Energy development
Energy development is the field concerned with providing abundant and accessible energy to all humans.
Fossil fuels--oil, coal and methane--are the main energy sources currently used by humans. Because they are not generally viewed as ideal sources due to limited supply and polluting characteristics, thousands of papers have been written and experiments done on alternative energy sources. A few of these alternatives are already supplementing fossil fuel. A goal of energy development is to develop one or several alternative energy sources to a level capable of replacing the fossil fuels which are being consumed at a rate far exceeding the rate at which nature is replacing the fossil fuels.
Fifty years ago it appeared that nuclear fission would provide cheap electricity without pollution. Several thousand years supply of uranium is in known reserves if we can design safe breeder reactors. But several disappointments have limited fission to about 17 percent of the world's electric production.
Dependence of humanity on external energy sources
Humans depend fully on external energy sources to live and thrive. The food we eat is almost totally produced courtesy of an energy infusion from the sun. The clean water we drink is brought to us largely courtesy of a hydrologic cycle driven by the sun. All the following more advanced activities require additional external energy sources:
Increased levels of human comfort and freedom require increased dependence on external energy sources. Energy development therefore embodies the idea of increasing human comfort and freedom by researching and implementing increasingly effective and responsible energy harvesting schemes.
Brief science of energy development
Historic energy development schemes
Human societies have relied and currently rely on various energy development schemes. Schemes that are most powerful are considered in the energy development field to be more advanced in that they contribute better to human comfort and freedom. As humans and societies move from more primitive energy development schemes to more advanced ones, it is typically said from an energy development point of view that they are advancing because the energy limits on comfort and freedom are shrinking. Sources and technologies in this section are presented in order of increasing energy development.Sources
Animals (biomass solar)
Cultivation (biomass solar)
Combustion (biomass solar)
Hydroelectric
Solar
Wind (hydrologic solar)
Water Mills (hydrologic solar)
Fossil Fuels (prehistoric solar)
Radioactive Fuels (atomic)
Delivery Technologies
External Combustion
Open fires and flames for heat and light.
Animal Domestication
Shipping
Machinery
Pipeline Networks
Electric Grids
Storage technologies and infrastructure
Energy may be stored in many forms and free energy may be converted between these various forms. A method of energy storage may be chosen based on stability, ease of transport, ease of energy release, or ease of converting free energy from the natural form to the stable form.
Chemical
Some natural forms of free energy are found in stable chemical compounds such as fossil fuels. Most coinsurances of chemical energy storage result from biological activity, since biological systems store energy in the form of chemical bonds. Man-made forms of chemical energy storage include hydrogen fuel and batteries.
Gravitational
The construction of dams is a method for storing energy in a gravitational field. Other examples are the counter-weights on elevators.
Electrical
Electrical energy may be stored in capacitors. These are often used to produce high intensity releases of energy (such as a camera's flash)Current state and goals of energy development
Electric producton by fusion may still be 20 years or more in our future. Some are optimistic that helium-3 which can be scraped from the surface of some of the planets, moons and asteroids in our solar system will soon make electric generation by fusion practical.