Renewable Resources

[Scienceymath]

Hi everyone, This is my first time on this site. I am doing this for a science project. I am wondering what everyone thinks would be the most sustainable type of renewable resource? There, of course, is Wind energy which there are certain parts of the world where there is a lot of wind, but how do we store and export that energy. Another option is Hydro if we take rivers and build dams that pass the water through water wheels it is the same problem as wind, how do we store and export. Now my personal favorite is solar, the one main problem with this is how long each day is and how direct is the sun. Yet again we have the same problem with storing and exporting. Hope everyone is able to help, Thank you.

[Phi for All]

1 minute ago, Scienceymath said:

Now my personal favorite is solar

Me too! For us here in the US, I think we should start a publically-funded national solar grid for electricity. Electricity from solar is SO cheap that private investors aren't interested, so we should take on the project to provide dirt cheap electricity for EVERYONE!

We could allow the US Postal Service to buy their own fleet of planes instead of having to lease from private companies. Then the USPS could transport materials for manufacturing solar panels to every zip code in the US, so we could put urban and rural people to work making solar panels under strict guidelines. Other green guidelines could be implemented with such a network of distribution.

Lots of work doesn't get done because the energy to do it is too expensive. Private electric utilities are charging a fortune for what is basically a necessity in modern life. They have little competition, so they're practically monopolies. It's time we used our public power for public benefit!

[Danijel Gorupec]

I too expect the most from solar in short term (20 years). Although I am not nearly as optimistic as Phi for All

In parallel as we are expanding the solar network, we need to improve on other fields: energy storage, energy transport and... agricultural yield. We might also need to improve recycling of solar panels to avoid garbage buildup.

In my opinion, solar is the most plentiful of all renewable resources and thus makes the most sense. The one intrinsic problem with solar, as I see it, is that it uses land (people tend to live near fertile land - so you either need to 'spend' this fertile land for solar, or you must build solar far away from people). Other intrinsic problems with solar is that it is weather dependent and will only work half-day shifts.

I also expect wind energy to continue to grow - it complements solar nicely.

Now the pessimistic part... it really scares me when I look behind and I see some 25 fold energy consumption increase in last 100 years. No known renewable can cope with that. We may hit a development ceiling... While I don't think we need to continue at that rate, even 5 fold increase in next 100 years would be difficult.... The only way to continue our current development pace for next 100 years, as I see it, would be to employ fusion energy. We are however far behind the schedule, imo.