Top 10 Future Energy Solutions

Current energy consumption, vastly from fossil fuels, has dangerous environmental consequences. The quantity of energy we use will only go up in the near future. Here are 10 possible sources of energy to help meet this need:

10 - Hydrogen

While not an energy source itself, hydrogen fuel is a great energy storage medium. It can be produced anywhere from water, has a very good energy to weight ratio, and when combusted, gives off water vapor (a natural greenhouse gas). But if we're going to produce hydrogen with fossil fuels, we might as well be burning fossil fuels for energy; it's more efficient.

9 - Pervasive Solar Photovoltaics

The solar pv technology we have today, while expensive and inefficient, could make a significant impact if we being to make greater use of it. Energy from the sun is essentially unlimited, and once the cell is manufactured there are almost no maintenance costs. Things like cars assisted by solar power, solar shingles, and solar backpacks could all reduce the amount of energy we use from other sources every day. The fact that these solutions are large decentralized and grid-independent provides an added benefit.

8 - Gratzel Solar Cells

Otherwise known as dye-sensitized solar cells, these solar cells could be 1/5 the cost of conventional solar cells. Plus you avoid the energy-intensive process of getting perfect silicon wafers. See this interview with the inventor for a better idea. The energy efficiency of these cells still needs some work, but it could get up to 33%, using the wonders of nanotechnology.

7 - Geothermal Energy

Geothermal power comes from high temperatures deep beneath the earth's surface. A typical geothermal plant can easily get 100MW of electricity, a number hard to fathom coming from a wind or solar farm.

This graph shows power consumption in Iceland, where geothermal is a very economical energy source, and can easily provide a lot of capacity.
6 - Wave Power

A rising wave certainly has energy, and waves are so pervasive that we could harvest them for very real quantities of energy. Devices such as the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter sit semi-submerged on the water's surface. As joints bend, oil is pushed through hydraulic motors to produce electricity. See an animation here. Three have already been delivered to Portugal, where they will produce a combined 2.25MW of power.


5 - Solar Thermal

The sun can easily be used to harness energy in terms of heat; both for hot water applications, and to use that hot water to generate electricity. Large solar thermal power plants can be built. The SEGS system in California has a capacity of 350 MW. Solar thermal has the potential to make a significant energy contribution in areas with large amounts of solar insolation.

4 - Nuclear Power (Thorium Based)

In terms of currently available technology, it is hard to argue with nuclear. The third generation of reactors are extremely safe, and the increasing reliance on passive safety features should allay most concerns. It generates a very small quantity of highly toxic waste, which I would argue is better than the inane quantities of less toxic waste found in coal plants. Reprocessing is a simple way to reduce the quantity of this waste, but that leaves you with plutonium sitting around, raising proliferation concerns. Nuclear energy generates a lot of energy on a small amount of land, and releases no carbon dioxide.

Using Thorium as a nuclear fuel would make nuclear power even better. You drastically reduce the quantity of waste produced, eliminate meltdown and most proliferation concerns, and create a much more efficient reactor. Plus, thorium is about three times more abundant than uranium.

3 - Wind Power

Wind energy is one of the most economical solutions of the "pure renewable" sources. It consumes no fuel in operation, giving off no harmful greenhouse gases. It has potential in both large-scale wind farms and small scale implementation on a home by home basis. See this video on the Aeroturbine for a novel idea of urban and suburban wind power. Buildings can start producing more energy than they consume.

And please don't be swayed by the myth that wind turbines will kill all the world's birds. The amount of birds killed is negligible compared to other human structures such as power lines and high-rise buildings.

2 - Clean Coal

This article from the December issue of Discover is a great read about clean coal. It is generally a combination of scrubbers for sulfurs, nitrogens, and particulates combined with carbon sequestration. Another possible solution is coal gasification. Converting solid coal into a gas allows it to burner cleaner and more efficiently.

While coal isn't nearly as "clean" as the other energy sources mentioned here, I put it this high on the list because of the prevalence of the fuel. There is a lot of coal in this world, and it is cheap and easy to convert to electricity. It's hard to argue with the economics of it. While we may run out of oil in a few decades, coal will last a few centuries. Make our coal plants cleaner, and you have a very politically attractive solution to a large problem.

1 - Artificial Photosynthesis

Solar energy is the most attractive option, because, in it's base form, that is where Earth gets pretty much all of its energy. Plants do a very efficient job of converting this energy into useful forms; our solar cells can't compare. Either for straight up electricity, or hydrogen generation, artificial photosynthesis could solve many of our energy problems. Janine Benyus has a chapter on it in her book Biomimicry, which I highly recommend.

This is a very long term solution; while much progress has been made in the past decades (using the wonders of nanotechnology and such) there is still a lot to be done.


Update: Thanks for all your comments folks. There is no silver bullet to solve our energy problems, and these are just a subset of some parts to the solution. Starting a good global discussion is key.