Solar lasers, ocean power and volcanoes: unusual energy sources of the future

By Arion McNicoll, for CNN November 13, 2013 -- Updated 1615 GMT (0015 HKT) | Filed under: Innovations

From volcanoes to wave power and even algae, researchers are looking far and wide for viable energy alternatives to power the planet after oil, gas and coal reserves run out. We take a look through some of the more interesting, promising and downright unusual possible energy sources of the future. Gallery by Matthew Ponsford

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Researchers are looking for alternatives to fossil fuels
• Former NASA engineer John Mankins plans to put solar power plant into space
• UK, France, Portugal and U.S. world leaders in wave power
• Danish inventor Jens Dall Bentzen creates biomass furnace that can burn wet wood

(CNN) -- Fossil fuels are going to run out. This much we know. No one is entirely certain when they will run out exactly, but we know it will happen eventually.

Some estimates suggest we have about 70 years of coal, gas and oil left; the fossil fuel industry itself insists that we have significantly longer. But everyone agrees they will run out in due course.

So how will the world be powered when we can't rely anymore on fossil fuels? Why with volcanoes, waves, wet wood and solar power from space.

To compensate for the decline of traditional energy sources, researchers around the world are developing innovative new technologies that -- between them -- may provide a long-term solution to our rapidly growing energy needs. Some are familiar, some may seem far-fetched, and some could potentially pose as much of a threat to the environment as fossil fuels themselves.

One man's waste, another man's energy

Read: How 'swarm robots' are learning from insects

CNN takes a look through some of the more interesting and unusual energy technologies currently under development.

Solar energy from space

The idea of collecting solar power from space has been under consideration since the 1970s. Putting solar panels into orbit offers a few obvious advantages over regular solar power such as not having to deal with atmospheric interventions (cloud cover and atmospheric gasses) and not losing any productivity at night.

In the past, trying to get a power plant to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere seemed deeply unlikely. But John Mankins, a former NASA engineer now with the Artemis Group has been working on a project that he believes will make such an audacious idea simple:

"The basic concept of the Solar Power Satellite (SPS) is to deploy a large platform in space near Earth," Makins says, "typically in a high orbit where the sun shines almost constantly, where it would harvest sunlight, convert it into electricity and then transmit it to receivers on Earth for use."

Germany To Begin Renewable Power-To-Gas Research Project

May 24, 2013Tim Tyler

Soon Germany will be conducting another phase of its Energiewende (aka “energy transition” or “energy revolution”) with a power-to-gas research project. The large collaboration will consist of various institutes and companies. The goal of the project is to achieve a long-term energy storage system based upon a 100% renewable energy electricity scenario.

Image: power to gas via EtoGas

The power-togas (P2G) technology converts electrical power to fuel. It takes the excess power generated by wind generators, solar arrays, or biomass power plants and converts carbon dioxide and water into methane using electrolysis, thus enabling it to be stored.

The project is set to start in January 2014 and is expected to last two years. Some of the key players in this power-to-gas project include: “Etogas, juwi technologies, the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research or ZSW, the Reiner Lemoine Institute, and RWE Germany.”

Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/24/germany-to-begin-renewable-power-to-gas-research-project/#65SL3wRZ8yYTe3jv.99 

London finds new source of renewable energy

BY

STEPHEN VAGUS

 – MAY 23, 2013POSTED IN: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, ENVIRONMENTAL, FEATURED NEWS, INTERNATIONAL

London sewers may hold valuable cache of renewable energy

When it comes to renewable energy, most people think of solar and wind power. Renewable energy can come from various sources, however, as long as those sources can continually produce adequate amounts of fuel and power. In London, the United Kingdom government may have found a promising new source of clean power that comes from a decidedly dirty place. Beneath Leicester Square, Thames Water, London’s chief water utility, has begun harvesting this new fuelso that it can be used in a power plant located in Beckon in the eastern part of London.

Fatbergs could be used to produce clean power

The fuel in question is a combination of fat and oil that come from many of the restaurants and other sources throughout the city. These substances are typically washed down sink drains as they serve little use and are easily washed away. Once these oils and fats hit the city’s sewers, however, they begin to cool and solidify. Eventually, they form masses that are dubiously named “fatbergs.” As their name suggests, these masses are literally boulders of fat and solidified oil. These fatbergs are quickly becoming a serious problem for the city as they are beginning to clog sewage lines.

Thames Water expects to produce 130GW-h of clean energy

While fatbergs may represent a somewhat serious sewage problem, they could also help London break away from traditional fossil-fuels. The city has been putting more focus on renewable energy in recent years in order to become more environmentally and socially responsible. While solar and wind energy have taken much of the city’s attention, these fatbergs have also attracted a fair level of interest, especially from Thames Water. The utility has begun harvesting these fatbergs and sending them over to the power plant in Beckon, where they could be used to produce 130 gigawatt-hours of electrical power, enough to power some 39,000 average homes.

UK may have stumbled upon valuable new energy source

Renewable energy has been a top priority for the United Kingdom for some time. There are several challenges that the country has faced in its advocacy of renewable energy over the years and these challenges often call for innovative, if somewhat strange solutions. Thames Water believes that the fatbergs that have been accumulating in London’s bowels may be a valuable source of renewable energy.

2012/4/24

Contributing to the nuclear fusion project

This is not nuclear fission that is currently in use, but nuclear fusion, which many regard as the main energy source of the future. Among others, the ITER project (the third most expensive in history) is seeking to turn this venture into reality and is making use of the Tokamak reactor for this purpose. Reactors of this type and the plasma used in them to carry out fusion have a number of control problems, and to solve them the electronics engineer Goretti Sevillano has come up with some tools in her thesis defended at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Her thesis is entitledHerramientas para el control del plasma en reactores Tokamak de fusión nuclear: integración Astra-Matlab y control en tiempo real (Tools for plasma control in Tokamak nuclear fusion reactors: Astra-Matlab integration and control in real time), and she has also had two papers published on the subject in the journals Informatica andEnergy.

Qantas’ search for a fuel it can grow at home

Qantas’ search for a fuel it can grow at home by Giles Parkinson

The big question for some as they watched Qantas Aairway’ first sustainable biofuels flight last week was this: Will the airline that likes to call Australia home be able one day to call the fuel it uses Australian?

The answer for the first flight was no – the fuel that made up one half of the 50/50 mix on one engine on a commercial flight from Sydney to Adelaide and back last Friday, and on a Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Hobart and back today – was derived from used cooking oil from the US; from a fast-food chain in Kansas, of all places.