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

Mistermeaner

things are hotting up for this prize.

I'm serious by the way - I'll buy the winner something off amazon and have it delivered to their house

wotsthat

ukcarper wrote: »

Change of username but still the same ridiculous threads.

Surely it makes a change from the fruitless task of trying to convince Graham the seventies weren't the land of milk and honey he thinks.

ukcarper

Good point

I wonder why OP hasn't told us why he changed his username I was surprised that when he changed it it was retrospective.

Mistermeaner

why do you want to know why I changed my username?

[Deleted User]

Nah, you want Dyson–Harrop satellites. They are wires placed in orbit of the sun that collect charge from solar winds. You could theoretically power the entire earth that way.

i.e. a wind-farm in space

Sending the energy back to earth is a bit dodgy though. You might vaporise a few cities trying to get it to work

kabayiri

The issue is one of effective and cheap energy storage.

There is plenty of solar energy around, but not usually in the areas which need this energy.

Storing energy as liquefied air seems promising.

Mistermeaner

kabayiri wrote: »

Storing energy as liquefied air seems promising.

using the energy when it is available to compress the air and then release the stored energy at a later date

Highly inefficient in total energy terms but if your source energy is 'free' then could be the answer to the feast/famine issue of renewables

Maelwys

Step #1: Remove all tables and chairs in all fast-food restaurants.
Step #2: Replace these with exercise bikes and treadmills attached to dynamos.

Solve both the Nation's energy and obesity problems in one fell swoop!!

(And if you target the 24-hour places you'd even keep the juice flowing well into the evening...)

[Deleted User]

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 ?

If you're talking about harnessing the relative motion of the moon and the earth, it's already been done. It's called tidal power, there's been a tide mill at Woodbridge for over 800 years.

Power can be practically limitless, but there's no such thing as truly limitless power, the energy lost in churning seawater causes the rotation of the earth to slow down.

Mistermeaner

so if we reduce the churn by extracting the energy for our own electricity needs does that mean the earth speeds up?

Wouldn't it be ironic if it was infact our attempts to harness tidal and wind energy that were causing climate change