How do we light up?


Setting a pillar of our well-being:

ENERGY AVAILABILITY




How to have energy available, for electricity and heat, efficiently in the netting of our interests with the given physical laws, the conditions of this point in time in the universe and the resulting available ressources and circumstances on earth.

Foto-credits: Craig Adderley
(https://www.pexels.com/de-de/foto/frau-die-auf-terrasse-mit-eingeschalteten-lichtern-tanzt-1529745/)

Energy and electricity

Video-library  ENERGY

Our take

How do we create long-lasting solutions for our energy-needs?



~ Work-in-progress ~



We're putting on scale all the different methods of producing electricity and converting energy and using it:



  • Producing electricity via Solar-Energy:


  • How can the sun rays be used for doing work? How does "solar" work?

Either 1) by letting the sun-rays warm up material and using the heat (which is atomic vibration) for heating for example a house, or for making the heat turn a turbine, which converts the heat into electricity (these both are called Solar-Thermal-Systems)

or 2) by letting the rays knock off electrons from the material which results in an electric current (this technology is called Photovoltaic and the mechanism behind it is named the photoelectric-effect).


1) Solar Thermal:


  • What do you need for Solar-Thermal-systems?

Since warming up materials like water alone does not produce electricity, even tho it may do the job we would use much electricity for, do we, for now, focus on the technique to produce electricity.

For that the rays are focused via mirrors on a material (which is usually salt), which heats up and powers a heat-engine, converting the heat energy into electrical energy - comparable to the functionality of a coal-power-plant.

  • How much energy can Solar-Thermal produce?

Solar Thermal-Systems work from small to big, with the current big Solar-Thermal-Parks producing ~130MW, which used ~110,000 mirrors. (status 2021).

  • How efficiently can it be used?

Since the efficiency of heat engines increases with higher temperatures, is the heated salt getting warmed up to ~700°C through the reflection of light. This results in an efficiency of the termal energy being converted into electrical of __%

  • What are the costs (area, work and materials)?


  • What are different possible materials for the different parts (e.g. conductor, semi-conductor, frame etc.)?
  • What`s the rarity of each material? (locally on earth, in our solar-system and in our galaxy)
  • What different, unbound to solar, uses for the elements/materials are there/could there be?
  • What does the mining- & distribution-process look like of each?
  • What does the refining/production process look like? What`s the effort/price?
  • What`s the durability of each possibly used material or finished product?
  • How many people- / What professions find work in this sector already and how may it develop?
  • How much electricity does solar produce?
  • How much area do you need covered, for instance to supply a home with electr.?
  • Which different possible areas are there? (horizontal and vertical viable?)
  • What are the pros and cons for the different areas?
  • Can the electricity be transported to non-suitable-solar areas?
  • What happens when the sun is not shining on the solar-panels? (night or clouds)
  • How many people get work from the Solar-industry?
  • What innovations root in the Solar-industry?
  • How much waste/pollution do the solar-systems production produce?
  • How long does a solar system work? Is there a decline in efficiency? What is the decline? What happens to the knocked off electrons, are they not missing/dissolving the cells?
  • What parts become waste? will parts be "defect/unusable after time" or can they be re-used? And what does "sustainability" mean in solar?
  • How much maintenance-work does it produce?
  • What is the difference of given facts compared to different forms of electricity-production?
  • Is this mechanic useful for grid-base load?
  • In case of expansion, reduction and stagnation: How would this branch and attachments develop?
  • What is the maximal electricity through solar? (presenting different scenarios and gauging the most ration one with our opinion)
  • What are possible innovations/improvements in design for the future?


