Global Warming: How far are we from a serious - green, fossil fuel alternative?

Question

What serious alternatives are there to fossil fuel. Is there a major new energy solution some where on the horizon that will stop fossil fuel burning?

Is so what type of alternative is it? and how long before we make the change over?

Has anyone got any links to this new alternative

Answer 1

As an inventor in this arena I can tell you we are not as near to this goal as we should be.

It is not surprising when the big oil companies are the very "consultants" our government uses to create the national energy policy. While the hype is good the reality is a bit different, we can see that big energy firms are making record profits in the BILLIONS on a Quarterly basis they as yet are only spending a few million Annually on renewables. Less than a penny on the dollar of profits.

As an American I believe the American spirit and inventive nature is part of what made this country great. For me it is sad that Germany and a few of the other Northern Eurpoean countries as well as Saudi Arabia have overtaken the US which was once number one in the field of innovation and investment in renewable energy. Heck, even Spain and Portugal have invested more in the past decade than the U.S.

Perhaps if we gave less of the many millions of dollars in subsidies yearly that we give to already rich companies and pumped that into renewables we would regain our number one position and at the same time create new jobs for Americans. Dont get me wrong, I bellieve in a free market economy but not corporate welfare.

A good place to start learning about all renewables is at http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com
Their articles offer good links and a good place to start as they are not biased to any one renewable nor politically motivated.
Good question, lastly I would like to say for you not to believe the hype you see on TV ads how oil companies are LEADING THE WAY in renewable energy. Most though not all spend more money on the ads than on the renewable energy they are touting.

Answer 2

There are tons of alternatives to fossil fuels, wind, solar, bio, hydro, and ect. In addition to using alt energy, it would really help if energy conservation was on the agenda. I guilty of this too, I still have incandescent light bulbs and what not but, I'm starting to get the LEDs and fluorescent lamps.

How long before we make the change over? As soon alternative fuel production is cheaper then the production of fossil fuels is when we will start to see a change over. Also we have a problem with NIMBY'S (Not In My Back Yard) type people. In example to that, the capewind project up in Massachusetts. The people (who live on the cape for the most part) up there say they don't want an unobstructed view of the ocean and have got the likes of Sen. Kennedy and out going Gov. Romney (who both have homes/intrests around the area) and others on their side. I guess they can afford fuel at no matter the cost. There use to be a picture on this site about how much of the turbine would be seen from beach level and it wasn't much like th top blade spinning. (I couldn't find the pic)

I was watching an interview with a automotive rep and he was asked a similar question about alternative energy autos. He said something to the effect of, we could put auto on the road now, but people won't by them until they have the same comfort and performance as the production cars we have now.

Hope that helped.

btw I'm not a global warming person just think that alot of the worlds problems could be setteled if we were off the oil.

Answer 3

Alternatives exist, but they are either cost more or are not considered desirable. Examples are:

Ethanol as a substitute for gasoline. The problems with this alternative are that 1) it cost more than gasoline and 2) the current automotive fleet can only handle a 10% ethanol, 90% gasoline mix so additional use would require replacement of the fleet.

Biodiesel - Produced from fats. There are two processes that can be used to do this. Transesterification produces a diesel like produce consisting primarily of methyl esters. These can be used in many but not all diesel engines. The alternate process is based on hydrogenation of the fats to produce a high quality diesel. The diesel produced by this process is essentially the same as diesel produced from petroleum (its actually better since it contains fewer contaminants) It can be used in any diesel engine. Bio-diesel produced by either of these processes is more expensive than diesel produced from petroleum because the raw material - vegetable oil - is more expensive than crude petroleum oil.

Other transportation fuels alternatives (like hydrogen) are somewhat further down the road and will probably be more expensive. Incidently, the lowest cost method for the production of hydrogen is from natural gas, a fossil fuel, and the process does release cabon dioxide.

There are many alternatives for the production of electricity. The most efficient is - surprise - nuclear. This is widely used in some locations (France for example generates about 75% of its electricity using nuclear power), but is politically unpopular in the U.S where the excessive (in my opinion) regulation has made it too costly to be considered as a viable alternative.

Wind power is well developed, but again costs more than power generated by conventionally fueled boilers. For example, I pay an additional $5.00 a month to receive 200kWh of wind power at my house. This is only a portion of my total monthly usage. It would be cost to much for me to go totally wind.

Hydrogen fired boilers are also possible and are being developed in several locations. These work by converting fossil fuels (primarily natural gas) to hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen is used to produce the steam needed to drive the generators and the carbon dioxide is captured and sequesterd, usually be injecting it into the ground. Obviously, this cost more than just burning the natural gas, so the power produced is more costly.

Ultimately, economics will rule, people are rarely willing to pay more or go with less in the hopes that it might help with a problem of this type.

Answer 4

you assume that we are causing global warming- do not assume that what you have heard is true- after all these same people were telling us in the 80's that we were headed to another ice age.

If these same folks can only be about 60% accurate about what the weather will do on 48 hours then how in the world can they possibly know what will happen in 50 or 100 years? Interesteing right?
check out the following links

Answer 5

Under a technical point of view there are lot of alternatives. I.e: Victoria, Australia one eolic center (wind farm) serves 145.000 houses, power 192 MW. Same amount of CO2 saved than 175.000 cars a year. There are hundreds or maybe thousands wind, solar, biomass, etc

For transportation, electricity cars (only cars, no trucks, vans, etc. yet) or hybrid electricity-oil.

I can give you as many examples as you want, just tell me what country you choose i.e: Europe, China, India, Russia, ... (not too small please, hehe) and what sort of energy you prefer, i.e: wind, solar, biomass, alcohol-oil, etc.

Everything above is available today, as cheap and eficient as traditional competitors. Compare quality and price! sales departments will be glad to serve you

(this is not advertising, i just want to tell you, asker, that world is doing real and huge business in green and fair ways, yes, billions and trillions)

Answer 6

The short answer to all of your questions is no. New sources of energy, be they bio, wind or water, will not make up the gap. We must have a combined strategy that includes significant reduction in demand, or we will run out of supply.

Answer 7

international warming isn't led to by utilising the warmth released by utilising burning fossil fuels, which that's lots to small to have an considerable result on temperature; that's led to by utilising the warmth trapped by utilising the carbon dioxide released by utilising burning fossil fuels. yet, interestingly the "skeptics" think of that the 1st and 2nd rules of thermodynamics would not prepare to the warmth trapped by utilising carbon dioxide.

Answer 8

Global warming is a mith.Something the far left is pushing.

Answer 9

We won't have a "breakthru" in my opinion until the oil companies decide that it is time.

Answer 10

Damn the economy... screwing our environment for more money!
What's money when everything has turned to dust?