ENERGY  ISLANDS

On Land  -  Out On The Ocean  -  In The Sky  -  In Outer Space

Latest  Update:   November 22,  2023

New  And  Newer Sources  Of  Renewable  Energy,  Nuclear  Energy,  Fossil  Fuel  Energy,  And  Energy  Storage  Systems

The original version of this Web page was created years ago.
Although much in our world has changed since then, most of our serious,
global energy problems remain the same!


JUST  TWO  OF  THE  REASONS  WE  ARE  IN
A  PERMANENT,  GLOBAL  ECONOMIC  RECESSION

First Reason  -  World governments operate in inefficient manners.

       Running a government is something like investing in the stock market.  If a person is knowledgeable and careful with his or her stock purchases and sales then he or she might do well.  However, if that person makes foolish investments then he or she could easily lose all of his or her money.

       Similarly, government officials are constantly making decisions regarding how to spend government income that is generated through the collection of taxes and the sale of raw materials etc.  When those officials make unwise, inefficient financial decisions then much or all of the money they have collected can be wasted.  They can also make unwise decisions regarding government economic and regulatory policies that can be ruinous for the government itself and for all of the people living in that country.

       Unfortunately, as history has repeatedly shown, over the centuries government officials around the world have repeatedly made unwise financial decisions.  As a consequence, countless numbers of people living in many countries that could be economically prosperous or at least economically stable are instead forced to live in poverty.

Second Reason  -  Our planet suffers from a seemingly endless, global shortage of environmentally safe and affordable energy.

Energy  Availability  is  a  type  of  governor  for  our  world’s  economies

       Various mechanical, electrical, and computer program type “governor devices” have been used for countless years to control the speed of engines.  One of the most common and popular of them is the automobile Cruise Control.  To keep the vehicle’s speed constant it has more fuel sent to the engine when the car is going up a hill and it needs more energy.  Less fuel is sent to the engine when the car is going down a hill.

       Energy Availability is a type of governor for our world’s economies.  When people purchase more products, companies hire more employees to manufacture the products.  Companies also purchase more energy to produce their products.  Since the availability of energy is to some extent a constant, the market then causes the price of a unit of energy such as a gallon of gasoline, to rise.  It becomes more expensive for companies to manufacture their products, They have to charge more for each of them, and fewer people purchase them.

       That economic up-and-down cycle is repeated year after year.  The only way to get out of it is to make lower cost energy available to manufacturers and consumers.  Unfortunately, drilling for more oil and gas and mining more coal could not even begin to satisfy our global demand for energy.  Major environmental problems such as global warming are also widely reported as being associated with burning fossil fuels.

       There is at least one honest Youtube.com video that discusses some of the serious problems associated with nuclear fusion energy.  For example, with many or most, but apparently not all of those technologies, large numbers of neutrons are generated.  They can gradually damage the fusion vessel walls.

       Even though extraordinary amounts of money are presently being spent on the development of hydrogen fusion energy technologies, it is expected that it will be a long time before fusion energy will be able to help us with our persistent "Lack of enough environmentally safe energy" problem.

       One popular saying is that "Economical, practical nuclear fusion energy is 30 years away.  And 20 years from now it will still be 30 years away.!"

       In contrast, nuclear fission-based power plants could supply us fairly quickly with all the energy that we could need or want.  Unfortunately, the nuclear power industry has had such a horrendous safety and operation record that very few countries are presently planning to build any new nuclear fission type power plants.

       Renewable forms of energy such as solar and wind energy are invaluable and are being heavily used.  But those forms of energy must usually be collected from over large areas of land our out at sea, but near some country's coast.  Those things can put limits on the effective use of solar and wind energy.

STEP  ONE  FOR  SOLVING  OUR  WORLD'S  ENERGY  PROBLEMS

If there isn't enough energy for everyone, then there isn't enough energy for anyone!

       From the poorest nations on Earth to the wealthiest ones, human societies are heavily interlinked.  One of the most recent examples of this involves the worldwide spread of the Covid-19 virus.