  • Sources
    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy
    2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power
    3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_panel
    4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power
    5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoelectric_effect
    6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy
    7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power
    8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_engine
    9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOXW5aaCZg
    10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEduOpO-8GA
    11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility
    12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_air_heat
    13. https://www.solarthermalworld.org/news/denmark-new-solar-district-heating-world-record
    14. https://www.solar-district-heating.eu/en/about-sdh/
    15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_thermal_energy_storage
    16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Landing_Solar_Community
    17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_exchanger
    18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnXP7i4ygw0
    19. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/169214

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  • Producing electricity via Nuclear:


  • How does "nuclear" work? What different forms of "nuclear" are there?
  • How much energy do the different methods produce?
  • Is this mechanic useful for grid-base load?
  • What about the radiation in each method?
  • What about the waste and pollution?
  • different forms of storage and further usage for the waste?
  • how much radiation does the waste produce? ("rest energy")
  • Where could it be stored or used furtherly?
  • What are the costs and benefits for either storage and further usage?
  • What are the costs of building and running the power-plants? What are the costs for the "burning" materials and its transportation?
  • What materials can be used?
  • Total amount of the materials coming into question on earth (locally), in the solar-system and the galaxy?
  • What are the costs for 'nuclear-fuel'?
  • How could the materials be used otherwise?
  • What are the risks (e.g. meltdown) ? (and solutions for them?)
  • How many people work in the Nuclear-industry?
  • In case of expansion, reduction and stagnation: How would this branch and attachments develop?
  • What innovations root in this industry?
  • What is the maximal electricity through nuclear? (presenting different scenarios and gauging the most ration one with our opinion)
  • What are possible innovations/improvements in design for the future?


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  • Producing electricity via Wind:
  • What exactly is wind? How is it created?
  • How can we integrate the kinetic energy of wind in our atmosphere to our grid/personal interests?
  • What are wind-turbines/How are they engineered?
  • How much electricity do they produce?
  • Where can they run?
  • Can the produced electricity be transported to areas that are not suitable for running wind-turbines?
  • Is this mechanic useful for grid-base load?
  • Does the extraction of the kinetic energy in our atmosphere change the properties of the earth (physically and for life)?
  • Does it (in extensive usage) slow the rotation of the earth and cause long-term effects, like magnetic shifts and ozone-holes?
  • What`s the ecological impact of wind-turbines ?
  • How much noise does it produce?
  • What risks does it cause for air-borne animals?
  • What`s the electricity-production potential?
  • What are the costs for building and maintenance?
  • What materials are used?
  • What`s the durability?
  • Is there degradation/reduction in output or an increase in costs?
  • What works/professions are needed for a wind-turbine-system? How many people "do and may" find jobs in this sector?
  • Is there any waste produced or emitted?
  • What areas are suitable for wind-turbines? How could they be used otherwise?
  • What is the maximal electricity-production through wind? (presenting different scenarios and gauging the most ration one with our opinion)
  • What innovations lie in the Wind-industry?


  • Sources
    1. https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/news_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/news+and+events/news/wind-power-fuels-green-growth

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  • Producing electricity via Hydro:


  • How are water streams created? Why do they exist?
  • How can we profit from the power of the existing water-streams?
  • How much electricity do hydro-plants produce?
  • How much electricity can a stream (with hydro-plants) produce maximally?
  • Is this mechanic useful for grid-base load?
  • What are the possible ecological changes from building turbines, dams and other kind of power-plants driven by waters kinetic energy?
  • What can be done to reduce the negative impacts? What options and outcomes are there for improvements of the quality of the present ecology?
  • What are the costs/expenses of building and maintaining such power-plants?
  • What works/professions are required or helpful for building and running hydro-plants?
  • What materials are needed?
  • What`s the local, global & extra-terrestrial amount of these materials?
  • With what different purposes may they be used?
  • Is there a production of waste during building or running?
  • Is there a possible profitable combination of this mechanism/building?
  • Is it a possible usage for energy-storage?
  • When would it be needed for that sake?
  • Is it useful for building of separated/limited habitats?
  • Is it profitable to create new water-streams to use for power-production or -storage?
  • Pros and cons for building new streams?
  • Where is the building of new streams profitable?



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  • Producing electricity via Geo-thermal:


  • How can we use the heat of the earth productively?
  • How much heat is there in the earth core?
  • How much energy can we extract?
  • Where locally  is it (most) profitable?
  • Is there a reasonable limit to the extraction of earth inner temperature?
  • What are the consequences for the different extraction-amounts and -methods?
  • Is this mechanic useful for grid-base load?
  • What temperatures are needed for usability?
  • How does temperature  increase with depth towards earth`s-core?
  • What are the building costs/expenses?
  • What needs to be build to integrate the heat into our system?
  • What are the costs for persuadable goals?
  • What process and materials are needed (drilling etc.)
  • How much area is needed? Is it otherwise usable/used area or is it generally unused area?
  • Is there any waste produced or freed?


