Category Archives: Far Out

Far out #7: Ammonia power & recycle wind turbines by eating them

Preface. This optimistic article is honest enough to say that the new process of not emitting NOx when using ammonia for energy is a long way from commercial viability, and has myriad hurdles.  This is not the most promising way … Continue reading

Posted in Far Out, Hydrogen, Natural Gas, Peak Platinum Group Elements, Recycle, Recycling | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The orbiting solar power fantasy

Preface. This 2020 article “Solar Power Beamed Down To Earth From Space Moves Forward” will leave you all warm, fuzzy, and unworried about the future. The Scientists Will Come Up With Something.  But that’s because you know little to nothing … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative Energy, Critical Thinking, Far Out, Orbiting Solar | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Far Out power #6: Stale beer, crayfish shells, and burning metal powder

Preface. Unfortunately, turning beer into biogas requires a pandemic so that it isn’t drunk at pubs instead. Scientists assure us there will be more pandemics as we mow down (rain)forests for shopping malls and come into contact with new viruses, … Continue reading

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Far Out #4: Power out of thin air, power out of freezing air, & Fruit power

Preface. To get power out of thin air after oil, the 90% of people who have had to go back to farming are going to be making protein nanowires from microbes in the chicken coop in their spare time. Scaling … Continue reading

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Far out #3: Sugar power

Preface. No, you object, sugar in the gas tank will destroy the engine. Not true. Snopes.com says that won’t happen because sugar doesn’t dissolve in automotive fuel or caramelize, and so it does not turn into the debilitating gunk this … Continue reading

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Escape to Mars after we’ve trashed the Earth?

The idea that we can go to Mars is touted by NASA, Elon Musk, and so many others that this dream seems just around the corner.  If we destroy our planet with climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, aquifer … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Extinction, Far Out, Hopium, Human Nature, Planetary Boundaries, Where to Be or Not to Be | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Far out #5 (satire): Biofuels made from the victims of climate change, potato power, founding fathers spinning in graves

Preface. The “breakthroughs” you read about in batteries, hydrogen, and other so-called renewables are just as unlikely to happen Alice Friedemann  www.energyskeptic.com  Author of Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy; When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and … Continue reading

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Far out power #2: Soap, Raindrops, Hyperloops, and Fitness Centers

Preface. Anything goes at a time when the energy crisis hasn’t even hit. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer, Barriers to Making Algal Biofuels, and “Crunch! Whole Grain Artisan … Continue reading

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Nuclear powered airplanes, cars, and tanks

Preface. If trucks, tractors, ships, locomotives, and airplanes can’t run on electricity or the electric grid stay up without natural gas to balance wind & solar (see When Trucks Stop Running), if cement and steel and other products requiring the … Continue reading

Posted in Airplanes, Automobiles, Far Out, Nuclear Power Energy | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Far out power #1: human fat, playgrounds, solar wind towers, perpetual motion, thermal depolymerization

Preface. Plans for hydrogen, wind, solar, wave and all the other re-buildable contraptions that use fossil fuels in every single step of their short 15-25 year life cycle and hence are non-renewable, are just as silly as the ideas below,  … Continue reading

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