Which is our best alternative to fossil fuels

[Ben Attwood]

We're running out of juice, as it were. So, what energy source is the most efficient to use in everyday life

[Latch33570]

Einstien Doesn't bother me. I just think it would be a transition tech. Ya don't have to burn the hydrogen use it in a fuel cell. Then use a regular electric motor.   More efficient and reliable. It would have way fewer moving parts.

Anyway there has been recent advances in aneutronic fussion http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/fusion-breakthro...  maybe that will do it.

[Eystein,]

Fair.

Btw fusion technology is so mind bendingly friggin AWESOME!! Sexy even! Definitely the bestest looking future =D

[Latch33570]

Until the other day I never gave aneutronic fusion much thought. I sort of clumped all fusion together. I read about it but it just didn't click right in my head. (insert joke here) Now after the other day when I read about the breakthrough I realize that this portion lacked funding and it holds the most potential. A company EMC2 has built smaller ones. They haven't passed the break even point yet but their calculations say that if they scale up their machine it would. They have built larger and larger ones and they have produced as predicted so far. Next step is building the big one I think. It is being funded by the US Navy and they put a gag order on them. It can also be used as a propellant. Maybe that is why the gag order. Potentially it could shorten the trip to Mars to one month. 

[Eystein,]

I read last year that a facility in California, called the National Ignition Facility, was building a full scale prototype of their fusion reactor concept, which is based on lasers. It was supposed to open this year, but I haven't heard or read any current status reports about it. Maybe I'll check it out next..

Another thing, besides energy, that fusion technology is useful for is to fuse atoms into heavier elements on demand, since there are several elements we're running short on. Also we get to study first hand subatomic properties under the most extreme conditions.

[Latch33570]

We are such science geeks.

[Latch33570]

I heard cold fusion is coming back. It is now called CECR or LENR but it seems to be gaining acceptability.

[Charles LaCour]

Nuclear fusion if it becomes possible.  

Solar, wind and ocean wave as well as other similar energy sources are not going to be viable without an effective storage system(s) that can support a deep draw and quick acting load.  Using solar as an example it gives you power while the sun is shining so you need large reservoirs to supply power throughout the night but you also need some sort of storage that can pick up the load if a cloud passes over?   

Battery storage is one of the quicker acting storage methods but it is not an ecologically sound, there am many highly toxic byproducts in their creation.  Thermal storage is quite dangerous and has a high amount of wear and tear on the system and really doesn't fit into either the deep draw or the quick acting storage senario.  Gravitational storage is one of the oldest and usually involves using extra power capacity to pump water into an elevated reservoir and then using hydroelectric generators to get the energy back but this is only a deep draw storage solution. 

[Latch33570]

This is the ones in cold fusion I found interesting. www.brillouinenergy.com/

[Josh Griffiths]

I remember reading about an machine which draws carbon and hydrogen from the air and builds up the hydrocarbon molecules which can be cracked into other hydrocarbons the same way were doing it now.Link To Article

[Latch33570]

I heard of that but it takes more energy to produce it so it can't replace the hydrocarbons that it is making.

[Jess sullivan]

I feel very strong about this and feel that there are plenty of other scorches of energy and one of them is definitely not nuclear power. The reason I say this is because nuclear power can be very dangerous and can affect the environment in some harmful ways. Now I'm not talking about that one Simpsons episode I'm talking about one very specific plant that is near a lake and. Has heated the water so that it is hardly cooler than the air when it is in the nineties. As well as being dangerous to the environment it is dangerous to people, you might have heard of Marie Curie, she wasn't even exposed to that much at a time and she died of cancer from it. You will probably say that that is what the special suits are for And i say well that doesn't really help as much when there is a default. So I say we should definitely not use nuclear energy we should use wind or hydroelectric power you may say what about the fish and birds well with hydroelectric power there are a few different types and with windmills or turbines you can build them around the migratory path of the birds so that they are less likely to hit the windmills.

[Latch33570]

Not all nuke is the same.