Our world
is built on electricity. The computer you’re reading this post on, the pumps
that deliver water to your home, the early tsunami detection systems on the
pacific ocean. All these things run on electric power. Power, for which the
demand is ever-growing, with each new-born person, and each new-bought
appliance. Thankfully over the years we’ve been getting better and better at
generating said power. Today a new kind of power generation system promises to
give us even more for even less input. A system based on kites.
Renewable
energy is certainly a great thing. It’s clean, non-reliant on fossil fuels and
virtually inexhaustible. Unfortunately, despite all of its advantages, it still
struggles with several key problems preventing it from becoming our sole method
of power generation. The main one is its localization. What would be the best
place to place all of our solar energy plants? In the middle of a desert,
obviously. Unfortunately that’s just not feasible, since the further you make
the power travel, the more you loose on the way. Alternatively you could store
energy in batteries and transport it this way, but that comes with its own
bunch of problems.
Ideally
we’d want our power generation to be located close to the consumers, but the
closer we get to a city, the more we run into other issues. Solar power
generation requires a lot of space, and the plot prices on the outskirts of a
city are much higher than in the desert. Wind generation takes less space, but
generates a lot of noise. Nuclear power isn’t really that clean, with all the nuclear
waste it generates. And let’s not forget about all those dangerous microwaves
that make us get cancer, and all manner of other diseases. Thankfully, there’s
a new way of power generation that promises to solve all of these problems.
This new
kind of wind based power generation solves most problem typical for the old
methods. It’s more efficient, operating on high altitudes, where the winds
are much faster. It’s safer, cheaper and less noisy, as the majority of work is
done by the easily replaceable tether. It’s extremely mobile, with the hole
system fitting on the back of the truck. It can be deployed virtually anywhere
in a matter of hours, allowing it to be used in places struck by natural
disasters. It can operate in places where the old systems cannot, greatly
increasing the area that can be used for power generation. Thanks to all of its
advantages we might one day see it become the dominant way of supplying our
bellowed electricity.
1. Do you think this
technology could become popular in the future?
2. What other green
solutions have you recently heard about?
3. What is your
opinion on the topic of global warming?
Source:
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Comments
Other ‘green’ solution that I’ve recently heard about may be the idea of smartphone application that encourages people to put up litters on streets.
Generally I do not read about things like global warming and I’m not into it but I try to be aware of it and often do my best to keep our planet clean and health.
I think that global warming is fake news or it isn't as dangerous as they say in media. Today we have acces to a lot of informtion and every natural disaster is shown as more serious than in reality.
*through the atmosphere
A lot of new ideas emerge every day but I am not really into it.
I think the problem is really close and humanity must do all possible to solve it as fast as it possible becase it's gonna be extinction of homo sapiens
It's sad that our current goverment doesn't support the idea of renewable energy. They assume that coal extraction is still profitable, but truth is slightly different. It's cheaper to import coal from Canada than extract it in one of our mine.
When it comes to global warming, which I prefer to call human induced climate change then I don't see a possibility to stop it without destroying current civilisation. We are animals and there is a simple law of nature that states that every species that overshoot its carrying capacities, which we already did, will be brought down to more reasonable numbers. There is a simple solution, which might still not be enough given how we already destroyed almost everything around us, that is to reduce the standard of living. We would need 4 earths every year to sustain people, if we all lived like an average American. It simply won't happen. Imagine no flights, only locally produced food, limits on energy use and cold showers every second day. Some would embrace it, but the majority will move on to further foul our only home. Nothing feels better than to shit in your own nest.
It is hard to say, whether global worming is a natural part of the climatic circle of the Earth (like ice ages) or it is mainly a result of anthropogenic activity. Whatever it was, it influences our lifes, and can lead to extinction of the whole species of animals, so it should be studied and somehow be brought under the control.
