#3 Green Energy

Shining Raikou

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16/05/2009

This weeks discussion thread shall be based on the following topic...

Green Energy, your thoughts and how we go forward with it...What holds us back from doing do?
 
I am leaning towards individual solar and large scale wind generation.
 
Joethegreat1 said:
Nuclear power...

That's not green energy.
Sure, the color is green....but it's harmful.

Anyways, I'd like to see people use Solar or Wind...or maybe even Hydro (water).
 
Helps you power up grass pokemon in the TCG. Just kidding. I think solar energy is great but they should also make some kind of moon energy systems.
 
Clean Coal Technology. It's the easiest way to get aways from our addiction to oil, however it will cost tons of money and time. No different than solar and wind I guess.

dmaster out.
 
Yeah, either clean coal or solar energy is where I want to be in a few years... Though, I'm not sure if "a few years" is a realistic timeframe.

Solar energy will be fantastic as soon as we can harness 100% of the power - currently, we cannot do so. But, as soon as we get better panels that can absorb all of the energy... It'll be great.
 
The best power source has been around since the dawn of time; The Sun.

If we could somehow harness it's power, we would have endless energy, right at our fingertips!

If we can harness the power of the sun, then yes, I think we can have an endless source of power. Green Energy, IMO, is highly possible.
 
basically i believe we should be using some form of hydro power.
i mean over 75% of the earth is water. i realize a very small portion of that is freshwater but i dont really see how that matters except for its easier to build hydroelectric dams.
maybe we can somehow hrness the power of undersea ocean currents.
could happen i suppose in a long time moe then likely 75+ years.
 
Maybe by using solar energy, since it is one of the most powerful ones.

da mach
 
I am all for it. Solar and wind energy are easily harnessed, and let's look at the benefits of "going green":

1. Lower Costs - Probably the most obvious benefit. Gathering natural energy saves so much, that it would be foolish not to take advantage of this "free" energy - once we can get all of it, that is.

2. Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions - This keeps our environment cleaner. It helps us breathe easier and enjoy life better. If there is a such thing as global warming, lowering greenhouse gas emissions lowers the effect of global warming on our climate.

3. Healthier Living - An obvious result of lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Should we be able to use the natural energy that we live with every single day more effectively, then we are set for better living in general.
 
What is holding back the development of these Green Energy things is major corporations (Oil, Coal and crap) buying over 50% of shares in these companys then running them into the ground or whatever.

If they still buy over 50% of the company and still keep trying to develop green energy, when Fossil Fuel runs out the "Bad people" will still be making Billions just not with Fossil fuels...

Probly :p

Light Venusaur said:
That's not green energy.
Sure, the color is green...but it's harmful.

The spent reactor fuel that is Green from the Simpsons, is actually Dark Grey.

The impression that Radioactive material is Green probably comes from glow in the dark compounds (used at one time on watch's) where a very small of Radium was mixed with a compound that the Radiation caused to glow Green.
 
In 40 years its predicted that most of the human race will live in cities. What would happen in 100 years time?

I'm thinking the world might need something bigger than just Solar and Wind. Sure, they work great, but to many people think that only one can be used. Using both can gain us the energy we might need in the future.

I personally beleive that Geothermal, Nuclear and Hydro electric are going to be the big power source in the future. Oh and before you attack me for saying Nuclear, it can't blow up. You need to pump Uranium with energy that needs it's own power plant to create. Storing it effectively will do until we work out some way to either despose of it for good or learn to create a form of energy from the waste. It needs small amounts of space, and 1 ton of uranium = Millions of tons of coal. Finding a way to store the energy we don't need right now can't be to hard.
 
I just had an idea, than an answer straight after :p

They cant send Nuclear waste into Outer Space... Look at Challenger and Discovery :3 If the Shuttle blew up while carrying any Nuclear waste, 1000s of Kilometres sq. would be contaminated :p
 
^ Yes we can.
We need a space elevator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator
It has been said that if we concentrated on it, we could have one in 15 yrs.


The power sources we will ultimately come to rely on are electricity from solar cells (probably in space) and nuclear FUSION, not fission. Fusion has not been perfected yet.
Incidentally, I heard there are solar cells that absorb 90% of the light that hits them. Pretty good, IMO.

I'm all for geothermal, wind, and tidal, but not for damming rivers - it blocks fish from their spawning grounds.

Clean coal is not clean. That is bull****.
Biofuels, such as ethanol, are just the gas companies' effort to keep squeezing you out of money when oil runs out.
Hydrogen power (chemical) is inefficient. Not worth investing in.
 
I suppose a space elevator is entirely possible (we would need very strong materials, such as carbon nanotubes, to keep such a structure together), but whether or not it is worthwhile is another question altogether. Considering the costs involved, it would probably be both easier and more enviromentally friendly (as in the money could be better spent on other green things) to simply store radioactive waste in underground storage facilities.

One thing that has captured my interest is the idea of green roofs. The idea is essentially to have a "garden" of sorts on the flat tops of buildings. It saves on insulation, absorbs and cleans rainwater so cities don't become flooded as easily, you can grow fruits/vegetables/whatever, less repairs are needed (surprising I know, that's something I'd like to research in more detail), filters CO2 from the air... I could go on. Last but not least, it would look rather cool. :D
 
scampy said:
I suppose a space elevator is entirely possible (we would need very strong materials, such as carbon nanotubes, to keep such a structure together), but whether or not it is worthwhile is another question altogether. Considering the costs involved, it would probably be both easier and more enviromentally friendly (as in the money could be better spent on other green things) to simply store radioactive waste in underground storage facilities.

One thing that has captured my interest is the idea of green roofs. The idea is essentially to have a "garden" of sorts on the flat tops of buildings. It saves on insulation, absorbs and cleans rainwater so cities don't become flooded as easily, you can grow fruits/vegetables/whatever, less repairs are needed (surprising I know, that's something I'd like to research in more detail), filters CO2 from the air... I could go on. Last but not least, it would look rather cool. :D

Chicago was one of the first cities to use green roofs. Their actual goal at first was to drastically lower the urban heat island effect that made the city excessively warm in the summer. As you can see, this is not the only benefit of green roofing, as scampy posted above.
 
apophys said:
Would you mind elaborating on that?

Building and maintaining one would be a very hard and extreamly costly.

It would need to include built-in thrusters to stabilise itself against dangerous vibrations.

Having thrusters hanging off the cable at regular intervals is going to be a serious annoyance in terms of maintenance, refuelling, and simply the logistics of attaching them and having the elevator bypass them

Merely attaching multiple tethers together probably would not have the same stabilizing effect of antenna masts. The the entire tether length would be about eight times the diameter of earth.

Found a short video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TAcNvlUZBU
 
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