Energy: Future, Delay, and What Lies Ahead

From deep ocean turbines to burning ice at the ocean floor, we explore future energy sources, what makes a fuel ideal, and rank the promising technologies: nuclear fusion takes the top spot, but why?

This is the third segment of the energy series

Introduction:

Hi, welcome back to the third part of the series and…… Just to tell you, I don’t have much strength to write a long blog anymore (I’ll tell you why later), so just bear with me. However, the good thing about this blog is that we will be talking about some more future energy sources, what an ideal energy source is, why we don’t have one, and probably when we will be able to find them. Just so you know…. A few energy sources causing pollution is the reason why our lungs look more cooked than the chicken that my mom cooked for me, anyways…. Let’s just get to it.

Future Energy Sources:

I won’t be talking about a whole ton of sources, just three, yep….. that’s it… I have other things to talk about in this blog.

1. Deep ocean current energy: This method just includes windmills, but underwater. Hmm, simple enough, but what is the benefit? Do you know about a magical quantity known as density? It just means that if there is the same amount of two different materials, one with more density and the other with less, then the one with more density will be heavier, despite them both being in the same amounts. Coming back to the topic (after learning density), water is denser than air, aka water is heavier than air, so if water pushed the turbines instead of air, it would move faster and would generate more energy. That’s the idea, but unless you want to swim like half a kilometer just to clean the fans of the turbines, there is a problem (and that is what it is). Also to mention, the underwater condition is very harsh….. so there is a high chance of the turbines breaking.

2. High altitude wind energy: This form also uses turbines rotated by air, but in the air…. No… well…. High up in the air. Now, how will that help us? So, winds are stronger and more consistent up there, which means they can outperform ground turbines…. Yeah, that’s it. However, the thing is that the control systems used for it are too complex and there would be some safety and reliability issues, like if the kite detached and hit something, or how we could get it that high.

3. Methane hydrates: So, I don’t have a diagram that…. Uh.. can either simply explain its extraction or give any useful knowledge…. So, I guess… I will leave that to you. This is just frozen methane hydrates or “burning ice” that is found at the bottom of the oceans. This is useful as it releases more energy than ALL THE FOSSIL FUELS COMBINED. Yeah… AND it exists in huge quantities. Which is good, until you get to know that its extraction is dangerous and a little mishandling can worsen climate change…. So… we gotta be careful about those.

That should be enough sources. And now for the important part!!!! I bet you think that I’m gonna say what an ideal fuel is…. Well… I don’t think so, pal! You know what it is, here it is — boys (and girls ig), they found me…. They raided my home, took my pc cries, they took my internet…. But guess what…. The blog goes on! Ahem.. anyways, onto our next topic.

How An Ideal Fuel Is:

“If an ideal fuel is your power, then what are you without it”— the philosopher guy in our authors’ group

He definitely said that…. Yeah, so an ideal fuel is what we would call perfect, best in every way, but that is basically impossible to achieve, like the smallest decimal number that can get infinitely close to zero without reaching it… but hey, we can try. So we will be talking about the criteria which tell us how good some energy source is. Here they are:

1. A source should be clean, meaning no environmental harm, no pollution, or any animal / plant killing.
2. A source should be constant, i.e. it should be convertible to electricity at all times and at no time should it give lesser output.
3. A source should be unlimited or renewable. It shouldn’t consume any material, or if it does, the material consumed should be abundant and should restore quickly.
4. It should provide enough output for the massive amount of people and machines on earth and more.
5. It should be safe.
6. There should be no chance of mishandling it.
7. It shouldn’t have any other use.
8. The infrastructure to utilise it should not be expensive.
9. It should be relatively simple to use anywhere.

Well, that is all I could think of. If you think you have any other criteria, tell me in the comments below. There won’t be a fuel that has everything at once because of the fact that if something is good in one aspect, or 2 aspects, or 3, or 5, or any more aspects, it would have a big disadvantage to compensate for others. And if something fulfills criteria 1, 2, 3 and 4, but would be very advanced and unsafe if mishandled, then that would probably be what we could use for now, as those are the higher priority criteria (I would say) ……until we improve it or use something better.

Why They Are Unavailable and When They Will Be:

This is probably something that I can’t answer precisely, not because I don’t know… because I can’t know — it could be tomorrow, next week, month, year, etc. But what I can give is a prediction… a well-analysed prediction. And for why the sources are unavailable…. Well, it is mainly because of our lack of sufficient knowledge and technology. Also to mention, the cost of infrastructure to utilise sources. So, just gotta wait now…. But I will rank all the sources (the ones mentioned in the previous blog as well.)

*This is my opinion, a little calculated one. If you disagree, do tell me in the comments. :)

Here it is:

1. On number one I would keep nuclear fusion, why? Because it is almost here and it will provide limitless, abundant, constant and clean energy. The researchers just gotta crank the temps up.
2. Number two would be supercritical geothermal energy. I say this because it doesn’t need any transport of energy, is constant, clean, and will be usable up until the earth’s mantle decides to cool down. The only thing is, we need better drills.
3. 3rd position should go to artificial photosynthesis. It solves storage and energy transport problems, is globally scalable like solar panels, and bridges renewable energy and fuel sources — renewable fuel source! Just needs a little more research.

So those are the ones I would say are best unless y’all can get something better. In fourth position I would put space based solar power. It would’ve been better if the transmission of energy from space wasn’t so hectic.

Conclusion:

That was all. Personally, I think that this blog didn’t give that much knowledge as compared to the past ones, but the next one will! In my next blog, I will talk about how solar panels work in detail along with the photoelectric effect. OoOoOooOh, ThAt Is tOo cOMpLeX.. OooOOH I wOn’T bE ABle To uNdeRsTaNd, SHUT IT! No, I ain’t listening to anything you will say, no, no, I will teach it to you in simple words and you will like it (and understand)!

Everything is hard at first glance and everything is easy when you try.