We will not be denied cheap, clean and accessible energy!
This is a satellite image of the world at night.Clusters of bright lights mark industrial centers and thin white lines trace connecting passage ways like the trans Siberian Railroad and the US Interstate Highway system. In between huge swaths lie in shadow as well as most of the Southern Hemisphere.
This is the inspiration for K.R. Sridhar, the CEO of Bloom Energy. "This is my motivation for everything" he says, "to imporve the lives of the more than 2 billion people in those dark areas."
He is on the cutting edge of technology that is ready to deliver reliable, affordable, environmentally clean energy.
Impossible? Sridhar has been working for NASA and it is his research that will keep astronauts alive on Mars with water and oxygen generators. This research has led to the development of his current venture: Highly Efficient Fuel Cells that run on everything from plant waste to natural gas while emitting relatively little carbon dioxide
The affordable units which will be marketed in the next year are being tested at the University of Tennessee. They are totally independant and the units he is testing are about the size of a coffee table and should be able to provide all the power an average American household would need.
This system would enable all of us to "live off of the grid". An independant energy system that would not be susceptible to attack or natural disaster.
When asked If the utility companies should be worried...Sridhar says "Possibly. The companies who saw their business in selling mainframe computers are gone."
Of course, IBM was one of those companies and it learned to adapt. As Sridhar says,"The human ability to innovate out of a jam is profound. That's whay Darwin will always be right and Malthus will always be wrong."
11 comments:
Hello Microdot,
I have written many papers on fuel cells and the many different types. They are real and have the potential of changing the electric power world as we know it today. Just like you have individual heating units to warm a house, be it heat pump, hot water boiler, electric baseboard, wood stove, etc., everyone will have their own source of electrical power generation.
Exciting Stuff!!
You betcha and this company is going to go public in 2010!
The unit in The Atlantic article is the size of a coffee table.
Watch the conservative corporate drones spout their drivel about this as another attempt to foist a socialist fascist tryranical jihad against free enterprise on the profitably polluting American utility companies.
Cheap clean power is an equalizer and it's just like affordable health care....
If you can't pay through your ass for it, you don't deserve it!
Because fuel cells never produce CO2? And the southern hemisphere needs to run lights all night? I understand about biomass, but his scenario will push us over the edge even faster. How about a campaign to encourage people to turn off unnecessary lights? Fuel cells that run on natural gas are part of the problem!
BS
Now, now, blind squirrel...
How about a campaign to encourage us to turn off unneccessary lights?
That's no reason to disparrage a technology that will significantly reduce CO2 used in energy production in parts of the world that will get electricity one way or another.
The main point of why I write about advances in new energy technology is to point out that the advances are coming so fast and from so many directions that it proves Sridhars statement about the human capacity to improvise it's way out of a jam.
Sridhars technology makes a hell of a lot more sense than new nuclear plants, dams or conventional powwr generating technology.
The amount of energy used to power an average American household is enough to power an entire village in he third world...
Yessir...you better turn off those lights. Turn off appliances when you aren't using them...
I believe the future of energy production will come from amny sources...we have a smorgasbord of techniques and applications to fit each unique situation.
If you have been reading this blog, you would have learned about algae biomass generation, fish tail technology current generation and many more...
There are many good ideas. I hope you aren't trying to disparrage this particular technology because you think the Aerican coal industry needs to be propped up and saved from rabid commie socialist fascist ecologists!
"If you have been reading this blog,"
Actually, no this is the first I have heard of your blog. It came highly recommended to me, but I have completely forgotten from whence. My point is that we need to stop burning anything that doesn't come from renewable sources. This certainly doesn't include natural gas. Are there even enough rare earths to give that many people fuel cells? And what do you have against nukes? A short answer will do.
BS
O kay, I would say we are basically in agreement on most issues here. I support all research in alternative passive energy systems.
I believe that we have the capapbility to make a major step now, but the industry of energy has to be forced from the bottom up to change, because as we have seen ovr and over again, it won't come from the top.
I see nuclear energy as a very profitable and dangerous dead end.
It's big money for the energy companies. I live in France and the french governemtn is an active player with Areva.
The government has made the production of nuclear power a totally opaque national security topic.
Only now are we learning how tragically areas in Central France, the area around Limoges for example have been polluted by nuclear waste.
Nuclear energy is a money pit with no future. It looks good on paper, but the long term reality and the dangerous waste products and the handling of them are going to be real concerne for the human race for eons.
