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The (Possible) Future of Alternative Energy
Sponge! writes: "The stuff that turns oil into margarine. The stuff that made the Hindenburg float. The stuff that combines with oxygen to make water and with carbon to make methane. The stuff that sends the space shuttle skyward and could someday power your car, office building, house, cell phone, even your hearing aid. That "Stuff" is hydrogen, and according to Amory Lovins, it is the future of energy. Here is an interesting article on Lovins and his view of hydrogen as the number one fuel."
Convincing Industry and Govt of the Big Gobs Of Money to be had with alternate energy should be the first step. Unless they see a buck in it and preferably an easily redemable one, Alternate energy isnt going to go far.
That being said, Does anyone realise Texas is one place where this happen and hence Wind Turbines are being built. Odd that it is in Geoge W Buhs's state - but I can say it was NOT done to save the enviroment. It was dnoe because there was shown to be a buck in it.
Soory Greenies, that's the way it works. You want to save the enviroment, prove to someone with dollars that there is more dollars to be had and quickly. Convince the money men of that aand watch how fast these clean technologies get built
"Old Rallydrivers never die - they just fail to book in on time"
Hydrogen is a clean fuel, in that it can be burned without harmful emissions. Because water is plentiful, hydrogen is also a sort of a battery. Electrical current can be used to separate it from water molecules, and some of this energy can be recovered in fuel cells.
Hydrogen extracted from fossil fuels necessarily produces less energy than the raw fuels themselves. Hydrogen produced from water by electrolysis is an energy sink.
Hydrogen may be extracted from water by using solar energy. That is solar energy, not hydrogen energy.
Whether hydrogen is a suitable fuel for vehicles depends on whether the energy costs are worth the emissions benefits. If so, this will make energy more scarce, because of the inefficiencies of converting energy in some other form into the energy of electrolysis.
Whether electrolysis of water is the right method for storage of solar energy depends on the comparative costs, risks and benefits of alternative storage technologies.
In neither case is hydrogen competing with fossil fuels as an energy source. It is competing with fossil fuels and batteries and flywheels and passive heating media as an energu storage system in both cases.
There are no significant pools of free hydrogen on the planet that can be used as an energy source.
Hydrogen is an energy storage strategy and not an energy supply strategy. It may have its uses as the former. Proposing it as a replacement for fossil or nuclear energy is complete nonsense.
All the above should be fully understood by anyone trying to venture an opinion on this subject.
Sorry to be blunt, but anyone who misses this point is one of the following: 1) not seriously interested in the subject 2) incompetent or 3) dishonest.
mt
"Soory Greenies, that's the way it works. You want to save the enviroment, prove to someone with dollars that there is more dollars to be had and quickly"
And that's why we are all on a collision course with calamity.
There is no profit in preserving life. A bluefin tuna swimming in the ocean is worthless to anybody. The same tuna when killed is worth a thousand dollars. Same with clean waters and clean air. They are both worthless but if you can make a lot of money polluting them.
The problem is one of ethics. Most people are willing to deprive your great grandchildren to make money today. The so called greenies are trying to preseve the remaining planet for future generations. Unfortunately there is no profit in that. As a result they are not as rich are the business owners and shareholders. As a result the natural resources of the world keep spiraling down. Nothing can be done about it except maybe violence.
War is necrophilia.