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[WillowLuman]

Algae does not, in fact, require a flat surface to grow. Neither does it require land, as the useful kinds for fuel grow only in water. Growing algae in big flat ponds isn't going to get you far. What you need is a photobioreactor, miles of glass pipes wound and stacked up in a relatively small space with all the nutrients and algae inside:

That is actually really cool.  I wonder what they need to use for nutrients, and how sustainable feeding the algae is?

Ever hear of algal blooms? When runoff water from farms causes massive growth of algae in the ocean, which then die and their decomposition causes the water to become deoxygenated, killing the fish?

Algae can grow in wastewater too contaminated for other uses, such as nitrous-fertilizer farm runoff or even plain old human wastewater full of fecal matter.

You guys didn't think I had an answer to the problem of ethanol production using up too much arable land and causing everyone to starve to death, did you? Well I do.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'll have you know, alcohol has calories.

Joking aside, those calories are the whole reason that ethanol makes good fuel. However, the simple reason that the land use conflicts is that even if humans could run off the ethanol produced, for any given amount of ethanol, a human could drink it or an engine could burn it, but not both.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

You guys didn't think I had an answer to the problem of ethanol production using up too much arable land and causing everyone to starve to death, did you? Well I do.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'll have you know, alcohol has calories.

Joking aside, those calories are the whole reason that ethanol makes good fuel. However, the simple reason that the land use conflicts is that even if humans could run off the ethanol produced, for any given amount of ethanol, a human could drink it or an engine could burn it, but not both.

That's fine though. You just use ethanol for energy, for human caloric intake, for barter, as a cleaning agent, disinfectant, etc. Everyone grows nothing but crops that can be used to make ethanol. Similar industry could ferment various other foods like pickles and yogurt. The byproducts of the fermentation can be fed to animals and the homeless. After all, you just need four ingredients right?

[WillowLuman]

You guys didn't think I had an answer to the problem of ethanol production using up too much arable land and causing everyone to starve to death, did you? Well I do.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'll have you know, alcohol has calories.

Joking aside, those calories are the whole reason that ethanol makes good fuel. However, the simple reason that the land use conflicts is that even if humans could run off the ethanol produced, for any given amount of ethanol, a human could drink it or an engine could burn it, but not both.

That's fine though. You just use ethanol for energy, for human caloric intake, for barter, as a cleaning agent, disinfectant, etc. Everyone grows nothing but crops that can be used to make ethanol. Similar industry could ferment various other foods like pickles and yogurt. The byproducts of the fermentation can be fed to animals and the homeless. After all, you just need four ingredients right?

Sarcasm, right?

[mainiac]

No I'm pretty sure he's talking straight.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

First you get the corn, then you get the whiskey, then you get the civilization.

[mainiac]

Once you have whiskey, why do you need civilization? 

[Frumple]

Presumably to fix up the cirrhosis.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Yeah all that whiskey and corn actually ain't gonna do you no favors.

[WillowLuman]

Another big part of clean energy is using energy more carefully. The small things add up to a lot of waste. But gathering every little bit of energy can add up too, saving a lot of resources: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/thinking-tech/california-highways-may-soon-produce-their-own-power/

It's not the best article I could find on the subject, but it gives the basic idea pretty well. Basically, cars moving over roads vibrate them, but that kinetic energy could actually be harvested. The technology is already increasingly deployed in Israeli roads, and might come here soon.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

I had a huge fucking post I spent half an hour researching and writing and it was lost because I have a fucking memory leak in my browser and I need to restart the browser occasionally. When that happens I copy what I'm writing to a notepad and paste back in when I restart. I thought it looked like I had it all but I was mistaken, I had just two paragraphs.

Basically, stop using so much shit, stop wasting shit by frittering it away and not caring, stop creating shit that's designed to break down because that's wasteful and dumb. We're all guilty of it. But then, expect that our conservation efforts will result in higher end prices because the corps gotta gouge us until we bleed.

[Zrk2]

I would like to know any of your ideas on an actual clean energy source or sources
Logical ways to collect this clean energy
ways to implement this clean source of energy in everyday situations

For example:
My uncle has his entire house powered by solar panels and then some so he gets $20 a month from the power company.

Also does anyone have a similar situation that is actually happening?

Clean energy doesn't exist... it is a salespitch and many of the most "Environmentally friendly" energy sources have been worse then pollution factories.

And I am not supporting pollution factories so much as saying that... just because something says "clean energy" it doesn't mean it is.

Something I've never found satisfactory numbers for is the amount of pollution produced maing sufficient batteries to power an electric car, compared to the emissions of a traditional car over the total period of use.

That is actually really cool.  I wonder what they need to use for nutrients, and how sustainable feeding the algae is?

Doesn't algae use photosynthesis?

[WillowLuman]

I'm detecting a lot of uninformed opinions in this thread...

Clean energy doesn't exist... it is a salespitch and many of the most "Environmentally friendly" energy sources have been worse then pollution factories.

And I am not supporting pollution factories so much as saying that... just because something says "clean energy" it doesn't mean it is.

Clean is a very tricky term, usually when people say clean energy they mean "cleaner" energy than what's currently in use. While there are some environmental risks involved in the production of electronics such as photovoltaics and large batteries, overall they hardly compare to the constant emissions of combustive power plants.

Something I've never found satisfactory numbers for is the amount of pollution produced making sufficient batteries to power an electric car, compared to the emissions of a traditional car over the total period of use.

Electric cars aren't powered by hundreds of common batteries. They're powered by one really big one that acts as the "gas tank" if you will, which must be recharged when it runs low. Lithium is about as common an element as you can get, and is often extracted from salt deposits or even seawater, but large, long-lived rechargeable batteries currently require rarer metals, namely Lanathium. Like anything that must be mined out of the earth, they need mines to reach, and mines have all sorts of problems. Most electronics involve toxic chemicals at some stage of their production, and there is always a chance of some of those not being properly disposed of. However, the emissions involved in creating any kind of car will always pale in comparison to the emissions produced in using hydrocarbon-powered cars.

The main emission problem in electric cars comes from actually supplying them with power. They use electricity from the grid, but the vast majority of energy in the grid is still produced by fossil-fuel-burning power plants. Unless the power plants themselves are replaced with less emissive ones, switching every car to electric only means the gas is burned somewhere else.

[alexandertnt]

Good consumer-orientated explanation of electric cars. (video may not play outside of Australia - public television).

[Levi]

That is actually really cool.  I wonder what they need to use for nutrients, and how sustainable feeding the algae is?

Doesn't algae use photosynthesis?

It does, but just like plants it needs more than just water and light.

[WillowLuman]

That is actually really cool.  I wonder what they need to use for nutrients, and how sustainable feeding the algae is?

Doesn't algae use photosynthesis?

It does, but just like plants it needs more than just water and light.

However, it can get by on a lot less than plants. It doesn't really need complex nutrients, just simple phosphates and nitrates. It can (and often does) grow abundantly in human sewage.