Most of the talk about renewable energy is aimed at electricity production. However, most of the energy we need is heat, which solar panels and wind turbines cannot produce efficiently. To power industrial processes like the making of chemicals, the smelting of metals or the production of microchips, we need a renewable source of thermal energy. Direct use of solar energy can be the solution, and it creates the possibility to produce renewable energy plants using only renewable energy plants, paving the way for a truly sustainable industrial civilization.
DFH's and many living off the grid have been using small scale solar furnaces and stoves for decades. This is about scaling up that technology.
Think about it. Earth is pretty much a closed system other than for the solar energy it is being bombarded with daily, for free.
10 comments:
Nice article, but this just reminds me of already existing simple solutions.
Yea like a third of our current energy use is for heating buildings.
Improve building codes, to that of Nordic countries that handle sub-zero temps.
At three meters underground the temperature is 17 deg. All year across most inhabited places of the earth. Circulate water during winter to maintain a minimum room temp of 17 deg, then use traditional energy sources for further heating. Simple stuff.
shaun.hingston@hushmail.com
"They" should look out the window and see what is happening in MENA, Greece, London, Wisconsin, Ohio, etc.
Events are bearing out the predictions of Strauss & Howe, Ravi Batra, and Gerald (Crazy Man) Celente, and this appears to be just the beginning of the revolution.
Shades of the Sixties and Seventies, but this time it is going to be a lot bigger and more widespread.
Celente thinks America will goto war by early 2013, I wonder which lucky country will be liberated.
"Earth is pretty much a closed system other than for the solar energy it is being bombarded with daily, for free."
I'm sorry but that is just wrong. We are in a storm of cosmic radiation which is getting more intense as we move toward the "north" side of the galactic plane toward Andromeda.
We are observing more and more complexity in the EM fields interactions between every body in the solar system.
If certain idiots didn't think we were "running out of money" and gutting NASA we would starting to get real progress in understanding how Earth isn't in solo act but playing a cosmic harmony with the rest of the worlds.
Nobody cares about energy. Engineers care about power.
Solar is very low power which very expensive to concentrate. Fossil fuels took millions of years to collect and concentrate and we will not be replaced by PV or any solar or wind toys.
The ONLY real viable option is to go BIG. VERY BIG like http://www.fusionpowercorporation.com/.
Let's build 2000 of these bruisers to solve all power, fuel, and water problems forever. Here's more details http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2emKoMgZ03U.
Unfortunately, I think only an understanding of MMT will allow folks in Government to understand why this is doable on the finance side. If you want to get serious you must go BIG.
Little changes like little stimulus's get little results.
Natural/Methane Gas has gone from $11 to 4 from the enhanced recovery and drilling. Oil fracking has just barely begun and look at the price of WTI compared to Brent. Doesn't bode well for renewables with endless cheap oil sand and fracking driving up supply just as it happened with gas.
Septeus7: I'm sorry but that is just wrong. We are in a storm of cosmic radiation which is getting more intense as we move toward the "north" side of the galactic plane toward Andromeda.
We are observing more and more complexity in the EM fields interactions between every body in the solar system.
Agree that EM is the science of the future, but right now we do know how to tap solar and scale it up. Any idea of how long to harness and scale up EM?
Agree, too, that fusion is a no-brainer, but I was listening to Michio Kaku recently and he was saying that it will take several decades to scale up and the bridge will be solar, which he estimates will be competitive in price with fossil fuels in about 15 years.
This is not something that I follow closely. What's your take on the time frame for scaling up non-carbon energy sources?
Tonight on PBS we had Charlie Rose with :
Steve Rattner - "expert on car mfg"
Bill Sahlman - of Harvard Uni.
Nouriel Roubini - Mr. Infrastructure
Bill Gross : PIMPco
Steve Rattner rattled that the "USA owes China $2 Trillion"
It just strikes me again how stupid and out of paradigm these egg heads are.
Does the USA still owe Warren Mosler his money via some bank that it is credited in ?
Does the USA still owe Buffett his piggy bank(s)?
Does the USA still owe all American's their savings ?
NO NO NO NO and NO
They already EARNED the monies and deposited them into accounts, and for China that means a treasury bank account - it's just a special bank account.
THE FACT IS THAT THEY ARE NOT SPENDING IT AND CREATING HEAT IN THE ECONOMY.
DITTO FOR OPEC
FOR UK
FOR JAPANESE
FOR ALL THE REST OF THE HOARDERS WHO ARE SAVING AND NOT SPENDING.
WHEN WILL THIS LUNACY STOP ?
FAR*#$*&#*$&*#$ !!!!
WE DON'T OWE THEM TWICE ...
THEY DID NOT GIVE US ANYTHING ...
PRINTING MONEY ? NO ! NOT PRINTED ENOUGH TO BEGIN WITH IN ANTICIPATION OF THE GOODS ( TOXIC AND WITH LEAD ) COMING IN THE DOOR.
FOR EVERY DOLLAR WE SPEND ON THEIR CRAP, IT IS A DOLLAR INTO THEIR PIGGY BANK - THEIR TREASURY ACCOUNT.
"Agree that EM is the science of the future, but right now we do know how to tap solar and scale it up. Any idea of how long to harness and scale up EM?"
Solar is EM but on a narrow frequency range. The problem is how do you concentrate the energy into usable power and Mike is correct that solar therm is better than PV for now.
Getting to high temperature is easy but keeping things hot at is expensive.
The only thing I've read about is is various molten salt storage but I'm not seeing cost coming.
The reason there was a lot of fuss about "an artificial leaf" recently is that the best way to use solar energy is way nature uses i.e make a liquid fuel using CO2 and water.
The most important thing is that moving to the next energy platform will cost money and require a serious government which is why I'm tend not to be so positive. We can make almost anything work if you through enough effort and money.
Infrastructure takes time and requires planning and that's the problem. Until we understand that time and intelligent plans (and people) is what is limited rather than money and even "resources" we will be in continuous crisis mode running in circles doing nothing.
I like solar, but it is not going to run an industrial society (at least not yet). The energy source also has to be used for heating and transportation. If its not cost efficient yet in San Diego then it still has a ways to go.
http://www.bubbleinfo.com/2011/05/28/solar/
30K in cost and about 12 years to break even for just a house in a sunny warm place.
To run an industrial society, cut population growth (even to negative) and reduce the ecological footprint (and work on ecological restoration = jobs), then thorium seems to be the best opportunity. See the videos for a summary:
http://energyfromthorium.com/2011/08/05/two-teac3-presentations/
Even James Lovelock agrees that nuclear will be needed as a bridge. In that case, thorium is the way to go.
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