Hi: Well the emphasis in the materials world has been on Advanced Manufacturing, and there is still much work to do in that sphere of influence. However, the world continues to be more concerned about carbon contaminating the atmosphere; than about energy to replace carbonaceous materials.Currently the emphasis appears to be on either wind or solar power. Unfortunately, there are major problems associated with these approaches because both depend on mother nature, and she is not very predictable. In the case of wind, on calm days there is no movement to turn the enormous blades required to create electrical energy. In the case of Solar power, unless the sun shines there is no radiant energy to be captured. But.there are solutions because we can install batteries to store the energy produced during sunny or windy days and then release the energy for usage during non productive days, or sell excessive energy to the grid. All of this costs money, Therefore there are many that suggest that these sources are not the answer.
The newest thinking is thermal energy.After all, we live on top of a molten portion of earth. There are methods developed, and more coming, to drill oil offshore, to dig deeper for fossile fuels and now for thermal energy. Until now, my thinking has been directed to the gysers in the West as the source of this energy; and of course, if you limit your thinking to this, then location becmes a problem. Now, let's expand this thinking to include the molten core that is within the earth. If we do this and assume that energy we use to drill for oil is applicable, then we have an unlimited supply of energy and it need not be expensive. However, lets step back a minute and see whether this may be a smart solution. We know that the atmosphere is infinite, but we have successfully contaminated it to the extent that we have disrupted the entire system that has supported life on earth since creatoin. Now thermal energy. Earth's population is not decreasing and slowly life standards are improving world wide. That predicts that we are going to need thermal enery considering probably a geometric progression. Maybe it isn't to good a sollution to mess with what was created long ago, by a Being more intelligent than all of us combined.
However,lets look at hydrogen and nuclear power, also as possibilities of supplying clean energy consistently.In the case of hydrogen, it too, is available in our vast world.However, it is powerful and can blow up the world, if we are not careful. This has been the main arguement that has prevented more extensive research to tame it for our consumption as a fuel. But wait a minute, aren't fossile fuels also explosive. You bet, but we haven't used them to make atomic bombs to give it a frightening past and future. If present efforts are successful then there are existing facilities for dispensing it as a fuel and it will readily clean up the atmosphere by replacing fossil fuels. Now, this becomes a renewable source to consider.
There is one additional source of energy that can be clean, safe and abundant. This is nuclear energy. Wait a minute, we have the problem of the plant going critical and creating a major disruption to life and the atmosphere. However, there are many types of nuclear reactors. To date they depend on fusion as their production of nuclear energy. Although clean and they have been commercialized throughout the world, they too are subject of going critical and becoming violent bombs. They are also expensive and require large areas that must be safeguarded to prevent accidents from occurring.There is another form of nuclear energy though that erases the arguements of safety, expense and large plants. Experimenttion is now at the stage where we can manufacture smaller fission reactors that can be located in small spaces and which will not go critical. These reactors can be placed on a flat bed truck and transported to a site where the water is polluted, salty or underground , such as in a desert and they can produce sufficient energy to supply an entire small city. Now I believe that is a solution that I can buy, whereas I have my problems with the thermodynamics of disrupting the molten core of the earth that we sit on.
