Why is there an energy crisis when the world is blessed with Solar and Geothermal energy?

Question

There is enough capital available to commercialize an abundant amount of freeenergy. Why don't we capitalize on Free Energy.

Answer 1

Simple.  A 130 watt solar panel cost $770 each.  It is totally useless unless you have a solar charger ($200) connected to a battery bank ($600 to $3,000) and an inverter ($600 to $3500) to convert it from DC to useful AC current.   This does not include the labor to install it or all the expensive copper battery wire that is about as thick as a finger.

A typical home computer's power supply draws 500 watts and the monitor an additional 75.   To operate this computer by solar you would need all the above - plus - an additional 4 more panels to power the computer.  Even if you do all the work yourself and use economy parts - the least it would cost you is $6,000 up front.  

You are probably paying $.04 cents a kw in your town.  That $6,000 solar panel system won't pay for itslef until perhaps 35 years have passed - since you will always need to replace the batteries every 5 years - you are looking at about 40 years for it to pay for itself.

Even if you are totally in love with alternate energy - nobody is going to pony up $6,000 to $13,000 to run something that can easily be operated at 5 cents an hour.  

Solar panels only start to make economical sense in places where the cost of energy is very expensive - like $.50kw or more.

As for geothermal - where ever it is - that is where it must be used.  However, most geothermal wells and not located near big cities.  You cannot truck steam.  And these wells would not produce enough power to operate much other than homes in the local area.  

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Do also believe that the stimulus check was free money?  Everything has a cost. solar, geothermal, wind, wave and nuclear all have cost.  They also come with benefits and disadvantages as well as advantages. The cost in the past as always exceeded the low cost of cheap oil (or wood before that).  Now that there is no longer cheap oil we will pursue other forms of energy. The winner will be the cheapest but the change will be difficult (think of those who live far from their jobs that will not pay them enough to by 5 or 10 dollar gas)Its going to take 10-20 years to get a lot of nuclear plant up and running and windmill farms built. It will take even longer to get many homes and business to use solar.  Geothermal is going to come even later than solar.  And for all this we need to get the government off its butt.  That's the toughest job of all.

Answer 3

Let me start off by saying we (my family and I) live completely, 100% “off of the grid and are completely self sufficient”

The house is built utilizing natures natural elements, in the shape of an octagon with 8ft wide arch doors on every wall to catch every angle of wind (typical 4 sided homes have half the chance as one with 8 sides. A circle being the most efficient design). Woodburning stoves, solar chimney, solar AC, solar heating, solar water heating (pool and home), solar stove, solar power, wind power, hydrogen powered back up generator, hydrogen back up water heater, hydrogen stove, 2 hydrogen powered trucks, 1 EV (electric vehicle) and satellite internet.

There are no utility lines, no water lines, no roads, tv, cell service, etc. on our ranch. EVERYTHING needed is produced here. All electricity comes from 27 solar panels, 2 main wind gens and a back hydrogen generator if needed (typically we can last 9 days with all luxuries of sunless windless weather, hasn't happened yet). Water is caught and storaged from the rain. Hot water is made with solar batch water heaters with an on-demand hydrogen hot water heater as backup. Even our vehicles use alternative energy (2 hydrogen trucks, 1 EV electric vehicle converted). Because of this we have no bills, no debt and no mortgage.

The fallowing steps were taking directly out of a DIY guide I offer to those who would like to run their homes on solar power safely, reducing their monthly utility bills or even selling power back the the electrical companies. The entire guide is available at www agua-luna com. Its pretty simple but if you have any problems feel free to contact me directly I can walk you threw the process.

Materials you will need

A sheet of copper flashing from the hardware store. This normally costs about $5.00 per square foot. We will need about half a square foot.

Two alligator clip leads.

A sensitive micro-ammeter that can read currents between 10 and 50 microamperes. Radio Shack sells small LCD multimeters that will do, but I used a small surplus meter with a needle.

An electric stove. My kitchen stove is gas, so I bought a small one-burner electric hotplate for about $25. The little 700 watt burners probably won't work -- mine is 1100 watts, so the burner gets red hot.

A large clear plastic bottle off of which you can cut the top. I used a 2 liter spring water bottle. A large mouth glass jar will also work.

Table salt. We will want a couple tablespoons of salt.

Tap water.

Sand paper or a wire brush on an electric drill.

Sheet metal shears for cutting the copper sheet.