When it comes to different solutions, I'm a big fan of getting power from water turbines. In the Nordic countries over 3/4 of electricity is generated in water turbines placed on rivers and seems to be one of the best and most reliable ways to produce electricity. Other than that of course solar power, of course depending on the region.
When it comes to global warming, I couldn't agree more with Aleksander Bartos's comment :)
I think this could become more popular in the future than it is now. However in description there is nothing about disadvantages. I used to kite-surf on holiday, and it is not as simple as in presented on this article. First of all there is nothing about weather, in movie there are only sunny scenes. From my experience I know that there is impossible to kite-surf when its raining, because kite could go to ground. There are also phenomenons for example known as air holes when there is no wind for a few seconds even in windy days and kite immediately fall down. And then what? If there are solutions to those kind of cases then It could be more popular, otherwise only a little bit, for example for emergency cases.
What other green solutions have you recently heard about?
One of my favorite solution is that presented by Tesla, specifically roof tiles with solar panels in it.
What is your opinion on the topic of global warming?
Global warming there is a fact and we need to fight against them, by be more eco and chose solutions more friendly for environment.
Eco cars? DPFs, start-stops and overloaded .x-litre, 3-cylinder engines that will break before they hit 250kkm.
Eco electronics? ROHS causing cold-soldered chips and other parts that break easily, CCFL lights that contain deadly mercury.
Even solar plants in our region are made to generate DONATIONS, not power(http://www.radiokrakow.pl/wiadomosci/tarnow/wierzchoslawice-sprzedadza-farme-fotowoltaniczna/).
Even if you build one yourself, you will have to choose - sell your energy for almost nothing and buy it from power company for normal price, or don't connect to the public grid at all.
Compare it to the famous "anti-smog" problem, for example in Cracow- Mounting special filters and fines for burning trash can scare away some people, but those laws still mean nothing to the poor ones- for them it's either "burn tires and trash" or "freeze to death".
The same is with ecology - you can try to build huge solar power plant for your own money, but if you try to compete with companies which make cheaper power from coal, you'll fail and that's the thing that most people care about- the price of the energy. If they will pay less, they won't complain about it, even if it's made from trash.
As long as "ECO-" equals "overpriced, less reliable crap", nothing will change, and those projects will never make it to production line. Where would all those projects be, if it weren't for the donations?
As for global warming- yes, it surely is there somewhere, if someone wants to fight it for good, he or she can stop using electronics. That's too hard? Oh well, every time you click your mouse, you support melting of glaciers...
What's my point - "Being green and eco-friendly" has become business in itself, and while there really is a climate change induced by humans, its not as dramatic as "green" organizations want us to think it is.
I have solar panels on my family house. Installation is expensive but that project will have paid for itself by a few years and that’s why we made it.
I read about global warming and it is dreadful for me. We should make everything for our Earth. It is our home!
I've heard global warming is something that happens on a regular basis. I'm not sure if it's our fault or not, but regardless of that we should definitely think about our negative impact on the planet.
As for the things that couldn't run without fossil fuels, just this week tesla showed off their new fully electric semi-truck.
Obviously not everyone can afford can afford to build their own solar plant, but the future is in small communities generating electricity locally. Even the big energy companies are starting to adjust to that idea, as shown in this video by the Economist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ38SiVOD78
Time will verify everything from the scratch. For me it is very important to find new sources of green energy that does not affect our life so much. For me it would be a great to find a cheap and effective way to store a large amount of energy in a very big capacity but small storage. That would make Sahara a place to produce a lot of energy and we could only transport it to a places where it is needed the most.
2. What other green solutions have you recently heard about?
3 choices - wind, sun, water. But my friend is currently working in a company that makes energy out of compost.
3. What is your opinion on the topic of global warming?
For me the pollution in general is more important subject. Global warming is just an effect of it.
Mostly wind farms, placed on ground and on coasts.
I think that we should decrease pollution we create as much as we can. We all benefit from that all over the world. Everyone wants to take a breath of a clean air.