Recently, I decided to study energy and batteries and it seems clear this is a tremendous area for research and development. The history of our study of electricity is long and demonstrates the work of some truly great geniuses like Maxwell and Tesla, but the new applications for today are a bit different. Energy density, energy source, size of equipment, and storage are intriguing and difficult areas for focus.
Gasoline/petroleum has a lot of the qualities we like: light, energy dense, easy to package, powerful enough for most of our purposes, etc. It also pollutes the air and waters (think spills) and costs a lot of money (think hidden costs). If you consider the various sources of energy it's difficult to find the same kind of energy density in an easy-to-package fuel. Nuclear has the energy density, but is terribly dangerous. Fusion always seems to be 30 years into the future. Wood is too bulky and still pollutes like all the other carbon-based fuels. In fact we still use a lot of coal to burn. It heats water to steam and that gas pushes a turbine to generate electricity. That method of generating electricity dates to the mid 1800s and Maxwell. Aside from nuclear we haven't had much reason to find other sources or ways to store energy. In fact all the electricity you use for your home lighting or appliances comes directly from the power plants where it was just generated a light-second ago. They don't have batteries to assist when the machinery slows or when there is too much usage.
Looking around for other energy sources there is hydro-electric which uses gravity pulling water toward the center of the Earth to spin a turbine and there is solar heating which can generate the steam to spin a turbine, but there are few other potential energy sources which, unlike hydro-electric, don't simply get used to spin a turbine. The main one is the photo-electric solar cells which collect "falling" sunlight and somehow convert it directly to electricity. This is incredibly efficient except that we haven't developed the technology very rapidly and we are really only now focusing on using it. And like our coal-burning power plants, it is only powering things when the sun is shining (at day) and the coal (or natural gas) is burnt. Both should really have batteries and that is also a technology we are only now developing.
So, read the links below (one per line) which appeal to you and learn about the current state of Green renewable energy sources and storage methods and a few other ideas to clean up our environment.
I decided not to sort or order these links. They came to me via the Internet and I added them, so they are more chronological than anything.
Has Henrik Stiesdal nailed yet another market disruptor? - YouTube
Gravity Power: Utility-Scale Electricity Storage Systems
Massive NT solar farm a step closer as Sun Cable dramatically increases its capacity - ABC News
NYC government to run on solar power by 2025, says de Blasio
Brilliant Newfoundlander Invents the Solution! - YouTube
Renewable Energy: Solar Air Heater - YouTube
Solar Photovoltaic Thermal Hybrid Panels: The Next Step - YouTube
Best Battery for Solar PV systems - YouTube
How to Make Solar Water Heater 100°C Using Parabolic Trough - YouTube
How to Build a Solar Heat Collector - YouTube
Make electricity and heat with one device: hybrid solar technology - YouTube
Naked Energy — Redefining Solar Energy
Solar Thermo Electric Generator (STEG) - YouTube
Organic Redox Flow Batteries - The true path to grid scale energy storage? - YouTube
Organic Redox Flow Battery Research - Washington University in St. Louis
Elestor Redox Flow Battery storage
ESS Inc. | Long-duration Energy Storage
Invinity Energy Systems - Vanadium RFBs
Lockheed Martin - GridStar Flow
StorEn Technologies - Vanadium RFB
Sumitomo Electric Industries - RFB
VRB Energy – Renewable Energy Storage Solutions
ViZn Energy Systems | Safe Energy Storage
VoltStorage - RFB - Vanadium or Iron-Salt
Passive House = 90% Home Energy Reduction! - YouTube
Redox Reactions: Crash Course Chemistry #10 - YouTube
The world's longest subsea cable will send clean energy from Morocco to the UK
StoreDot unveils Tesla-like 4680 battery cells they claim can charge in 10 minutes - Electrek
StoreDot, which makes ultra-fast Tesla-like 4680 battery cells, will open a US R&D hub - Electrek
Completely New Way of Generating Electricity - Carbon Nanotubes / AnswersTheQ - YouTube
Iron Battery Breakthrough Could Eat Lithium's Lunch - Bloomberg
MIT engineers have discovered a way to generate electricity using tiny carbon particles - YouTube
Combining 3 existing technologies makes emissions-free plastics possible. . .and affordable
More than 99.9% of studies agree: Humans caused climate change
New material could pave way for better, safer batteries
Energy storage ecosystem offers lowest-cost path to 100% renewable power
The world-first experiment capturing CO2 from air and turning it to stone | The Independent
Battery-electric trains could clean up the rail sector and save money
Solar power mystery of 'miracle material' perovskite finally revealed | The Independent
EV batteries: Cheaper way to recycle material developed in Japan - Nikkei Asia
120 Volt Heat Pump Water Heaters Hit the Market & Make Gas Replacements Even Easier - CleanTechnica
Electrify America has now deployed Tesla Powerpacks at over 140 charging stations - Electrek
Battery 'dream technology' is a step closer to reality with new discovery
Major U.S. utilities plan coast-to-coast, EV-charging network - E&E News
Forget Lithium Ion Here's How We Store Solar & Wind Energy - YouTube
Last year marked the first time renewables surpassed coal as the U.S.'s second-biggest power source
The US saw record wind turbine capacity installation in 2020 - Electrek
Will this 'ocean battery' buried in the seabed be an offshore wind game changer?
How can we cut the emissions from concrete use? | World Economic Forum
BP claims EV charging 'on the cusp' of being more profitable than gas
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