Tagged: Solar

Intergalactic Energy Battle

While there are not a plethora of lessons to be learned from Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, there is one in particular of which to take note. Amid the some of the best CGI ever seen and the slow-motion-hotness of the ever ungrateful Megan Fox (and regular-motion-perhaps-even-greater-hotness of coed Isabel Lucas) looms a battle for Energon, the source of life for the Transformers. Seems like even robots will kill each other for juice. Moral takeaways be damned, the movie rocked!

The charcoal-colored array of bad robots are a who’s who of oil and coal barons, destroying everything in their paths to accomplish their mission. Success seems inevitable for them until the good guys are helped by the T. Boone Pickens of Transformers. I’m not sure if the writers intended for the plot to mimic our own human struggles but nonetheless, the parallel is there. While an intergalactic energy battle hasn’t presented itself on earth (yet), we must not forget that even fiction is born from truth. We are tearing apart this planet searching for and protecting non-renewable energy sources. Instead, we should be investing even more resources in harnessing sustainable ones.

Progress is being made, and while I’m an admittedly impatient man, it is slow. The United States is filled with so many ignorant minions of the murderous Decepticons that the mind boggles. In the film, the evil Transformers destroy suns to harness energy. Funnily enough, our sun is giving us its energy for free and we refuse to take it. Stupid us.

Is There Enough Gas In The Tank?

What if we discovered the cure to cancer but ran out of an ingredient for the drug? What if we engineered a ship that could travel the universe but ran out of fuel? What if . . . ? You get the point. How terrible it would be to know the solution to a problem but lack one essential component?

Well, that could be a possibility in the realm of renewable energy according to a recent article in NewScientist. The piece discusses the limited availability of two elements, iridium and platinum, used in the manufacturing of two renewable energy technologies, solar cells and hydrogen fuel cells; it also speaks to the ever-growing controversy of fuel versus food. There are some great (and not so great) comments posted to the article that make for good discussion.

I’ve discussed all three of these topics on green | rising before but have never talked about the possibility that developing renewable energy technology may be limited by mother nature. Is humankind really going to be stifled in its attempt to become sustainable because we are resource constrained? The irony!

Conservation, conservation, conservation. We’re not throwing away iridium and platinum like we are many other natural resources but the manufacturing of LCD TVs – the single largest iridium-consuming process – is a sad supplement to the manufacturing of solar technologies. 

The lesson here is that we must head conservation in all of its forms. Even the most ardent supporters of renewable energy probably do not know that processes like the manufacturing of LCD TVs may prevent or retard the advent of a clean energy future. While I’m not judging this specific example it does highlight the fact that we must not let consumption thwart our efforts at a cleaner, greener tomorrow.