I get my geek on about science. It's true. I've watched a few episodes of "The Universe" on the Discovery Channel, and got all giddy when I learned about how scientists discovered that there are other planets out there (incredibly fast and gigantic ones, from what they've discovered, though those might just be the easiest to spot). I knew all about the "wobble" effect, but to see it explained (by some cute tattooed hipster fire dancing astronomer chick, no less) in so many words got me really riled up. I have no idea why- it's not like this was fresh news to me.
But I thought it was pretty fucking sweet to see how much science has advanced in the past 20 years. Astronomers used to laugh at people who figured there were planets beyond our solar system (really, seriously.). And I geek out on How It's Made, Modern Marvels, Mythbusters, Man vs. Wild (Bear is a fucking beast, and I always feel bad for his camaraman), and Good Eats.
Anyhow, I've done more than my fair share of putzing about on StumbleUpon, and it's come across some seriously cool techno-goodies that get my giddy up. But prominent among those goodies seems to be a plethora of environmentally-friendly items that get working that part of my brain that once fancied itself a sci-fi novelist. Seems we're closer and closer to such a place, though I can't fathom how we'll get there from here, with the current geopolitical climate.
N.B. - I am in no way an environmentalist. These are just things I find extremely cool.
I've seen a number of postings online about "plug-in hybrids", and frankly, these worry me. Yes, the advent of the hybrid car is a boon to the ecology of the planet. And the electric car becoming a reality- that's spectacular. But… the energy has to come from someplace. Just because we're not spewing the carbon monoxide directly from the tailpipe doesn't mean that some coal factory isn't spewing tons of it into the air miles down the road, just to generate more energy for those shiny new cars.
What is a little cooler is the hydrogen cell cars that I've been seeing ads for...
Now, yeah, people've cried "what about the Hindenburg???" which is a load of bunk. Move on. The Hindenburg was practically covered in fuel, with the coating it had. It was bound to ignite. If it'd been just the hydrogen, it'd have burnt up differently (Thank you, Mythbusters, once again). Gasoline is a fire hazard, too. If the internal combustion engine is the way to go, fix the fuel.
But, where the hell will all the hydrogen come from? Again, it'll be more burning coal to rip apart the covalent bonds to get some tasty hydrogen for our guzzly (or huffy) cars. Damn your eyes, keen new technology!!
Enter… the Windhunter.
Who's your daddy?
Look at the video, read the FAQs. Gimme a fleet of these bad boys. They generate hydrogen from seawater, by using windpower to electrolyze the water molecules. Boo-ya. How freakin' simple and awesome is that? I gotta say, I can dig it. Cars that pollute nothing, and a shit-ton of ships out in the middle of the ocean, making good use of the wind what good Mama Earth done gave us. And look, I get it- the oil companies make a ton of money right now, drilling for oil and blah-blah-blah. If they could get switched over to this, that's a crap-ton of money to be made. Seriously. Figure it out.My only concern would be... when we start seriously utilizing stuff like this (and given the growth of energy consumption in the world since Industrial Revolution, it's likely to trend ever upward), aren't we going to lower the sea level by a bit? Maybe not massive amounts (though ironically enough, to lower it by a few feet worldwide would be a mathematical balance to the rising tides caused by melting polar ice caps. Hunh.), but somewhat. I'm sure it'd have an effect on sea life, and if we're adding salt to the oceans (by removing the water and dumping the salt back into the ocean- where'd you think it would go?), it's bound to have ecological effects somewhere down the line. And given that less than 2% of the world's water is freshwater, it's likely that saltwater is what we'd be electrolyzing.
And what about oxygen toxicity? Oxygen, in high concentrations, is toxic. I doubt we'd be electrolyzing quite so much to seriously effect the overall percentages of oxygen in the atmosphere, but you never know. If you've put massive quantities of hydrogen from saltwater into tanks, and aren't yet burning it, won't the oxygen
you've released be floating in the atmosphere?
Of course... there are worse things that a slightly lower ocean and a slightly higher percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere. It's arguable that the oceans are already rising and the oxygen in the atmosphere is already lower than it's been in centuries past. Would switching gears reverse that trend? How weird and amazing would it be if we could actually undo some of the damage to the planet, and continue to live basically as we do now?
Speaking of wind energy... It's really growing into an interesting field.
MagLev Wind Turbine Technologies
This is a a giantic, skyscraper-sized windmill. It's also a vertical windmill, which is a design that captures wind energy much more efficiently than traditional windmills, which in and of itself is good. What pushes it over the top is the fact that it's maglev.Fucking fascinating. It's a far from perfect technology, and I'm sure no one wants one of these in their backyard (though where do you think coal and nuclear power plants go?).
So, yeah, these are huge 2001 monolith-style wind turbines. Not easy to convince people is worthwhile.
These, however, are beauteous, quiet, and feasible.
