What about the future

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I've been thinking about the long-term consequences and the future of the electric utilities in the U.S.. If there are few, short-lived power outages over small (smaller than "local"!) areas, then I would think that for the most part, people will stick with what apparently works so well. If there are significant, long-term outages or outages over large areas, I envision a huge number of people getting into solar- or wind-based personal-sized electricity systems. What's the view of others here?

-- Anonymous, November 29, 1999

Answers

Fuel Cells!

-- Anonymous, November 29, 1999

Even with large scale outages the system will remain relatively the same. As such it serves the interests of those in power. Energy independence makes independent people, which is not desired by those in power.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

Ann,

There have been rumors for a long time that there is cheap electric power available through some experimental work that is now ready. But the present system is where the political power and money is. I know this sounds like just another one of those urban legends, but maybe not. If we do lose standard power, or it becomes very unreliable, then I expect we will see all sorts of alternatives surface. The first area that this would appear in is military needs. We'll see.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999


garfield,

Fuel cells are not an energy source. They are simply a more efficient battery or engine, if you will, for transforming a fuel, hydrogen, into electric energy and water.

Also, hydrogen is not a primary energy source either (at least not on earth). The hydrogen has to come from somewhere. You either produce it through a chemical process from a primary fuel such as gasoline or methane or you electrolize it out of water. Either way you have either to take a fossil fuel or renewable energy source to produce the hydrogen. So hydrogen is an energy carrier not an energy source. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

That isn't to say that you couldn't have your own set of solar panels and personal hydrogen plant. You could. But the oil companies really don't want to see the wide spread adoption of that just yet.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 1999


You might want to definitely check out MOTHER EARTH NEWS November '99 excellent lead article on fuel cells**. They're a whole new scene - which sounds as promising as solar and wind.

"**electricity is generated via an electrochemical process versus traditional combustion.... Fuel cells extract hydrogen ions from hydrocarbon fuels and combine them with oxygen to generate power... devises that make electricity from hydrogen and oxygen, emitting as biproducts pure water and heat...' the price is expected to to be $4000 soon...//

There are also side bar articles on biomass energy & deregulation...

-- Anonymous, December 01, 1999



ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: - From the Future

Yes, there really is a great hope for plenty of clean energy, but unfortunately not for a few years.

I'm a futurist and I've spent years looking for energy alternatives. For the last 2 or 3 I've been following the work of Dr. Randell Mills, CEO and founder of Blacklight Power Company.

Eight or ten years ago, while studying medicine at Harvard and engineering and physics at M.I.T., Mills made the startling discovery that the hydrogen atom can give up to a thousand times as much energy as you get by burning it when the electron orbit collapses and produces a far smaller atom called a "Hydrino".

Dr. Mills is not alone. He has a staff of 23 people and many millions in funding, has taken over the old RCA Laboratories near Princeton, NJ. Up to now he has sought no publicity, and I was the first to publicize four interviews with him done about two years ago.

Now, he has come forward to the American Chemical Society and the Wall Street Journal has done a critical but accurate article about his work. In short, in a few years we are to see electric power systems that require no fuel but water, are clean and safe and small enough to power a car or plane a thousand miles or so without refueling or charging batteries.

You can see the Wall St. Journal Article and a press release by Blacklight Power in the Newsletter of the Aquarian Research foundation: www.ic.org/aq and look at newsletter #229. Those seeking more complete scientific info. can go to www.blacklightpower.com Art Rosenblum, 360-403-9533 (pacific time)

-- Anonymous, December 02, 1999


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