I think we must try

[goku]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

I take it that you'd rather attack old targets than try to make things better with the rest of us?

i think it'd be great to drill in anwr and use allternative fuels.
but a question keeps poping in my mind, why would the ones with the power to change (ex: gas prices), change anything?

everything now is exactly the way that someone wants it to be, a few crazy people on a science site isn't going to change that.

that being said, it's still fun to speculate

in a different thread someone had the idea of useing the tides to produce energy. in alaska the tide change is about 15 ft.

[InfiniteNow]

Here's the full 27m speech from which the highlights in the OP were brought together:

YouTube - AL GORE: Green Energy by 2018 (7/17...

And the transcript is available here:

Al Gore: A Generational Challenge to Repower America | We Can Solve It

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by C1ay

Here's another interesting project that shows promise.

For the bandwidth limited , a non-video link: Valcent Products Inc,. - High Density Vertical Bioreactor - HDVB - Sun Jul 27, 2008.

Though my business technology predictions have a history of being worth about the disk storage they’re written on, I predict that more than a few amoral, apolitical capitalists are going to make a lot of money on this technology. It’s enough to temp even an market-ignorant old pinko hippie like me to throw a few K$ that way in the hope of future wealth not earned by the honest sweat of my brow.

[palmtreepathos]

Originally Posted by CraigD

It’s enough to temp even an market-ignorant old pinko hippie like me to throw a few K$ that way in the hope of future wealth not earned by the honest sweat of my brow.

Hey! I resemble that... So what is the name that I throw my $$ at?
Valcent Products Inc (VCTPF)?
The more I see that clip the less "pie-in-the-sky" it seems, especially in comparison to new grids, wave energy etc. All good but the matrix is set up for oil and this could supply it. And I think he said they can capture CO2 to feed it with at the same time? very cool... I wonder how they filter out the green stuff? some type of centrifuge? Hmm..have to research this a bit....

Oilgae.com - Biodiesel from Algae Oil - Information, News, Links for Algal Fuel, Alga Bio-diesel, Biofuels, Algae Biofuel, Energy
Biodiesel production from heterotrophic microalgal oil

here is a combo algae/hydrogen
Algae: Power Plant of the Future?

[freeztar]

This method would sequester carbon as long as the lipids are not converted to fuel and burned. They failed to mention that part.

Nonetheless, it is still much better than using "black gold" oil because it's recycling the CO2 rather than adding new carbon into the atmosphere.

[C1ay]

Originally Posted by palmtreepathos

So what is the name that I through my $$ at?
Valcent Products Inc (VCTPF)?

Yes, and their stock is down at the moment

[REASON]

Originally Posted by C1ay

Yes, and their stock is down at the moment

RREEAAALLYY!

What say we just keep that little nugget to ourselves?

[TheBigDog]

I would use electricity from solar and wind to produce Hydrogen. The Hydrogen would be used as the next generation auto fuel but would be done in the cleanest manner. Imagine owning and using a car as you do today, but you have a solar array on your house which fills up a Hydrogen tank. Every couple of days you pump it from the tank into your car. When the tank is full it switches to pushing electricity into the grid. The new oil companies would be Hydrogen farmers who have large scale solar plants which feed filling stations. So you can spend a few thousand for a home station, or fill up retail, or use a combination if your needs exceed your home supply.

The beauty of this is that solar and wind are inconsistent sources. The Hydrogen produced acts like charging a battery; keeping the energy produced as potential rather than kinetic. This lets us get the energy when it is available and use the energy when we need it.

Bill

[REASON]

Originally Posted by TheBigDog

I would use electricity from solar and wind to produce Hydrogen. The Hydrogen would be used as the next generation auto fuel but would be done in the cleanest manner. Imagine owning and using a car as you do today, but you have a solar array on your house which fills up a Hydrogen tank. Every couple of days you pump it from the tank into your car. When the tank is full it switches to pushing electricity into the grid. The new oil companies would be Hydrogen farmers who have large scale solar plants which feed filling stations. So you can spend a few thousand for a home station, or fill up retail, or use a combination if your needs exceed your home supply.

The beauty of this is that solar and wind are inconsistent sources. The Hydrogen produced acts like charging a battery; keeping the energy produced as potential rather than kinetic. This lets us get the energy when it is available and use the energy when we need it.

Bill

What a great idea! I can really see that happening.

How difficult do you think it would be to generate the hydrogen from solar and wind energy sources? What would be the production method?

[TheBigDog]

Originally Posted by REASON

What a great idea! I can really see that happening.

How difficult do you think it would be to generate the hydrogen from solar and wind energy sources? What would be the production method?

Every few months I spend an hour or two thinking about this. There have been startups trying to do this since the 70's. I would take the most basic approach of using electrolysis, which does not need any sort of catalyst. This would be slow, but slow and steady might be all you need. Probably worthy of its own thread.

Bill