What is Digg?30 Comments
- vertinox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10To point out to those who don't know what zero point energy is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point-energy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy
Of course in theory if one could harvest vacuum energy you could literally destroy large parts of the universe with very little effort since almost infinite amounts of energy leads to almost infinite amounts of gravity which leads to... Well it isn't pleasant to be around almost infinite amounts of gravity. - scottytoodope, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6sell your car, buy a bike
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Just as a little addition to the Wikipedia links above, though very good, Wikipedia really shouldn't be used as the absolute judge of the reality and potential of something like zero point. There is much stuff going on in this field, and while of course some is kooky, there is solid research and investment going in - real stuff. It also ties in with the antigravity projects being conducted by British Aerospace and Boeing (yes, those projects are real too).
- CovardeAnonimo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I for once am glad to live in brasil. what we have right now in terms of fuel for our vehicles:
- Gasoline
- ethanol
- natural gas
- mineral diesel
- biodiesel
most new cars today are flex fuel, so they can run on gasoline or ethanol, and with a conversion kit, natural gas. one car, three fuels to choose from.
the government began with a biodisel program some time ago, many places are already selling a mix of 95% mineral diesel with 5% biodiesel, with plans to increase the biodiesel percentage as production grows. - glmory, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3We use barrels 20 030 000 of oil a day http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption
each barrel is 31 gallons. That means the United states uses 620 930 000 gallons of oil per day. or 226 639 450 000 gallons per year.
480 gallons of ethanol per acre of farm land according to that article.
There are 2 300 000 000 acres in the united states http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB14/ . Lets assume for a second that every single acre of land was able to be used for Ethanol production. That means we could make a total of 1 104 000 000 000 gallons of ethanol per year( 480* 2 300 000 000), Now, ethanol has 34% less energy per gallon than gasoline(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel) so this number must be reduced to the equivalent of 728 640 000 000 gallons of gasoline.
This means if we devoted a third of the land in the united states to ethanol production than we could replace gasoline. That is more than the 20% of the landmass of the United states currently devoted to croplandhttp://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB14/ Most of the land not farmed, is not farmed because people are living there, it is too cold, dry, or hilly to farm. So expanding production of corn to more farm land than we currently have devoted to all farmland isn't practical. To replace the other fossil fuels with ethanol would take a land area the size of the US that was all perfect farmland.
This doesn't even take account of the fact that the 480 gallons per acre is a gross overestimate that doesn't take account of the gas used to drive the tractor, and make the Nitrogen fertilizer.
Ethanol from corn can be said to be nothing but a farm subsidy. Solar cells could power the U.S. taking far far less land, and lower quality land(deserts for example), Wind, Nuclear Fusion, and Nuclear Fission all also have far more hope to help. - OMightyColumbia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i like the idea of turning wood into alcohol, and then burning it. lets just overlook the extreme toxicity of wood alcohol...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2alternative fuels...is taking food and turning it into fuel.... do u want to pay 5$ for bread or Gas...http://weekendeconomist.blogspot.com/2007/01/26.html
- doodlebumm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Solar energy from "solar cells" is expensive and unreliable. Solar energy used to heat liquid to turn a turbine to produce electricity is more efficient and can be used for the masses by plugging it into the grid. It takes a lot of mirrors, but it works.
- glmory, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2ugh, tried to edit but accidently reposted
- pabloD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2But they don't. If 'Big Oil' actually said: "Hey, we're ***** up, pumping up all this oil. But you know what? We've got a plan to stop doing that, and move us into another model of energy consumption (be it wind, solar, zpe, whatever) which we believe isn't as harmful as the model we're following now. Here it is, and here's what we need to do, what we need to give up, and what we'll gain...." Then I would trust in 'Big Oil's motives. But for now, thery're nothing more than profiteers at the expense of our very survival, and I'll interpret anything they say or do within that context.
just my $0.02 - vertinox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3No. You could have the solar on top of your house making hydrogen for you car or you could just charge it directly from your solar panels if you car is electric.
But solar isn't efficient enough yet for that to work nor can the average joe buy the equipment without winning the lottery. - apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I drive an electric car. I bought it for $2000 on eBay, no joke. It's old (1981), but it does freeway speeds, accelerates and handles normally, and lets me drive around for about a penny per mile. Here's a picture of it:
http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/775
Links to other cheap EVs on this page: http://www.squidoo.com/cheap-electric-car/ - CovardeAnonimo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2then can you explain to me how 80% of new cars sold in brasil run on ethanol ? no ? i can.
plastic and rubber on the fuel line/tank, and the few metal parts that touch the fuel are bathed with nickel, which is resistant to ethanol corrosion. it doesn't add too much to the price and works beautifully - impreza99, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2how would that be feasible? Strap on a solar panel to the roof of your car?
- eswartz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wouldn't consider nuclear power plants "clean" energy, although I like the Monorail Ideal!
- mroo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@glas:
And those electric vechicles will be powered by: Zero Point Energy.
Since it's kinda hard to put ZPE into a combustion engine and expect it to do something, ussually ZPE is converted to electricity, then converted into other forms of energy ( mechanical etc )
I would love a teslamotors car powered by ZPE :(
For those interested in ZPE science: it is essentially tapping into the background energy of the universe it's self. The real science behind ZPE is in the REAL SCIENCE of quantum mechanics and theorys such as String/ M-theory. - rcollamore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Check out what this company and Drexel University are working on:
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=4697
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=15355024
Fascinating stuff. The guy heading the Drexel project is a man named Dr. Alexander Fridman
http://www.drexel.edu/coe/news/articles/AlexFridmanreceivesDoEgrant.html - grumpyrain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2In most places in the world, you are looking at 7KWhr energy per square metre per day at absolute best from solar power. That is nothing to do with the technology, it is literally the amount of solar radiation that makes it through our atmosphere.
