Energy of the Future?

An interesting article here, where inventer Ray Kurzweil claims that solar power will have both the financial and technological capability to generate 100% of our energy. Further, that solar power will be stored in the form of hydrogen/hydrogen based fuel cells, which can be used with vehicles.

So if this is true, would this mean that gasoline itself could be obsoleted by the vastness of human ingenuity? Could humans actually outstrip the very resources given to us by our planet? Can we transcend finite resources, to the point where technology can completely and totally propel nations forward, leaving the shackles posed by oil dependency? Can countries like the U.S.(with time, of course) actually become completely independent of oil, and actually be completely self dependent? I don't know about others, but frankly, this sort of thing excites me.

If the article includes satellite solar panels and maser beaming the power then yes it can cover a large portion of our energy demands. But as we get more we use more, just like getting a larger hard drive.

As a Belgian, the only real problem I see, is : how are we going to make people pay taxes on solar energy?

I must say as a employee of the oil business, that hydrocarbon based fuels will still be the main source of energy also in the future.
The amount of energy stored in oil is huge. We are just not able to utilize all of it with todays technology.
Just take combustion engines. Only about 12% of the stored energy is actually transported to the propulsion of the car (wheels). The rest eveporates on the way getting those wheels turning.

Higher oil prices will force us to develop better technology and there are many oil reservoirs waiting for the oil price to reach $200 before it will be profitable to extract it. There are plenty of oil... but we need better technology to utiize more of its energy.
Oil is at the end of the day just stored solar energy.

Surely that argument is a little self-defeating: If the price of oil is steadily increasing, and the price of solar power is decreasing or remaining the same, eventually there will come a point when solar is cheaper than oil and will replace it.

Of course, that's assuming we don't want the transition to happen sooner due to climate change, air pollution, political considerations etc.

And surely any technological advances which improve the efficiency of combustion engines are likely to improve the efficiency of hydrogen engines also?

Plus, there's shale... Anyhow, depite being way past the industrial revolution, almost half the world's energy still comes from coal... So I don't think oil is going anywhere fast.

However, imagine covering the whole of Greenland with windmills. We could generate energy for most of the world.

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Originally Posted by SwordsMaster

Plus, there's shale... Anyhow, depite being way past the industrial revolution, almost half the world's energy still comes from coal... So I don't think oil is going anywhere fast.

However, imagine covering the whole of Greenland with windmills. We could generate energy for most of the world.

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The hippies wouldn't approve, you're destroying an unspoiled wasteland with windmills.

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Originally Posted by Mikeus Caesar

The hippies wouldn't approve, you're destroying an unspoiled wasteland with windmills.

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Let's put them in the Sahara then, or Texas. After all, the civilized world doesn't care what happens there.:2thumbsup:

I have volunteered for a science program where beans are transformed to energy via the human digestive system. It is a dual project with the military looking for a new means of delivering a crowd control noxious agent. All the expirements are conducted in Texas

Speaking as a student of mechanical engineering at the moment I can confidently state oil is with us till it runs out. The amount of product made from oil is staggering I am just scanning a list here of polymer materials and the products made from them like boats cars zips ceiling tiles bus shelters ropes shampoo bottles gaskets the lists endless. If we generate power from a new possible renewable source it doesn't mean we have escaped dependence on oil just reduced its impact on watching TV at home.

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Originally Posted by Redleg

I have volunteered for a science program where beans are transformed to energy via the human digestive system. It is a dual project with the military looking for a new means of delivering a crowd control noxious agent. All the expirements are conducted in Texas

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Yes, I caught wind of that program some while ago.

:embarassed:

We're all going to be destroyed by a comet fairly soon though aren't we? Unless big Bruce comes to the rescue. What if there is no fuel for his rocket though?

How about exporting Icelan's excess energy? The energy of the sea could be used to cool helium, which could be used to cool a pretty much lossles superconductor at the sea bottom carrying excess energy from Iceland to anywhere else.

No if I could only get funding for that...:juggle2:

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Originally Posted by Conradus

Let's put them in the Sahara then, or Texas. After all, the civilized world doesn't care what happens there.:2thumbsup:

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:bigcry:

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Originally Posted by gaelic cowboy

Speaking as a student of mechanical engineering at the moment I can confidently state oil is with us till it runs out. The amount of product made from oil is staggering I am just scanning a list here of polymer materials and the products made from them like boats cars zips ceiling tiles bus shelters ropes shampoo bottles gaskets the lists endless. If we generate power from a new possible renewable source it doesn't mean we have escaped dependence on oil just reduced its impact on watching TV at home.

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Only partially, you can actually replace the entire oil product industry by using CO, CO2 and water. Just don't expect this to happen before something like fusion power as it will require huuge amounts of energy.

Most plastics can be made from organic sources - after all that's where oil came from.
For the throwaway things such as plastic bags / bottles having a "life expectency" of 2 years is in fact a good thing; plastics kept indoors could either have a resistant coating or would again require replacing more often than previous sturdier plastics... But then again toys to electrical products are replaced far more frequently than they break, so this might not be such a problem.

For the more durable uses of plastics you could either reform the fatty acids into hydrocarbons. Methods would be either organic decarboxylation or on a catalyst - both would require some energy, and I'm afraid no details come to mind; or pyrolysis which would require mre energy, but in suitable areas mirrors could aim the sunlight at the reaction vessel meaning although loads of energy were required it would be easy to get the energy to where it was needed.

Else use different materials, such as organic fibreglass for example - plant fibres in an organic resin matrix.

Oil has been used as it has been easy to use it. At the present moment in time this is becoming not the case (and prices might well crash soon rendering the argument mute for the time bieng); if you really like the carbon fix there's loads of coal...

~:smoking:

Wot makes me so angry is how simple it would be for any government to make it law that any new build would have to include solar panels on the house roofs.

The cost at new build breaks even and would help the energy requirements a house has.

It is so simple

Now heres what we have to do. Breed Millions and Millions of Hamsters (Gerbils will suffice if Hamsters aren't available.) Get Millions of little Hamster Wheels, all connected to a large super conductor, we must force the hamsters the run in their tread wheels until their life has been expended, and simply replace the dead hamster with a young vibrant one, the carcasses of course don't have to be just thrown out, we put them into a large Kiln that feeds a separate reactor, which powers the plant itself. :clown:

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Originally Posted by Wakizashi

Now heres what we have to do. Breed Millions and Millions of Hamsters (Gerbils will suffice if Hamsters aren't available.) Get Millions of little Hamster Wheels, all connected to a large super conductor, we must force the hamsters the run in their tread wheels until their life has been expended, and simply replace the dead hamster with a young vibrant one, the carcasses of course don't have to be just thrown out, we put them into a large Kiln that feeds a separate reactor, which powers the plant itself. :clown:

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Or you could just do it with convicts. There's no use of them sitting around in jails.

And thus concludes my world energy masterplan.

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"We also see an exponential progression in the use of solar energy," he said. "It is doubling now every two years. Doubling every two years means multiplying by 1,000 in 20 years. At that rate we'll meet 100 percent of our energy needs in 20 years."

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Ha!

CR