       Illness such as Covid-19 generally do not contain themselves to a single country.  They can and often do spread rapidly around the world.  Similarly, energy shortage problems for individual countries are energy problems for all countries.

       Every person on the planet has a right to live in peace with enough resources such as energy to be able to maintain a safe and comfortable lifestyle.  History has repeatedly demonstrated that when countries don't have the amounts of energy they need or believe that they need, they are willing to go to war with other countries to gain access to or control of energy supplies.

       The first thing that energy researchers need to do is to determine how much energy our world actually needs.  That could be determined by estimating how much energy an average person would need on a daily basis for him or her to have a residence built, to heat, cool, and maintain the residence, to get adequate nutrition, to travel to and return from his or her workplace, to do work at the workplace, to conduct other activities such as traveling to and from stores, and to go on a yearly vacation.  That average daily energy need would then be multiplied by the billions of people presently living.

       After such a determination had been made, it would probably be discovered that fossil fuels combined with present renewable forms of energy including solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric, cannot come even close to satisfying our world's need for energy.

       Three energy sources are being discussed on this Web page.  Any one of them could probably easily fulfill our present and future energy needs.

STEP  TWO  FOR  SOLVING  OUR  WORLD'S  ENERGY  PROBLEMS

       One or more privately funded nonprofit foundations should be established that would maintain Internet Web sites where our world’s energy problems and various energy resources were discussed in detail.  Individuals and research groups around the world could visit those Web sites and then submit reports or proposed energy system development plans to the foundations.

       Submitted reports would propose how our global energy problems might be solved or at least managed.  Reports that met certain requirements would then be stored at the Web sites for review by Web site visitors.  Internet Bulletin Boards (blogs) at the Web sites could be used by site visitors to comment on the reports.

       Financial awards would be given to individuals and groups such as university engineering departments that submitted especially useful reports to the nonprofit foundations.  By prior agreement, submitted energy system plans would be owned by the general public.  Individuals and groups submitting the plans could not get patents for their proposed energy systems for their exclusive use.


SEVERAL  DIFFERENT  SOURCES  OF  ENERGY

       Most of these existing or proposed energy sources are being discussed here in a fair amount of detail.  The Energy Islands Out In The Ocean section should have something for almost everyone and should be universally liked.


Energy Source # 1  -  ENERGY  ISLANDS  IN  OUTER  SPACE

       The following Web pages discuss some of what might be involved with  Harvesting Outer Space Solar Energy.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/032311b.html

        The Energy Islands In Outer Space that are being discussed here would be solar energy collection systems that would be sent into outer space where they would do some combination of collecting and converting solar energy, and then somehow transferring that energy to stations on the ground that would load the energy onto energy grids.  Designs for various parts of those proposed outer space energy systems can probably already be found at various locations on the Internet.

        Another version of the Energy Islands In Outer Space would involve enormous mirrors that could reflect sunlight directly to the surface of the Earth.  Normally, those mirrors would be aligned so that they were perpendicular to the Earth's surface.  That would help keep them from creating major problems for amateur and professional astronomers.

        When a disaster occurred such as a tornado or earthquake, as many of those mirrors as possible would be sent instructions by radio to rotate so that they would focus sunlight onto the area affected by the disaster.  That would then make it possible for disaster response personnel to see in those areas without the need for massive artificial lighting systems.

        The light from the orbiting mirrors would be fairly dim because it would be spread out over such a wide area on the surface of the Earth.  But, it would provide rescuers with at least some illumination.

        These proposed orbiting mirrors would be invaluable to all world governments.  Disasters occur everywhere.  Developing the mirror systems would be a relatively simple and inexpensive project that many governments could work together on.

       One of the main problems associated with those proposed space-based energy systems is that they would need to be launched into orbit around the Earth or perhaps built on the surface of the moon.  Either of those possibilities could be prohibitively expensive.  To deal with that expense problem I have developed a concept for a "space cannon" type of launching system (not presently being discussed here) that might make it possible to send large amounts of material from the Earth's surface into permanent orbit around the Earth for a fraction of what it presently costs to send materials into orbit.

