What is the best way to end fossil fuel dependance?

[Seret]

There's no one solution, we need to be doing a whole lot of stuff to transform our energy systems. Energy demands are going to increase substantially, we're going to need to be using everything we can get our hands on to satisfy it.

Demand side

Domestic and commercial

Houses need to be superinsulated, including retrofitting existing stock as much as possible. We can already make homes that have very limited space heating demand even in cold climates, their main heat demand is hot water. Solar hot water and PV are proven technologies, these should be on every roof.

In hot climates that require aircon roof PV should be mandatory. Reversible heat pumps and microCHP should be used, and smart grids to deal with all the microgeneration and eventually distributed storage. Energy pricing should be fluid and based on the instantaneous carbon intensity to incentivise demand smoothing technologies like storage, which could possibly use parked EV batteries if they can get the pricing right.

In cold climates we need to see district heating using CHP, same fitted to every large building (possibly using absorption chillers for cooling demand). There's an opportunity there to use waste streams like cooking oil converted locally to run these on biodiesel.

Industrial

Lots of good stuff going on here about load shedding and smart motor drives, just keep pushing for better efficiency. Generally industry responds quite well to efficiency opportunities because they're well aware how waste affects their bottom line.

Transport

Short term keep pushing for high fuel efficiency through improved ICEs and weight reduction. Further electrification. Transport is a tricky one though, it may be an appropriate place for a hydrogen economy, but this is only worth doing if there's an abundance of clean generation (I have little faith in CCS being a realistic way to produce reformed hydrogen).

Supply side

Stop burning coal ASAP. Replace coal base load with nuclear (including ramping up the thorium cycle as an alternative to uranium) and top up with gas. Keep stacking in renewables as fast as possible, of all sorts (wind, solar, wave, tidal, large hydro, small hydro, etc). Increase interconnectors and set up regional supergrids for areas that lack them.

Build smart grids, including grid-scale and localised storage. Give grid operators control over potentially everything that's plugged into the grid so that they can manage demand by shedding or dumping loads (eg: refrigeration/HVAC, EVs).

Honestly, there are about a zillion things we need to do to build a more sustainable and cleaner energy system. Some of it we're doing already, some we're seriously dragging the chain on. Some of the answers are technical (Hello fusion boffins! How you getting on?) some are economic, some political, some cultural. Change isn't going to come easy, but it's worth doing. It's only going to get harder the longer we leave it.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Seret

[Jas1126]

I cannot remember the source at the moment but a man constructed a free energy source by splitting an atom in a large machine. It produces more energy than is spent; including machine costs. It is currently built and a demonstration was shown. I'm kicking myself because I cannot find the source. Perhaps a more patient person can locate it.

[StuntMax]

I cannot remember the source at the moment but a man constructed a free energy source by splitting an atom in a large machine. It produces more energy than is spent; including machine costs. It is currently built and a demonstration was shown. I'm kicking myself because I cannot find the source. Perhaps a more patient person can locate it.

uhrrrrr.... Enrico Fermi?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Pile-1

[sgt_flyer]

If we are to switch away from petrol based resources, we'll need at least energy sources as cheap, high density and reliable than what we have with petrol. (Try miniaturizing a nuclear reactor for your car )

As most of those energy sources would be first too bulky to get into everyday life, we'll need high density cheap energy storage (aluminium - air or lithium - air batteries comes to mind)

With those storage systems into everyday systems, you could even use that to regulate peak energy demands / or even out power from renewable energy sources such as solar / wind / tides.

(Ex : a city has renewable energy generators, with only electric cars. While plugged in, those electric cars would act as a gigantic battery to support peak demands / even out shortcomings from the renewable sources)

[NASAFanboy]

Meet those fat hands of the oil company CEOs off Congress!

[Jouni]

Ultimately solar power, but it's going to be far away in the future. Meanwhile we'll have to get our energy from a variety of sources, hopefully not destroying the planet too badly in the process.

Nuclear power might be a good choice for kerbals, but in a planet populated by humans, it's not going to be realistic. People arguing for or against nuclear power are effectively supporting the continued use of fossil fuels. They are spending their energy in a fruitless debate, instead of advancing the use of technologies that could replace fossil fuels, given real-world constraints.

[cantab]

Synthetic petroleum fuels. Made from atmospheric gases, ordinary rocks, whatever works. We have so much infrastructure for the distribution and use of petrol, diesel, and natural gas, that it's incredibly hard for anything else to break into the market. And for good reason; petrol and diesel are liquids at room temperature and pressure with good energy density by both mass and volume, making them great vehicle fuels, while natural gas is very handleable for static boilers (and ALSO a usable vehicle fuel).

