Sustainable engergy independence?

[Setarcos]

Does anyone have any real plans or ideas?

 

[Mr. H.]

Why would we want that? If it were possible would it be worth the financial and environmental costs?

 

[Setarcos]

I certainly hope you're being facetious

 

[Mr. H.]

I certainly hope you're being facetious

Not at all.

Oil, natural gas, and coal will be the dominant sources of U.S. energy consumption well into the 21st century.

Sustainable energy independence would require massive cuts in consumption, unprecidented drilling and development of hydrocarbon resources, and trillion dollar investments in technologies and processes that currently have no commercial merit.

Why would we want that?

 

[Setarcos]

Sustainable energy independence would require massive cuts in consumption

Not if you develop sources of energy to meet the need

unprecidented drilling and development of hydrocarbon resources,

Drilling for what?

 

[Mr. H.]

Sustainable energy independence would require massive cuts in consumption

Not if you develop sources of energy to meet the need

At a 1:1 ratio? Not gonna happen.

unprecidented drilling and development of hydrocarbon resources,

Drilling for what?

Hydrocarbon resources. Is there an echo in here?

 

[Old Rocks]

For the benefit of the nation, and our descentdents, the best plan would be the elimination of the burning of hydrocarbons over the next decade.

 

[Mr. H.]

For the benefit of the nation, and our descentdents, the best plan would be the elimination of the burning of hydrocarbons over the next decade.

Couldn't we end world hunger and poverty while we're at it? I mean, as long as we're on a roll here.

 

[Old Rocks]

While this article quotes a 65% target for Qdot technology, our local firm that will produce the Qdots states a more modest 40% for initial solar cells. These would be produced by an ink jet printing process and the active ingrediant would cost about $10 a square meter. A roof on a small house, properly oreinted, say a 1200 square foot home, could produce as much as 300 Kw a day. Since a normal home uses about 24 Kw a day, that would put a couple of hundred Kw per day, at the very time of most use of electricity.



Nanocrystal solar cell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While previous methods of quantum dot creation relied on expensive molecular beam epitaxy processes, fabrication using colloidal synthesis allows for a more cost-effective manufacture. A thin film of nanocrystals is obtained by a process known as “spin-coating”. This involves placing an amount of the quantum dot solution onto a flat substrate, which is then rotated very quickly. The solution spreads out uniformly, and the substrate is spun until the required thickness is achieved.

Quantum dot based photovoltaic cells based around dye-sensitised colloidal TiO2 films were investigated in 1991[1] and were found to exhibit promising efficiency of converting incident light energy to electrical energy, and were found to be incredibly encouraging due to the low cost of materials in the search for more commercially viable/affordable renewable energy sources. A single-nanocrystal (channel) architecture in which an array of single particles between the electrodes, each separated by ~1 exciton diffusion length, was proposed to improve the device efficiency (figure below) [2]and research on this type of solar cell is being conducted by groups at Stanford, Berkeley and the University of Tokyo.

Although research is still in its infancy and is ongoing, in the future quantum dot based photovoltaics may offer advantages such as mechanical flexibility (quantum dot-polymer composite photovoltaics [3]) as well as low cost, clean power generation [4] and an efficiency of 65%.[5].

 

[Mr. H.]

If that technology comes to fruition it would be absolutely groundbreaking. Here's hoping.

 

[Mister T]

Sustainable energy independence would require massive cuts in consumption

Not if you develop sources of energy to meet the need

At a 1:1 ratio? Not gonna happen.

unprecidented drilling and development of hydrocarbon resources,

Drilling for what?

Hydrocarbon resources. Is there an echo in here?

Drilling for non-sustainable resources = sustainable energy how?

 

[Mr. H.]

Not if you develop sources of energy to meet the need


Drilling for what?

Hydrocarbon resources. Is there an echo in here?

Drilling for non-sustainable resources = sustainable energy how?

My point is we're never going to have sustainable energy independence without a lot of different sources in the mix- including *gasp* non-sustainable fuels like oil, gas, coal.

Take a look at the graph above. It's a pie-in-the-sky idea.

Hydrocarbons are the original bio-fuel. Why are they relegated to non-status?

That's the "real plan" for energy independence.

 

[Mister T]

hydrocarbons and nuclear are merely bridge technologies- they're quick fixes, not lasting solutions

 

[JD_2B]

Does anyone have any real plans or ideas?

I plan on installing a rain cystine.. Here is what it is:

It is basically a 'round the perimeter of the house gutter system that catches rain, and then pipes it to a barrel. From the barrel, the water can then be pumped to the yard's sprinkler system, or even the toilets, as a way of "Reusing" water. You can get a considerable amount of extra water by using a rain cystine.


