Can alternative energy effectively replace fossil fuels?

[metis]

breeder reactors

I think breeding in a reactor could really give a couple quite an after-glow.

 

[Valjean]

Nuclear is expensive, fuel and depleted fuel is dangerous and an accident, however unlikely, can devastate large areas.

 

[Theweirdtophat]

There is already a way to have energy. Free energy at that. But the powers of be that don't want that. They don't want people to have nearly infinite ways of having energy they don't have to pay for.

 

[Thief]

I think breeding in a reactor could really give a couple quite an after-glow.

but think of all the reaction!!!!!!!!

 

[Thief]

in a square of 60ft......there is enough sunlight energy to burn through1inch of steel......in seconds

 

[Vinayaka]

SV processes a lot of the cooking oil that gets offered into biodiesel.

The Aadheenam gets about 75% of its requirements from solar, and their schedule is such that they don't use as much light as the rest of us.

 

[Kirran]

The Aadheenam gets about 75% of its requirements from solar, and their schedule is such that they don't use as much light as the rest of us.

While we're doing this - SV has a wind turbine too! I don't know what proportion of their power it provides, I'd say most or all of it.

 

[Nous]

Not long ago I started a very popular thread on the issue of meeting the world's ever-growing energy requirements. As you can see, it was prompted by a recent NOVA episode that argued that nuclear power is the only way to do so, given that we currently have no technology whatsoever for adequate battery storage of intermittent solar and wind power. The episode did not bother to point out the environmental devastation caused by wind and hydro-power. Hydroelectric dams not only ruin whole ecosystems with their reservoirs and are responsible for a tremendous number of species extinctions, the reservoirs also produce large amounts of GHGs--sometimes greater CO2e than producing the same electricity by fossil fuels.

The only problem with meeting the world's energy needs is overcoming the irrational fears and regulatory obstacles concerning nuclear power. To this end, NOVA showcased the virtually meltdown- proof and unequivocally proliferation-proof traveling-wave reactor developed by TerraPower, which won't be built in the US for at least a couple of decades, but one of which is currently being built in China. TWRs can use as their primary fuel depleted uranium, of which the US currently has stores sufficient to power the US for 750 years. TWRs can even use uranium from ocean and river water.

 

[Vinayaka]

While we're doing this - SV has a wind turbine too! I don't know what proportion of their power it provides, I'd say most or all of it.

Relatively small individual places like that can rather easily get energy efficient, I think. It's entire cities that have a problem. One innovative idea tossed around on Kauai, since its mountainous, is to use solar during the day to pump water to a reservoir, and then use hydro at night. The reservoir works like a temporary battery.

Oddly enough, in some places, a bigger dependency problem is food. Kauai currently imports 90% of its food, (multinational agricultural companies with large contracts is the main problem) but that's changing too.

 

[james dixon]

Can alternative energy effectively replace fossil fuels?​

Fossil fuels are just a wave.,.,./\..,/\..,.,/\.,.,.,.,,/\.,.,,.,
& as waves be waves, they eventually lye down

& go to sleep
never to rise again ​

alternative energy should be on the top of the priorities list

we all must join hands to bring us together
me included
we i.e. humans
need to join hands
to solve this impeding dilemma

that end date is about 44 years from today.

The fossil/gas debate is over
Fossil fuels are finite. They have an end date.
My grandchildren will see that end.

I think it is time for alternative thinking-?
NOTtheTalk - The end of the Fossil Fuel era is upon us so what are we going to do next-? (Environment)

how about you?
-

 

[james dixon]

North Sea is running too dry to meet target

Wednesday July 4, 2007

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,
2117952,00.html

The real casus belli: peak oil
Tuesday June 26, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2
111529,00.html

Science Panel Finds Fault With Estimates of Coal Supply
Published: June 21, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/business/21coal.
html

Chevron announces that they now have 11.8 years of oil left at current production levels after aquiring Unocal reserves
07/08/05

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/business/worldbu
siness/11unocal.html?pagewanted=2&adxnnl=1&
adxnnlx=1123732924-48wR07Ekayb0gi0r7b8l9Q

An Oil Enigma: Production Falls Even as Reserves Rise
Published: June 12, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/12/business/12RESE.
html?pagewanted=3&hp

"The decline of oil and gas will affect the world population more than climate change"
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/10/02/glo
bal.warming/'>http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/10/02/glo
bal.warming/

In January 2001, the U.S.
Department of Energy estimated the world's supply of unexploited oil reserves the world supply of oil will be totally exhausted 35 years from now (June 2003).
http://members.aol.com/mpwright9/oil.html

World oil and gas 'running out'
Thursday, October 2, 2003 Posted: 1245 GMT ( 8:45 PM HKT)

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/10/02/glo
bal.warming/'>http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/10/02/glo
bal.warming/