       For the present time, the International Space Station can and should immediately be used to test procedures for harvesting the unlimited amounts of solar energy available to various types of satellites in orbit.


Energy Source # 2A  -  NUCLEAR  FISSION  ENERGY

       Nuclear fission energy has been around for quite a few decades.  As almost everyone is aware, it has major safety and security concerns.  A two-step approach (one step is being discussed here) that I have developed for building safe nuclear fission-based power plants might make it possible to have nuclear energy provide all of our world’s needs.  If that approach worked, spent nuclear fuel rods would no longer need to be stored anywhere.  Existing spent fuel rods could be transported to power plant sites and safely and securely chemically processed and used as fuel for these new power plants.

       One of the keys (one of those steps) to building nuclear fission-based power plants would be to construct large numbers of relatively small power plants, each the size of a railroad boxcar, and locate them far from cities such as on remote, uninhabited islands.  They would each be stored perhaps 500 feet down in the ground in thick concrete boxes so that even if an accident were to occur, radioactive materials would remain sealed in the concrete boxes.  The power plants would be run under constant, close supervision by the international energy community.  Safe and secure operation could then be ensured.

       Steam-generated electric energy from the nuclear energy plants could be converted into other more easily transported forms of energy such as liquid hydrogen, aluminum metal (from recycled aluminum oxide powder), or massive flywheels.  Energy losses incurred during the conversion and transportation steps could be dealt with by simply building more power plants.

       The nuclear power plants could extract relatively pure water from ocean water.  The purified water could then be sent to different countries under tremendous pressure via enormous, ocean-bottom pipes.  At the final destination the water pressure would be used to power electric generators.  And the purified water could be used to help satisfy our world's constant need for fresh water.


Energy Source # 2B  -  LOCAL AND REMOTE STORAGE OF NUCLEAR  FISSION  ENERGY

       A second key to the use of nuclear fission-based power plants would be to build them so that they would run at full capacity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, except for those times when maintenance was being done or the reactors were being refueled.

       When standard types of nuclear power plants need to increase and decrease their power output at different times during the day and year they have to be built with more complex and expensive parts.  Safety-related problems are more serious for variable output nuclear power plants.

       The energy the constantly running reactors generated could be stored locally in the form of aluminum metal etc. until it could be transported to where it was needed.

       Another way to store massive amounts of electric energy locally would be to feed excess energy from a constantly running nuclear power plant into a device that would consist of an extremely, extremely heavy weight that would be slowly lifted into the air by a mechanical system.  When electric energy was needed, a generator connected to the weight would convert mechanical energy associated with the weight being lowered back to electric energy.

       During night hours and other times when the load on the national electric distribution system is low, energy stored near the nuclear power plants could be put on the electricity grid and transported to and stored near large cities and industrial complexes.  Then when the electric power was needed by city residents and industries during peak electric grid load times such as during weekday working hours, the electric energy would need to travel only a short distance to where it was needed.

       This massive weight type of mechanical energy storage system could be highly efficient, especially if its bearings involved the use of superconducting magnets.  Additionally, if its components were sturdily built, these storage systems could function for decades with little need for maintenance.

       When you convert energy from one form to another, some of the energy is lost because of friction and heating.  I have developed plans for a highly original (I believe) energy storage device that would convert and store energy, and then make it available again, with perhaps almost no energy loses related to energy conversion.  Parties interested in such a system can contact me for more information using the E-mail address at the bottom of this Web page..

       A third key to the use of nuclear fission-based power plants would be to have nearby facilities that could extract radioactive materials such as plutonium from spent fuel rods and use them as fuel in other nuclear power plants located in that area.  This would be practical if the power plants were built in remote areas where there were manageable security concerns.


