Alternative power sources

[Philthy]

Oh no! A serious topic!!??

I just want to see what people on here think it the best option for replacing fossil fuels as a power source. I'm no global warming fanatic, but the fact remains that we WILL run out of fossil fuels in the very near future, and I am yet to be sold on any solution I've read about.

It seems to me like every alternative has some fairly major downsides. Believe it or not, I'm actually leaning towards nuclear being the most feasible option the more I read up on various alternatives.

For a long time I was completely against nuclear solely due to the waste it produces, and convinced that some kind of geo-thermal was the way to go, but I haven't found a geo-thermal method that stands out yet.

Anyway, just putting it out there to see what you others think on the subject

[227shanno]

funny you say that man cause i was just telling a guy at work couple of hours ago about synthetic fuel- beleive me it exists, you dont need oil- look at wikipedia, the nazis made high grade aviation fuel back in the 1940's ... but enough about nazi technology... your right mate nuclear power is the only fesiable option, public opion is the biggest enemy against that, however

[ryno_vrx]

i reckon the hippies where onto something with their flower power which from what i can tell consisted of free love and drugs........ probably wont replace fossil fuels but i like the idea of having orgies and lsd when the fuel runs out lol

[tommo82]

Nuclear is the way to go.

All the tree huggers will still reply to my post and claim that you can supply base-load power from solar/hydro/wind power.

The fact is that these systems are not sustainable for large scale generation.

Nuclear produces no pollution, is efficient and safe.

However, while we have the government of the bleeding heart in power, we'll never make progress.

[227shanno]

i reckon the hippies where onto something with their flower power which from what i can tell consisted of free love and drugs........ probably wont replace fossil fuels but i like the idea of having orgies and lsd when the fuel runs out lol

hahaha i hope that to...but i can't help thinking about a madmax future

[Trayner]

Yeh i believe nuclear will be the only way to go ,
All thou I did see the other day on the net that someone has invented a new type of drill bit that will be able to drill into the earths core , which could lead to geo-thermal power

[Calaber]

Nuclear power is the most feasible form of power generation given current technology. I have no doubt that at some time in the not too distant future, a synthetic power source, using dissimilar isotopes that react thermally with each other but generate no radiation, will be devised. Until that time, the massive power generated by nuclear reaction is the only way of economically generating the amount of power the world needs.

The synthectic fuels generated during World War 2 make you think, because cars ran around with charcoal burners hung off the boot, which produced a crude fuel and enabled the cars to run in times of severe petrol rationing. The low compressions of engines at that time enabled them to operate on the poor quality fuel generated. The Germans produced high grade synthetic fuels on a limited basis - never enough to meet their wartime needs. The problem with synthetic fuels for conventional engines is their production costs. At the present, they remain uneconomical because oil is still cheaper to extract and refine, but this will obviously not be the case forever.

I agree that we need a huge change in thinking at Federal level, and an education of the public to go with it. The feds are playing populist, as ever and won't go nuclear while the populace opposes it.

[danja]

Nuclear is great, Chernobyl was a once-off (except maybe in Lithuania where I think they still have a few RMBK reactors). Seriously, nuclear technology is really very safe - there is the minor issue of waste disposal, but I say we just bury it in New Zealand, or shoot it into space or something; make it someone else's problem

Whack a de-sal plant on at the same time, you get oodles of power and free drinking water. Pure win!

[ryno_vrx]

Nuclear is great, Chernobyl was a once-off (except maybe in Lithuania where I think they still have a few RMBK reactors). Seriously, nuclear technology is really very safe - there is the minor issue of waste disposal, but I say we just bury it in New Zealand, or shoot it into space or something; make it someone else's problem

Whack a de-sal plant on at the same time, you get oodles of power and free drinking water. Pure win!

i just cant say no to the dumping of toxic waste in New Zealand

[michaelw]

A few technologies that are on the rise, not ready for tomorrow but soon. (for what it is worth I did my Ph.D in solar so I have spent a bit of time on these)

Two good 'baseline' electrical sources

1)Hot-rock. A type of geothermal where you drill a deep hole and pump water down, collect the steam and use that to spin a turbine.
2)Solar tower. Build a bloody big green house (3km in diameter) put a big stack in the middle (1km high) the heat from under the 'green house' will spin turbines, this will work day and night as the rock will take a while to cool down.

Good uses for solar

1)Solar on your house for hot water. Simple technology, well proven and cuts down on the energy infrastructure.

2)Sky lights. Can it get any simpler? How many people today spent their time in a building with the lights on where just above the ceiling was a roof bathed in sunlight? There are even products now (light pipes) that work like fiber optics to bring solar illumination down a few floors into multi story buildings.

3)Solar electricity. Good for reducing power load in a suburb.

Good alternative source of transport fuel.

1) My personal favorite is bio-butenol (a few searches for 'green-crude' should find something) Basically you bread algae that stores its energy as lipids (how cells store fats) the trick is to make it so that the lipid is something we can process easily and can be extracted from the cells without too much fuss. green-crude has the advantage that it can be grown in large ponds or out at sea, think of a giant self replicating oil slick that can be stored in a net. It can break free as if you stop feeding it it will die. The other good thing is that it can existing oil refineries can be easily modified to use it in place of crude oil.


Mike