Question #5
"What do you believe will be the Earth‘s next great energy source?"
SG:
Direct solar energy extracted from space. Perhaps even solar wind farms. That's pretty out there though. Maybe a newer form of ultra safe nuclear power. Energy extracted from waste products and food like corn. There will be some tough years after the oil is gone. Energy surrounds us in so many different forms and is so abundant. Its the extraction part that is difficult.
DB:
There are many developments in the field of renewable and free energy systems. As of right now it is hard to say. From solar concentration devices to Joe's Cells and vacuum energy devices. The cosmos holds within it the energy which we require to sustain our people. Solar, wind, Oceanic Thermal Energy Converters, and geothermal energies are all abundant and renewable. One could call some forms of energy free but there are things which need to be taken into consideration with such devices in terms of maintenance etc. The greatest energy source is the energy from within our consciousness that allows us to see what necessary changes need to be made and implement them without haste.
MG:
I don’t know too much about that area but I hope it’s to do with things that don’t rape the planet or harm the planet. Maybe it’s solar or maybe it’s underground. The least invasive things that wouldn’t harm mother Earth.
PP:
Hydrogen
AU:
I think reusing the appalling amount refuse we create as a race, green and inorganic. We have yet to harness the power of say used cooking oil in our cars, methane gases that pour into the atmosphere from the dump, or more efforts to promote recycling.
NS:
I’d be curious to see how much energy we can get from burning oil lobbyists. But seriously, methane hydrates.
JF:
Geothermal energy, heat concentrators, wind, solar, tidal, and temperature differentials.
A:
Dirt, tiny particles in the dirt
SS:
The sun is and has always been our primary energy source. It is the power source for the carbon cycle which harnessed the sun’s energy in fossil fuels, the primary current anthropogenic energy source. I believe we will continue to improve our technology to directly harness and transmit the suns radiation for our uses on earth. For instance, there is the suggestion that satellites could be put into orbit around the earth to collect solar energy from the sun, convert it to electricity and beam it to earth as microwaves or some other form of transmission. I am hopeful that technological improvements will allow us to use the sun’s energy in concert with other renewable energy sources, such as wind, hydroelectric, tidal, and geothermal, to provide for all our needs. Additionally, though experiments have not yet yielded particularly encouraging results, there is also the potential to synthesize the sun’s energy production on earth with the process of nuclear fusion.