Energy Source # 3A  -  ENERGY  ISLANDS  OUT  IN  THE  OCEAN

        The Energy Islands In The Ocean being discussed here would essentially be gigantic, relatively inexpensive barges or ships that would be built by the millions and sent out onto the ocean to collect, process, and make available, solar, wind, wave, ocean current, ocean thermal layer, ocean tide energy, and oil, gas, methane hydrate, and perhaps even coal forms of energy.  Some of the barges could collect wind and wave energy from hurricanes.

       These proposed energy collection barges and ships could be anchored at various locations.  Robot ships would then visit the barges, collect their stored energy, and transport it to coastal locations where it would be loaded onto power grids.

       Or, the barges and ships could travel around under their own power while collecting energy, and then visit shore locations to transfer the energy to the power grids.

       These proposed barges could quickly and easily help us deal with our planet's energy problems until the day, far in the future, when nuclear fusion energy becomes economically practical.

       One obvious problem with these proposed barges and ships would involve energy and energy system piracy.  That should be an easily manageable problem.

       No one wants an unsightly, noisy windmill in his or her backyard or out in the ocean, but close enough to the shore where they spoil the view.  Many countries would find it difficult to devote large areas of land to solar and wind collection or large sections of oceanfront property to wave energy collection.  People do not want fossil fuel companies drilling near their neighborhoods, polluting their groundwater, and causing earthquakes to occur.

       Perhaps the one way that energy could be collected that would make everyone happy including even fossil fuel companies would be to collect it far out in the ocean.

       Giant barges, a half mile long and wide could be constructed that could easily survive the most destructive hurricane.  They could be built close to shore by the millions and towed out to and anchored in ocean areas where they could be used to collect, process, and make available solar, wind, wave, ocean current, ocean thermal layer, ocean tide energy, and oil, gas, methane hydrate, and perhaps even coal forms of energy.  Ocean thermal layer energy would need to be carefully collected so that there would not be any thermal upsets or dangerous materials from lower layers of ocean water coming to the surface.

       Movable versions of the barges could have entire oil and gas drilling rigs built on them.  And when fossil fuel exploration work was completed in one area the barges could be towed to another location without affecting their solar and wave energy collectors etc.  Barges that large could be equipped with modern hotel and residential area facilities such as small schools.  It would then be economical for oil production companies to have their crews work normal, 40 hour weeks.  Their crew members’ entire families could live for years on the barges.

       Energy could be stored as liquid hydrogen and periodically collected by robot vessels that would travel between the barges and the shore.  Or, aluminum oxide could be converted aboard the barges into aluminum metal that could be shipped to power plants around the world and "burned."  When aluminum metal is "burned" in an atmosphere of pure oxygen it generates staggering amounts of heat and produces a relatively safe, gritty aluminum oxide powder as a byproduct.  There would be NO greenhouse gasses.  The aluminum oxide powder could be shipped back to the Energy Islands for recycling.

       Hydrocarbon fuels such as oil, gas, and coal could be “burned” at the collection site with the energy converted to hydrogen or aluminum metal.  Impurities generated during the burning process such as sulfur could be collected and made available to chemical companies etc.  Carbon dioxide from the burning process could be trapped, mixed with ocean water and certain minerals such as iron, phosphorous, and nitrogen compounds, and used as a food source for algae and other types of plankton grown in the ocean in giant pens located beneath or around the barges.  The plankton would then serve as a food source for fish being raised beneath or around the barges.  The fish would eventually be harvested for food.

       To get things started a few Energy Islands could be built and towed to locations such as in the Gulf of Mexico, near Hawaii, and off the southwest coast of Canada where there are supposed to be large deposits of methane hydrates.  Energy researchers from around the world and oil and gas company personnel could then be invited to spend some time on the barges for free and develop advanced energy collection systems in a “real-world” environment.

       When it was determined that the technology was advanced enough to make energy from the Energy Islands competitive with other sources of energy, construction could begin on building large numbers of them.  They would of course be quite expensive at first.  But they would not cost 90 billion dollars each and probably not even a billion dollars each.  Since the energy they collected would be made available to every country, Energy Island research and development costs could be shared by governments around the world.