Homework:
How much of that 7KW/h are we able to turn into hydrogen (hint - under half of it)?
Do you think you are going to get that much reliably each day? (ever had a wet week in winter)?
How much energy does it take to move a 1.5 ton car around per km.
How many km does the average car drive per day?
How many KW/h of hydrogen does a car need to have enough range for people to consider buying it?
Done all that?
How many solar panels do you need (and how much will that cost)? - infimprob, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What happened to solar power. Big companies, in this case oil, spreading their propaganda about feasibility, and throwing their considerable weight against anything that would detract from their profits never stopped progress before.
- robbiedo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I am less bothered by "Big Oil" profits than most people seem to be. Big Oil is big infrastructure expensive. Big Oil needs the money to invest horrendous amounts of money in projects to bring new product to market. I would love to see an article which shows Big Oil profits alongside the enormous and often risky investments in bringing oil and other energy sources to market.
- glasmodiar, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Forget internal combustion engines. Zero-point energy? I'll believe it when I see it. My prediction: 5-10 years from now, electric vehicles will be the rage:
http://www.teslamotors.com/
VIDEO: http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6190000/newsid_6191900/6191957.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm
http://www.wrightspeed.com/x1.html
VIDEO: http://www.pluginamerica.com/media/Wrightspeed.wmv
The only thing holding back electric cars is battery technology. Soon enough utracapacitors or some equally revolutionary battery technology will make EV's not only adequate but far more economical than traditional cars. These batteries will charge in 10 minutes and last longer than the vehicle itself. - videoCT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1build an electric monorail parallel to every major highway in the country.
Then we need electric buses to take people from the monorail station to their destination, or within 1/4 mile.
This is free to anyone who needs to use it - you still need a ID card which you can get at the station also for free, but at least we know who is riding.
Oh, and if you ride the thing at least 100 times a year you get a tax break.
If we can reduce the use of automobile fuel by 50% we will be in good shape to start with.
Then we need to build 200 nuclear power plants. Offer the people in the town where it is free electricity for life.
You need to give people an incentive to save energy.
All this will be funded by the oil industry. - speedynlane4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0ABOUT ETHANOL:
ethanol is an alcohol and alcohol corrodes pipes like in a hmm, car! there is a $75 part you can have put in your car so that it can run on ethanol but it can only be used for awhile until you will have to use petroleum again. So unless we all use different cars that can handle ethanol, this is out of the picture.
The best way to save gas and reduce pollution is to use your car as little as possible. REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE! - speedynlane4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0well, I don't live in Brazil, so good one! besides it takes more energy to create ethanol than what it puts out. Have an argument now?
- inactive, on 04/07/2009, -0/+0hey guys, i just stumbled upon this really cool website... www.faff.me
i am so broke and they are offering a $1000 cash prize for putting up a video on youtube... i just had to participate! hoping to see you guys participating too :) cheers - mroo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Solar isnt as good as people make it out to be:
1) It is unreliable
2) Then energy has to be stored, ussually in batteries, which makes solar almost as bad as coal
3) From a power grid perspective, solar is cleaner, but renewable energy can only make up about 40% of load.
A much cleaner source of large scale power is actually nuclear, in particular experimental fluoride-thorium reactors ( low raw ore yeild required, high energy output and a half life of 100 years.
- glmory, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1We use barrels 20 030 000 of oil a day http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption
each barrel is 31 gallons. That means the United states uses 620 930 000 gallons of oil per day. or 226 639 450 000 gallons per year.
480 gallons of ethanol per acre of farm land according to that article.
There are 2 300 000 000 acres in the united states http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB14/ . Lets assume for a second that every single acre of land was able to be used for Ethanol production. That means we could make a total of 1 104 000 000 000 gallons of ethanol per year( 480* 2 300 000 000), Now, ethanol has 34% less energy per gallon than gasoline(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel) so this number must be reduced to the equivalent of 728 640 000 000 gallons of gasoline.
This means if we devoted a third of the land in the united states to ethanol production than we could replace gasoline. That is more than the 20% of the landmass of the United states currently devoted to croplandhttp://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB14/ Most of the land not farmed, is not farmed because people are living there, it is too cold, dry, or hilly to farm. So expanding production of corn to more farm land than we currently have devoted to all farmland isn't practical. To replace the oil, coal, and natural gas with ethanol would take a land area the size of the US that was all perfect farmland.
This doesn't even take account of the fact that the 480 gallons per acre is a gross overestimate that doesn't take account of the gas used to drive the tractor, and make the Nitrogen fertilizer.
Ethanol from corn is nothing but a farm subsidy. Solar cells could power the U.S. taking far far less land, and lower quality land(deserts for example), Wind, Nuclear Fusion, and Nuclear Fission all also have far more hope to help. - eswartz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1The world was flat, until we found out it was round....
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." Albert Einstein - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -13/+9There is only one alternative fuel the world needs, and that's zero point energy. And yes, sigh, it is real and has been proven. Maybe not explicable fully yet though. There are some seriously good homebrew inventors working on this stuff. And yes, sigh, of course some of them are kooks, but that does not detract from the fact this stuff is real (neither will digging me down into oblivion if that is your intention).
Cheers
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