Will The World See A Technology Leap Tackling Global Warming?
If we look at some of the changes in just the past 5 years, we would find that Solar panel efficiencies have already seen substantial increases. Windmills that deliver renewable energy have also shown great increases in their individual deliverable electric power.
To go back to the 1960's, we then needed electronic components that would fit in our then smaller rockets than the Russians had, since they had already converted their military space hardware for civilian space use. They were able to get away with bulky power supplies and old vacuum tubes to run computers to guide their rockets into space, along with communications gear.
We did not have that option and had to develop the “microelectronic” technology, (which enabled us to develop the desktop computer, etc., which is now in virtually every home today), in order to perform those tasks. Some of us may remember failures upon failures. It seemed like our space program was doomed for failure, but you would never know it by looking at our space program today.
We Are Seeing Some Great Advances In Agriculture To Develop Ethanol
The initial step in the process of developing Ethanol was to use corn and convert the sugars into Ethanol. This process was quickly found to be extremely inefficient and costly, using far more fossil fuels to produce than the final product would deliver. At the same time, here in the U.S., many Universities are conducting experiments with other materials, such as “Switch Grass”, which when processed, has been found initially to deliver much higher crop of Ethanol for the amount of land used.
Experiments are ongoing to see the possibility of using a portion of the switch grass for feedstock and the rest for Ethanol production. It is hoped to create a large savings by not having to plant soybean in such a large acreage and earmark this land for future Switch Grass planting. Of course, there is still the process of converting the Switch Grass into Ethanol, which is still very costly, but much progress is being made and it is estimated that the cost will eventually be brought down far below the corn conversion process along with releasing vast acreage of land for human related crops.
What About Solar, Wind And Geothermal Renewable Power Sources?
One thing that is known for sure, i.e., the Renewable Energy industry is really geared up to lower the use of fossil fuels and is growing at an unprecedented pace. In the process, it is pushing the envelope of the technologies involved, i.e., Solar energy in all categories, Windmill energy, Geothermal, etc.
We can only hope that congress here in the U.S. works together to continue the pace. We can be assured that new technologies will evolve from these efforts and will quickly lead to the weaning of our world from the yoke of polluting energy sources. The world, we are told by top ecology experts must reverse both Global pollution and Global warming in order for this world to survive much longer into the future.