The Oil Crunch
Published: May 7, 2004
The question, instead, is when the trend in oil prices will turn decisively upward. That upward turn is inevitable as a growing world economy confronts a resource in limited supply. But when will it happen? Maybe it already has.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/07/opinion/07KRUG.h
tml

Natural gas markets undergo turbulent transition as domestic production declines

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/auto/epa
per/editions/tuesday/business_f3edda2474a06071009b.
html

"Texas' oil resource is pretty well picked over," http://www.statesman.com/specialreports/content/sp
ecialreports/energy/0617oil.html'>http://www.statesman.com/specialreports/content/sp
ecialreports/energy/0617oil.html

Oman's Oil Yield Long in Decline, Shell Data Show

Published: April 8, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/business/08OIL.h
tml?hp

Half of Texas’s oil wells have dried up in the past 40 years and there are very few new ones.

http://www.statesman.com/specialreports/content/sp
ecialreports/energy/0617oil.html'>http://www.statesman.com/specialreports/content/sp
ecialreports/energy/0617oil.html

Tight Oil Supply Won't Ease Soon

Published: May 16, 2004

Two dollars for a gallon of gas? Get used to it. High fuel prices are here to stay, at least for the near future, because no relief is in sight for tight oil supplies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/16/business/16OIL.h
tml?pagewanted=2&hp&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=10
84724567-pWSKI+RB9bShA5oXGRQi4w

The end of the Fossil Fuel era is upon us so what are we going to do next-?

 

[Twilight Hue]

Can it?

Givin enough time for research and proper development, I think so. We are literally surrounded by potential sources.

 

[LuisDantas]

Can it?

They definitely will replace fossil fuels eventually, assuming that if there is still a community with an use for energy sources at the time when fossil fuels become impractical or fully depleted. Solar, gravity and wind based energy sources are essentially inexhaustible.

How effective that replacement will be depends, I would think, on one's expectations for effectiveness. A strong argument must be made that fossil fuels are remarkably ineffective themselves, since they are after all fated to eventual depletion.

The only reason why the question is even raised are the expectations of indefinite maintenance of certain levels of energy usage at a certain range of cost. We humans are a greed, predatorial bunch.

Fossil fuels are, by their very nature, unsustainable and extractivist. It is not too inaccurate to say that we abuse the environment in a inherently destructive way in order to have any access to them.

They are a rich economical opportunity, much as slavery is and for somewhat similar reasons. And likewise, it must ultimately be curbed out of existence, because it is both immoral and unsustainable. In fact, as many other things, it is immoral because it is unsustainable.

 

[sayak83]

Can it?

Yes, in time.

 

[PureX]

Can it?

Yes, it can. But we have to decide to move the nation in that direction. And so far, the people getting very rich selling oil, natural gas, and coal, have been able to use their vast wealth to make sure that we do not move in that direction. And their influence is unassailable. So there will be no changes anytime soon.

 

[LuisDantas]

There is already a way to have energy. Free energy at that. But the powers of be that don't want that. They don't want people to have nearly infinite ways of having energy they don't have to pay for.

On the other side of the equation, people don't seem to be going out of their way to keep sustainable population levels either.

 

[VioletVortex]

Only if we lessen the demand for energy.

 

[james dixon]

Givin enough time for.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,,,,,,., .

In this case time is not infinite, it's fixed. Within 40+/- years we will suck up all the oil there is. We need to plan ahead while we can and not rely on knee jerk responses' when the sheet hits the fan.

does anyone agree? -

 

[james dixon]

Researchers broke down a typical barrel of domestic crude oil into what may be produced. By the way, the average domestic crude oil has a gravity of 32 degrees and weighs 7.21 pounds per gallon.

Here’s what just one barrel of crude oil can produce:

• Enough liquefied gases (such as propane) to fill 12 small (14.1 ounce) cylinders for home, camping or workshop use.
• Enough gasoline to drive a medium-sized car (17 miles per gallon) over 280 miles.
• Asphalt to make about one gallon of tar for patching roofs or streets.
• Lubricants to make about a quart of motor oil.
• Enough distillate fuel to drive a large truck (five miles per gallon) for almost 40 miles. If jet fuel fraction is included, that same truck can run nearly 50 miles.
• Nearly 70 kilowatt hours of electricity at a power plant generated by residual fuel.
• About four pounds of charcoal briquettes.
• Wax for 170 birthday candles or 27 wax crayons.

There are enough petrochemicals left in that same barrel to provide the base for one of the following:

• 39 polyester shirts
• 750 pocket combs
• 540 toothbrushes
• 65 plastic dustpans
• 23 hula hoops
• 65 plastic drinking cups
• 195 one-cup measuring cups
• 11 plastic telephone housings
• 135 four-inch rubber balls

The point is, plastics come from oil as well.

 

[Revoltingest]

in a square of 60ft......there is enough sunlight energy to burn through1inch of steel......in seconds

The cost lies in the devices used to convince those photons to gather together.
Even free energy isn't free if you want to convert it to electricity.