Thermodynamics and Energy

Likely Feasible Solution to World Energy & Carbon Crises

Authors: Warren D. Smith
Comments: 27 Pages. Unable to publish on arXiv March 2021, due to no "endorsements."

We examine the following as a sustainable world-energy Plan. Distribute floating wind turbines mainly within the "roaring forties" and "furious fifties" regions of the southern oceans. Anchor them by cables to the sea floor. Running along that floor is a hydrogen pipeline. The turbines generate electricity which is transmitted down to the sea floor by cable. There it electrolyses water to input H₂ into the pipeline. The pipeline outputs are on (or near) land somewhere. Turbine maintenance is mostly by robot. We find it appears entirely technically and economically feasible to satisfy approximately all (or at least a large fraction of) year-2020 human energy demands in this way, but show with a new analysis of wind-energy limitations that much more is impossible. Indeed, we'll show this energy actually will be cheaper than current prices and also cheaper (sometimes greatly) than schemes based on water-currents, other-located wind turbines, or solar power – albeit the prices of the lattermost have been rapidly changing. However, this project, as well as any attempt to generate a large fraction of human energy from winds, will cause noticeable alterations in weather and climate. I provide initial guesses about what those alterations will be and discussion of how to modify "global climate model" codes to investigate that. (Basically this would be a 1-line code change, but we demonstrate that many climate modeling codes are incredibly screwed up and lied about.) We conclude with some deprecation of the "hydrogen economy" and instead suggest the "aluminum economy."
Category: Thermodynamics and Energy