if we built one nuke a day until 2050 it's still not enough

celtic_oz

Interesting talk : Reinventing the Leaf: Future Sources of Fuel

starts off with depressing stats on the future requirements for energy.

djpbarry

Can you provide a synopsis?

SeanW

I'm just watching the video now its very good

He's a speaker from CalTech, who promotes solar energy and research into chemical storage of energy, in turn he dismisses fossil fuels (which he assumes environmentalists do not want), Clean Coal (on the basis that carbon has to be stored securely forever and the storage of scrubbed CO2 could be a carbon timebomb).

He dismisses wind and hydropower because currently, according to his slideshow, the worlds demand for energy is 15TW at any time, and this will double within 50 years. If the world massively expanded wind power, all wind force were to be taken via wind turbines, it would only deliver 2TW. Hdyropower, if all available energy were to be taken from all the rivers on Earth, would only yield 4TW.

Then to make up the gap, he claims that you would have to commission a new nuclear power plant every single day from now until 2015.

Also mentioned is the reality that renewable energy is more or less irrelvant if it cannot be stored in a large scale, cost-effective fashion.

The talk then goes on to promote solar energy used to create chemical fuels, to replace petroleum gasoline and the like, because energy stored in chemical bonds is the most dense energy form known to mankind, whereas batteries are and will likely always be a joke.

The talk then goes on to promote artificial photosynthesis, i.e. something redically different to solar photovaltaics and basic steam generating solar plants.

It's a very interesting presentation.

ILikeBananas

Very interesting talk. It's reassuring that there are people out there putting serious thought into these kind of problems.

eth0

It isn't that certain that energy demand will rise that much. Could end up being much like Ireland's ever increasing demand for new housing units in 2007

SeanW

Maybe not in the West, but the Asians are getting richer, and fast, as their economy and quality of life increases.

New forms of energy are to my mind absolutely required, the only thing I'm 100% sure of is that tilting at windmills won't accomplish anything.

eth0

Asians are getting richer mostly because of us outsourcing to them. Soon we'll have nothing to outsource to them. The ould 2008-Present financial crisis is onle the start of the fun methinks

djpbarry

SeanW wrote: »

...the only thing I'm 100% sure of is that tilting at windmills won't accomplish anything.

You're 100% certain that building windmills won't accomplish anything? No contribution to be made by wind at all?

SeanW

It's all in the video, even if all the wind force available were to be taken by wind farms, it would only yield 1/25th of what is required. Maximum.

And that is assuming:

1. That wind power is reliable (it's not)
2. That it can be stored (it cannot)
3. Every single watt is taken from every single gust of wind (obviously not going to happen)

The video doesn't mention the fact that most wind turbines have to be subsidised to the hilt, which is ironic considering the fuel is free.

Macha

[mod]This thread is not to turn into another ideological rant against wind power.[/mod]

SeanW

Fair enough. Although the researcher in the OP did trash current renewables technology far more thoroughly and authoritatively than I ever could. At this point I'll just say that I sincerely hope that the researcher in the OP video is on to something because I don't think things are going very well ATM without newer and better technology.

I also think that funding research into energy research like this would be money better spent than in other areas.

djpbarry

SeanW wrote: »

Although the researcher in the OP did trash current renewables technology far more thoroughly and authoritatively than I ever could.

I've only just got around to watching this video and I must say I missed the part you're referring to above?