(no subject)
Apr. 9th, 2008 07:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasWhat would we need to figure out in order to make solar energy panels using chlorophyll? Plants on Earth have developed the most efficient method to turn photons into another form of energy -- what would we need to figure out in order to use that for our energy needs?
That's just one of the things that keeps popping into my head. There isn't an "energy crisis" on Earth -- what we've got is a "specific form of energy" crisis. We have TONS of energy -- it's coming from that fusion reactor 92 million miles away. Now, OIL is getting short, and natural gas will, too, but that doesn't mean we have an ENERGY shortage -- it just means that we need to start using the energy we are getting.
And, well, after all, the solar radiation is the source of most of the energy on Earth. Sure, we've got some energy from tidal forces, radioactivity, and so forth, but, still, the biggest and most tempting source of energy is that mass of incandescent gas.
And the problem of turning that energy into useful forms while on the surface of the earth? Was solved three billion years ago.
That's just one of the things that keeps popping into my head. There isn't an "energy crisis" on Earth -- what we've got is a "specific form of energy" crisis. We have TONS of energy -- it's coming from that fusion reactor 92 million miles away. Now, OIL is getting short, and natural gas will, too, but that doesn't mean we have an ENERGY shortage -- it just means that we need to start using the energy we are getting.
And, well, after all, the solar radiation is the source of most of the energy on Earth. Sure, we've got some energy from tidal forces, radioactivity, and so forth, but, still, the biggest and most tempting source of energy is that mass of incandescent gas.
And the problem of turning that energy into useful forms while on the surface of the earth? Was solved three billion years ago.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 02:54 pm (UTC)He had a big government grant (under the auspices of the Solar Energy Research Institute, which was part of the DOE) in the late 1970s/early 1980s to look for algae that could be mass-cultured in a harsh environment and had a high lipid content. (Many of the desert pond algae fit these criteria.) The ultimate idea was to produce algae-based fuel oil; Israel was especially interested. But SERI was gutted due to politics around 1985 or so. Now, 20 years later, some people are picking it back up because it could actually become a profit=making venture.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 03:38 pm (UTC)[1] Not really, because you're going to burn it later anyway.