Photo: heartlover1717, Creative Commons, Flickr
I’ve been seeing balloons lately, and it’s not a circus or senility, or even the fact that age has me revisiting the delights of my childhood, but rather the potential for balloons (or blimps, or kites) to provide virtually unlimited energy to an increasingly power-hungry world.
Did you know that data centers will soon surpass vehicles, and even airlines, as the world’s greatest energy users (and polluters)? Did you know that the U.S., with only five percent of the world’s population, consumes twenty-five percent of its energy? Did you know that China, in 2007, produced 5.5 percent of the world’s GDP (gross domestic product), but used 15 percent of the world’s coal doing so, to become – for the first time in history – an importer of coal? Did you know that, this year, the world is projected to use 487 quadrillion BTUs of energy, or almost twice as much as in 1976?
This magnitude of consumption, in the face of aging infrastructure and a failure to build enough generating capacity (not to mention the rising costs and shortages of oil and gas), will leave nations like Chile and multinational conglomerates like the EU facing energy crises which could destabilize their economies. They are not alone. Africa is on the edge of disaster, Argentina and Brazil face intermittent shortages that strangle both production and populations, and in the U.S. energy companies are fiercely instituting voluntary consumer reduction programs under names like Saver’s Switch in preparation for what promises to be an extraordinarily hot summer all across the south.
Unfortunately, these peak energy reduction programs are only moderately useful as more and more homes, replete with dishwashers, computers, air-conditioning units, pool pumps and other high-use appliances, join an ever-growing grid of demand. When too many users want too many electrical apparatus running, brownouts and even blackouts are inevitable.
Solutions are coming. The question is, can we curb demand until they are implemented? One such solution, which features a series of wind turbines strung along a flexible, carbon fiber shaft, or tethered – one end in the ocean and the other attached to a ballon, or blimp – could deliver as much as 6000 watts in wind speeds near 32 miles per hour. That is six times more energy than currently available from a similar, seven-foot single-rotor wind turbine. The flying wind turbine, created by Selsam, is cheap and easy to build and requires little maintenance.
Another potential energy source from the wind is a lighter-than-air, horizontal-axis wind turbine held aloft by helium on a 1000-foot tether that also serves to transmit the electricity generated back to a utility (or to batteries, for storage). Though MARS isn’t itself a balloon, its rounded shape in the sky will undoubtedly make users think of one, and its creator, Magenn Power, says the configuration allows MARS to capture both low-level and nocturnal jet streams because it operates in the 4-60 mile-per-hour wind speed range.
Another possibility – not balloon-like but round and floating – involves massive arrays of circular solar collectors launched into near space, which could deliver enormous amounts of power back to a hungry earth via electromagnetic beams to ground bases that convert the energy to electricity. This one is a little more pie-in-the-sky than the others, but getting solar collectors above clouds and the earth’s atmosphere, would provide unlimited energy from a source not impacted by wind or weather, as the others are.
In Israel, scientists have taken the solar concept and proposed floating it on a helium-filled platform, delivering the electricity back to the ground via electrical cables imbedded in steel tethers similar to the ones used on the proposed aerial wind turbine. This is another huge possibility, since earth-based solar is always limited by the amount of cloud cover and pollution present in the atmosphere.
And finally, In California – where environment is king and thinking outside the box is the norm – XP Vehicles has come up with an electric car, the Whisper, with an inflatable polymer car frame based on airbag technology.
This car is so light it has a charge/travel range of 2,500 miles on a uniquely compartmented battery, and will sell for less than $5,000. The Whisper will come with stereo, iPod jack, and alarm, and – when ordered over the Internet (the only way to get it apparently) – will arrive at the consumer’s door in boxes. XP guarantees the car can be assembled "by two people of average education level in less than two hours." You wouldn’t want to face off with a semi, or even an SUV, in one of these inflatable cars, but the energy (and environmental pollution) savings are phenomenal.
Yes, I’m seeing balloons; childhood wonders converted to serve the energy needs of the future. I feel like I’ve entered a time warp, but I’m smiling. You should be, too. If only we can conserve long enough, and convince our politicians to sponsor these alternative energy resources well enough (through the excess profits of energy companies, perhaps?), we may actually reach that future, still smiling.
We can do our part by asking our representatives to demand that the incoming administration sponsor a bill similar to the failed Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008, which devotes serious funding to alternative energy to reduce emissions. We can write letters to the editor of our local newspapers. We can join online groups and gather allies for alternative energy. We can ask the company where we work to review its “green” initiatives.
Or we can do nothing and wait until Nature institutes the mother of all brownouts – also called the tipping point of global warming – and takes all the options off the table. The choice is ours.
Disclosure: I don’t own Xcel stock. The other companies mentioned do not trade on an exchange.