Over the years, I’ve built somewhat of a collection of power strips, and today, I finally put them to good use. I collected all the items I own which are rechargeable, hooked them up to a power strip, and toggled the switch to “off.” Even though gadgets may be turned off, if they’re hooked to an outlet, they’re still drawing a little bit of power. Now I don’t have to worry about that additional energy going to waste.

In my room, I’ve got my electric toothbrush, digital camera, cell phone charger, and netbook charger all hooked to the same strip. It’ll be switched off all the time except when one of the aforementioned devices is in need of a lot of charging. Sure, I’ll probably save less than $100 a year, but hey… every little bit counts, right?

Last year, I was all for hydrogen power. It seemed like such an elegant solution for our current environmental situation. With all the jargon aside, how cool is burning oxygen to create water? Heck, even beloved BMW has developed a V12 hydrogen-gasoline hybrid engine demonstrating the performance and practicality of the fuel. So what’s the point? We’re now paying over $4 a gallon for unleaded gasoline, something which I feel has contributed significantly to America’s economic recession. Consumers don’t have time for scientists to sit around “test drive” new methods of isolating the hydrogen fuel in an energy efficient manner. Growing microbes which produce hydrogen as a byproduct of their metabolism or harvesting solar energy to facilitate the electrolysis reaction of water into oxygen and hydrogen gas are just two of the many options which are far from mainstream implementation. 

The electric car has found its niche at this point. Toshiba developed a lithium ion battery which could be recharged to 80% of its capacity in a minute… and this was over three years ago. We now have methods to condition batteries, make the irritating memory effect a thing of the past, and push battery capacities to new limits. Even politicians are getting involved. Republican presidential candidate John McCain recently proposed a $300 million prize to whoever finds a “better” battery for electric automobiles. Mind you, this is no easy task. Afterall, it’s not like scientists are not trying to achieve such a goal in the first place. But this additional incentive just might spur some people to shift their research interests. 

I was reading a magazine earlier this morning about the Tesla Roadster, a purely electric roadster vehicle which currently sells for around $100,000 (oh yeah, there’s a wait list too). I’ve read about Tesla many times before, but when the suave-looking vehicle was juxtaposed alongside a headline stating “$4 a gallon”, I was more inclined to read about the vehicle’s detailed specifications. Sure it costs money to charge the car, but depending on the source you consult, the Tesla’s petroleum-equivalent efficiency is above 100 miles per gallon (mpg). Of course, saving money on the fuel might be countered by a high initial cost for the vehicle itself, but hey, at least it looks cool. If you think about it, combustion engines haven’t changed too much in the last century. This sad truth is a direct result of convenience. Who needs to worry about efficiency when you can throw some cheap liquid into a tank and ignite it? To me, based on how advanced we’re supposed to be as a society, it’s time for a change. Electric vehicles offer a far less noise pollution. They offer less moving parts and consequently less maintenance costs. They offer more performance (ie, a lot more torque off the line). Why didn’t we think of this sooner? Well, because we didn’t need to.

Basically, it looks like car companies across the world are shifting their focus from gasoline vehicles to gas-electric and purely electric alternatives. Hydrogen power will just have to sit in the backseat for another decade or two, but one day, it too will become a very applicable source of energy. I’m just happy that things are finally starting to get done regarding alternative energy.

It’s amazing how a single resource like oil can affect everyone. Entire economies are driven by it. People adjust their spending budget all the time, but they have to have enough money to purchase fuel. Anytime such a dependancy exists, especially with a constantly depleting supply, the laws of economics basically forecast a recession. Coupled with inflation and other facets our market economy, say “bye bye” to consumer expenditures on goods. Furthermore, it’s not like the major oil companies are making significant amounts of money. I read somewhere that the “9/10th” of a cent that is appended to every gas rate is basically what the companies make per gallon. Talk about a lose-lose… when the supplier *and* the demander are struggling to achieve a “fair” middle ground.

What surprises me is how much people are blinded by our current lack of innovation. “Oh, we have E85 Flexfuel vehicles. We’re saving the environment, as well as some money!” Ummm… last time I checked, E85 is still relatively expensive compared to what one would expect. As far as saving the environment, don’t get me started. A vehicle requires more ethanol (by volume) than gasoline to achieve the same output. Ethanol is also a wonderful hydrocarbon, just like our beloved gasoline, and will continue to contribute to carbon dioxide production. Nobel Laureate Al Gore will be delighted to explain the implications that increased CO2 production will have.

If General Electric, one of the largest energy companies in the world, received funding from the government to coat 15% of sun-laden Arizona in solar panels, the United States’ daily energy demands would be met with a surplus. Mind you, I’m not trying to put down Arizona, but it puts things in perspective when options like this are actually possible, but money gets in the way. Scientists are improving battery technology all the time, and this could be a perfect application for such innovation. I think that fusion energy would be the most ideal for society; however, creating fusion reactions on a large-scale simply hasn’t been “secured” well enough to make this a possible option. People talk about (bio)hydrogen too, and I’d like to expand on it. If somehow a catalyst could be developed that would make the process of allocating hydrogen from the splitting of water far more energy inexpensive, hydrogen cars may one day operate on a cyclic process. “Burn” the hydrogen with oxygen to make water, split the water to get back hydrogen gas (throw the oxygen out as exhaust), and use the new hydrogen again. Mind you, for each cycle, thermodynamics says that some of the latent energy would be lost; but this would be a great option compared to primitive gasoline.

Okay, so I’m basically writing this since I’m ticked for having to pay $4.06 per gallon for super unleaded tonight, but I’m sure many of you can relate. Our current situation is not only terrible but almost laughable given how “smart” we’re supposed to be as a nation.