Hellow's Blog

I was inspired by a chat I had over IRC about renewable energy and its practicality in the future.

Our current methods of energy production are generally very bad for the environment:

• Coal is horrible (and Scientific American claims that coal ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste – http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste ) and it is becoming more scarce by the day;
• Oil energy is becoming both unpractical (due to rising oil prices which is, in turn, due to decreasing supplies) and its emissions;
• Nuclear power (in the most popular forms, this will be discussed later) is clean in terms of emissions but horrible in the long term due to the waste it produces which can last for thousands of years, plus the fact that its expensive, big, and prone to meltdowns, terroristic attack, and a multitude of other dangers;
• Wood is still around and bad in terms of killing trees and its emissions;
• Natural Gas is clean but emits large amounts of Carbon Dioxide which contributes to Global Warming.

It is clear that we need a alternative, but what?

Solar Panels

Solar panels are a good *localized* energy source. Face it: the Sun does not always shine everywhere, all the time. If the Sun goes down, your power goes with it. Batteries are a solution to this, but lots of them negates the environmental benefits of the panels.

Wind Turbines

These are another good localized solution, but again: The wind does not always blow everywhere, all the time. In fact, unless you live at a high altitude or on a flat plain with lots of wind, wind turbines have less reliability than solar panels. This can also be countered by batteries, but again lots of them will negate the environmental benefits of the panels. Furthermore, again, unless they are placed at a high altitude or on a flat plain with lots of altitude, their benefit is marginal at best.

Hydroelectric

This is, in my opinion, one of the better options. Water never stops flowing (unless you have a massive drought). But, large hydroelectric dams impact the wildlife of the area that they are placed in. Dam designers are trying to lessen this, an example being the salmon steps installed on many dams so salmon can climb up the dam and continue on their upstream journey to their breeding grounds.

Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor

Ordinary Nuclear reactors may be extremely bad for the environment, but Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors are far better. I’m not even going to try explaining how this works, just read the website about it: http://energyfromthorium.com/ .

Geothermal

This is, in my opinion, the best long-term solution, and it has gotten surprising little coverage for alternative energy sources. Geothermal energy is, basically, drilling a hole in the ground and converting the heat from the Earth’s inner layers into energy. Its clean, efficient, cost-effective, and will keep working until the Earth itself stops. The problem is the fact that the plants can only be placed on tectonic plate boundaries  (or fault lines), limiting their deployment. If we can overcome that, this would be possibly the best long-term solution.

Tidal Power

Tidal power is when you turn the tides of the ocean – which occurs everywhere – into power usable by the population. This is a good alternative energy source – for coastal areas. The problem with this is the fact that its basted.. well, in the ocean, and that’s not accessible to the majority of the world population.

Fusion Power

This solution has been suggested many, many times. In a nuclear reactor, atoms are split in a process called “fission”. In a fusion reactor, however, atoms are combined which produces many times more energy than fission. Fusion is what keeps the Sun running. Now, this presents a obvious hurdle which scientists have not been able to solve to any effective degree: How do we keep the power of the Sun on the Earth? There are fission reactors that are being tested, but they can not produce any sizable amount of energy yet. Plus, if, in the future, a full scale fusion reactor was to suddenly explode, that would be a ton of energy released on the surface of the Earth.

Conclusion

There are many current and future technologies that could be used for alternative energy sources, but there are only a few that are practical today, and today is where the problem is. Geothermic would be the best, if we could overcome the hurdle of being able to be placed only on fault lines. Fusion is a good idea – but the problems presented are great. Tidal power is a good solution for coastal areas, but that does not solve the problem for the rest of the world not on the coast. Once technology advances some more, we could use some of these solutions in conjunction. For now, though, Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors are the only viable solution, and they are still in testing stages.