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Energy Deep Dive


Clean Renewable Energy like Solar Power & Wind Turbines have captured global imagination, but low capacity factor & poor load follow mean massive investment into energy storage required to make these intermittent electrical energy source yield highly useful grid power 24/7, though doing so costly that Nuclear Fission experiencing a renaissance under the banner of Carbon Free Electricity with excellent uptime, lots of science & technology & more than 17,000 years of collective reator experience worldwide. Let's dive into a verbal wonderland about energy as I share my thoughts, passion & love for energy with you!

Think of how electricity transformed civilization since its commercialization & global adoption during the 20th century. Now we live in the 4th industrial revolution, known on social networks as #4IR, an amazing array of new solutions in search of problems while many global problems from complex externalities like pollution emission from burning carbon remains an unsolved component of climate change. Listen to the executives of crude oil companies today, they speak of decarbonizing global energy, especially in transportation with Electric Vehicles & Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Aircraft & Ships, while batteries work perfectly fine as the Tesla lineup of S3XY vehicles demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt. Today oil exporting wealth importing Norway leads the world with Electric car adoption, aforementioned Tesla's selling exceptionally well to well healed Norwegian citizens.


Think computers & information technology & the internet & transistors & switching & routers & networks & electronic payments & peer to peer smartphone payments. Information technology advancing so fast we are the edge of a quantum computing paradigm, speeding towards the technological singularity with such intensity that people are being left behind. Even file formats from just 20 years ago are virtually unusable today. Smartphones have more computer power now than desktops from back then, running on tiny 3.7v Lithium Cobalt Oxide secondary battery of perhaps 3 amp hours more or less. 

Electron Microscopes Scanning Tunneling. Optical microscope & optics in general helped to accelerated scientific inquiry, medical discoveries, materials science & ecology. Electron microscopes kicked off the microelectromechanical nano production technology in our information age & allows us to see at the smallest scales with amazing atom level vision. Energy again, as light, electrons, photons, enhancing our view of the tiniest things so we look at bacteria & viruses & cells with excellent precision. 




Space Telescopes & Energy in the Universe

Think of all the energetic stars in the universe. Billions of stars just in the local Milky Way where we live :) Thats a lot of energy & interplanetary resources *think space mining* will provide a lot of value added wealth generating activity to human civilization as we go to the moon & mars in a bigger way using something more abundant than chemical rocks, like nuclear thermal rockets with fission reactors making electricity to use in particle thrust engine with very high ISP like xenon hall thrust engines. 



Light, vision, eyes, different frequencies of light, warm, cool, daylight, color temperature, think Bright Blue light wakes you up while warm soft orange & red light helps calm down. There are nerve ganglion in the fovea of the human eye retina that register the color & intensity of light, which via the SCN in the brain, regulates the human circadian rhythm & sleep wake cortisol melatonin axis. Dim & orange up those screen at night, dim the lights, cool dark & silent or white noise good for sleep. Bright warm & louder good for waking up or staying awake. 

LED a popular lighting technology today, local public laws outlawing incandescent halogen inefficient lights or anything that emits less than 50 lumens of light output per watt of electrical consumption. EISA law 2008 in USA banned original 60w 75w & 100w incandescent bulbs, long since replaced with warm white dimmable LED units of similar or greater max light output that consume 90% less electricity & last 3-20x longer & do well in frequently switched on & off applications, like a rarely used public bathroom with an occupancy sensing, motion sensing, light switch. In some applications an LED + motion sensor can reduce lighting energy consumption by 99%. 

In some locals, outdoor light fixtures are prohibited from throwing light at the sky. The international dark sky association tries public outreach to teach people lighting intelligence, ie. to turn lights on when & where they are actually useful to someone & to direct the light onto surfaces where it actually useful, not aimlessly throwing light at the sky making light pollution. Italian law preserving view of night sky, the heavens, stars in space for example puts restrictions on lighting installations so they do not create light pollution that often obscures views of star's in space, a real shame. All that extra bright light filling the sky with glare, cloud reflected artificial light, a real shame indeed & not a sign of real progress. 



Energy in Food Calories & Beverages 

One of the basic needs for life, food & beverage are essential, right along with shelter & potentially clothing depending local biome weather ect. Foods we eat are made of plants or animals that ate plants, that got their metabolic energy from the sun. Sun, water, soil & plants are the basis of life in Earth's biosphere, especially in the context of human food systems, agriculture & farming :) Without food people will die, though short term fasting perfectly safe (see youtube, science of fasting) & intermittent fasting trending as a way to cope with SAD or standard american diet, diseases of civilization associate with the overconsumption of ultra processed foods full of empty refined simple carbohydrates & sadly missing healthy monounsaturated fats from things like nuts & seeds or fiber from complicated carbs from whole fruits or veggies.


