Solving the Fossil Fuel Problem
We cannot predict the future, but know we are fast running out of fossil fuels while exploration and extraction costs are accelerating, especially fracking. A look forward to the year 2030 and you may be shocked by the utility bills. Your gas bill is four times higher than a decade ago, the electric bill tripled and the water bill doubled. You may pay five times more for gasoline than just ten years ago excluding inflation.
Once the fossils fuels become too expensive, we have a problem: How do we heat our commercial buildings, our homes, our factories? How do we generate electricity? How do we fuel our vehicles?
We need nuclear for our big cities in spite of fears, high cost and heavy investment but it will surely cost less than energy from remaining fossil fuels. Construction takes 10 to 15 years, so we need to start something else now.
Solar power can light our homes and run summer air conditioning at a reasonable cost. However, the sun does not provide enough power to heat our buildings or fuel our automobiles economically.
All we have left, that’s practical, is wind which has enormous energy. There is enough power in that river of energy flowing over our tree tops to supply all the world’s energy needs a dozen times over. Unfortunately, the three blade windmill is incredibly inefficient converting less than 1% of the energy in the wind they use and less than 1â„2 of 1% of the energy available in the wind. At the present state of evolvement, they are not economically practical nor capable of supplying our energy needs.
Wind and solar projects often claim they can power 30,000 homes, but a close look tells us it’s only enough energy to keep the lights on. The typical home requires four times more energy for heating and recharging our electric vehicles. Then double this amount of energy to supply our commercial buildings and factories. How on earth will we replace our fossil fuels using current technology?
Our fossil fuels provide synthetic materials, plastics, tires, clothes, leather substitutes, lubricants and solvents; we have few if any other sources. Aviation is dependent on fossil fuels to keep flying, ships to keep sailing, and locomotives to keep running. To simply burn these precious materials should be considered criminal.
Our civilization has a moral and urgent obligation to find efficient methods of harnessing wind. It’s our primary remaining source of energy. We need to make it a “Moon Landing†type project to maintain our standard of living, and avoid a cataclysmic disaster while saving the fossil fuels for other uses. Time is also running out and if we don’t start now, it will be too little, too late. Call your favorite politician and ask: "What’s being done?"