Free energy?

Question

what if we found free energy what then

Answer 1

We would still have to pay for distribution.

Answer 2

If it were free and you could produce it in your own back yard it could be the most liberating thing in modern history.

Answer 3

All energy is free.  It cost to put it in a form we can use.  There is no cost for the sun, but one has to convert to a form of energy we can use, Photo Voltaic panels are about $5 per/watt.  Solar water heaters are easy and run form $500, for home made, to $10k for a top of line model, installed by pro's.

The Mother Earth News magazine has had many a fine article on low cost hot air units that one can make.

Here is 2 links for more info.

Answer 4

If you found "Free" energy you would be breaking the laws of thermodynamics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_the...

The 1st law is that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Which means that we will never find "free" energy.

The 2nd law is that energy always tends to move towards a state of entropy

entropy basically equals "useless" energy.  Or energy that is spread out so much that it is too small for us to use for work.  Theoretically you could find more ways to use smaller amounts of energy and do more work but that energy still becomes smaller and so on and so on...

Eventually... all the energy in the universe will go to entropy and would reach a steady state.  No change = death.  Of course, that is so far off there really isn't any sense even mentioning it.

Answer 5

It would stop being free. Someone would claim ownership on it and figure out a way to make money out of it!

Answer 6

Dear God, most people on these forums are completely illiterate.

Short answer: No such thing as free energy exists.  There would be R+D costs (unless plans fall out of the sky), construction costs (unless super-efficient fusion plants build themselves), storage issues (unless batteries build themselves), and wire issues (as someone else mentioned.)

Would electricity be free? No.

Would electricity be much cheaper than it is now? Yes.  After the patents expire, power costs would fall incredibly.

Do we want free, unlimited energy?  No.  If there was NO benefit to reducing energy use, we would have to build many more "free energy plants" than we actually need in order to satisfy supply.

Answer 7

It would save trillions of dollars a year which are now spent obtaining it.  But the laws of thermodynamics give us little hope of obtaining it.

Answer 8

the people who found it would never give it away for free.

Answer 9

This is a very, very good question.

Even if we found free energy we would still have to deal with population and development.  We can't develop the entire planet and expect no consequences.

Eventually resources will be exhausted and the biosphere will become so degraded it will loose it's ability to absorb our waste and regenerate.

Free energy doesn't solve the problem.

Answer 10

They will make as pay no matter what!

Because companies and the government are cruel, cruel people who just want money.

Answer 11

That would be great untill then I don't know :l