The first step is to cut a piece of the copper sheeting that is about the size of the burner on the stove. Wash your hands so they don't have any grease or oil on them. Then wash the copper sheet with soap or cleanser to get any oil or grease off of it. Use the sandpaper or wire brush to thoroughly clean the copper sheeting, so that any sulphide or other light corrosion is removed.

Next, place the cleaned and dried copper sheet on the burner and turn the burner to its highest setting.

As the copper starts to heat up, you will see beautiful oxidation patterns begin to form. Oranges, purples, and reds will cover the copper.

As the copper gets hotter, the colors are replaced with a black coating of cupric oxide. This is not the oxide we want, but it will flake off later, showing the reds, oranges, pinks, and purples of the cuprous oxide layer underneath.

The last bits of color disappear as the burner starts to glow red.

When the burner is glowing red-hot, the sheet of copper will be coated with a black cupric oxide coat. Let it cook for a half an hour, so the black coating will be thick. This is important, since a thick coating will flake off nicely, while a thin coat will stay stuck to the copper.

After the half hour of cooking, turn off the burner. Leave the hot copper on the burner to cool slowly. If you cool it too quickly, the black oxide will stay stuck to the copper.

As the copper cools, it shrinks. The black cupric oxide also shrinks. But they shrink at different rates, which makes the black cupric oxide flake off.

The little black flakes pop off the copper with enough force to make them fly a few inches. This means a little more cleaning effort around the stove, but it is fun to watch.

When the copper has cooled to room temperature (this takes about 20 minutes), most of the black oxide will be gone. A light scrubbing with your hands under running water will remove most of the small bits. Resist the temptation to remove all of the black spots by hard scrubbing or by flexing the soft copper. This might damage the delicate red cuprous oxide layer we need to make to solar cell work.

Cut another sheet of copper about the same size as the first one. Bend both pieces gently, so they will fit into the plastic bottle or jar without touching one another. The cuprous oxide coating that was facing up on the burner is usually the best side to face outwards in the jar, because it has the smoothest, cleanest surface.

Attach the two alligator clip leads, one to the new copper plate, and one to the cuprous oxide coated plate. Connect the lead from the clean copper plate to the positive terminal of the meter. Connect the lead from the cuprous oxide plate to the negative terminal of the meter.

Now mix a couple tablespoons of salt into some hot tap water. Stir the saltwater until all the salt is dissolved. Then carefully pour the saltwater into the jar, being careful not to get the clip leads wet. The saltwater should not completely cover the plates -- you should leave about an inch of plate above the water, so you can move the solar cell around without getting the clip leads wet.

now place in the sun with the magnefied on top.

The solar cell is a battery, even in the dark, and will usually show a few microamps of current.

That’s it it’s that simple. If you’d a more detailed process and some pics (ouldn’t put them here) it’s available along with some other DIY alternative energy projects at  www agua-luna com

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at  www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

Dan Martin

Alterative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit:  

www AGUA-LUNA com

Stop Global Warming!!!

Answer 4

Because environmentalists talk out of both sides of their mouths. They pay lip service to 'green power', then oppose windmills because birds fly into the propellers and get killed. They oppose geothermal because it can cause hydrogen sulfide pollution. They oppose solar generation using the suns heat because those plants use water to generate steam, and their footprint out in the desert is quite large, 'ruining' the 'wild landscape'. Yes, we could generate a lot of power in a 'green' manner, if only the 'greens' would let us.

Answer 5

What energy crisis? The cost of crude oil and natural gas has been rising in response to increased world demand. There are large deposits of fossil fuels including coal left in the world but they take time to develop and the costs to do this is rising; the low hanging fruit has been picked so to speak.

The world will shift its energy supply to take advantage of renewables such as solar, wind, and biomass as well as other technological advances in geothermal heating.

In Toronto a company is using deep lake water as cooling for downtown office buildings. A cement company recently announced they are planning on growing their fuel supply to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.

Higher costs for fossil fuels will lead to investment in other fuel sources. Wind generation costs fell dramatically as the number of units manfactured every year rises. Solar is posed to benefit from rising demand for solar panels and technological advancements in converting sunlight into electricity. Solar water heating is already a cost effective way to heat pools and water in homes and commercial applications. Like it or not there is tremendous capability world-wide for much more nuclear power.

We will capitalize on more abundant energy sources but it is not free.

Answer 6

In the US, the government shuts most of these down so Big Oil can remain rich. This adds to the monetary inexpensiveness of petroleum-based energy worldwide.

Answer 7

Because it is not at cheap to produce as what we use now.

Answer 8

Does your house use solar or geothermal?  If not you are part of the problem too.