On "60 Minutes" tonight is a segment about a new energy system...

[Archae]

For providing power.

I'm kind of leery, since 60 Minutes really blew it with the "Cold Fusion" fiasco of a story.

[hedgehog]

1. If I had to place my bet, I'd put it on cold fusion. The guys with the big bucks

have been telling us that a fusion reactor is five years away for the last 50 years. The cold fusion guys are working from a premise of in essence developing a mesh fine enough to force atoms together mechanically. Given that big leaps forward happen when someone tries something completely different, that's where I'd expect progress.

[Archae]

2. Cold fusion doesn't work.

Maybe it will work someday, like Doc Brown's "Mr Fusion" on his DeLorean.

But cold fusion doesn't work.

http://www.skepdic.com/skeptimedia/skeptimedia42.html

[hedgehog]

3. I still think the odds on cold fusion are better than the odds for the

big boys.



Which isn't saying much.....

:evilgrin:

On edit: Who was the prominent 19th century British scientist who declared that everything about physics had been discovered? I think he made his pronouncement about a month before the discovery of x-rays.

[Statistical]

9. hot fusion DOES work.

They have been able to sustain fusion however they simply haven't achieved ignition. Ignition is when heat of fusion allows more fusion to occur without additional energy input.

As a result a Q of 1 hasn't been achieved (0.7 is highest = 0.7 units of fusion energy per 1 unit of energy into reactor). Q of 1 = unity would be milestone as would ignition however for commercial power it would require a Q of 15 to 20 (15 to 20 units of energy output per unit of energy input).

Fusion certain does work it just may never be a commercial power source.

[Gabi Hayes]

4. fuel cell:

http://news.google.com/news?q=bloom+box&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&oe=utf8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&ei=DcqBS82UCcKCnQfQvcWbBw&sa=X&oi=news_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDEQsQQwAw

http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/02/bloom-box-fuel-cell-energy/

[Gabi Hayes]

5. on right now

[virgogal]

6. The Bloom Box sounds incredible .

[Archae]

7. Fuel cell sounds far more practical.

I wonder what Cheney's oil cronies are saying about it.

[Statistical]

10. Cheneys oil cronies would LOVE this.

What fuel do you think 99.999999999% of installations will use. Why natural gas of course. The big oil companies are really big fossil fuel companies. They are just as heavily invested in nat gas as they are in oil.

That being said if cost ever got down to $3K I would buy one. I currently use a noisy, low efficiency, polluting generator when power goes out. I would install a fuel cell. Half the emissions and if you had software which calculated cost of nat gas vs electricity you could switch on or off the grid depending on which ever one was cheaper.

[Brother Buzz]

8. L. John Doerr is backing it

Most everything he (Kleiner Perkins) touches turns to gold, or in this case green. John Doerr is the real deal and he's right for more times than he's wrong.

Fuel cells have been around for a long time, but the efficent ones required hydrogen, a very expensive fuel. This one, the bloom box, uses natural gas and consumes about half as much fuel as traditional natural gas fired power plant. If this proves out, it's a huge breakthrough.

If I had any jingle and was a betting man, and they let me in, I'd invest in THIS fuel cell.

John Doerr was Clinton's go-to man in California and a close friend of Al Gore. Doerr supported Obama and endorses Boxer over Carly Fiorina in the upcoming California Senate race. He's a good Democrat.

[Statistical]

12. Most hydrogen fuel cells are powrered by nat gas.

A nat gas reformer strips hydrogen off, and dumps CO2 into atmosphere then H2 goes onto the fuel cell.

How is this any different?

[defendandprotect]

11. Our problems are with oil industry/gas industry owners blocking alternatives...

NATIONALIZE OIL INDUSTRY

[WorseBeforeBetter]

13. "eBay's boxes run on bio-gas made from landfill waste, so they're carbon neutral."

That caught my attention.

The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml

"To make power, you'd still need fuel. Many past fuel cells failed because they needed expensive pure hydrogen. Not this box.

"Our system can use fossil fuels like natural gas. Our system can use renewable fuels like landfill gas, bio-gas," Sridhar told Stahl. "We can use solar.""

[PHIMG]

14. Solar and wind with a modern energy grid would be the best solution

But the FUEL industry (anyone who makes money off of extracting and refining oil, gas, nuclear material) does not want to be made irrelevant so they pay people to spread lies about the promise of this technology in all quarters.

[Stephanie]

15. The companies testing it were impressive

If Google is trying it out I think that's interesting.