Industrial GMO everything even mainstream now, some of it labeled organic too with price gouging to match. Organisms, mostly bacteria, in the human gut help to break down food into small biomolecules used for body energy, cell repair & construction of replacement cells. The human microbiome an emergent science in medicine with tremendous public health implications to deal with many different diseases that start in the human gun & unhealthy diet choices. I am not a quack or promoting any specific diet, just fresh natural colorful plant based foods have a lot of reported health effects in sharp contrast to what most Americans eat regularly, cheap low quality low nutrient content fast food. Dehydration epidemic also a major public health problem, caffeine & alcohol widely consumed psychostimulant & euphoriant depressant, also cause body to eliminate water, more pee & can make dehydration worse / 4loco anyone ---


Electric Human Brain & Mind Software

Electrochemical neurons & glial cells that metabolically support neurons. Quantum fields that make up the mind like software on brain hardware. Any obsession with Energy can be sourced to the basic fact that human thinking & the mind made of energy & interestingly energy never created or destroyed. Our brain can hold about 700 TB terabytes of information, each neuron both the CPU & memory. Our brain changes itself & there are some good books about neuroplasticity :) 

Fringe Science of Other Dimensions 

At the bleeding edge of physics we have the mind or human soul. More a topic of faiths than science itself, the Monroe Institute Gateway experience program can show you that it is indeed possible to unlink the mind from the body, though if you consider doing so be cautioned, there are risks unknowable & can have strange lasting unpredictable effects on your mind, health, emotions, & spiritual wellness. 

Energetic dimensions above the 4th dimension we live in today, 3 spatial dimension fused with time, they are more interesting. Time itself an energy gradient our 4th dimensional reality but ceases to have meaning in the 5th dimension, one dimensional level above the one we live in on Earth as Humans, orbiting the Sun! 







Renewable Energy 

Think solar panels & wind power turbines, renewable energy also encompases hydro, geothermal, wave & things like compressed air, battery & pumped hydro energy storage. The main concept stems from a renewable sustainable energy focus about moving away from burning carbon to capturing natural ephemeral & intermittent sources of energy like sunlight or solar energy gradients, manly photons from the Sun through Earth's atmosphere into solar energy conversion devices like photovoltaic panels of several different technologies & or wind pressure gradients or simply wind to push on the blades of turbines to spin the rotor of the generator set to make electricity from wind. Water cycle in Earth's atmosphere makes hydro work, while core heat from the Earth's core enables geothermal energy. Even heat pump systems for home use can use the ground near your home as a heat battery for heating & cooling. Even air source heat pumps like the Mitsubishi Mini-split system can extract heat from freezing air outside your home & move 3 units of heat using 1 unit of electricity.

Solar thermal, like heliostat power towers (think Ivanpah Solar Energy) / developers over promised utilities & to keep the salt hot for boiling water to make electricity a lot of natural gas burned. 

The main problem with renewable energy, especially intermittent solar PV & Wind, low capacity factor & poor load following. To make renewables Solar & Wind work 24/7 requires expensive energy storage. When Nuclear Fission reactors with nuclear fuel recycling are paired with other renewables, a robust mix of low carbon & no carbon grid power production solutions emerge. More on Nuclear later

Making solar PV panels not eco-friendly either. Silicon PV extremely energy intensive & complicated to manufacture & even more complicated to feasibly recycle broken PV panels. Its not free lunch in physics & solar PV cool when the PV energy used directly by a heat pump in a sunny climate to dive air condition cooling system when the Sunlight heating most intense right along with the peak output of the PV panels in direct sunlight. The solar PV roof panels can also act as a second surface shade & shade provides natural cooling thats quasi free :) Painting the roof white & using bifacial PV modules can boost solar power production too, the white roof reflecting solar energy on the back of PV panels that convert light to electricity on the front & back of the panel, hence term bifacial :) 

Wind power turbines only last about 20 years. Their composite blades are hard & expensive to recycle at EOL of end of life. Wind turbines also require active maintenance of Gen Set, think oil changes, & someone has to climb up them & they are increasingly massive. Often the EOL cost of recycling wind turbines in disrepair does not get paid by users of the electricity produced by the turbines. As a result many old wind turbines catch fire or are left to rot in a dystopian scene of neglect & ignorance. This issue highlights why grid scale power productions should not be owned by individuals, who can die suddenly or run into fiscal problems.

Regulated utility monopolies like PSE where I live are non living legal entities with great revenue streams who can afford to ethically recycle old wind turbines or to decommission old nuclear power plants. These electrical utility companies also need to invest in energy storage capacity to accommodate widespread adoption of rooftop grid connected PV panel installations that are darling of well healed homeowners interested in renewable energy & PV panels also enjoy popularity with Vanlife people who mount several hundred watts of PV on top of their van home to charge large capacity batteries so they can have electricity 24/7 in their mobile home. 

We already put big hydro energy dams on most of the world's major rivers, & that was also a boon for irrigation of dry areas for food production in agriculture & flood water reduction in downstream areas. Hydro power offers the only low cost large scale energy storage solution that are cost effective for rate payer funded utility companies to utilize. 

