Water Hydro Fuel

David Tanguay asked:


Renewable energy is made from resources that Mother Nature will replace, like wind, water and sunshine. It is also being called “clean energy” or “green power” because it doesn’t pollute the air or the water. It a power source that is not limited, as fossil fuels are.

Renewable energy is considered a very important solution to a problem that has{readmore}grown out of control worldwide. It has been determined to be a clean alternative energy source.

Renewable energy is ready for a global takeoff, and has become the answer for a better tomorrow.

Renewable energy is a broad category of sources that draws from the energy around us naturally. Renewable energy is seen as one of the important components of climate change solution. It is astounding that so much of the worlds fossil fuels have been depleted, and that renewable energy is just now be sought as a viable alternative.

Renewable energy is the main component of eco-energy planning. It is available in a variety of methods of use, which can reduce energy consumption, preclude energy utilization and eliminate our dependence on non-renewable energy sources.

Renewable energy is produced from continuously available natural processes that do not involve the consumption of exhaustible resources such as fossil fuels. Renewable energy is also called “clean energy” or “green power” because it doesn’t pollute the air or the water.

Renewable energy is used for electricity generation, heat in industrial processes, heating and cooling buildings, and transportation fuels. It is assisting America in meeting its energy needs. Renewable energy effectively utilizes natural resources such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. Renewable energy systems encompass a broad and diverse array of technologies, and the current status of these can vary considerably.

Renewable energy power generated from the nearly infinite elements of nature such as sunshine, wind, the movement of water, the internal heat of the Earth, and the combustion of replenishable crops is very popular with the public and governmental officials because it is an unlimited and environmentally gentle source of power, particularly compared with the supposedly limited and environmentally challenging alternative of reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Renewable energy can help the United States rely on domestic sources of energy, which will eventually eliminate our need for oil or slow the growth of our consumption. Renewable energy can meet our energy requirements while decreasing our greenhouse gas emissions.

Renewable energy can provide significant opportunities for developing countries and rural areas as well as in industrialized countries.

Klaus H Hemsath asked:


Al Gore, Rick Wagoner, Tom Friedman, our President Elect, Barack Obama, and many more celebrities are all heavily favoring and supporting a wholesale changeover from fossil fuel driven cars to electrically powered automobiles.

Their faith is based on the Lithium Ion battery. These batteries are very expensive, are heavy, must be replaced after several years, and require hours for recharging. Lithium is not widely available in the US and must be imported.

Electric cars perform admirably. They do not emit greenhouse gases directly, can be designed to accelerate well, and are very quiet. Electric cars are considered by many as the secret weapon that will reduce our dependence on imported petroleum and will lessen our payments to oil producing countries.

In a good year, US citizens will buy roughly 15 million cars to replenish and grow the US inventory of nearly 250 million used cars. It may take anywhere from twelve to fifteen years to replace most of this inventory with new models. The Volt, the first electric car produced by General Motors, will likely be leased in small numbers initially to stay on top of performance and warranty issues. Optimistically, we can assume that GM and other car companies will sell more than 2.5 million electric cars during the next ten years. Replacing 250 million cars will take a few decades longer.

At the same time the US is looking at a population growth of another 100 million residents during the next fifty years. Under the most optimistic assumptions we can expect to eventually see 150 million electric cars and 150 million liquid fuel powered cars in use by 2050.

Passenger cars are responsible for only 45% of present liquid fuel consumption. Under the most favorable conditions and assumptions, electric cars may be able to save 25% of petroleum imports eventually. Liquid fuel consumption for other uses will certainly increase during this time. Optimistically, we may expect that electric cars can cut liquid fuel consumption by 20% in 2050.

This figure does not bode well for curing the oil import dependency of the US. It certainly will not reduce dollar exports. It is certain that petroleum prices will rise substantially in future years. Additionally, we will have to pay for imported raw materials for batteries from abroad.

All these figures lead to one overpowering conclusion; electric cars will never be able to free us from the yoke of petroleum imports or reduce our balance of payments significantly!

There a few technical complications, too. Electric cars must be recharged regularly with electric energy. Electric energy is produced presently with fossil and nuclear fuels. Solar power is not suited too well because most electric cars must be recharged during the night hours when the Sun is not shining. For the next ten to fifteen years only a limited number of nuclear plants can be installed. Wind power is an intermittent energy, which cannot yet be stored in quantities. Fossil fuel burning has to provide virtually all of the electric energy for recharging the new fleet of electric cars for years to come. Combining efficiencies of coal fired power plants, of electricity transmission, and of battery chargers results in an overall energy efficiency that is not better than the energy efficiency of modern combustion engine inventory. Therefore, electric cars will not lower greenhouse gas emissions! Only very efficient combustion engines can accomplish this feat!

If electric cars cannot save us from a coming energy crisis, what other choices do we have? The answer is sobering. Without the coming of a Deus ex Machina, there seems to be only one and only one rational solution. We must learn how to make renewable fuels from large-scale production of renewable biomass.

The Earth cannot support the use of large amounts of fossil fuels any longer. We will not be able to stop the use of petroleum in the near future. We must outlaw the use of fossil fuels soon to save the Earth from overheating.

Only two other energy sources exist, which can provide the large amounts of energy that modern economies depend on. Sunlight is inexhaustible and available in quantities we will never be able to consume. Several conversion technologies are available for converting sunlight into the two energy forms that our economies depend on; electricity and liquid transportation fuels.

The other large energy source is nuclear fuel. It is likely that nuclear fuels will last for more than one century. Other energy sources such as hydro power, marine power, and geothermal power are not available everywhere and are limited in capacity.