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Fossil Fuels: our current ecomony-drivers


  • widely available but limited in amount
  • strongly change our athmosphere
  • energy rich

➔  Use with caution! Requires delicate measures for long-term usage on earth.



Explanations:

  • What are fossil fuels?

    Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes, such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms, containing organic molecules originating in ancient photosynthesis that release energy in combustion. Examples of fossil fuels include coal, petroleum, natural gas, oil shales, bitumens, tar sands, and heavy oils.

  • How much fossil fuel is there? How long will it last?

    Proven oil reserves (2021): 1.7 trillion barrels

    [Venezuela (17.5%), Saudi Arabia (16.3%), Canada (10.4%), Iran (9.5%), Iraq (8.9%), Kuwait (6.2%), United Arab Emirates (5.9%), Russia (5.4%), Libya (2.8%), Nigeria (2.7%)]


    Current oil consumption (yearly in 2020): 37 billion barrels


    ➔ 1.7 trillion barrels / 37 billion barrels per year = currently Oil for 46 years *BUT* 

    new reserves are still being found (++ years) and consumption changes (- years).

     E.g. + 300bln barrels in Venezuela found between 2009 to 2019 (9 of those 46 years) and consumption changed +2.2 bln brls from 2012 to 2022 (with only an intermittent reduction due to covid).


    The proven reserves (not simply existing, but searched for and found) increased by ~ 30 bln brl per year from 1980 to 2010 (equivalent to consumption), only by ~ 10 bln brl per year from 2010 to 2020, but by ~ 20 bln brl in 2022...

    We currently find less new oil than we consume.

    This happened because the reserves dwindled in developed countries that mostly use it, but also because we searched less intensely elsewhere. There are still many oil-depots being found/existing. These arguments also hold for natural gas.

    ➔➔ existing Oil for possibly well over 150 years with demand staying high. But in most expected cases not  thousands of years, since we use more than is produced naturally. So searching and switching for an alternative is reasonable.




    Proven natural gas reserves (2021): 7.7 quadrillion cubic feet

    [Russia (24.8%), Iran (17.3%), Qatar (12.7%), Turkmenistan (4.6%), United States (3.7%), Saudi Arabia (3.3%), United Arab Emirates (3.1%), Venezuela (2.9%), Nigeria (2.8%), China (2.7%)]


    Current natural gas consumption (yearly in 2020): 137 billion cubic feet


    ➔➔➔ 7.7 qdr cubic feet / 137 bln cubic feet per year = Natural gas for 56 years *BUT*New reserves are found and consumption changes/increases (statistics and calculation to come)


  • How much energy is there in fossil fuels?

    Oil:

    relatively energy-rich: one tonne of oil is equivalent to 40 million British thermal units (BTU) - enough to heat up 2,000,000 liters of water for 20°C.

    (1 BTU ≈ 1000 joule ≈ 0.3 wh ≈ 0.5°C/g)


    Gas:

    One cubic foot of natural gas contains approximately 1,037 Btu of energy.


    Coal:

    There are different levels of coal-ification, which results in an increase of  carbon -content and decrease of water-content, where more coalification brings more energy and less waste.


    The used kind with the lowest coalification - level (named lignite/is brownish) produces ~25MJ or ~7 Kwh per kg, while the purer one (anthracite/stone-coal) produces ~35MJ or 10 Kwh per kg.


    How much energy does a coal-power-plant produce?


    Coal-power-plants have an output of between 60MW up to 6,000MW, with an average of 500MW. Coal-power-plants have an efficiency of ~30-45%, which means that ~30-45% of the produced power is actually getting purposely used for our needs. Most of the power produced is lost in form of heat to the surrounding. For powering a 100Watt flat-screen (or a 100Watt light-bulb) for one year through a coal-power-plant, you had to burn ~300kg of coal. For comparison: an oven uses ~3000W for the time running, a PC ~150-500W,  an LED ~6W. 

