to those who need it. They are designing these purifiers on a much larger scale, going up to 10,000 units and more. If these were to take the place of membrane purifiers, clean water could be brought to us energy free. Wind turbines and underwater turbines that use the force the tides and currents, could pump the water to the ion concentration polarization purifiers, that would be located right on the water, and then let gravity take over the rest. We could theoretically have an endless supply of water with hands-free purification.

The New World

When people hear that we have exhausted the supply of fossil fuels, their initial thoughts would be "how do we survive?" If you think about it, hundreds of generations of people have survived without using electricity and fossil fuels, so why can't we? Fossil fuels are only one of the many ways that the sun has given us energy to use. If we could grab part of the sun and stuff it into a reactor, that would be the easiest solution. But since it is pretty much impossible to get anywhere near the sun, why not use its energy indirectly. The sun and the moon drive all the weather, heat, and currents that we experience everyday. So by harnessing it we can live "off the land" as our ancestors did, just in a more technological and advanced way. Imagine living in a world where all the energy we have is from the forces of nature. Think about how much more beautiful and cleaner our world could be without having to burn and dig for our energy. The sun provides more than enough energy for us to live off of for millions of years to come. So if you think positively, running out of fossil fuels is like we are discovering how to fish because as a greater doctor once told me, "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, he'll eat for life."

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