What Should Be The Future Energy Source?
Salty
Join Date: 2002-11-05 Member: 6970Members
Join Date: 2002-11-05 Member: 6970Members
in Discussions
In my opinon nuclear power.
Nuclear power is a clean alternative to coal and oil. Its now pretty safe there are even <a href='http://www.pbmr.co.za/2_about_the_pbmr/2_about.htm' target='_blank'>meltdown proof</a> reactors now. In fact coal burning plants have released more nuclear waste then all the nuclear accidents and plants. <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
So would you like your home powered by nuclear power or something else?
Nuclear power is a clean alternative to coal and oil. Its now pretty safe there are even <a href='http://www.pbmr.co.za/2_about_the_pbmr/2_about.htm' target='_blank'>meltdown proof</a> reactors now. In fact coal burning plants have released more nuclear waste then all the nuclear accidents and plants. <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
So would you like your home powered by nuclear power or something else?
Comments
It's clean, it's efficient.
Iceland is going to be the first oil free country (by using hydrogen fuel cells for everything.) by 2040.
It's clean, it's efficient.
Iceland is going to be the first oil free country (by using hydrogen fuel cells for everything.) by 2040. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Are you talking about in cars or as in power plants? Because hydrogen is not that good for powering your home.
me <------------------ visionary.
Wait for it.
And I'm all for nuclear power as long as its as safe as you guys say it is.
Solar power will most likely be a much more viable option within 10 years, I would expect.
I read this a while ago, but had to look it up again just to be sure - the technology isn't frequently used mainly because current solar panel effeciency <b>is only 10% to 15%</b>. With further development of the technology, it could be a very viable source of power once the effeciency reaches even 40%.
While it <i>is</i> a bit expensive to set up, you'll be getting 'free' power for as long as they're operational.
A friend of mine has a solar panel set up at his cabin about an hour outside the city. The cabin is infrequently-used - maybe one or two weekends every 2 months or so. During the few times we'd be there, there's always more than enough power stored to keep the lights and other basic essentials working. He's going to be selling the cabin within the next few months, and the solar power feature has been able to boost the price significantly. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
OT: Because he is possibly the greatest comic mind of our century. Watch 'Double Impact' and try to tell me that he's being serious. There is no <i>possible</i> way.
Plus, his accent is great. <i>Nobody</i> else has that accent.
And I take my initial answer back-- if we could somehow tap Jean Claude's unused acting abilities, then we'd have clean, entertaining power for the next hundred-- nay, thousand-- years.
Edit: Ok, my apologies-- I will cease to drag this OT. I am bored and have to sit still while I ice my shins (running injuries) and I can't possibly play another game of spider solitaire. Proceed.
Hydrogen Fuel Cells, yea.
Also, aren't Fusion Power and Fission power different things?
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Are you talking about in cars or as in power plants? Because hydrogen is not that good for powering your home.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Everything. They won't use oil at all.
It's clean, it's efficient.
Iceland is going to be the first oil free country (by using hydrogen fuel cells for everything.) by 2040. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The problem with hydrogen is that it's not an energy source, it's just a transfer medium. You put more energy into stripping the hydrogen off than you get by burning it. This is a fundamental law of physics. Entropy increases in both processes. A Hydrogen economy would require all of the energy to fuel every car in the country to be produced in the country's powerplants. Its much cleaner to centralise the production in powerplants because it allows you to invest in huge scrubbers, but it doesn't get around the problem of producing the energy.
I don't think we're going to move beyond fossile fuels. Check this out : <a href='http://www.discover.com/may_03/featoil.html' target='_blank'>http://www.discover.com/may_03/featoil.html</a>
The company has found a way to efficiently turn any organic waste into fossile fuels, carbon, and minerals. It seems to good to be true. But they're already doing it.
As soon as they go public, I'm buying stock.
Hydrogen Fuel Cells, yea.
Also, aren't Fusion Power and Fission power different things?
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Are you talking about in cars or as in power plants? Because hydrogen is not that good for powering your home.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Everything. They won't use oil at all. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Fusion is the formation of heavier atoms. Like making Helium from Hydrogen atoms. Fission is the spliting of atoms into lighter ones. Like starting with Uranium and ending up with much later on just lead. Fusion is what goes on in the Sun. Nuclear power plants today use fission.
Iceland will still need some sort of energy source for making the Hydrogen. Like <b>moultano</b> said its a medium so think it of a fuel cell as a rechargable battery. You still need energy to get the Hydrogen. This is done usually threw electralosis which is basically just putting electrodes in water and separating the H2O. No mater what though you will be using more energy to make the hydrogen then actually using it.
After that, it's anyones guess. Antimatter might be viable if it can be produced with any reasonable efficiency, or perhaps something more exotic, you never know how far physics can advance in an entire century of time.
Nuclear power is more of a stepping stone from fossil fuels to more advanced techniques of power. You cant renew radioactive substances, and storage of nuclear waste is tricky at best with Plutonium having a half life of 20,000 years, as opposed to Fusions trace radioactive tritium only lasting 12.3 years which already occurs naturally in trace amounts in ordinary rainwater.
And who knows, with the expansion rate of the universe accelerating, perhaps our descendents will be able to tap space times expansion and somehow derive energy from this potentially exponential source of power (I am talking practical geological epoch's from now).
Only time will tell if we can move past a source of power as inefficient and damaging as fossil fuels...
I like the scientists
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Appel pops the lid and instantly regrets it. "Whew," he says. "That is nasty." <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Will vegitarians be able to drive cars now though? And will gas prices drop during thanksgiving <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
<a href='http://www.sciforums.com/archive/30/2000/10/2/1199' target='_blank'>http://www.sciforums.com/archive/30/2000/10/2/1199</a>
<a href='http://www.traquair.com/clients/jet/jet.html' target='_blank'>http://www.traquair.com/clients/jet/jet.html</a>
<a href='http://www.jet.uk/' target='_blank'>http://www.jet.uk/</a>
(matrix reference <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> )
Hydrogen Fuel Cells, yea.
Also, aren't Fusion Power and Fission power different things?
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Are you talking about in cars or as in power plants? Because hydrogen is not that good for powering your home.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Everything. They won't use oil at all. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Fusion is the formation of heavier atoms. Like making Helium from Hydrogen atoms. Fission is the spliting of atoms into lighter ones. Like starting with Uranium and ending up with much later on just lead. Fusion is what goes on in the Sun. Nuclear power plants today use fission.
Iceland will still need some sort of energy source for making the Hydrogen. Like <b>moultano</b> said its a medium so think it of a fuel cell as a rechargable battery. You still need energy to get the Hydrogen. This is done usually threw electralosis which is basically just putting electrodes in water and separating the H2O. No mater what though you will be using more energy to make the hydrogen then actually using it. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
god, there was an article in WIRED magazine about hydrogen, and they way they were gonna do it, if only I could copy it without committing copyright infringment.
it's still copyright infringment <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
when I find the magazine again, I'll post Iceland's plan.
DEAR GOD THANK YOU.
This is what I was talking about, how they were making it practical and usable.
Also vegetarians would be able to frive cars but vegans would have to bend the rules a bit.
Fusion is also hellah dangerous. I doubt a socialist society will Japan is pretty capatilist.
I think nuclear is the way to go. the waste can be recycled and if you use a peeble style plant the peebles are already inclosed in silicon which will stay of for 1,000,000 years.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->. Iceland is an example of a country with indigenous resources where a future based on hydro and geothermal energy is possible<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
They arent runing there entire country on hydrogen. Just the cars. Geothermal is a really good way to go. Its just not everybody has it <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->