Where the electricity to run the synthesis plants comes from is unimportant. Fission, fusion, solar, wind, whatever. We'll probably end up with a mixture. It's keeping all the existing planes, trains, and automobiles running without needing mass replacement or a huge new infrastructure development that will count.

Biofuels will have their role, but ultimately I don't think agriculture can meet our global needs for petrol and diesel as well as our needs for food and fabrics.

[peadar1987]

A combination of nuclear, wind, wave, tidal, biomass, geothermal and solar, depending on the particular location. Use excess capacity to produce hydrogen and smooth out the load curve. Store the hydrogen in metal compounds, use it to run fuel cells for transportation. Start a massive movement to increase energy efficiency on the demand side (basically everything Seret said, only less articulate)

[Jas1126]

uhrrrrr.... Enrico Fermi?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Pile-1

No, no. This was VERY recent. He (well, with the funding of others) built a machine that is currently functioning (if only by experimentation) that splits an atom and generates more power than is spent. There was a video I watched that showed the machine in action. It was absolutely enormous.

Why the hell (sorry for the language, just frustrated) can't I find the video? This was a legitimate project. It's as if it was removed from the internet. What the hell?

Edited May 20, 2014 by Jas1126

[peadar1987]

No, no. This was VERY recent. He (well, with the funding of others) built a machine that is currently functioning (if only by experimentation) that splits an atom and generates more power than is spent. There was a video I watched that showed the machine in action. It was absolutely enormous.

Why the hell (sorry for the language, just frustrated) can't I find the video? This was a legitimate project. It's as if it was removed from the internet. What the hell?

Is it a subcritical reactor?

[Jas1126]

I have to assume at this point that the video (and all evidence of it) has been removed so that somebody can patent it. I swear on my life that I saw it. I don't take that "swear" lightly as a 33 year old married man. I SAW the video. It's nowhere to be found.

Edit: My god this is frustrating... I have been searching diligently since my first post and it's as if the video never existed.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Jas1126

[KerbMav]

For the transitional phase the "reusing" of CO2 in atmosphere and directly from industrial complexes to generate methane, which can be used to generate electricity or be burned in furnaces and the like.

It has to be mentioned that methane tops CO2 as a greenhouse gas by a factor of 28 though, seal those ducts!

And maybe this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_to_liquids .

Concentration of energy production by solar power (solar thermal energy instead of photovoltaics to avoid the whole toxicity issue whenever possible), water, tidal, geo thermal, wind, biogas (see above for reuse of produced CO2).

Switching to electricity as main "propellant" wherever possible, building fast track trains to reduce short range flights and get transportation of the roads.

Shut down Las Vegas and all other inhabited light bulbs!

(You get my drift.)

[StuntMax]

No, no. This was VERY recent. He (well, with the funding of others) built a machine that is currently functioning (if only by experimentation) that splits an atom and generates more power than is spent.[...]

Maybe you're thinking about the E-Cat, aka "Piezoelectric nuclear reactor" or whatever?

A few months ago some crook here in Italy published some videos in which he displayed the wonderfulness of his Uncanny Piezoelectric Nuclear Reactor, claiming that it self sustained and delivered an output of several KW after being fed only some 100 Ws for the startup.

It was obviously the last of uncountable scams in the "Infinite clean power CHEAP!!1!" family, he never disclosed how the "reactor" was made ("for patent related reasons") and refused any form of controlled environment independent testing, but still offered his contraption for sale for something like 1M$, obviously nobody fell for that, and he was quickly forgotten.

The guy's name was Andrea Rossi, and the pile of junk was called "E-Cat". I have several links but alas, only in italian.

As I stated, it was only one of uncountable similar rubbish... as a rule of thumb, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is not true. This is especially true for websites, youtube videos, and people showing up at talk shows. No respectable scientist would EVER publish his work on youtube (and it's really hard to believe that some backyard tinker manages in a few weeks to work out something that outperforms experimental reactors made in the world's top notch physics labs)

[Jas1126]

Maybe you're thinking about the E-Cat, aka "Piezoelectric nuclear reactor" or whatever?

A few months ago some crook here in Italy published some videos in which he displayed the wonderfulness of his Uncanny Piezoelectric Nuclear Reactor, claiming that it self sustained and delivered an output of several KW after being fed only some 100 Ws for the startup.