  • How does/would the athmosphere change with fossil fuel burning?

    + 660 billion tons of C02-equivalent by burning all current oil and gas reserves (already tapped reserves)


    ➔ many places become uninhabitable with rising temperature and resultingly big losses of available water.

    ➔ 

  • What else are fossil fuels used for (apart electricity)?

    The Carbon in fossil fuels is also heavily used for deoxidizing ores (e.g. steel production)

  • Further questions (and already acquired answers):

    • (Extra)-terrastitric amounts? 
    • Monetary costs with fossils? Coal currently costs , $140-300 billion per year by 2030 and $280-500 billion per year by 2050, with the world having a strong fluctuation in inflation. Further geo-political analysis might follow. 
    • pollutants? Burning coal emits the carbon-dioxide which plants use, but which also acts as a green-house gas, heating the atmosphere; sulfur dioxide which create a very dangerous kind of air- particulate pollution (resulting in acid-rain); and all sort of elements, like heavy metals, that get concentrated in the process. The created air- pollution creates ~800,000 premature deaths with health-problems like lung cancer, asthma, stokes and artery-blockage. Also a huge amount of coal ash is put into dumps (and old mine-shafts), which results in increased levels of toxicity and radioactivity. The sulfur-dioxide and dust-particles can be captured via 'Flue-gas desulfurization' with ~99% accuracy. In this process is the sulfur combined with water and lime into gypsum, which is later put into landfills. Further potential-analysis available in source 17 (under the coal-chapter) now or in the elaboration number 2 in the future.
    •  Price for the mechanics? The main building for burning coal and capturing the power is fairly simple- structured and requires a relatively manageable amount of knowledge, work and materials - A big oven, surrounded with pipes filled with vapor, with generators in the way of the heated vapor, with a coal-feeding mechanism and a pit for the ash.But there are many layers of detail addable that increase the efficiency and lower long-term costs, like pollution-controls. A modern coal-power-plant costs ~1Bln $ which is almost double the amount of 5 years ago. The maintenance costs are medium-to-low (more precise price-data will be added later)A noticeable part is added to the costs for bringing the electricity to the consumer, meaning transportation-lines, a grit, has to be build. Additionally are the power-plants often not build near the reserves, meaning up to one fully loaded train has to bring the coal for each day.   
    • Intermittency  and "ramp up time": coal can be used as a constant electricity-source, since it is not reliable on unpredictable or hardly predictable changes like weather. The coal-power-plants need a relatively long time to ramp up and down, with 10-20 hours to get to 70% capacity. 
    • Jobs: ~70,000,000 people worldwide work in the coal-mining industry, with relatively much of the gathering happening for personal usage in developing-countries like India; For comparison: In the US are full-time-working: 80,000 in coal-mining, 30,000 in transportation and 60,000 as power-plant employees. India and China for comparison have a higher % of workers in mining than in transport and in the plants. The big producers of coal are China, US, India, Australia, Indonesia, Russia and South-Africa.
    • In case of reduction: How could the system be resolved? 
    • In case of expansion: How could the scope of duties be expanded and the influence be increased?
    •  In case of stagnation: What may happen if no decision for change is taken?
    • What innovations root in the coal-industry?
    •  (How) can coal be produced synthetically/artificially?
    • What would that system look like? (ecologically and economically)
    • Could it help solving our carbon-dioxid-problem?
    • Could the corresponding system(s) of the whole coal-powering-process (transport-system/net, mining, combustion) be used otherwise/with combined usage of another area?
    • What is a rational forecast for the usage of coal as energy-releasing-material? 
    • (When) Is coal worth going after?
    • What is the maximal sustainable electricity-production to our grid/system through coal? (presenting different scenarios and gauging the most ration one with our opinion)
    • What are possible innovations/improvements in design that may follow? 
    • How much of the fossil-fuels internal energy should ideally be used/invested for capturing its own pollutants/products? How much energy would then be left?






