Technology?

Question

is technology a good or bad thing? like we're so dependent on fossil fuel, electricity, and other things like that. what is this type of technology doing to the things we live off of? i know that fossil fuels are like making so much pollution but what do you think about technology

Answer 1

Technology is not bad.

It's how we use it and whether we consider all the consequences before we put it in place.  We have not done that in the past.  We can't do things that way anymore.  

Technology is what we will use to solve the problems that our misuse of it has brought about.

At the same time, we have to realize that sometimes simple technology is the answer.  For example, here's a company doing something to save fuel for ocean freighters.  It is really low tech, and it works.

http://www.skysails.info/index.php?id=20...

and an American company doing the same thing.

http://www.kiteship.com/

These are parasails for ships.  The cost of retrofitting a ship is dirt cheap.  About the cost of leasing a large cape size bulk carrier ship for 2 days.

http://www.pluginpartners.org/

Plug in Partners is an advocacy group for plug in hybrid cars.  This is what we need now.  The average American driver would get 100mpg overall, and could charge the battery overnight, during off peak electricity demand, for $1.

That would get the average commuter back and forth to work, using no gasoline.   You would only use gasoline on longer trips.

Here's a new book that demonstrates what we can do to save our planet while benefitting economically from the positive changes.

http://www.earththesequel.com./

"Krupp and Horn have turned the doom and gloom of global warming on its head. Earth: The Sequel makes it crystal clear that we can build a low-carbon economy while unleashing American entrepreneurs to save the planet, putting optimism back into the environmental story."

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City

Green Wombat is a good site to follow advances being made in alternative energy and electric and PHEV cars etc.

http://blogs.business2.com/greenwombat/

article on creative financing for solar, including what Berkeley is doing

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/s...

It takes the sting out of the up front cost of installing solar.  This is also happening on a corporate level, with companies like Morgan Stanley setting up financing and power purchase agreements for corporations and other large businesses to install solar panels.

Power purchase agreements are how power companies in California, Nevada and Arizona are contracting for solar thermal power plants in the southwest.  These PPAs are a very positive move in the right direction.

Here's what's happening on the cutting edge of thin film solar cells and panels

"Nanosolar’s founder and chief executive, Martin Roscheisen, claims to be the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to profitably sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt. That is the price at which solar energy becomes less expensive than coal."

“With a $1-per-watt panel,” he said, “it is possible to build $2-per-watt systems.”

"According to the Energy Department, building a new coal plant costs about $2.1 a watt, plus the cost of fuel and emissions, he said."

from http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/c...

This article shows how we could have a 69% solar electric grid by 2050, building solar power plants in the southwest.

Scientific American  A Solar Grand Plan

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-so...

I don't agree with all the specifics of this proposal, but it is generally a good idea, even if we only do half or a third of what they are recommending.

It's becoming apparent that solar thermal plants are a better idea than the concentrating solar photovoltaic plants that they are emphasizing.  And molten salt for storing thermal energy to generate electricity at night from solar plants is looking like the better idea.  They propose caverns filled with compressed air.  Molten salt only loses about 1% of it's heat over a 24 hour period, and doesn't involve digging all those caverns.  

"The same acre can produce 10 times as much energy from wind as it can from corn ethanol, 180,000 miles per acre per year. But both corn ethanol and wind power pale in comparison with solar photovoltaic, which can produce more than 2 million miles worth of transport per acre per year."   http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1454...

"Solar thermal power plants such as Ausra's generate electricity by driving steam turbines with sunshine. Ausra's solar concentrators boil water with focused sunlight, and produce electricity at prices directly competitive with gas- and coal-fired electric power."

"Solar thermal power plants can store energy during daylight hours and generate power when it's needed. Ausra's power plants collect the sun's energy as heat; Ausra is developing thermal energy storage systems which can store enough heat to run the power plant for up to 20 hours during dark or cloudy periods."

" All of America's needs for electric power – the entire US grid, night and day – can be generated with Ausra's current technology using a square parcel of land 92 miles on a side. For comparison, this is less than 1% of America's deserts, less land than currently in use in the U.S. for coal mines."

"In recent months, PG&E has signed deals for more than a gigawatt of electricity — enough to light more than 750,000 homes — with solar power plant developers. Such power purchase agreements can take more than a year to hammer out and the permitting and construction of a solar power station can take another three to five years."

"The solar thermal industry is in its infancy but utilities like PG&E (PCG), Southern California Edison (EIX) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SRE) have signed several contracts for solar power plants and negotiations for gigawatts more of solar electricity are ongoing."

from Green Wombat

Biomass to methane power also has big potential.

Sewage treatment plants, landfills, farms etc can all use anaerobic digesters to gather methane for power.  This methane would eventually develop as things decompose and become greenhouse gas adding to global warming.  This kills two birds with one stone.   Check out what Environmental Power Corp is doing in this area.

Wind power

"In the US, the American Wind Energy Association forecasts that installed capacity could grow from 11,603 MW today to around 100,000 MW by 2020. In Canada, Emerging Energy Research predicts that installed wind capacity will expand from around 1,500 MW today to around 14,000 MW by 2015."

{from an article at altenergystocks.com by Charles Morand}

We now have a fledgling bioplastics industry which can make plastics from plant material like corn or non food plants like switchgrass.  We now use 5-10% of our oil to make plastics, which create huge environmental problems, especially in the oceans.

Most plastic floats near the sea surface where some is mistaken for food by birds and fishes. Plastics are carried by currents and can circulate continually in the open sea. Broken, degraded plastic pieces outweigh surface zooplankton in the central North Pacific by a factor of 6-1. That means six pounds of plastic for every single pound of zooplankton."

DR. Marcus Ericson

http://www.algalita.org/research.html#pl...

http://www.algalita.org/pelagic_plastic....

"I'd put my money on the sun & solar energy.  What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."  Thomas Edison, 1931