       For any new source of energy to be developed, fossil fuel companies and environmental groups would need to be supportive of the effort.  These Energy Islands would make it much easier and safer to look for underwater oil, gas, and coal deposits.  They would have advanced firefighting and medical facilities etc. and even deep-diving submarines that fossil fuel company personnel and biologists could safely and conveniently use to examine ocean-bottom areas.  With proper construction and usage supervision, the barges should also meet with the enthusiastic approval of environmental groups.


Energy Source # 3b  -  SPECIALTY ENERGY  ISLANDS  OUT  IN  THE  OCEAN
THE HURRICANE  HUNTERS!

        In all of human history, has there ever been a science fiction writer or fan who has not dreamed about the creation of immense ships that could travel along with hurricanes and extract wind and wave energy from them?

       Some of the specialized Energy Islands Out On The Ocean would do just that.  When weather forecasters spotted the approach of a hurricane, radio signals would be sent to these enormous ships.  They would rapidly move to the location of the hurricane, get into the wind storm, travel along with the hurricane, collect wind and wave energy, and store the energy internally.  Robot ships would then repeatedly travel to these rapidly moving Energy Islands, collect their stored energy, and transport it to shore energy grids.

       It would be difficult to imagine just how much energy could be extracted from wind that was moving at a speed of 150 miles per hour relative to the ocean water and from ocean waves that might be 50 feet in height from crest to trough.


Energy Source # 4  -  ENERGY  ISLANDS  IN  THE  SKY

        The Energy Islands In The Sky that are being discussed here would be solar energy collection systems that were suspended from blimps or balloons that were filled with hydrogen.  Helium would likely be too expensive.  Hot air might be used.

       Large, multiple-section mirrors would focus sunlight to parts of the systems where it could be converted into some other form of energy.  For example, the energy could be used to break water vapor into hydrogen and oxygen gas.  The hydrogen gas could then be temporarily stored under pressure.  The oxygen gas could be released into the atmosphere.

       The blimps or balloons would have propulsion systems that would keep them at fixed locations in the sky or move them to other locations when desired.

       The energy collection systems would periodically descend to the ground to offload their stored energy to an energy grid.  Or, other robot blimps, balloons, or aircraft would travel to them, collect the stored energy, and then transport it to an energy grid.

        For many applications, hydrogen gas is not safe to use because of its flammable and explosive nature.  However, as these Energy Islands would be over areas such as above oceans where there were no people living, it would be safe to use.  If the blimps or balloons leaked, burned, or exploded, the Energy Islands would simply fall harmlessly to the ground or into the ocean.  Additionally, the blimps or balloons could easily generate fresh supplies of lift hydrogen on their own if and when it was needed, by converting water vapor into oxygen and hydrogen and then releasing the oxygen into the atmosphere.


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  ENERGY  RELATED  TECHNOLOGIES

CARBON DIOXIDE CAPTURE AND STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES  -  Efforts have been in progress for years and probably decades related to the capture of and the storage of carbon dioxide.

1.  One of these technologies involves mixing captured carbon dioxide with water and forcing the "fizzy water" deep into the ground where the mixture combines with certain types of minerals.  Carbon dioxide stored using these types of technologies would be largely permanently stable.

2.  Certain types of Seagrass growing out in the ocean are reportedly fairly efficient at converting dissolved carbon dioxide into plant matter.

3.  Captured carbon dioxide could be frozen into solid blocks at the collection point and coated with some type of membrane that would temporarily insulate the frozen blocks from heat.  The blocks could then be transported by rail and boat to parts of the world that were heavily forested.  There the carbon dioxide would be slowly released into the atmosphere during daylight hours so that local trees and other plants could absorb the carbon dioxide and convert it into plant matter.  Care would have to be taken to make sure that the released carbon dioxide did not get so concentrated in the atmosphere that it would be dangerous to plants and animals in those areas.

