Alternative Source of Energy

[super-smashman]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

Build a rocket, aim it at the sun, and pooof. Nuclear waste problem is gone. It doesn't even the fuel to get it all the way to the sun, it just needs to get far enough away from Earth that it won't fall back and then let the Sun's gravity do the rest.

You realise that this would constantly deplete the mass of the earth. While it wouldn't be much at first, if we got really accustomed to doing it, then we may see the effects of it at some point.

High jump athletes would disagree with me.

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

Not to an appreciable extent, smash. I mean, maybe over thousands of years with only using nuclear power and never finding another way to dispose of this waste, but would anyone care/notice if we took all the nuclear waste we had now, even doubled it, and shipped it off to the sun? No, because it's just pollution, useless earth mass.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[mattyohh]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

we could burn people for energy

Sounds good let's test it out on you first

[super-smashman]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

Well, you say thousands of years but look how unbelievably fast our population is growing and, even faster, our technology.

It might not be 100 years before we start the process...

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

What? How does that even address my point? It STILL won't make any difference.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[Shopowner200]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

I am most receptive to the idea of solar power. But alas, the US couldn't use solar panels (Thanks to a certain president who I won't name, but many people will know who I am talking about immediatly). We are now so far in debt that it would take hundreds of Bill Clintons to get us out of that debt. And by that 400+ years later, we would have needed a clean burning source such as Nuclear power or Natural gas. The US again is paranoid about anyone having Enriched Uranium (A substance used for Nuclear Power) that other countries would probably head to natural gas.

[mattyohh]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

I understand why they're paranoid about Iran having Enriched Uranium. Muslims states generally tend to stray towards pyscho dictatorships and well you don't really want them to get a hold of a nuclear weapon.

[skyrunner06]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

we are not running out of oil anytime soon stop worrying

[ApocalypseAp]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

I think we should build a machine that runs off of Stupid. And position it near a NASCAR track.

I love you.

[mattyohh]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

we are not running out of oil anytime soon stop worrying

Oil is very harmful to the environment. It would be better to switch to Nucular or a Renewable source of energy you half-witted, idiotic, simple minded fool. ( I just called you stupid four different ways)

[JasonKey]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

Keeping an old thread alive it seems .. but what the heck:

Cellulosic ethanol is the solution and most folks know it. Not ethanol derived from corn or soy or even sugar cane as Brazil is doing. Pure sugar takes a lot of land to produce. Cellulose however is in ALL plants, and makes up the majority of all plant level sugars. This means ethanol can be derived from grass clippings, saw dust, paper waste, cardboard waste, switch grass .. and yes .. even the hippies will shout .. hemp. Hell, there is even research going on looking at ethanol production using algae growing in waste water.

My take on ethanol is, we can engineer higher levels of production and there is a lot of room for improvement. It IS production .. not just pumping. So competitive pressures will matter, making companies work harder and harder to make more for less. Additionally, its not necessarily the big oil companies that will have the strangle hold on the processes. There are college students today that can actually develop significant breakthroughs that may further help increase production while decreasing costs.

The catch is .. oil IS cheap when you consider we ship it, store it, fight over it, search for it and drill into the earth for it. Imagine what it costs to ship a HUGE ship full of unrefined oil around the world. If we had to do that much work to get Orange juice .. you think it would cost $70 a barrel?

Cellulosic Ethanol can be both a power solution and a solution for cars. Watch over the next 10 years how it progresses. Also, searching google for cellulosic ethanol shows you how much work is being done currently.

[mattyohh]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol

Cellulosic ethanol is a blend of normal ethanol that can be produced from a great diversity of biomass including waste from urban, agricultural, and forestry sources. There are at least two methods of production of cellulosic ethanol—enzymatic hydrolysis and synthesis gas fermentation. Neither process generates toxic emissions when it produces ethanol. The technology is very new and exists in pilot configurations where testing is ongoing.

So pretty much it can be made out of anything we think is waste with some sugar in it. This sounds alot better than oil and it doesn't even produce toxic emissions. It seems like a win win situtation. Maybe the only downside to this would be the scale it needs to be produced on and if it could be mass produced in a power plant.

[Hollus]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

One alternative to basically all conventional energy sources is float wind turbines/kites hybrids them in the jet stream, instead on traditional ground-based turbines. They could easily produce more than twice or three times the energy of conventional wind turbines, can run day and night unlike solar power, and they would produce zero emissions or pollutants.

If you launched them with automatically inflating/deflating balloons, and attached them to the ground with steel cables (and power cords), they could winch up and down in minutes in cause of tornadoes, lightning, storms, whatever.

And by placing them in the stratosphere or whatever, you eliminate all the beauty issues, noise pollution and the bird crashes.

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Alternative Source of Energy

Good job bumping a YEAR OLD THREAD.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com