  • Producing electricity via Natural-Gas:


  • What is Natural-Gas?
  • What gases are burned to produce electricity?
  • How are they created?
  • How much energy does the burning of these gasses produce?
  • Is this mechanic useful for grid-base load?
  • Does the burning produce pollutants? (comparison coal)
  • What's the amount of natural reserves?
  • Can the gases be produced synthetically? (comparison coal)
  • How are gas-power-plants built? What are they? How do they work? (comparison coal)
  • How many people get or may get work from this industry?
  • How can we use the gases otherwise?
  • Can the needed system (transport-system/net, 'mining', combustion) be used otherwise/with combined usage of another area? e.g. use the tubes for transport of goods?


  • Sources
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8EHHW-3N5Y

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  • Producing electricity via Biological-mass:


  • How can Bio-mass be used for electricity (or equivalent)- production?
  • What processes can be used to gain electricity out of bio-mass?
  • What Bio-mass can be used with which method to create electricity?
  • How much electricity does it produce?
  • Is pollution created in that process/processes?
  • When is Bio-mass used for electricity?
  • when to use it for food, when for fertilizer and when for electricity?
  • Is there bio-waste that could be profitably used for electricity?
  • Is this mechanic useful for grid-base load?


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What about storage?


  • What different other storage-methods are there?
  • Chemical batteries, Hydrogen, graviational...what are they? And what else is there?  (facts, costs and profits)
  • Where does their field-of-use lie?
  • Why/when do we need storage?
  • Why/When do we not need storage?


- wh/$

-wh/kg

-life expectancy (in different charge-discharge scenarios)

-constituent elements (price, availability, toxicity)

-technical functionality and grade of complexity

-behaviour in different temperature (-changes)

-durability in force (blunt and pointy weight)

-degredation (radiation, corosion)

-behaviour in case of accident

-maintanance (and amount of complexity w/ amount of parts that can fail)

-disposal (reusability, recyclability, toxicity, required work)

-reqired work to end-product

-best use-cases



Different Batteries (Rechargeable (R) and non-rechargable (NR) (edit: use the overview rather for the different usable elements than for the specific combo and if R or NR - most elements can be R and NR in different combinations, specification may follow)

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_types

  • Sodium-sulfur-battery (R)
  • Lithium-Ion (R)
  • Alkaline (NR) ( Zinc, Cadmium, Mangan and Nickel or Nickel and Hydrogen)
  • Zinc-Carbon (NR)
  • Oxygen-aluminium (NR)
  • Atomic (NR)
  • Chrome-Sulfur-Potassium (NR)
  • Zink (+Amalgan) -Mercury-Sulfur (NR)
  • Copper-Zinc-Sulfur (NR)
  • Nickel-Cadmium (R)
  • Lithium- Sulfur/ Titan/ Phosphor/ Silicon/ Nickel (R)/ Vanadium-Phosphate (R & NR)/ Manganese-Oxygen (NR)/ Iron-Phosphate/ Iron-Sulfur (NR)/ Iodine (NR)/ Fluor-Phosphate/ Carbon-Hydrogen/ Carbon-Fluor (NR)/ Bromite/ Sulfur-Oxygen-Chlorine(-Bromine)(NR)/ Silver-Chrome-Oxygen (NR)/ Copper (NR)/ Selene (NR)


...

  • Sources
    1. https://www.hilabs.de/

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Answering will follow once we have formulated our first round of questions.

Then after answering, new questions with new subjects may arise with the next iteration of answers following.

Collection of associated facts we stumbled upon:


Germany energy consumption of private households (2022): 680 TWh (Umweltbundesamt)
Germanys complete energy consumption (2023): 3000 TWh (AG Energiebilanzen e.v)

                                                   (8,2TWh/Day)



Europe's full pumped hydro storage (2023): 55GW; 1,3TWh

Europe's potential in EV Storage: 5,44 TWh; 2,39 TW (210M EV-Cars with 50kWh battery and 11 KW Charger) (Paper: Cost and efficiency requirements for a successful electricity storage in a highly renewable European energy system - Ebbe Kyhl Gøtske, Gorm Bruun Andresen, Marta Victoria)


An overview giving gallery to come....

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