home // Energy and Environment // Hydrogen
The hydrogen economy
Source: thedesignofprosperity.se
File Size: 91.03 KB
Page: 3 pages
Category: Energy and Environment
Last Download : 34 days 22 hours 59 minutes ago
Share this info:
Short Description: languages. It is the most widely read book in the world on the future of renewable
energy and the hydrogen economy. That's where the software and computer
revolution converge with the new hydrogen energy regime.
Content Inside: The Hydrogen Economy
Making the Transition to the Third Industrial Revolution and a New Energy Era
by Jeremy Rifkin Jeremy Rifkin is the author of the international best seller, The Hydrogen Economy, which has been translated into fourteen languages. It is the most widely read book in the world on the future of renewable energy and the hydrogen economy. In his presentation on "The Hydrogen Economy," Mr. Rifkin takes us on an eye-opening journey into the next great commercial era in history. He envisions the dawn of a new economy powered by hydrogen that will fundamentally change the nature of our market, political and social institutions, just as coal and steam power did at the beginning of the industrial age. Rifkin observes that we are fast approaching a critical watershed for the fossil-fuel era, with potentially dire consequences for industrial civilization. Experts had been saying that we had another forty or so years of cheap available crude oil left. Now, however, some of the world's leading petroleum geologists are suggesting that global oil production could peak and begin a steep decline much sooner, as early as the second decade of the 21st century. Non-OPEC oil producing countries are already nearing their peak production, leaving most of the remaining reserves in the politically unstable Middle East. Increasing tensions between Islam and the West are likely to further threaten our access to affordable oil. In desperation, the U.S. and other nations could turn to dirtier fossil-fuels coal, tar sand, and heavy oil which will only worsen global warming and imperil the earth's already beleaguered ecosystems. Looming oil shortages make industrial life vulnerable to massive disruptions and possibly even collapse. While the fossil-fuel era is entering its sunset century, a new energy regime is being born that has the potential to remake civilization along radical new lines, according to Rifkin. Hydrogen is the most basic and ubiquitous element in the universe. It is the stuff of the stars and of our sun and, when properly harnessed, it is the "forever fuel." It never runs out and produces no harmful CO2 emissions. Commercial fuel-cells powered by hydrogen are just now being introduced into the market for home, office and industrial use. Hitachi, Toshiba, and other companies will be introducing the first hydrogen fuel cell cartridges into retail stores around the world in 2007. The small hydrogen powered micro fuel cells will replace traditional batteries and provide mobile power for laptop computers, cell phones, PDA's, Mp3 players, camcorders, portable DVD players, hand- held computers, video games, and digital cameras. With this new energy source, computers can be powered for days at a time, where existing battery technology lasts only a few hours before needing to be plugged back into the wall socket to be recharged. Similarly, manufacturing and service-related companies are just beginning to introduce stationary fuel cell power plants to provide back-up generation during periods of peak load or when the price of electricity on the grid becomes too expensive, or when the grid can't keep up with demand surges, resulting in rolling brownout and blackouts. Indeed, when the massive 2002 power blackout shut down large parts of the Northeast and Midwestern part of the US and the New York City skyline went black, a newly erected skyscraper in Times Square remained fully lit and powered up because a stationary fuel cell power plant had been built into its infrastructure. The German company, Linde AG, recently introduced a hydrogen fuel cell power plant at the Munich airport. 1
Advertiser
