Mindzle

Posts Tagged ‘alternative fuel’

It’s the question of the day, and one that has beguiled too many people to count. Why oh why is it so hard to get truly renewable energy into the commercial marketplace? And the answer is somewhat more simple than one might think, and hard to accept.

One active alternative energy researcher puts it this way (Tim Benedict http://www.TimBenedict.net). 

“Sadly, it’s an unfortunate byproduct of our capitalistic economic system. And just so you don’t misunderstand me, capitalism is not a bad system. It’s just established energy’s abuses of this system that creates our problem.

But before we discuss this problem further, we need to make a distinction between “Big Energy” companies that broker oil, coal, and nuclear, and little companies that broker alternative fuels like solar, wind, hydrogen, magetic, and others. All the “Big” companies have money to build BIG projects with, that in turn require a BIG payoff in order to be profitable to them. Which is ok. The “Little Guys” on the other hand, are exploring home grown energy that is grassroots in nature: small, and easily implemented. Thus the coal companies resent the small solar power companies who cut into their electricity market. Gasoline companies resent hydrogen development because it will potentially cut into their market too. Electric power companies don’t like lots of self-sufficient people in their areas that generate their own electricity, because off-griders aren’t (captive) paying customers anymore. And this threatens all the big energy boys as a group who just happen to also pull most of the political, economic, and legal strings of our society. 

It all boils down to money. Big energy companies who have their entire wealth tied up in certain energy fields, by their very nature, don’t like to let competition threaten them. They do compete with each other, which is healthy, but they all tend to band together when Little Guy Energy threatens all of them together, which is not healthy.

If even just a few of the magnet motor generators under development in countless garages around the world were to be made commercially available, the electric power grid would lose customers left and right. It would also help unload the still currently overloaded electrical grid. Unfortunately, some places, at the instigation of the power companies themselves, have apparently already actually made it illegal to operate a magnet motor generator. End result? Alternative Magnet Energy killed, and electric power company monopoly and profit guaranteed and perpetuated.

And examples just like this can be found in every single alternative energy and fuel field. The oil companies fight to keep gas mileage improving technologies off the market shelves.Auto makers won’t produce better mileage vehicles unless Congress mandates it so that their oil company partners stay satisfied.Yada, yada, etc and so forth.

In short, the Big Boys have vested interests in obsolete energy technologies and WILL try to kill the new technologies off, nearly as fast as they are developed (see some of them at http://www.EvergreenGasLabs.com). Now I agree wholeheartedly that the Big Boy Energy companies have their place. They generally provide reliable power to big buildings, cities, and countless other people who cannot, or might not, generate their own power, even if the option were available to them. It’s like in the real estate market: there will always be renters, even when they could own their homes instead.

But when the Big Boys start to prosecute, bury, or otherwise squash home grown alternative energy, or through deceptive advertising brainwash people into believing that alternative fuels and energies aren’t practical, viable, or available yet, it actually makes our society their slave, and keeps us from moving forward.I draw the line here, especially since other options ARE already available.”

So what are our options?

1. Just accept that alternative fuels and energies are already available. 2. Carefully invest some capital into someone or some company that is making progress with them. 3. And don’t be scared to try some of them out for yourself.  

The world has officially gone mad. As we are grinding into the worst economic slump for a century, simple things like heating bills are going up and up.There are also significant health risks for pensioners and low income families. During the big temperature freezes of the past winter, it was they who needed to keep warm the most. Yet they are increasingly unable to pay their rising gas bills to stay warm.

“Green Energy” is something repeated daily by the government and huge energy companies alike. It is hyped up as the answer to all our troubles. And who would argue with the idea of saving some money and saving the planet. With this mantra on their lips, they win votes and build wind farms, supposedly for our benefit.

However the latest initiative by the UK government reveals the truth behind this egalitarian rhetoric. The plan is called the “Renewable Heating Incentive”, and aims to construct a large number of wind farms and solar energy facilities to reduce reliance on fast depleting and environmentally unfriendly fossil fuel sources. Now you’d think that the responsibility for paying for these developments would land at the feet of global energy giants – but you’d be wrong. It is going to be the bill payer who has to pay for this! The plan aims to charge a levy to energy providers using fossil fuels. The big friendly energy company, however, is planning on paying for this cost by increasing home gas and electric costs.

Electricty prices increased by 26% over the last year, and gas prices by 59%. This meant that millions had to think twice about switching on their portable heaters. In the midst of increasing poverty, the “go green” banner has been used as a solution for families to ease hardship by paying less for energy bills. However if this idea is brought in it will harm precisely those who are struggling. Essentially what this will mean is that those with more secure and higher incomes will be the ones who can afford to switch to green energy sources for their homes. But if you can’t, and resort to using fan heaters or oil filled radiators to warm your house when the temperatures drop, you’ll be hit with higher energy bills. This will be the case even with the proposed low interest loans being offered to carry out the work. It’s unlikely that a family that is already struggling to pay their gas and electic, not to mention interest on existing debts, will be willing to take on more debt, whetever the interest rate may be. One thing we learned from the introduction of student loans, at the time touted as a measure to make university more accessible to lower income families, is that only the middle classes are prepared to put themselves in such debt on top of everything else.

I ask you, is that right? Far better would be taxing the energy companies directly and getting hold of a tiny fraction of their trillions of dollars of profit.They could then use this significant sum to subsidise green refubishment on lower income houses, so that they can benefit from reduced heating bills. It would be great to hear what people think about this issue.

The use of solar power for home use has become a popular alternative in the United States and other parts of the world. The main advantage of solar power use is that it has very little cost to run and none of the noise and waste pollution attendant to existing power generation facilities. But one of the main obstacles is the high installation cost of solar electric panels.

Currently, the cost for the installation of solar power panels in a home is not yet affordable to the average homeowner. But the current technological advances are making the cost of the materials lower and more efficient and it will only take a few more years when the average home would have solar panels for heating and lighting standard.  It may sound like out of a science fiction story but it will become reality soon enough.  And it will then be one of the cheapest new alternative fuels we have available.

This goal is easily achievable because of the realization that after installation of the solar panel, the cost of generating electricity is practically nil. This is the best part of the deal, because one would need not worry about monthly bills and conserve energy goals would be necessarily eliminated as the source for energy is nearly limitless. Also, the absence of any lost power due to expenses and administrative costs for distribution would be eliminated as the solar power generated is directly consumed by the home and the power stored would be in batteries for the home.Once you recover your setup costs, the solar power you get each month thereafter pays you back, try to get that will a fossil fuel. This is why we need more alternative fuel sources.  

And the long-term costs are also eliminated. Unlike fossil fuel power generation, chemical emissions and the harmful extraction of this resource has pretty much altered the atmospheric landscape of our planet. In solar power, there is no chemical waste produced and no harmful by product is introduced to the environment. With this, the over-all costs of power production and consumption would be eliminated and replaced by clean, renewable and environmentally sound power source for all. And best of all, the costs of solar power is recovered in a few years as it pays for itself, then you have free power for life.