So What About Those Alternative Energies?

In spite of the insane policies of the Biden Administration – if they can be called policies – the world cannot run on fossil fuels forever. Regardless of the global warming hoax, we must reduce our consumption of oil and move towards clean, renewable energy sources. (Anyone who doubts this should consider the words of the late Professor Albert Bartlett).

Critics point out that windmills don’t work when the wind doesn’t blow, and solar cells don’t generate energy in the dark, but a) these are technologies that can be improved, and b) there are others out there.

A magazine called Wind Power Monthly was first published way back in 1985. How are things shaping up today? Here are a few of the larger wind power projects from around the world. They are certainly impressive.

Not on this list but worthy of note is the Rampion Offshore Windfarm near Brighton on the South East coast of England.

If windfarms on land and on the sea are now part of the culture, how about “windfarms” under the sea? These are more properly designated tidal power projects. Dams have been with us for a long time, but what about projects that generate energy at sea? Here is a project in the North of Scotland which promises much not simply for the Orkneys but for the entire world. And here is a video that explains underwater turbines.

Okay, that is wind and wave power, what about the Sun? A recent article mentioned how Bill Gates is investing in a company called Heliogen. This particular project is still in its infancy and there have been problems with it, but the concept of concentrated solar power will shine through as the technology advances.

Plasma technology is a concept that has been around since the 1960s. This promises limitless energy, as can be seen from the hydrogen bomb. Unfortunately, scientists are still a long way off from taming the beast, but work progresses.

A much humbler project was the brainchild of a Canadian schoolgirl nine years ago. Ann Makosinski came up with the thermoelectric flashlight and later the eDrink coffee mug. Okay, these are only very small things, but imagine if you could channel your body heat into an electric generator.

Ann Makosinski may have been only fifteen but age aside, she was thinking outside the box, which is what is needed if we are going to overcome the real problem of providing an expanding source of energy in a world that is becoming increasingly depleted of the resources necessary to provide it.