As for my work with renewable energy, I am pleased that a lot of what I fought for is slowly coming to fruition, despite the continued resistance by the Big Money (the fossil fuel, nuclear, industrial-military complex, etc.) which has and probably will continue to be a major guiding force in global politics. Solar and wind are now cheap, efficient, and more sustainable than previous technologies. Their potential continues to shine in new directions and applications all over the world.
The next major obstacle to be
overcome is the understanding and commercial deployment of Hydrogen
technologies. The development of hydrogen technologies throughout the world
today is rather stunning, in spite of the ignorance and manipulations of
policies here in the US. Europe, China, Australia, India, and Africa are all
rapidly moving forward with commercialization because they are real solutions
to the enormous problems of fossil fuels. One positive of Putin’s war is the
realization that nations don’t have to be dependent on imported oil or gas.
Hydrogen can be produced locally from water (H2O!) for local use or export; it can be made using local renewable energies; it can be combusted in engines, turbines, and furnaces for industry, commercial, and residential uses; or transformed to electricity via fuel cells. It can be used in transportation (ships, airplanes, trucks, fleet vehicles, and maybe eventually in automobiles), and most importantly, it can be created and stored for electricity generation at times when the sun doesn’t shine, the wind doesn’t blow, and there is peak demand which today overwhelms grid capability. It will eventually be cheaper than the price of gasoline which depends on finding oil, extracting it, transporting/importing it, refining it, and even more transportation. It will ease the burden of huge powerlines amplifying electric grids. It ultimately reduces our dependence and being at the mercy of Big Money politics and their economic shenanigans. The case for the Hydrogen Economy (replacing the OIL Economy) was identified 30+ years ago. The shift is coming, but we’re still battling the power of Big Money wanting the continued path toward a Nuclear Economy. For example, in the US today, the nuclear industry is garnering large portions of the federal hydrogen research money with the promise that the future generation of small reactors will be the "best" way to produce hydrogen fuel.
The nuclear industry continues its hoax that nuclear power is cheap, clean, and necessary. The first of two Vogle plants in Georgia just went online this week…7+? years late, and 2+? Times over budget. Originally estimated at $8-14 billion, the final tab is over $34 billion, and all this just to serve about half a million customers in the local utility. We’ll see if and when the second unit comes online. New big reactors like this are dead, but the industry says it can do better with small modular reactors which are still under development and promise to be cheaper and safer. Of course, this all looks sort of good on paper, but it is still 7+ years before the first one is ever built, tested, and licensed. This will have no impact on our desperate need to produce carbon-free electricity. In addition, nothing, again, is said about the high-level nuclear wastes that would be generated, to which there is NO solution other than putting them in cans and watching over and maintaining them for thousands of years. Not going to happen, in spite of all the dollars that continue to be spent in R&D and lining executive’s pockets. But wait! The ultimate solution is here…although it may be some 20-30+ years away. FUSION! Major breakthroughs recently towards unlimited, clean, cheap energy! Again, another hoax to funnel billions of dollars toward Big Money. The biggest piece of information missing is that even if constructed, a fusion reactor, would only produce HEAT (not electricity or gasoline or whatever kind of energy we need) just like today’s fission reactors, and require expensive and complex supportive infrastructure. The problem of extracting that heat (the power of the sun right here on Earth!) is technically daunting, and the ultimate cooling water needed is mind-boggling. The fuel necessary is deuterium (one molecule out of every 6,500 molecules of seawater is deuterium). It would be extracted by expensive chemical hydrolysis, with a waste product of hydrogen atoms! Gee! I thought simple electrolysis of water was too expensive and too difficult. ?? China now has a pilot plant that electrolyzes plain seawater.
The dream of a green, sustainable, renewable, and equitable energy future is slowly edging towards reality. Just like climate change, the transition is not immediate, but an evolution of ideas, technology, commercialization, and most important, political will. I remain an optimist. For now, I am content to sit back and look at what is going on in the world with a full range of emotions…joy, frustration, but also a lot of humor. It is what it is, and I’ve done what I can.