4.  The frozen blocks of carbon dioxide could be transported to the previously discussed Energy Islands Out In The Ocean.  The carbon dioxide could then be mixed with water and certain types of chemicals such as iron and nitrogen compounds and released into bins beneath or around the Energy Islands.  During daylight hours, plants growing in those bins would absorb the carbon dioxide and convert it into plant matter.  Robot ships could periodically visit the Energy Islands and harvest the plant matter so that it could be used as food, for building materials, for packing materials, or even burned for energy.

METHANE HYDRATES  -  At certain locations on the ocean bottom there are large deposits of methane hydrates.  They could be harvested, brought to the surface, and used as new sources of energy.  That would ordinarily result in more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  However, some of that methane hydrate combustion energy could be used to capture and then store the newly generated carbon dioxide.

"WHITE" HYDROGEN  -  Fairly recent science reports have stated that at certain locations around the world there are large deposits of underground compressed hydrogen gas, at times referred to as White Hydrogen.  Once harvested, the hydrogen gas would undoubtedly be regarded as an almost ideal energy source.  When burned or oxidized using some other process, only heat and water would be released.

WATER VAPOR VAPORIZED FROM OCEAN AND LAKE WATER  -  Fairly recent reports have stated that quite a bit more water vapor is being released from ocean and lake water when the sun is shining than could be released from ordinary water heating.  A recent theory proposes, if I understood it correctly, that sunlight can interact directly with water molecules and cause them to move into the atmosphere.  Normal evaporation is not involved.  In theory anyway, energy could be captured from some of that vaporized water.

THICK COLUMNS OF WOOD BEING USED AS BUILDING MATERIALS  -  Processes related to the creation of cement and steel reportedly consume large amounts of energy.  In some countries, thick columns of wood are being used to construct multiple story residential and office buildings and perhaps some single story industrial buildings.  In theory anyway, this can result in energy savings, basically the same as creating new sources of environmentally safe energy.

       Reportedly, when buildings constructed with sufficiently thick columns of wood catch fire, ash formed on the surface of the wood columns tends to protect the columns from disintegration leading to building collapse.

HEAT REDUCTION PAINT  -  A fairly recent energy-related development involves a new type of paint that can reduce the temperature of buildings, even when they are exposed to sunlight.

       Small globes composed of inexpensive barium sulfate are at the heart of.the paint.  They have properties that cause sunlight to be reflected back into the atmosphere.  The paint also absorbs heat from a building and radiates it off into the atmosphere.  The paint can reportedly cause a building to have a lower temperature than the air around the building.  Less air conditioning energy is needed.

       I have not seen any information regarding what happens when it is cold outside.  That would not seem to be a time when a person would want his or her home to be radiating heat off into the atmosphere.  Perhaps the new type of paint might be regarded as a mixed blessing.

SUNLIGHT REFLECTION  -  Technically speaking, this is not a way to generate more energy but rather a temporary strategy for dealing with Global Warming.

       The letters SRM have been used in the past to refer to "Sunlight Reflection Methods."

       They involve putting something in the atmosphere such as dust particles or water droplets that will reflect at least some sunlight back into space.  In theory, that could result in a temporary reduction in Global Warming.

       I am guessing that ideally, the dust or whatever that was put into the atmosphere would preferentially reflect heat radiation into space and allow other wavelengths of light to continue towards the ground.

       Probably the best way to go about this would be to make the effect local and temporary, such as over some small part of the Atlantic or Pacific ocean, and lasting just a few days, weeks, or months.  Researchers would carefully study the results of this experiment and determine what the next steps should be, assuming that it was decided that we should move forward with this.

       Unfortunately, people who are proposing that this type of approach be tried don't appear to be making serious and successful efforts to get anything done.

       A good percentage of scientists around the world are convinced that Global Warming in an extremely serious, life-threatening problem.  If so, then researchers and their governments don't have time to just talk about the subject matter.  They need to start taking immediate action in order to determine if this approach might at least temporary help with the Global Warming crisis!

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