The Future of Fossil Fuel and Electricty
Posted in Engineering on Jul 17, 2008
I enjoyed reading this article titled “Our Electric Future” written by former Intel CEO Andy Grove, where he discusssed several issues with fossil fuels, its importance in our daily lives, why American presidents all failed the same goal and what alternatives solutions that can be used to replace fossil fuels.
Out of all alternatives, it seems that electricty is the best source as Andy refers to it as the only source that is “sticky” – it can only be transfered over land and thus remains on the continent on where it is produced.
Transportation remains the main sector which consumes the most amount of fossil fuel. It’s really a good idea to shift all transportation to run on electricity. But the major problems are, as with every new technology: fundings, politics, timing, production and adaptation (transition). Hybrid vehicles are a good start into that direction anyway.
But this can lead into other issues: What can we use to generate electricty once there’s a spike in demand for electricity? More coal and fossil fuel is definately not the answer. Power generation through Uranium is still a debatable subject and Australia, for example, has obviously no plans to build any in the near future although the country contains huge reserves of this mineral and does mine it for export.
Transition from fossil fuel to electricity for transportation
In my opinion, the solution in the long term is:
We need more renewable energy.
But then again, renewable energy has its own limitation too. A 1000-megawatt nuclear power station would require less than one square kilometre of land to generate power. To produce the same amount of electricity, solar cells would need to cover 50 – 60 square kilometres.
Other renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro-electricity and geothermal has their own problems and challenges to face as noted here.
It’s no doubt that humans are dealing with a challenging situation here when it comes to power and energy, and we are yet to find a perfect solution.
Too many reactors, even modern ones like the Thorium Breeder THTR-300
in Germany had problems.
Man has yet to make the flawless unbreakable anything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THTR-300
As long as man continues to make mistakes when something
as dangerous as a nuclear reactor is concerned, then it has to
be put on the back burner til a truly fool proof method can be derived.
Pebble Bed was considered error free…guess again…
Our best bet is clean renewable power sources for long term
health of the planet and the human race.
Some day we can achieve some kind of nuclear power like
fusion without radioactive waste, but we are not quite there yet.
The list of nuclear accidents speaks for itself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_accidents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin_(nuclear_icebreaker)#Nuclear_accidents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windscale_Fire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accident
This is not all, just most of the accidents.
It is all I need to see to know that humans are not infallible.
The potential for massive death is an unacceptable risk.
Solar, Wind, Tidal, Hydro, and Bio fuels can suffice until
mankind can surpass technological adolescence.
Here is a rundown of some things we can use in the short term
to prevent a repeat of the 1973 energy crisis via renewables.
Valcent Technologies – 100,000 gal/acre/year bio diesel from vertical
hydroponics algae grown in the desert, no arable farm land required.
LS9 – Bacteria that turns sewage into raw crude.
Coskata – Enzymes that turn waste material or switch grass
into Ethanol for about $1/gal – GM has already partnered with them.
For Electric Generation we have Wind, Solar, Hydro, Tidal, Geothermal,
undersea and river currents.
As T. Boone Pickens aptly says, the plains states are the Saudi Arabia
of Wind Power.
Just the Top 12 states have Wind potential of 1.1 million Mega Watts,
or 1.1 Tera watts, per Wikipedia.
For solar power, the SEGs system makes 350 MW on 1,000 acres of land,
or 1.5 sq. miles approximately.
http://www.fplenergy.com/portfolio/contents/segs_viii.shtml
It is in the Mojave Desert which is 22,000 sq. miles.
Nearby is the Sonora Desert at 120,000 sq. miles,
and the Great Basin Desert at 200,000 sq. miles.
For a total of 342,000 sq. miles.
If you used about one quarter at roughly 85,000 sq. miles
you would get 56,666 times the power of the current SEGs system.
About 20 Tera-watts.
Average power usage Worldwide for all countries on the planet was
15 Terawatts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_resources_and_consumption
Just imagine if North Africa harnesses the massive Sahara.
It is 3.5 million sq. miles or over ten times the size of the 3 combined
Deserts in the US.
The Arabian Desert in Saudi Arabia at 900,000 sq. miles.
The list goes on, and with them being in different time zones,
when the sun is down on one, it is not on the others.
Deserts can be found around the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deserts
From what I hear Hydro Power is mostly tapped out, except for
a new niche, micro hydro:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_hydro
Tidal power I lean towards the screened Turbine design because
it prevents harm to aquatic life, and damming a tidal basin often
destroys the ecosystem and silts in.
The Bay of Fundy In Nova Scotia has massive tidal power potential.
It is said that every 12 hrs more water flows in an out than all the
rivers of the world combined.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_fundy
Geothermal has some serious issues with depletion if you inject water,
it cools it off long term in the area, one idea is to build a solar chimney
over the Geothermal vents and let the rising air turn turbines, and do
not inject water.
Current based power from undersea currents and river currents has
huge untapped potential, think of it as underwater micro hydro using
devices like the Aquanator:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/26/1096137100758.html?oneclick=true
I’d like to say I know how much power is present in all the rivers and
undersea currents, but I have no idea, and it has to be a massive
amount of power.
The magnitude of the currents can only be guessed at by this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_current
It alone has enough power to power the entire world many times over
in my opinion.
Correction, the strongest ocean current has been measured:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Circumpolar_Current
135 times the flow of all the rivers on Earth.
That is ….uh….staggering.
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