How (not) to resolve the energy crisis

[Capt Worley PE]

Increasing the share of renewable energy will not make us any less dependent on fossil fuels as long as total energy consumption keeps rising. Renewable energy sources do not replace coal, oil or gas plants, they only meet (part of) the growing demand.

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/11/renewable-energy-is-not-enough.html

 

[Wolverine]

I've been saying this for years about conservation!

We cannot out-conserve our growth rate. If you managed to get everybody to switch to high-efficiency light bulbs, heat pumps, more insulation, yada-yada, you COULD theoretically save 30% (realistically, 10% improvement would be an incredibly succesful conservation program).

Except that's a one time deal and in a few years, the growth rate catches up to the conservation, but now there's no more room to improve efficiency.

This is why the Green movement is a lie. The only way to decrease energy consumption is to increase entropy (eliminate industry/go back to living in tents).

 

[knight1fox3]

So basically, the upcoming new NBC series has some truth to it?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nHa3nK5_3Us

 

[Capt Worley PE]

The only way to decrease energy consumption is to increase entropy (eliminate industry/go back to living in tents).

I get the feeling that's the goal of the hard-core environmentalists.

 

[Wolverine]

Several years ago I had an energy policy debate with my left coast sister-in-law where I tried to explain that Green Energy is for people who are bad at math. The debate ended with her statement: "Well, we'll just have to find a new source of energy." That's when I began to develop my theory of Rainbow Unicorn Power which I've been feverishly working on ever since.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Rainbow Unicorn Power:

http://www.idahostat...on-to-mars.html

Highlights:

INL helps power mission to Mars

Nobody knows what secrets NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will uncover after it lands on the Red Planet.

About the size of a car, Curiosity will roam a crater, taking and analyzing samples that could uncover traces of life, water and other mysteries.

The electricity powering Curiosity's two-year mission traces back to eastern Idaho and a team at Idaho National Laboratory.

In simple terms, Curiosity runs, in part, on a $100 million nuclear battery developed at the lab, said Stephen Johnson, division director of Space Nuclear Systems and Technology.

The 2-foot-tall, 2-foot in diameter cylinder aboard Curiosity is packed with radioactive isotopes generating heat. That thermal energy is converted into the electricity fueling Curiosity's wheels, arms and other gadgets, as well as recharging its bank of lithium-ion batteries.

In technical terms, it's called a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator."People call it a battery, but it's actually a power system because it doesn't need to be recharged," Johnson said. "It will run for decades."

A team of about 65 scientists and technicians spent six years developing, building and testing the power source. Six years of weekends at work, Christmas breaks away from family and pizzas delivered to the site will soon pay off, said Kelly Lively, who supervised the project as manger of the Radio Isotopes Power Systems Department."

We give life to what we're sending for deep-space exploration," Lively said. "That we had a part in that, there's a tremendous amount of satisfaction."

The team handles the radioactive materials in an airtight chamber with sealed gloves and robot-like arms.

(Yes, I know this is just the same nuclear power we've been trying to improve upon for the last 50 years, but you asked for magic and this is pretty f#*$$% magic.)