March 19, 2004
Our energy future
Interesting webcast from Richard Smalley(Nobel laureate) about the future of energy. Also given to another group in Realplayer.
Points:
* Over 80% of all energy currently comes from Oil, Coal and Gas
* Billions of people in the world need more energy (China, India etc)
* Fossil fuel supply (except coal) will significantly decline in the next 50 years
* Any solution that doesn't have the potential of 1 Terawatt isn't a solution
* Nanotech offers some solutions (transmission on the grid, batteries, solar efficiency).
* It takes 20 years to make a top physicist/engineer. The US isn't doing it - Asia is.
* Believes in a distributed grid solution (like Lovins)
* Batteries need to improve by x10-x100 times
* Solar cells need to drop in price by 100
* Use the moon as a giant solar collector?
* Is there one solution? We don't know so we need to try many things
Fusion, Solar, Geothermal, 2nd Gen Nuclear
