Alternative Energy

Alternative energy, especially renewable power, is an exciting area of work in engineering today. Everyone in the world seems to be interested in it. The trouble in the past, was that oil was extremely cheap. So, there was no impetus to push for alternative sources of energy. But the rising oil prices is changing all this and if it ever hits $200 a barrel, alternative energy technologies will be mighty cheap in comparison.

So, I was just thinking about things back in Malaysia. This is an interesting area of engineering research that I think our country could possibly contribute to. We have an abundance of sun, which is a practically infinite source of energy. Solar power is an obvious was to capture this energy. However, biofuels are another way to capture and convert direct energy from the sun.

Solar technology is fairly mature. The main problem in this area is efficiency. So, further research into this area would involve finding new materials or fabrication technologies to improve the conversion efficiencies. However, this is a high technology field. There is also another lower technology field that merely exploits the thermal energy put out by the sun. That is what’s used in many homes to generate their hot water, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Abundant thermal energy can be used for a variety of other applications.

The biofuel option is still in it’s infancy. As the world’s #1 exporter of palm oil, we already have an abundant source of potential energy. The key is to figure out how to harness this energy as a conventional energy source. However, palm oil isn’t the only potential source of biofuels. A lot of people are also looking at potential sources of ethanol. But there is a natural limit for any biological fuel source, that is the available land area. It is unlikely that any area developed as a farm, could double as anything else at the same time.

However, beyond developing technologies, we need to focus more on prudent exploitation. Land area is the limiting factor in either case and it would be useful to learn how to best manage a finite plot of land. Also, biofuel crops depend on the mineral content in the ground to grow. Therefore, the ultimate limiting factor will once again be the minerals in the ground.

I’m starting to believe in Stephen Hawking’s call for us to seriously explore extra-solar colonisation. It will ultimately, be our only salvation.

PS: It is now possible to build water pipes in silicon. This will allow us to construct solar cells that can convert photonic energy to free electrons, and convert thermal energy into steam. This can all be built on the same bulk silicon. It’ll also help to cool down all the solar cells that are being baked 12 hours a day, prolonging it’s lifespan and reducing maintenance costs.