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Unlimited energy

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Unlimited energy indicates the concept of having free access to unlimited quantities of physical or electrical energy.This does not refer to spiritual, muscular, or emotional energy. The concept is a long-standing one in works of science fiction and among energy researchers and futurists.

In practical terms there are no truly unlimited sources of energy, but a source that delivers more energy than we can use in the foreseeable future can be considered realisticly unlimited. Alternative energy sources have been sought that eventually could provide unlimited energy resources to replace depleting limited energy sources

Implications

The implications of the availability of unlimited energy would be complex.

Physical economics

For some industries, the cost of energy is not the most important consideration. Others, such as the electrical generation and petroleum industry could be strongly affected. The geopolitical implications could be severe in countries with a lot of money coming in from oil revenues. However, since many parts of the world that have oil have very limited water supplies, unlimited energy could turn their deserts green with desalinated water from nearby oceans.

Energy crisis and abundance

An energy crisis is any great bottleneck (or price rise) in the supply of energy resources to an economy. Ongoing effort, by such institutions as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to provide abundant and accessible energy, through knowledge, skills and constructions have been undertaken to solve occurances of theses crisis.

Methods

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One day man will connect his apparatus to the very wheelwork of the universe and the very forces that motivate the planets in their orbits and cause them to rotate will rotate his own machinary.

— Nikola Tesla

Electricity generation is the process of converting non-electrical energy to electricity. Energy development for unlimited energy have been suggested via various methods. Renewable energy sources frequently arises because of it's use of natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished.

Geothermal energy

Arguments in favor

Geothermal energy offers a number of advantages over traditional fossil limited sources. If heat recovered by ground source heat pumps, the non-electric generating capacity of geothermal energy is estimated at more than 100 GW (gigawatts of thermal power). The Earth's core has a vast amounts of stored heat. In the mantle, temperatures range between 500°C-900°C (932°F-1,652°F) at the upper boundary with the crust to over 4,000°C (7,200°F) at the boundary with the core..

Arguments against

There are concerns behind geothermal energy. Although geothermal sites are capable of providing heat for many decades, eventually specific locations may cool down. It is also currently available only where the crust is thin, near current volcanic activity. In other areas, energy requirements to dig down to a hot spot are significant (thus return-on-investment suffers).

The efficiency of heat transfer through the rock might mean that just by getting heat out we cool down that spot and thus cannot extract more heat. There are lots of unknown factors that may affect the viability of this process outside of current locations (hotspots).

This method reportedly releases more radioactivity than fission;

Solar power

Including biomass, solar cells, and solar thermal energy
Arguments in favor
  • Supply of sunlight is nearly unlimited (for definition of 'nearly', see Dyson sphere).
  • Electrical power is directly produced and requires no steam turbines or complex machinery.
  • Most of the limits listed under Arguments Against, do not apply in space.
Arguments against
  • Supply from Sun limited (on earth) by weather, daytime, land area to collect power.
  • Manufacturing solar cells requires energy itself and cells have limited life;
  • Some solar cells use gallium and arsenic (gallium arsenide, two heavy metals, manufacture of which is dangerous;
  • Electrical power is direct current, not alternating current, so to use it most people need an inverter, which is up to half the cost of a functioning solar electric setup
  • Most of these power supplies are intermittent, and would require uneconomical methods of power storage;
  • Not presently economical on a large scale without government subsidies;

Nuclear fission

Arguments in favor
  • Large supplies of uranium exist worldwide, containing vast amounts of energy.
Arguments against
  • Pollution is probable depending on type of fission, and pollution effects must be included in cost equation.

Nuclear fusion

Arguments in favor
  • Supply of hydrogen is vast (water is H2O).
  • Supply of deuterium is vast (seawater is small percentage DHO).
Arguments against
  • Various kinds of fusion power produce hot (energetic) neutrons which turn non-radioactive things into radioactive things;
  • Various methods of creating fusion use more energy than they produce, for example, Inertial electrostatic confinement;
  • Gamma and neutron radiation from the reaction can be significant (except in the harder-to-generate lithium reaction cycle);
  • Feasibility questionable;

In popular culture

SF Authors that have most famously covered this material include:


External articles and references

Citations and notes

  1. Unlimited, especially as used in science fiction works, refers to the ability to access as much energy as required at any given time, and possibly for an infinite length of time; so in this sense current renewable energy sources, which tap into large but finite, and often low-intensity, power sources like sunlight, do not strictly qualify as "unlimited".
  2. EE Richards Earth Power Spectrum and its Potential as a Usable Energy Source. doc
  3. ^ * AA Bartlett Fusion and the future. Physics and Society, 1989
  4. This includes many fossil fuels
  5. Walter A. Rosenbaum Energy, Politics, and Public Policy, 1981. Page 57
  6. Samuel M. Dix, Energy: A Critical Decision for the United States Economy. 1977.
  7. M Diesendorf, Energy and People: Social Implications of Different Energy Futures. 1979, Society for Social Responsibility in Science (ACT)
  8. The pressure, at the bottom of the mantle, is ~140 GPa (1.4 Matm).
  9. Louie, J. (1996). "Earth's Interior". University of Nevada, Reno. Retrieved 2007-12-24.

General information

Patents

Further reading

  • R Routley, V Routley, Nuclear Energy and Obligations to the Future. Inquiry, 1978
  • Gordon N. Patterson, The Race for Unlimited Energy. 1979.
  • Moray B King, Quest for Zero Point Energy: Engineering Principles for 'free Energy' Inventions. 2001.
  • Energy Research Abstracts. Dept. of Energy, Technical Information Center, United States.

Websites

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