It was obviously the last of uncountable scams in the "Infinite clean power CHEAP!!1!" family, he never disclosed how the "reactor" was made ("for patent related reasons") and refused any form of controlled environment independent testing, but still offered his contraption for sale for something like 1M$, obviously nobody fell for that, and he was quickly forgotten.

The guy's name was Andrea Rossi, and the pile of junk was called "E-Cat". I have several links but alas, only in italian.

As I stated, it was only one of uncountable similar rubbish... as a rule of thumb, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is not true. This is especially true for websites, youtube videos, and people showing up at talk shows. No respectable scientist would EVER publish his work on youtube (and it's really hard to believe that some backyard tinker manages in a few weeks to work out something that outperforms experimental reactors made in the world's top notch physics labs)

I understand what you're saying (your guy is unrelated) but wouldn't the video still be available for viewing? Even the biggest scams in recent history still have the video's present (people love to post these things to mock them). This video literally vanished from the internet. I swear, I feel like some conspiracy nut that swears up and down that something exists but has no proof. I and my wife (with absolutely no coaxing (and she knows I DETEST liars)) will swear in a court of law that we watched the video. The "Contraption" in the video was a literal power plant. Not some toy.

Where is the video? How can something this big simply vanish completely from the internet when so many are willing to re-post if not for mockery alone?

I wish I could somehow prove my honesty and sheer desperation in this matter. I know I appear as a fool at this point but, quite frankly, I don't care. I despise this so much. I saw this damned video and the facility in action. I'm essentially being called a liar, so to speak, by its existence vanishing from the net.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Jas1126
Spelling errors

[The Yellow Dart]

I don't think the E-Cat is what you are thinking of. You said what you saw was very big, and the E-Cat, I think, is about the size of your arm.

[Z-Man]

Don't despair. You probably just don't remember enough specifics to find it again.

[The Yellow Dart]

As far as other petroleum products when oil runs out or is low, the main attractive feature of petroleum is the energy it contains. Plastic utilizes a chemical quirk of petroleum to make polymers. Non-petroleum plastics can and have been made, it is simply a matter of switching when the time comes and the alternatives become more attractive. And fertilizer production doesn't actually use petroleum but methane, and methane is something that can be manufactured from waste materials and other sources. It is often just burned off because of it's volatility and isn't even used. Energy dependance is the main issue because, thanks to conservation of energy, there is no possible way to manufacture a material with stored energy like petroleum without putting in as much or more energy.

[Jas1126]

Don't despair. You probably just don't remember enough specifics to find it again.

I have tried every key word and phrase that I can think of. Including "Hoax", "Fake" and other similar types of searches and the video is nowhere to be found. I even tried searching other types of supposed free energy claims to no avail. The video and any evidence of it is gone. I even asked my wife to help me remember key elements of the video (including the shape of the stucture) and nothing has come up. Something is up. The only explanation I can think of is that somebody really wants to keep this a secret for patent purposes. I don't buy into conspiracy nonsense so I don't think that has anything to do with it.

This level of secrecy would require large pockets. They would have to be gaining something from it; such as the aforementioned patent.

Just going to let it go at this point. Clearly, I cannot find anything and the video will just have to remain a rumor proposed by some nut on the net. So be it.. My wife and I know what we saw... /sigh

Edited May 20, 2014 by Jas1126

[StuntMax]

I wish I could somehow prove my honesty and sheer desperation in this matter. I know I appear as a fool at this point but, quite frankly, I don't care. I despise this so much. I saw this damned video and the facility in action. I'm essentially being called a liar, so to speak, by its existence vanishing from the net.

I siimply believe that you have seen a particularly well made scam, but lacking any serious referral, it can be really tricky to find: it's like trying to find a specific funny cat video on youtube.

I mean... a super-uber-powerful oil masters conspiracies that goes "oh look. somebody just developed a working fusion reactor and also built a power plant, damn i didn't notice it at first... oh well, we'll just kill the dude, blow up the plant and wipe the whole internet clean of any reference, just like we did with the water powered engine guy..."

