The Energy Problem

[cragwolf]

Given that...

1) We will sooner or later run out of oil, which is absolutely critical for aviation, freight, personal transport, and industry;
2) We will eventually need to replace coal-fired power plants (which are absolutely critical for our electricity supply) with something else;
3) World population is growing, and more importantly the economies of China and India, as well as parts of South America and South-East Asia, are greatly expanding and therefore consuming energy at an ever-increasing rate.

...what is your solution to the global energy crisis that will soon be upon us? I want to see what Pascal programmers think about this subject, if they think about it at all.

[arthurprs]

stop wasting

but,
because it isn't a "real" problem "yet", people don't care...

[Wizard]

Whe're on a runnaway train without any brakes...sooner or later we must crash...

Use energy saving lights etc, but that's only a short-term solution :o

[Ñuño Martínez]

I think the problem is that our society (energy, economy...) is based in an infinite grow but Earth isn't infinite (The Universe isn't infinite, it's very big but isn't infinite) so it can't support an infinite grow. We can't obtain infinite energy. We can't feed infinite population. We can't store infinite waste. We can't create infinite coins.

We're doomed unless the Human Kind understand we can't have an infinite grow.

[User137]

stop wasting

but,
because it isn't a "real" problem "yet", people don't care...

Well, it is known to happen in our lifetime or our kids, they should care. It's not only oil that's running out but drinking water aswell.

I have trust in scientists on fusion power, it's in long term the only viable solution we have known. Other is solar power which efficiency is increasing all the time. Bio-energy? As far as i keep hearing news about it, the whole process of it is producing as much problems as benefits.

My country went path of nuclear energy. It is the cleanest source there is however the end result could not be much worse, and mining uranium can be little wasteful process too. There are safe containers for nuclear waste but we can only hope they develop a faster process to turn it harmless than 100 years (yes according to wiki the time of modern plants waste is less than 100 y).

[noeska]

The problem should be targeted from two sides.

The generation:
In the Netherlands we also use windmill parks to generate electricity.
But other clean ways or possible (i personaly dont count nuclear as a clean way)

The usage:
More efficient equipment should be produced and used
Like led lamps / Intel Atom Based pc's.

Also i dont know if some algorithems are more power efficient then others.
It could be a nice experiment to write a program in different way and measure the power usage.

But as meantioned here before the large audience is not aware enough and do no yet choose their equipment for energy saving especialy nowaday money is of more concern, or so it seams.

I do not yet see advertisement yet in the line of 'use our producet as it will save the envirionment'.

[dazappa]

For transportation vehicles I'm all for ethanol or bio diesel based engines. I don't know how clean they are, but ethanol is taken from plants so it's renewable.

[arthurprs]

For transportation vehicles I'm all for ethanol or bio diesel based engines. I don't know how clean they are, but ethanol is taken from plants so it's renewable.

both are cleaner than the petroleum derived alternatives

[noeska]

The fact that oil/ethanol can be made from plant does have it drawback.
It is not possible to plant enough plants without endangering the world food supply.
Also when growing plants weed has to be fought causing polution also. And when burned it still polutes the environment.

In my opinion the only suteable ways to generate energey in form of electricity by means of natural sources that do not need to be burned.
So that leaves us:
-wind mills
-solar energy
-waterfalls (natural or in a dam)
-also i believe plans are made to use sea water (http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1219-wetsus.html)
But all this now is more expensive then burning coals/oil etc.

[cragwolf]

Here is an image showing 2006 energy use in the USA (click on it to see full-size image):

http://www.ludicity.org/images/energy_sm.jpg (http://www.ludicity.org/images/energy.jpg)

[noeska]

What is that unused energy?

[cragwolf]

From the little note at the bottom of that image:


Electricity generation, transmission and distribution losses include fuel and thermal energy inputs for electric generation and an estimated 9% transmission and distribution loss, as well as electricity consumed at power plants. Total lost energy includes these losses as well as losses based on estimates of end-use efficiency, including 80% efficiency for residential, commercial and industrial sectors, 20% efficiency for light-duty vehicles, and 25% efficiency for aircraft.

[cragwolf]

I don't think one can make a proper judgement of the looming energy crisis without understanding some of the basic physics and mathematics behind it. By far the best source of material online for that is:

Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air (http://www.withouthotair.com/)