Today’s lesson opened my eyes to the many ways of retrieving and storing energy that our natural resources produce. It got me thinking; energy is one of the few products that can be generated from “free” and abundant natural resources such as wind and sunlight, yet in the last century producing it has been a major cause of pollution and harm to the environment. Renewable resources generate only 13% of global energy consumption. The reason why we are not tapping on the full potential of renewable resources is because corporations do not see it as profitable economically as using fossil fuels. But it is precisely the fact that no one dares to risk this investment that makes it all the less economically viable. With the integration of efforts and the pulling together of resources by corporations around the globe, surely methods and solutions to churn out this positive form of energy in a more efficient and cost effective way can be realized. However is it true to say, no one, or no few rather, have been willing to step up to be the leaders of change in this area? In class we heard of projects like the Sahara project and some interesting innovations researchers believe in like gathering wind energy with kites. We can see that there are leaders of change present, but like in every big change, people are providing the resistance. If governments do not do something about the flawed pricing system of energy sources, which does not take into account its environmental impact, we will never see the potential of green and sustainable energy.
The general mindset of the common man is that energy is the problem of the big guns; the governments and the corporations that can invest billions into building mega power plants. The common man is waiting for these big guns to make these major investments, and they shall enjoy the fruits of it. This mindset will never influence healthy energy consumption habits. I strongly feel the key to any form of sustainable change would be to make energy technology in the reach of the common man. These technologies should be “domesticated” and investments and research should be made to create appliances that are easy to use and that can be available to every household. Energy needs to a consideration for every house owner. Solar panels worked in Germany, because the government took initiative to make the people take their own initiative to acquire energy, ownership was transferred to the people and energy became their problem, or opportunity rather.
I believe technological advancements in attaining and processing energy can be made even simpler than that. The simpler it is, the less resistant people will be of the change. We read in reading 4 about future bio-energy technologies. We read about fascinating concepts like catalytic liquidation, which can produce high quality energy with low processing, and of anaerobic fermentation, which can help solve sanitations issues as well. I envision the house of the future to have appliances like the energy processing toilet bowl: after taking a dump, close the lid and instead of flushing, the appliance breaks down your waste converting them into energy carriers. This energy can be used to power the water heater or the bathroom lighting, and hopefully technological breakthroughs can make it efficient enough to power the whole house. Free biomass as a resource can indeed be a viable solution to global warming if it is made this simple for the everyday energy consumer. This is just an example of ways energy technologies can be downscaled to make green initiatives something every citizen can take part in.
I felt we could have received a better understanding on how these energy conversions actually work. For example, we know the movement of wind turbines create energy but how exactly? It would be good to receive some insight on that (:
Class rating: 6
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