History/Future of energy

[IHateMyJob2004]

The episode that ran from 9-10 was VERY interesting. Might run again at midnight. Not familiar with History Channel's progrmaming though.

interesting notes. If we used windmills everywhere ithey could be put, they would produce 10 times more energy than we use today. OTTAL ENERGY USED. not just homes orindustry or cars. ALL EENERGY. Very interesting indeed. More interesting. Windmills for their cost are more cost effective than building a new coal buring power plant.

Solar panels. Interesting note. Thy are silicon based which is obvious. The thing we never hear is that yields double every 18 months, just like normal microchips. And costs drop.

They also talked about Hydrogen and cold fusion. Cpld Fuasiion is still jsut a dream rright now. Hydrogen is the future of automobiles.

Scary notes. Ice caps melting could cause the jet stream to stall. If that happens, Europe turns into Canada overnight. Wildlife would be wiped out and farming cattle ends along with pretty uch everything else.

VERY INTERESTING SHOW.

If I got one thing out of it. The end of oil isn' the end of the world. Peak oil will hoppen in 15 to 40 years. That's the difference between pessimists and optimists. Why argue. Who cares. That's not a small time frame. The show said that. Peak oil might be right now, who knows. People think that.

Also discussed were lighter vehicles in the future.

The problems with the end of oil though is medicines, plasitcs and all that otehr cool stuff that is directly dependent on oil.

 

[Engineer]

But, if alternative energy were developed and deployed quick enough, the remaining oil could be then used for consumables such as plastic (which is at least recyclable) and medicines. The rate of decline of oil would be such a small fraction of what it is now, it might just replenish itself to a certain point (I've read stories of dried up oil wells having enough oil to seep back in over time to partially fill them back up). I would rather spend $5.00 per gallon of developed fuel (energy) and not use the oil. Let the ME eat their oil...or sell them an ear of corn for $10.00!

But, back to reality....nobody is going to take the oil threat seriously until the true signs show up of shortages and lower productions. Also, big oil has too much money to make and with fellow oil men running the country (countries in the case of some of the rest of the world), it does't supprise me to see other energy developement left in the weeds....

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004
The episode that ran from 9-10 was VERY interesting. Might run again at midnight. Not familiar with History Channel's progrmaming though.

interesting notes. If we used windmills everywhere ithey could be put, they would produce 10 times more energy than we use today. OTTAL ENERGY USED. not just homes orindustry or cars. ALL EENERGY. Very interesting indeed. More interesting. Windmills for their cost are more cost effective than building a new coal buring power plant.

Solar panels. Interesting note. Thy are silicon based which is obvious. The thing we never hear is that yields double every 18 months, just like normal microchips. And costs drop.

They also talked about Hydrogen and cold fusion. Cpld Fuasiion is still jsut a dream rright now. Hydrogen is the future of automobiles.

Scary notes. Ice caps melting could cause the jet stream to stall. If that happens, Europe turns into Canada overnight. Wildlife would be wiped out and farming cattle ends along with pretty uch everything else.

VERY INTERESTING SHOW.

If I got one thing out of it. The end of oil isn' the end of the world. Peak oil will hoppen in 15 to 40 years. That's the difference between pessimists and optimists. Why argue. Who cares. That's not a small time frame. The show said that. Peak oil might be right now, who knows. People think that.

Also discussed were lighter vehicles in the future.

The problems with the end of oil though is medicines, plasitcs and all that otehr cool stuff that is directly dependent on oil.

the pessimists say peak oil will occur in 15 years? My ass, the pesimists say we're there now.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004
The episode that ran from 9-10 was VERY interesting. Might run again at midnight. Not familiar with History Channel's progrmaming though.

interesting notes. If we used windmills everywhere ithey could be put, they would produce 10 times more energy than we use today. OTTAL ENERGY USED. not just homes orindustry or cars. ALL EENERGY. Very interesting indeed. More interesting. Windmills for their cost are more cost effective than building a new coal buring power plant.

so we will cover the entire surface of the planet with windmills? of only 10th to get the same amount of energy.

Solar panels. Interesting note. Thy are silicon based which is obvious. The thing we never hear is that yields double every 18 months, just like normal microchips. And costs drop.

They also talked about Hydrogen and cold fusion. Cpld Fuasiion is still jsut a dream rright now. Hydrogen is the future of automobiles.

Anyone how believes hydrogen is the future of the automibile is insane. The future of the mobern automobile is extinction. It will be replaced with electrified mass transit (rails, subway) and hopefully good old bicycles.

Scary notes. Ice caps melting could cause the jet stream to stall. If that happens, Europe turns into Canada overnight. Wildlife would be wiped out and farming cattle ends along with pretty uch everything else.

VERY INTERESTING SHOW.

If I got one thing out of it. The end of oil isn' the end of the world. Peak oil will hoppen in 15 to 40 years. That's the difference between pessimists and optimists. Why argue. Who cares. That's not a small time frame. The show said that. Peak oil might be right now, who knows. People think that.

Peak oil will happen by the end of the decade.

Also discussed were lighter vehicles in the future.

this would be nice :thumbsup:

The problems with the end of oil though is medicines, plasitcs and all that otehr cool stuff that is directly dependent on oil.

I bet they forgot to mention the famines that will kill hundreds of millions, if not billions. You cant grow much food without fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.

 

[0marTheZealot]

Petroleum is as vital to industrial society as water is to the human body.

The peak will occur soon, probably before 2012 from what I've been reading. As of 2009, based on current construction, there will be no mega projects coming online because the fields aren't there. Any project coming online for construction starting today will be done by 2009 or 2010 depending on the geographics.

The reason petroleum is so valuble is partly due to its energy content, but also as a source of carbon. If you have wood, plastic, fibers, poly-anything, etc etc chances are damn good that it came DIRECTLY from petroleum and used petroleum fueled energy as the basis of its extraction. Paper is made from trees, which are cut down, processed and transported by fossil fuels, mainly coal (for electricity) and petroleum.

Bear in mind that we don't know the long term effects of massive displacement of wind and of sunlight. The earth is a very finely tuned machine and anything that throws it off kilter will come back and affect us in some way. Much of the atmospheric and oceanic processes depend on a certain balance between wind and sunlight among other things. If we start altering those, the effects may be disasterous. Remember, there is no free lunch and you can't get something for nothing. There are consequences to every single action taken and we simply don't know many of them. Hell with 100 years of easy energy (fossil fuels) we can sterilize the surface of the planet.

 

[Steeplerot]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
Anyone how believes hydrogen is the future of the automibile is insane. The future of the mobern automobile is extinction. It will be replaced with electrified mass transit (rails, subway) and hopefully good old bicycles.

:thumbsup: and high hopes for that. Scrap those internal combustion dinosaurs for raw material, tear down the ugly freeways, and build parks and housing on the land saved since roads are gone. send the prettiest auomobile relics to museums like they should have been ages ago. Get people working by starting that track laying and infrasructure.... I am ready to help right now
*wields big sledgehammer and eyes SUV across the street*

 

[0marTheZealot]

Yep, anyone with a basic knowledge of physics and chemistry knows that hydrogen will never be an energy source (except in fusion, but thats a different ball game right now).