I also intend to get a wind turbine the next time I own a house. Will explain this briefly to anyone who doesn't know much about turbines..

The wind spins the fins (situated on a pole), and the fins turn the generator, which then creates power that can be routed into your home.

Copper coil

I have considered doing the underground copper coil, if I ever decided to live in an area that was further from the ocean, where a copper coil could actually be buried. All that happens is a large copper coil is buried underground, and energy from the Earth is transferred through the coil and into your home.

I think that if people just found ways of making long term investments (well a copper coil is not very long term, and neither is a rain cystine, but anyways) just making investments into creating their own energy, that is natural and sustainable- then we will eventually live in a world that does not emit nearly as much Carbon Dioxide as we do now, and will most likely have a way of life that is not in danger of going broke or anything, or out of gas, etc.. Sometimes even the simplest changes can make a HUGE difference, I think..

Setarcos- I didn't know you were an eco freak like me, lol!! =) I am glad to see we at least have something in common..

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

Energy independence is dumb and will solve nothing.

Apparently we want to stop giving money to people who hate us. But if Saudi Arabia were suddenly cut off from oil money for example, their pro-US government would collapse. Fundamentalists would take over.

Some liberals (not all) would have us believe that terrorism is fueled by poverty, but then they want to impoverish oil-rich countries by not buying their products. What? Sort of like how conservatives think they hate us for our freedom and democracy...and then want to solve the problem by shoving freedom and democracy up their asses. Wait, what?

 

[Old Rocks]

Does anyone have any real plans or ideas?

I plan on installing a rain cystine.. Here is what it is:

It is basically a 'round the perimeter of the house gutter system that catches rain, and then pipes it to a barrel. From the barrel, the water can then be pumped to the yard's sprinkler system, or even the toilets, as a way of "Reusing" water. You can get a considerable amount of extra water by using a rain cystine.


I also intend to get a wind turbine the next time I own a house. Will explain this briefly to anyone who doesn't know much about turbines..

The wind spins the fins (situated on a pole), and the fins turn the generator, which then creates power that can be routed into your home.

Copper coil

I have considered doing the underground copper coil, if I ever decided to live in an area that was further from the ocean, where a copper coil could actually be buried. All that happens is a large copper coil is buried underground, and energy from the Earth is transferred through the coil and into your home.

I think that if people just found ways of making long term investments (well a copper coil is not very long term, and neither is a rain cystine, but anyways) just making investments into creating their own energy, that is natural and sustainable- then we will eventually live in a world that does not emit nearly as much Carbon Dioxide as we do now, and will most likely have a way of life that is not in danger of going broke or anything, or out of gas, etc.. Sometimes even the simplest changes can make a HUGE difference, I think..

Setarcos- I didn't know you were an eco freak like me, lol!! =) I am glad to see we at least have something in common..

If you are handy with tools, a 1 kw windmill can be built for less than $200.

Underground heat exchange systems are a proven technology.

For all too many areas now, anything that can be done to use non-municipal water for such things as lawn, car washing, and gardens represents a real plus.

 

[SmellyLemmings]

well...there are some ideas floating out there. not all of them are good though. i hear a lot of people are against nuclear energy and instead want to propose a safer alternative. sad thing is, nuclear energy is much more cost effective than any ideas floating out there.

 

[mdn2000]

sustainable energy, these are proven sustainable enegy sources

Nuclear
Oil
Coal
Natural gas

 

[auditor0007]

sustainable energy, these are proven sustainable enegy sources

Nuclear
Oil
Coal
Natural gas

I must not understand the definition of sustainability.

 

[rdean]

Energy independence is dumb and will solve nothing.

Apparently we want to stop giving money to people who hate us. But if Saudi Arabia were suddenly cut off from oil money for example, their pro-US government would collapse. Fundamentalists would take over.

Some liberals (not all) would have us believe that terrorism is fueled by poverty, but then they want to impoverish oil-rich countries by not buying their products. What? Sort of like how conservatives think they hate us for our freedom and democracy...and then want to solve the problem by shoving freedom and democracy up their asses. Wait, what?

If we could stop buying their oil and "fundamentalists" took over, so what? Who cares?
If fundamentalist take over, they will have a hard enough time fighting their own people. Look at Iran. We wouldn't need to bother with them and they would certainly leave us alone.

The US has a lot of irons in the fire right now. Miniture nuclear plants. Wind. Solar.
There is estimated to be 5 times the entire reserves of Saudi Arabia in the Rockies and Montana. Only, it's in shale and not in discrete pools. Seperating hydrogen and O2 from water.

Things just have to pan out.