Quiet Revolution
This is a wind turbine that doesn't have to rotate to find the wind. Seems like a small thing, but it means it can operate pretty much anywhere, and you can mount these bad-boys on roofs in the middle of the city, and they'll get enough power to do some damage to your electric bill, without being an eyesore, making rock concert decibels, or taking up a ton of space. Pretty keen.
I'm partial to the idea of placing these all along the interstate. We're flying by at 65 MPH- why not grab a little of that wind there, eh? And I'm sitting in the nasty Chicago el station, waiting on that train, and the wind is blowing like a sonofabitch. (Yeah, Chicago was called "the windy city" because of it's hot-air politicians, but if you live here, you know that it's pretty incredibly windy, weather-wise, too.) Let's get some of those mounted atop the train stations. Do it to it.
Ditto on solar panels. Forever, they've been incredibly expensive, thick, heavy, and not very efficient. Nanosolar, who I talked about before, has developed their printing-press technique for printing paper-thin solar panels for about the same coast per kilowatt hour as coal.
*blink*
*blink*
Let me say that again. Solar cheap as coal. And solar never runs out. You install it... and it's free fucking energy forever. Well, that, or the several billion years till the sun supernovas. Can anyone else dig it? Oh, yeah, that's right. The uber-rich oil companies probably aren't keen on free energy forever. Fine. Tax the solar power. License use of the panels. Something. I don't care. Someone'll wanna make some money from it somewhere, and thousands of people will lose their jobs if/when oil is toppled.
Anyone ever wonder what we could be doing with those massive deserts out West? Pilot program. Cover a couple thousand acres of the desert with solar panels and giant maglev wind turbines (or smaller ones- the big one requires something like 100 acres to be built, though they produce the same energy as 1,000 windmills, which would take up 64,000 acres). Learn what the issues of that sort of energy production are, how feasible it is, what sort of maintenance it requires, the whole nine yards. Give it a year or so. If it works, and generates enough energy to make it worthwhile, terrific.
Hell, it looks like it's already happening, to some extent.
Say, hows about we start talking with the governments of the world. Talk to Russia about Siberia, where it's gotta get awful windy, and where there's some serious desert. Strike a deal with them- we help them build a shit-ton of these wind turbines, they cut us a serious deal on power costs.
Talk to Africa about their massive deserts. Largest continent on earth, least habitable overall. If they could export energy to the rest of the world, think what it would do for their economy (and how fucking awesome the US would look for doing a good deed- and how much we'd end up saving, money-wise, in the future. Boost the economy, anyone? I'm more interested in saving 50% off my energy bill, than on getting Bush's bullshit tax rebate check).
And don't use traditional, expensive-as-hell panels. Use Nanosolar, so you get more bang for your buck.
Talk to them about building these awesome buildings throughout Africa, to supply food for their hungry. Again, maybe hook up an agreement of some sort, to get us a serious deal, and build them some Vertical Farms.
Food for power. Something like that. I'm no politician. I don't get to make those decisions. I just think it's pretty fucking sweet. I want one.
Okay, upon further research, it appears I'm a douche and didn't read enough. Check out how much further ahead of us Europe is...
Kinetic power also seems to be a big deal. I've seen watches powered by it, and now
cell phones.
Seems like relatively simple technology, but hey, it should be made use of, don'tcha think? Put some of those suckers to use inside trains, along highways, under sidewalks, under my gym's treadmills.
Not to mention lightning. It's right there. Are we idiots?
Shouldn't we be collecting some of these massive amounts of energy we're spending,
and recycle it wherever we can?
So...
There's a lot of energy out there that the Earth provides for us. Let's make use of it. I'd love to see, in ten years, roads covered with zero-emissions hydrogen cell vehicles, which are covered with some solar panels (in nice designs, mind you, or in thin filaments within the glass, if possible) to add to their power intake. Hell, even electric cars, since in this utopia, their power isn't generated from coal, but from...
Windmills. Big ones, small ones. On top of skyscrapers (which would also have a ton of solar panels), atop the roof of your house, in the desert, off on acres of land being used now by nuclear reactors and coal-fueled power plants. Lining the corridors of our nation's highways, to pick up on all that wasted energy we expend in the everyday to-and-from.
Solar panels littering the landscapes of otherwise barren countries. The economies of Africa and Russia boosted to the point that they can stand up alongside the US, economically and socially.
Lightning rods gathering massive electricity bursts every and anywhere possible.
Hydrogen-cell powered cars getting their from offshore electrolysis rigs. Not to mention hydrogen replacing propane for home heating, wherever possible.
Kinetic power being collected along the highways, city streets, airports, anywhere there's a good day-to-day bustle.
Solar-powered hydroponic farms in Africa, feeding the populace.
The US being responsible for kick-starting much more of this than we currently do.
Ending our dependence on foreign oil in a manner other than switching gears to some liquid-coal fuel.
Yeah. Dare to dream, right?
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