We are left with one conclusion. For the next century or two, we will have to depend heavily on converting sunshine into electricity and into liquid transportation fuels. Energy in the form of sunshine is not very concentrated. Fortunately, biomass has the unusual ability to use sunlight and create energy rich carbohydrates and a few hydrocarbons. More amazingly yet; biomass energy can be stored.

There are a few technical problems we must solve before biomass can become the savior technology. We must grow very large amounts of biomass, we must learn to convert carbohydrates into hydrocarbons, and we must agree to reserve arable lands for food production only. All remaining obstacles can be overcome with existing technologies. It will take about one long decade to develop workable and economically attractive solutions. To be successful we must support exploratory research on a large scale and we must organize and fund an independent Energy Supply Development Agency.

The dismal interference of US Congress in energy matters must be changed. Instead of demanding the ineffective manufacturing of electric cars and regulating fuel consumption of passenger cars, US Congress must change to a new, practicable, and effective energy policy. US Congress and the new administration must demand increased thermal efficiencies from all newly manufactured internal combustion engines and must initiate the fast track development of liquid fuels production from renewable biomass.

Daniel Yergin asked:


The global electric power landscape is changing fast, and increasingly, the action in it has been shifting to Asia. On average, in each of the last three years, China alone has added as much new generating capacity as all of existing capacity in Texas. The shift to Asia will continue.

CERA’s Dawn of a New Age scenarios project that Asia will account for well over half of the increase in worldwide power generation capacity over the next 25 years. By comparison, North America will claim only a little more than 10 percent.

This move toward Asia has big implications for everyone connected to the power industry-plant developers, fuel suppliers, equipment vendors, engineering and construction companies, service providers and, of course, investors.

The biggest factor in this change is China, which is industrializing on the strength of its vast coal reserves. Over the past three years, China added 200 gigawatts of coal-fired power-generating capacity.

This is equivalent to two-thirds of total U.S. coal-fired capacity, which, by comparison, was installed over the course of half a century. The Chinese government has ambitious plans to build more hydro, nuclear, renewable and gas-fired power plants to diversify its electricity sources.

But coal-indigenous, cheap and abundant-is set to dominate new power capacity in China for years to come.

China’s current path is much like the one taken by the United States several decades ago. Rising Chinese power demand comes from both strong economic growth and increasing electricity intensity-that is, the amount of electricity consumed per unit of economic activity. In the 1990’s, one percent real growth in Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) corresponded to 0.7 percent growth in electricity consumption.

But today, one percent GDP growth corresponds to 1.4 percent growth in electricity usage. China’s recent record of 10 percent annual growth in real GDP thus translates to double digit annual growth in electricity consumption.

Many forces contribute to increasing electricity intensity: infrastructure development to sustain high economic growth; China’s move up the value-added chain into energy-intensive manufacturing; and rising middle-class incomes, which now support larger dwellings, with a full complement of air conditioners and modern appliances.

If we look at in those terms, this pattern starts to look familiar. And it should. The United States experienced something like it half a century ago. In the 1960’s, coal-indigenous and abundant- was the leading option for expansion of U.S. power generation capacity. Real GDP grew 4.2 percent annually during that decade, while electricity consumption grew 7.3 percent, driven by industrial expansion, and by widespread adoption of air conditioning and electric heating.

Electricity consumption continued to grow faster than real GDP during the first half of the 1970’s. But this changed quickly after the first oil shock of the mid-1970’s. High oil prices led to improvements in end-use efficiency, and the recession of 1980-82 shook up the manufacturing sectors and led to the closing down of less competitive factories. These forces pushed growth in electricity demand below the rate of real GDP growth, where it remains today.

But China is still at the stage the U.S. was in the 1960’s and early 1970’s and so is likely to move along its current path of rapidly growing power demand for the coming decade, and perhaps longer.

What does the shift to Asia mean to those in the power business? Sustained economic growth in Asia has strengthened Asian power developers and produced financial institutions capable of handling the expansion of the Asian power system. Homegrown Asian firms are increasingly winning businesses away from their Western competitors.

In addition, heightened concerns for energy security have reinforced the government’s role in the power sector and an emphasis on using power generation equipment and design, engineering and construction services provided by Asian companies or by Western companies that work closely with Asian partners.

For example, China’s objective of self reliance means that all the resources needed for coal-fired power plants-such as plant design, boilers and turbines, and construction-are coming from Chinese companies.

Nuclear power development is proceeding along two tracks: indigenous reactor designs and resources on one, and imports of Western technologies with heavy technology transfer requirements on the other.

Sustained growth of the Chinese power sector, combined with the government objective of self reliance and technology transfer, will likely lead over the coming decade to the growth of strong local companies in equipment manufacturing, design and engineering, construction, services and project development.

These companies will compete not only in the domestic Chinese markets, but also in the regional Asian market. The rise of strong Asian competitors in the power sector will intensify competition for Western firms. Some Western firms have sought business opportunities in Asia through partnerships, but many have found it difficult to get a foot in the door, and as they share technology, they fear that they also risk strengthening their competitors.

Eventually, Western firms will face the prospect of competing with Asian players in Western markets. How will Western power companies respond?

Western utilities focusing on domestic markets will source components and services worldwide. Western firms that provide equipment and services will strive to maintain their competitive advantage by staying on the innovation frontier. Even with their much faster GDP growth, China and India will still have lower per capita income than North America and most of Western Europe for the next two decades.

Higher incomes in the West will support research, development and the use of advanced technologies, giving Western firms opportunities to stay at the technology frontier.

We can think of North American companies that are doing well amid fierce competition from Asia. These companies flourish not because they can pare costs to the bone, surviving on high volumes and thin margins, but because they remain at the frontier of technology and product design.

If Western firms in the electric power business can follow this strategy, they will find it a very competitive approach in a world of intensified competition.