What to do with all this Renewable Energy

A couple of posts ago I talked about renewable energy and some of the developments that are occurring around it, there is however another key element to renewable energy generation that is not mentioned nearly enough and it is just as important. It is the storage of this energy, one of the key concerns about widespread adoption of renewable energy is that it is heavily dependent on the climate and conditions of the site. For example, large solar arrays would not be an intelligent idea in northern Canada as there are long periods during the winter where the sun sets very early in the afternoon, removing hours of effective energy generation.

The need to develop effective means to store renewable energy is essential if there is any hope of replacing fossil fuels. One potential solution is the development of smart grids, where houses will generate their own energy from renewable sources which are then fed into a collective storage facility for the community, where it is distributed back out to the locations where the power is needed. In order for this to be a realistic possibility some physical aspects of battery storage must be addressed.

An alternative to Lithium ion batteries must be used as lithium is far too scarce for widespread use, a good contender currently is sodium ion batteries. As sodium is one of the most abundant elements in the Earth’s crust it would be far cheaper to mass produce these batteries, however there are some issues that must be further developed with sodium batteries. Firstly their capacity is much less than that of lithium, also they do not have a long enough life span to be realistically used and the energy density for sodium is too low to be used within a practical space. Some solutions to these problems are currently being worked on, such as; Functional N-doped interconnected Nanowires, NaV6O16 Nanorods and Tin Oxide @ Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes. Each of these improves a different characteristic of sodium batteries.

Effective renewable energy is one of the highest priorities in the world right now, and it is one of the determining factors in the quality of life future generations will experience. As a result it is everyone’s responsibility to do their part in providing a better world for the future, and being able to better utilise that energy in locations where is was previously impossible is one of the biggest benefits of global renewable energy storage.

Sources:

Z. Wang, L. Qie, L. Yuan, W. Zhang, X. Hu, Y. Huang, Functionalized N-Doped interconnected carbon nanofibers as an anode material for sodium-ion storage with excellent performance, Carbon 55 (2013) 328-334.

H. Liu, H. Zhou, L. Chen, Z. Tang, W. Yang, Electrochemical insertion/deinsertion of sodium on NaV₆O₁₅ nanorods as cathode material of rechargeable sodium based batteries, Journal of Power Sources 196 (2011) 814-819.

Y. Wang, D. Su, C. Wang, G. Wang, SnO₂@MWCNT nanocomposite as a high capacity anode material for sodium-ion batteries, Electrochemistry Communications 29 (2013) 8-11.

A Global Audience Through Comedy

I would like to write about someone who I believe demonstrated the key qualities of a global citizen and helps to promote global thinking. John Oliver who currently hosts his show ‘Last Week Tonight’ on the American channel Comedy Central, where almost every week he discusses global issues in realistic and intelligent ways. Most of his segments are written to address the primary American audience almost all the issues discussed are relevant to viewers worldwide, such as nuclear disarmament, net neutrality, the wealth gap and advertisement in the news.

By presenting the facts in a straightforward way, and with the use of strong humour throughout, a large population are being exposed to news that they would otherwise have no understanding of. John Oliver is not the only reporter like this, some other examples are John Stewart and Steven Colbert, however while they report news in a similar manner they are more focused on American issues and the political system over there. Alongside this, John is also a British man working on an American Show, this give the feeling that the issues being covered are not solely focused on the US.

The way in which the information is presented within each episode is focused on encouraging involvement from the audience, and I believe this is necessary to promote a globally aware and active audience. A large factor in the success of the show in terms of global citizenship is how involved the fans are after each episode, and as the series continues the waves made by the viewers will only increase and promote more change.

https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight

Hope in the Struggle for Renewable Energy

The wide spread use of renewable energy is one of the most important developments that needs to be emphasized over the coming years, and while the entire world has heard of climate change, there is a lot of talk but some countries are failing to commit (Australia has reduced its renewable energy investments by 70% in one year).

However a study shows that poorer nations are expanding their renewable energy sources at a much greater rate than wealthier ones. This can mostly be attributed to the energy requirements of these countries, and many of the countries with the largest growth do not have already existing infrastructure in place, as a result this means that there is no transition from non-renewable to renewable sources, they can just begin installing solar panels and wind turbines.

Another interesting development in renewable energy generation can be found in Fairbanks Alaska, where a new floating wind turbine will be installed that will be able to take advantage of air currents over five times greater than that at ground level. One of the benefits of a project like this that is easily overlooked is the potential for a transportable large scale energy generator that could be of massive use after a natural disaster where the regular flow of power is disrupted. This coupled with long term energy storage could easily provide environmentally friendly energy to locations where it was previously impossible.

