There are some undeniable facts when you really look hard at the issues.
Fact: Fossil fuels are becoming increasingly expensive and are running in short supply.
Fact: The solutions to the energy crisis are already in place.
So what’s the hold up? Why aren’t we all driving water powered cars and powering our homes with renewable energy?
The simple answer is that the world has taken too long to catch on. Until only recently we didn’t fully understand just how low we’re running on fossil fuels, and just how big of an impact their use has on our environment.
This lead to a slow down in the advancement of renewable energy technology. While energy sources such as hydroelectricity and ethanol have been in place for long periods of time, newer technologies such as solar power and electric cars are being forced to play catch up.
As awareness grows technology will advance and other forms of renewable energy will be less expensive to produce as well as more widespread for public consumption.
And as the prices of fossil fuels continue to rise, governments, corporations, and individuals will all be forced to turn to renewable energy sources to solve the energy crisis.
Energy In The Future
The future is never certain. One thing we do know is that we can’t keep up our current fossil fuel
consumption, it’s unsustainable. We’re going to be forced to turn to alternative energy sources. Here we’re going to take a look at some of he concepts being discussed now that are likely to be implemented in the near future.
Solar Power From Space
Scientists have been considering placing large solar panels into orbit around the Earth. This would allow the
panels to escape the limitations of the planet, such as clouds, and remain in direct contact with the Suns rays 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
Scientists have concluded that the Earth dissipates enough energy from the Sun in a single day to power the entire planet for a year.
The most challenging aspect of this endeavor is going to be getting the energy back down to Earth. The most logical option proposed so far is to “beam” the energy back down to the planet to a collection station.
This technology is likely years away due to technological limitations.
Floating Wind Farms
There are many places in the oceans where the average wind speeds are much higher than those on land.
Engineers have proposed massive wind farms, stretching miles across, to harness all of this extra energy.
Testing is currently under way, and this technology may not be that far away.
Nanotechnology
Advances in nanotechnology may greatly increase the efficiency of current alternative energy technologies. Some examples are increasing the strength-to-weight ratio of wind turbines or maximizing the ability of solar panels to absorb energy.
Nanotechnology may even be able to make electricity more efficient, allowing us to use less amounts of energy but outputting greater amounts of power.
The impact of nanotechnology on renewable energy is yet to be fully understood. But the technology is rapidly advancing so we may start to see an impact much sooner than people anticipate.
Geo Thermal Energy
The Earth itself contains enormous amounts of energy, which if harnessed, may be all that we’ll ever need.
Volcanoes, seismic activity, storm systems, even waves all contain vast amounts of energy that will more than likely be harnessed sometime in the future.
There are limitless possibilities for the future, more than we could cover in one book. Regardless, it’s an exciting time.
New technologies are constantly being developed, while old technologies are constantly being improved upon. One thing we can count on is the future is wide open. Only time will tell what lengths mankind will go to in order to provide cleaner and less expensive alternative energy solutions.
Source: http://www.rungreenpower.com/2010/09/25/energy-in-the-future/
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