Would it be possible to create a new source of limitless renewable energy by

Loughton_Monkey

Mistermeaner wrote: »

.....Or failing that, given no upfront cost or engineering constraints what would be the best clean way of tapping limitless renewable energy ?

I reckon that your fixation for digging holes will provide the best answer. Geothermal energy. The heat down there is phenomenal and can be turned into ground level energy. A couple of drillings connected at the bottom........bung down loads of cold water down one bore and piping hot steam will come up the other to drive your steam turbines.

Mistermeaner

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

I reckon that your fixation for digging holes will provide the best answer. Geothermal energy. The heat down there is phenomenal and can be turned into ground level energy. A couple of drillings connected at the bottom........bung down loads of cold water down one bore and piping hot steam will come up the other to drive your steam turbines.

I've wondered this a few times. Went Iceland recently.

Easier for them as the heat is close to the surface but believe they have some of the cheapest electric going.

Cost of initial drilling aside why can't we make this work?

Loughton_Monkey

chris_m wrote: »

.....Therefore, if you tape the buttered toast to the cat's back and drop them, the cat will try to land on its feet but the toast will try to land butter side down. If their freedom of movement could be controlled, possibly by putting them inside a sphere of just the right dimensions, the theory was that they'd spin round and round for ever. I think there were a few issues that we didn't get resolved - mainly because it started getting too silly - but surely the concept is sound

Apart from the important question of who keeps picking up the sphere and taking it to the top of the mountain (or wherever you drop it from) this has some merit.

More importantly, it would doubtless win you the Nobel prize by resolving the Shrodinger cat problem. We would know the cat's alive if it kept spinning, and dead if it isn't.

Only the most pedantic anorak would suggest another resolution, like the cat's eaten the toast. You would fix that most securely well away from its mouth.

padington

Fill a giant ping pong ball up with water in the sea, let it sink. Then at the Bottom suck the water out and let it rocket to the top whilst smashing through loads of turbines.

cells

Could go old school and just grow stuff and burn it

veggy oils cost only about $400 per ton which is actually quite affordable as a transport fuel but a bit expensive as a electric or heat fuel

if the price could be reduced in half it would work just fine for pretty much everything. Veggy oil power stations. Veggy oil cars veggy oil home boilers

cells

Mistermeaner wrote: »

I've wondered this a few times. Went Iceland recently.

Easier for them as the heat is close to the surface but believe they have some of the cheapest electric going.

Cost of initial drilling aside why can't we make this work?

In normal areas the temperature does not go up sufficiently. At about 25 centigrade per km you would need a very deep hole. In Iceland and some other areas you get high enough temps at much closer to the ground

mystic_trev

Mistermeaner wrote: »

Went to Iceland recently.

Did you bump into Peter Andre?

ruggedtoast

Mistermeaner wrote: »

Launching a probe to the moon with a really long piece of string attached connected to a generator floating somewhere near the equator which by means of the earths rotation somehow powered something?

Or failing that, given no upfront cost or engineering constraints what would be the best clean way of tapping limitless renewable energy ?

The earth is almost 400,000 kilometres from the moon so you would need quite a lot of string.

While it is theoretically possible to suspend a cable from the heavens which would remain in position by centrifugal force, it would have to be enormous to support its own weight; or it would tear itself apart.

The addition of the other 400,000 kilometres of mass wouldn't help either. Otherwise its a decent idea although I would worry it would stop the earth's rotation.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Age-Miracles-A-Novel/dp/0812982940

princeofpounds

You don't need a string. There is already a force link between the moon and the earth's surface. It's called gravity and it causes tides.


Just a different way of looking at it...

wotsthat

We could use the central reservation on motorways to install the world's longest solar array. Maybe even rig something up so cars connect to it like dodgems. Then design an app that connects dodgem owners with people willing to stand on the back to share the same journey and sell it for billions.