Sources:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-28/cost-competitive-clean-energy-installs-surge-in-emerging-nations.html

http://inhabitat.com/worlds-first-airborne-wind-turbine-to-bring-renewable-energy-and-wifi-to-alaska/

The International Stresses of Ebola

2014 has been one of the more crazy years in recent memory, planes have been shot down and others have just vanished, much like the North Korean Dictator did for the past month and a half. However recently the most global communication has been centred around the spread of ebola and how to prevent a worldwide pandemic.

The biggest concern is the virus spreads through human to human transmission with a fatality rate of about 50%, which if not contained will run rampant as there are currently no licensed ebola vaccines. There have been confirmed outbreaks in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone but the disease has spread to the United States, Germany, Spain, Norway, France and the UK.

The symptoms of ebola appear between 2 and 21 days, and as a result of this quarantine becomes especially difficult as the patient must remain isolated for this entire time and poses the threat of new cases appearing without warning anytime within the next 3 weeks.

One of the most upsetting parts of this outbreak is the massive risk faced by those who attempt to treat the infected, clearly shown by the nine medics from doctors without borders to lose their lives. This creates the problem of a deadly very contagious disease that people will not wish to aid the infection due to the significant personal risk. As time goes by the need for a vaccine grows rapidly.

As of the 14th of October there have been 4,555 confirmed deaths as a result of ebola.

World Conflict, Live and Unedited

Over the last century the advancement of technology has had an enormous impact on the way people perceive the world, with one of the most influential of these being the broadcasts of the war in Vietnam. For the first time in history people on the other side of the planet could see the horrors that were being inflicted on people, some of which they knew personally. As a result the anti war movement was born, and most major western nations held peace rallies to end US intervention in Vietnam.

Another of these advancements has shown itself in the past months, as we are now able to see world events live streamed. One of the first instances of this was the Russian/Ukrainian conflict that is still ongoing. During the riots that sparked the whole conflict, I was able to load two different cameras broadcasting the riots from two different angles. This is now forming a new type of media which is free of the manipulative editing that previously most forms of journalism were subjected to, and as a result people worldwide now feel directly connected to issues that would have just been a minute long piece on the news that night.

When there is no filter applied to the way we consume our world news, there is suddenly the scary thought that what your are watching is actually occurring right now somewhere in the world.

A global community that isn't global enough

Over the last two year net neutrality has been a growing concern across the world, especially in North America. Currently oligopolies are taking advantage of any consumer who can afford to move somewhere with greater internet freedoms. These massive companies are flexing every bit of their muscle to ensure that they are able to keep practicing their shady business techniques and prevent anyone from getting in their way (while making as much money as they can in the process). Currently there are plans to install internet ‘fast lanes’ which will drastically reduce the speed at which people can use the internet unless the content providers pay up, and as a result this will go straight to the users. However what concerns me the most is that even though I do not live in America this still directly impacts me, and I get no say in the matter. As I run my own website I will not be able to put it in the fast lane and as a result fewer people will be able to see it. I guess the point of this post is saying that I am tired of America being the decision maker for smaller westernised nations, living in a democracy means that everybody has a say, and the internet should be no exception. Sadly I believe the ship has sailed for net neutrality and in the future the internet in its current state will be seen as a digital Wild West, with rampant piracy and largely unmoderated content, but who knows what it will be like when the only content we can view is dictated by the internet service providers. This global level playing field is about to become a tiered system.

Modernisation of charity

Yesterday I received a call to sponsor a charity, and while this isn't abnormal as usually the only calls to still come on the home line are charities and scammers, I began to think of what a strange practice it is. Now I think with most of these charities what they are doing is for a noble cause however the charities that I support are the ones that have affected me or people I know. So it baffles me that this shotgun approach to fundraising occurs as much as it does, and while I'm sure it is a very effective method, personally it may turn me off from donating to that charity in the future. Charities should be effective because people are inspired to genuinely want to support a cause, and not because they would feel guilty for turning down someone over the phone. In the last post I talked about the ice bucket challenge and how it became so successful for the charity, to this day raising over 80 million dollars for ALS, I see this as an example of fundraising done right. It was an innovative way to raise money that benefitted from the avid use of social media in the demographic that was prepared to support it. Every industry in this modern world needs to adapt to survive, charities are no different, and what happens when there are no phone lines left.