Geothermal has lot of potential in some areas close to hot active spots in the Earth's crust, but without a global energy grid & associate global market for shipping electricity, these resources are more a local boon for populations living near hot pools & other geo heat zones near the crusts surface where core heat readily available for power production, district heating, pool heating etc. 


Energy in Vehicles 

Transportation energy in 2021 dominated by hydrocarbon fuels like gasoline & diesel & jet fuels similar to diesel, even heavy fuel oil in big ships becauses its really cheap but dirty burning like coal. Today carbon energy makes up about 98% of transportation energy, though things are getting very interesting as EV's become more popular & more models are for sale every year :) 

Most cars & trucks & SUVs are similar, a metal greenhouse of glass window in metal doors, 4 wheels, an engine & often transmission & weigh mass of 1-6 tons. I am a car nerd & saying that almost hurt, but they are all very similar, YMMV as will operation costs, depreciation, total cost of ownership, choose wisely. I have had great luck with Toyota Prius Gen 2 & 3 for example // lowest total cost of ownership & very reliable & fuel efficient. 


The main idea that we are in the middle of an electric vehicle revolution kicked off by Tesla Motors & the Epic Model S & super popular Model 3. The GM Electric Hummer shows that electric vehicles can be really cool too! Most privately owned vehicles are parked 95% of the time & plugging them in with a regular extension cord to dedicated 15amp outlet can charge EV batteries L1 at about 3-6 miles range added per hour of charging. Public chargers at 800vdc or 350+ kW capacity are called L3 while 240v 40amp home units wired into a electrical utility panel are L2. The best new EV's as of early 2021 soak up 100mi of range in 10 minutes of L3 charging etc 



Energy in buildings


Electricity, natural gas, oil & biomass like wood pellet or chips dominate home heat energy while electric air conditioner units that suck down electricity at incredible rates can cool homes in hot climates by moving heat around between metal coils with fans, the working fluid a low boiling point fluid, similar to the function of a fridge. The most energy efficient systems are heat pumps that use electricity to move heat in much more intelligently designed heat exchangers with efficient pumps which very high initial capital costs for home scale heat pumps with professional installation, especially when retrofitted into existing structures with conventional electric resistance or natural gas air & water heating. 


The main theme concept is the German Passivhaus, or well insulated buildings with passive solar capture, heat recovery ventilation & energy efficient appliances like the sunfrost fridge made in CA, USA, a fridge that consumes 90% less energy than comparable models. Think Energy Efficient Buildings, energy conserving remodeling & home improvements to reduce home energy use. Lowering the energy operating cost of a home can save those paying for domestic heating or cooling tons of money. Think like a business & how to lower monthly utility bills with home improvements. These same techniques can optimize energy conservation in commercial buildings & government buildings.


Nuclear Fission Reactors are Amazing

Turning radioactive naturally occurring elements into a refined pile that generates heat when neutron flux sufficient to sustain a chain reaction, with a heat exchange loop set to make steam to make electricity. Fission energy amazing simple in principle but wildly complex to execute. As a result all nuclear power plants worldwide were building with government funding. Private equity never attracted to nuclear power plants because of very large but very long ROI (money tied up for 20 years before ROI stream starts paying back) 

Nuclear fission reactors with nuclear fuel recycling can make renewable electricity & industrial heat for billions of people for thousands of years. With breeder reactors overparity enriching fertile Thorium to fertile burnable form, the Nuclear Interest Resurgence makes incredible logical sense in the scope of decarbonizing grid power & providing clean stable power 24.7 with excellent uptime & great capacity factor, meaning you can turn things on when you want, not when the sun shines or wind blows. Human society operates 24/7 & nuclear energy offers an abundant energy solutions to make massive amounts of clean electricity & heat without burning things. Using nuclear power in Electric vehicles, even when ultracapacitors replace chemical batteries in the future, provides a long term solution for electrifying transportation!

We can end nuclear waste with nuclear fuel recycling, advanced robotic automated fuel reprocessing & innovative new nuclear chemistry & physics to make new energy from smaller isotopes. Nuclear has even more potential with commercial fusion! Interest in Nuclear Energy increases as more people worldwide looking to phase out coal power, natural gas burning & decarbonize their electrical grids :) 

Please take a new look at Nuclear Energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power

New 4th Generation reactors improve walkaway safety, fuel economy & offer lower build costs attractive to private utility companies, especially SMR or small modular reactors & MMR or micro modular reactors like NASA's Kilopower system :) Enhance fuel burn & improved neuron economy, fertile to fissile breeding & burning of actinide wastes into energy output are further ways that newer nuclear much better than traditional 2nd Gen plants, of which there are about 454 reactors build between the 1950's & 1980's, a few new reactors going online today as older models are taken down for decommissioning. 



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