June 24 2008 / by futuretalk
Category: Energy Year: General Rating: 6 Hot
By Dick Pelletier
Energy is the life-blood of America – it affects our economy,
standard of living and national security. Our prime energy source,
oil, is a product we can no longer afford. Four-to-five dollar per
gallon gas prices, air pollution, and global warming has brought us
to the point where we must find a better energy source. 
Experts predict that by 2030, new energy technologies described
below could drastically cut our oil consumption, and slash reliance
on electricity-producing fossil fuels like coal and natural gas
almost entirely. Added to our portfolio of existing nuclear and
hydroelectric power, these new energy sources could virtually
eliminate our reliance on fossil fuels to run our homes and
economy.
Bio-fuels – in the nation’s heartland, scientists are working to
turn agricultural waste or ‘biomass’ such as switchgrass, wheat
straw, cornstalks and miscanthus into a fuel called cellulosic
ethanol that could be produced commercially. Department of Energy
(DOE) officials believe that by 2030, bio-fuels could meet 30
percent of our transportation fuel needs.
Hydrogen – this new technology stores energy more effectively
than batteries, burns twice as efficiently in a fuel cell as
gasoline does in an internal combustion engine and leaves only
water. It’s plentiful, clean, and capable of powering cars, homes
and factories. The DOE predicts an
all-hydrogen vehicle could become price effective by 2020; and by
2030, this renewable non-polluting energy could power ten percent
of our cars, homes and factories; by 2050, 50 percent. (cont.)
Artificial photosynthesis – Professor James Barber of London’s
Imperial College describes a recent understanding of biological
catalysts that allow plants and trees to ‘split’ water to obtain
hydrogen and release oxygen. Barber says this provides a blueprint
for developing artificial systems to produce hydrogen to be used as
fuel. “This will not happen immediately”, he says, “but with
concerted effort, a system could emerge in 25 years.”
Hydroelectric, nuclear, fusion – 20% of the world receives
electricity from hydropower, but these systems wreak havoc flooding
large land areas. Though nuclear reactors are improving, people
still remember Three Mile Island and Chernobyl; and these
facilities are expensive to operate. Fusion power holds great
promise and could become the world’s preferred energy source in the
last half of this century. EU, Japan, China, India, South Korea,
Russia and U.S. have joined to build the world’s first fusion
reactor by 2016 in hopes to prove the merits of this futuristic
energy.
Solar, wind – these technologies show great promise, but the sun
and wind do not always cooperate, which creates an unreliable
energy flow. However, the late Nobel laureate Richard Smalley
proposed a solution. He devised a plan that would send energy via
satellite to in-home nanotech-built storage units, each holding
48-hours backup power. Smalley imagined that by 2050, some form of
space-based solar power systems could distribute uninterrupted,
cheap, non-polluting energy to all of North America.
The major roadblock standing in the way of many of these new
energy ideas are not technological, they are political; too many
government officials favor ‘big oil’. If we can overcome this
situation, the payoffs are huge: we’ll reduce trade deficits,
enhance national security, and create millions of non-exportable
jobs; and America will become more self-sufficient in the process.
Go “magical future”.
Comments welcome.
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