November 1, 2010
Author: Daniel Ward
There is an inherent right that all biological life on this planet adheres to without moral analysis. From single cell organisms to the most complex, we all have the right to sustain our life and in order to do so we must secure that energy requirement from outside ourselves.
We observe every living thing in nature – plant and animal – as they lure, capture and process an external chemical source of nourishment to sustain its living and reproductive process, to continue the species and ensure that the web of life continues. As humans we are no different. We consume plants and animals to supply the nutritional requirements for our physical being.
For the past one hundred years we have become dependent on another kind of energy to sustain our life style: common electricity. More and more our society relies on a continuous supply of electrons that keep us warm and cool, light our homes, provide methods of communication with others, keep us informed of world events, reduces the expense to harvest and market food and enable us to move to any point on the globe.
Oil was the first energy-dense substance we used to produce electricity. Even though the earth produces a great abundance of this marvelous liquid we have accepted the fact that we must buy it from the energy barons in order to use it. The cost to produce is low, the market value is high, and the variety of child-products that can be manufactured from the by-products is great; combine this with the efficiency of operation being very poor, and the profit and power for those who lay claim to the riches of the earth will be ensured for generations.
At this point in our technological history, electricity is the most valuable and sensible source of energy. It may very well be our preferred energy for the next two hundred years and longer. But the energy barons are not finished robbing us yet. It is for this precious oil that we have heinous wars, twisted politics, and secrets behind closed doors, disinformation, un-information and non-information that pass for headline news.
We as humans must assert our inherent right to electrical energy, free of charge! Consider sailing vessels, for over a century they supported, and greatly expanded, our economic trade across the world without any energy input from the operator. Consider the windmill that processed grain into flour for bread and pumped water for irrigation. Consider the photovoltaic solar panel that produces useful quantities of electricity from sunlight. Consider the conventional hydro-electric power plant – possibly the most sensible form of electric power, as it is the most ‘green’. All of these inventions require an initial investment to build and a modest amount to maintain, but once running, they produce a useful, clean, and inexhaustible product. They are not free energy devices but they do serve as an example of how to tap the energy of a larger natural force to do practical work.
Recent developments at Department of Energy and Los Alamos National labs by Victor Klimov have produced a much higher efficiency in photovoltaic (solar) panels. Still more recent has been the development of the EEstor ultra-capacitor, a small light weight electrical storage device that charges in five minutes and discharges as quickly or gradually as needed. These inventions alone will eliminate any further air pollution due to inefficient burning of fossil fuels. Being able to store electrical energy has always been a considerable engineering problem. But with this predicament now overcome, the consumer may now become a producer: by collecting and storing electrical energy and – in conjunction with millions of other homes – selling the power back to the national grid. The other applications are enormous and the impact will be more and more beneficial to us and our planet.
We are at the exponential knee in our human and technological development. We can diverge from our planned future of economic slavery to the energy barons; and at the same time we can preserve the planet that provides us life. A much brighter future is within our reach, we must only assert our inherent right to electrical energy. It is for these reasons and many more that we advocate individual endeavor to this ultimate goal.