We can do better and we can do it safer and simpler and much much cheaper!
I cannot keep my answer short because I am so passionate about my life long opposition to nuclear energy. Excuse me....
by the way, one of the last things the Bush administration did on the nuclear energy front was to sign a contract, negotiated with sarkozy, who is the salesman in chief for Areva to build 8 new Nuclear plants in cooperation with westinghouse in the USA.
The plants are to be of a yet un proven design. The prototype plant was to be on line 2 years ago in Finland and is now almost 15 billion Euros over in cost overruns and there are many safety issues which have to be resolved.
This same type of gravel bed reactor was abandoned by Germany 2 years ago after an "incident" which is a ational security secret....
Who's making money from nuclear energy? Wh's benefitting from it?
Who makes money from disposal and reprocessing the wastes?
What is the waste used for? and of course, the final waste has to be stored in a geologically scure place for eons so we don't destroy ourselves...
What is the benefit other than the fact that more pwople can play more computer games all the time now?
I support nukes as an interim solution only, because they produce a lot of power w/o much CO2. I didn't know about the situation in Limoges. I note without understanding that the courts ruled that Areva NC did not dump waste illegally. It would also help to realize that mining waste and reactor waste are two separate items. It is disingenious to suggest that reactor waste must be sequestered for "eons" The figure I have heard thrown about is 10,000 years, hardly eons. CO2 however does persist in the atmosphere for eons and poses the greater threat IMHO.
My point about the abundance of platinum and palladium still stands. There just isn't enough to supply everyone with their own personal fuel cell. Perhaps there will be some dramatic advances but we can't count on it. The world seems to be up against a wall as far as storage battery development is concerned as well. These are some harsh realities and they have to be faced. Another harsh reality is that people aren't going to accept any decrease in their perceived standard of living.Here in the USA the average size of a new house steadily increases. I fear that no lump of coal or drop of oil will remain in the ground unburned.
Speaking of harsh reality, it is 25 degrees below zero Fahrenheit right now as I type, but I am righteously warm because I burn wood.
BS
25 friggin degrees below zero?
Where are you? I burn wood here, but luckily the lowest temps we usually EVER see is about zero farenheit.
I did live in ichigan for many and have experienced that kind of cold, though.
I never advocated dependance on fuel cell technology as a single solution.
Accept that and I also would like to say that the advances in th technology are moving at a pace which makes your data out dated as you write it.
What I do fervently believe in is a use of multiple technologies to produce cheap safe clean energy.
Your point disputing my use of the word eon because an eon is longer than 10,000 years is kind of ridiculous. But, in respect to your nit picking, I will re edit my thinking and say tens of thousands of years.
Here in this region of France, there are many small rivers all flowing from the Massive Central into a few main river systems.
Historically, the rivers were used to provide mechanical power on a small scale and on a large scale with some very impressive sites still preseved in the wilderness.
There are abandoned mill ponds and dams every where. Some actually are still used to mill grain.
The technology exists now and is always being improved to make any of these ancient millworks into very efficient energy production units.
Water powered European Industry for centuries, albeit inefficiently, but as electricity and steam took over, these sites were abandoned.
It's time to reclaim this resource.
One little installation at an ancient mill race could power a village.
I have friends in a village called La Boissiere d'Ans that is the site of an ancient canon works which was totally powered by water. They have some of the canalization running through their property and it is still functioning.
My friend has installed a hydro turbine unit and is now powering his house and out buidings for free!
This is amateur, erector set technology.....
Well, I thought I posted a long, cogent reply but I don't see it. Maybe i screwed up the capcha
BS
Sunny southern Minnesota. It's only minus 24 today. We used to take the children out for 2 hours at a crack on days like this. Never lost a one. ( retired environmental educator.)
We agree one most points. I tend to be skeptical since I am still waiting for electricity-too-cheap-to-meter atomic power. And where the hell is my aircar?
Several of my friends are off the grid. One tiled his roof with solar panels. He expects a 30 year payback, if it doesn't hail in that time period. They all use golfcart batteries to store power. Lead acid, 200 year old technology. Due to agriculture, dams in this part of the country silt up quickly with what is defined as toxic waste due to chemicals such as atrazine, etc. which means they can't simply be dredged out. The few large dams destroyed the aquatic ecosystem by turning rivers into lakes.
Really, I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade. It has to be understood that there is almost always some downside to every scheme.
And we can't even mention the real problem, overpopulation because it upsets the Christian breeders.
Looking forward to your next post.
BS
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