Energy
MIT Nano Battery
Ahhh, Energy. Hot topic these days. Complex topic in fact. Unnecessarily complex if you ask me. Many people in the general population either haven’t had education in physics or don’t recall from high school. What is energy?
There are many definitions for energy as there are for most things, however this is my favorite:
en·er·gy (ěn’ər-jē)
n. pl. en·er·gies
1. The capacity for work or vigorous activity; vigor; power.
Notice it doesn’t say anything about volts, watts, joules, oil, hydrogen, electricity, or anything of that nature. This definition reinforces the idea that energy is just the ability to do work or acquire a desired change. That at it’s root is what energy is. You may drink a sugary coffee to gain enough energy to get through the morning, you may fill your car with gas to get to work, you may plug in your iPod to charge it up so you can listen to music. Every time you want a result, you provide some kind of input in some form of energy.
In my mind there are two primary problems today with energy as we know it.
1. Generation
2. Transportation
Generation
We don’t have a sustainable method of generation no matter how you look at it.
Coal will run out.
Oil will run out.
Uranium will run out.
Plutonium will run out.
Natural gas will run out.
Keep in mind that there will always be deposits of these resources that we either won’t find, or can’t extract. It is inevitable and to ignore these facts is, as the Borg would say, futile. So where are we headed in generation? A better question is where SHOULD we be headed in generation? It’s my opinion that the only sustainable energy source available to us is solar, which I’ll explain further later.
What about wind, wave, geothermal, etc?
For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.
For energy to be obtained, energy must be removed.
I am of the opinion that wind is a TERRIBLE idea, not only are large wind farms the equivalent of a cheese grader for birds, but you are removing kinetic energy from the wind. How does this impact weather patterns? We don’t know, but I don’t like the idea of messing with a delicate balance like the planets weather patterns and function. Of the above renewable energies the only one that I believe we could harness with minimal impact to the system it interacts with is geothermal. Based on the studies I’ve seen thus far however it is not efficient enough to be valuable.
Now, short of finding an alternative energy source, solar appears to me to be the best option. Does removing this energy affect the system in which it exists? Absolutely. We’re harnessing power that otherwise would heat the surface of the planet and our atmosphere before some of it eventually bounces back out into space.
I am of the opinion that with sufficiently efficient solar cells we could harness the power of the sun without significantly affecting the system in which we live.
Where are we at now? Not far enough. Your typical residential photovoltaic solar cell is in the neighborhood of 9-15% efficiency. Some groups have recently released research and prototypes showing as much as 42.8% efficiency. Mostly using ultra rare metals that would not be feasible on a large economic scale.
If you ask me, instead of all the bailouts happening, dump some money into something useful like solar R&D. Under typical terrestrial conditions the sun lays down a lot of energy per square foot. If we could make solar cells with 70% efficiency we could make SERIOUS dents in our non-renewable resource usage. Alas, not enough research is being done. Just like everything else research costs money. Alas there is not enough money being put into research. So here we are chugging away on the non-renewable energy sources, hoping they’ll last until we at least have passed on and we’ll let our children worry about finding their own energy.
Transportation
What about transportation? Batteries suck. They’re messy, they’re big, and they don’t hold enough energy. What do I think is worth researching? Ultra capacitors. This term is used loosely for everything from high energy batteries to the more typically understood concept of a capacitor. I don’t know a lot about what’s currently under study but some form of ultra capacitor is necessary for the future of energy use. It’s necessary for transportation, home use during times when solar is not available, etc. Imagine a capacitor the size of a college textbook that holds enough energy to move a 4000 pound car 100 miles. Now put four or five of those in there and the transportation energy crisis is SOLVED. Done. Fin. Over. Thinks it’s not possible? Run the numbers. Energy density of that kind IS POSSIBLE. It exists in nature. The hard part is figuring out how to do with the the available technologies we have.
Anyways, this post is much longer than I wanted it to be. I had to paint the whole topic with a very broad brush and without much supporting evidence. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a tree hugger, but I am an air breather. Forgetting completely about the carbon dioxide output from oil sources, which I really don’t care about, I don’t like the other associated pollutants that result. I’m not a big fan of polluted foods and air. Anyways, one can only hope that things will line up and we as a country will head in a different direction. With enough energy, anything is possible. Anything.