Don't be fooled by the fact that "there is a facility": when that oter hook, Guy Negre, landed in Italy with his utterly worthless "EOLO, the car that runs on compressed air", he set up a company, built a small factory, he even hired a few people to work in it. You could see the plant, people went there to work every day there (to make "parts" or bodywork, never the Wonderful Miracle Engine) and was paid, they also made a "demo car" which could move for a few meters without freezing, but the Miracle Car obviously never really ran, the dude flew away a few months later ("TATA motors down in India wants to buy my compressed air car") and left the production facility to collapse. As anybody who can cite the laws of thermodynamics knows, the compressed air car concept simply can not be efficient enough for a real world use.

[Jas1126]

I siimply believe that you have seen a particularly well made scam, but lacking any serious referral, it can be really tricky to find: it's like trying to find a specific funny cat video on youtube.

I mean... a super-uber-powerful oil masters conspiracies that goes "oh look. somebody just developed a working fusion reactor and also built a power plant, damn i didn't notice it at first... oh well, we'll just kill the dude, blow up the plant and wipe the whole internet clean of any reference, just like we did with the water powered engine guy..."

Don't be fooled by the fact that "there is a facility": when that oter hook, Guy Negre, landed in Italy with his utterly worthless "EOLO, the car that runs on compressed air", he set up a company, built a small factory, he even hired a few people to work in it. You could see the plant, people went there to work every day there (to make "parts" or bodywork, never the Wonderful Miracle Engine) and was paid, they also made a "demo car" which could move for a few meters without freezing, but the Miracle Car obviously never really ran, the dude flew away a few months later ("TATA motors down in India wants to buy my compressed air car") and left the production facility to collapse. As anybody who can cite the laws of thermodynamics knows, the compressed air car concept simply can not be efficient enough for a real world use.

I understand that it may be a hoax. But, to never find the video? When there's only so many key words and phrases available.. Surely I would have stumbled upon it by now.

[Red Iron Crown]

I suspect the migration away from fossil fuels will happen organically, without the need for any heavy-handed regulation. As the supply dwindles and demand increases, prices will go up to compensate, making the currently economically nonviable alternatives more appealing. My money would be on electrics replacing fossil for personal transport, and nuclear (fission at first, fusion if it ever becomes practical) for large scale generation.

[Seret]

I cannot remember the source at the moment but a man constructed a free energy source by splitting an atom in a large machine. It produces more energy than is spent; including machine costs.

What was it about the device that was supposed to be special? What you've described there is just atomic fission, which is how every nuclear reactor works.

[Seret]

I suspect the migration away from fossil fuels will happen organically, without the need for any heavy-handed regulation. As the supply dwindles and demand increases, prices will go up to compensate, making the currently economically nonviable alternatives more appealing.

The problem with that is that the price going up also makes formerly uneconomically recoverable fossil fuels viable. Many of the figures you hear quoted for "X number of years of coal/oil/gas remaining" are just the economic reserves, which means the number can go up as the price rises. That's why we've been saying we've got 50 years of oil left for quite a while now.

However, it's still a finite resource so we can't play that game forever. We don't have any choice about whether we wean ourselves off fossils fuels, just about when we choose to do it. I suspect we'll still be using them in a hundred years the way we still consume vast quantities of coal, which is a Victorian age energy source.

[cantab]

The only explanation I can think of is that somebody really wants to keep this a secret for patent purposes. I don't buy into conspiracy nonsense so I don't think that has anything to do with it.

This level of secrecy would require large pockets. They would have to be gaining something from it; such as the aforementioned patent.

Patents are the exact opposite of secrecy. The whole idea behind patents is that inventors can make their inventions public, so that science and engineering can advance, without letting everyone else copy their invention.

And finding stuff online can sometimes be annoyingly hard. I still haven't been able to find the Orion (nuclear pulse propulsion) mod for KSP, despite having seen plenty of pictures and videos of people using it.

It's also very possible what you saw was a joke, considering it exactly matches the description of a nuclear (fission) reactor. A small research reactor core would easily fit in the engine compartment of a car (though operationally they sit in a big pool of water for cooling).

[Jas1126]

What was it about the device that was supposed to be special? What you've described there is just atomic fission, which is how every nuclear reactor works.

From what I can remember from the video:

You have to understand that I saw this video quite a number of months ago so the details are very fuzzy. The "Core structure" was round and large. There were quite a few large pipes leading from it. The person narrating said that the "Core" could handle the splitting of the atom (the explosion). The structure showed no signs of needing to be cooled (of course, I could be mistaken). I believe that the heat produced was the source of the energy gained. They stated that the process "pays for itself" because they gained more than twice the energy than was needed for the entirety of the process.

This all probably sounds like nonsense but, again, it was a long while ago since I saw the video.