If you read on of my earlier Blogs on energy, you might have been left a little confused. You never see anything in the news that really explains energy. There is the feeling among a lot of people that energy can be created by inventiveness alone. They see some kind of parallel between what it took to get to the Moon and back as the same type of thing as inventing a new type of energy. It would be like the light bulb where we seem to have invented light. The problem is that few people really understand energy. You can't invent or create energy. There is just so much in the universe. Further, this energy is sitting at different levels of potential. Now you ask, "what is the thing you call potential?" Well, maybe I need to go back a little and explain some ground rules.
Think of it this way, you have three books. Two are laying on your desk and one is high up on the book shelf. The two laying on your desk are at the same energy potential while the one high up on the shelf is at a higher potential. Now why is the business of "potential" so significant? The key point is that for us to get any value out of energy, we have be able to get the energy out of where ever it is and that is where "potential" come in. When an object is changed from a higher "potential" to a lower "potential", energy is released. Take the book high on the shelf. If the book were to slip off the shelf and fall onto your desk next to the other two books, what happened with respect to energy? The book high on the shelf had more "potential" energy than the two on the desk, but when it came to rest next to the other two books, it had the same "potential" as the other two books. So what happened to the energy between the two states? When the book hit on the desk, it made a loud sound. That took energy to vibrate the air for your ear to hear. If you were to check the temperature of the book that just fell, it would be a little warmer than the other two books. This is energy in the form of heat, much like warming your hands by rubbing them together. Are you with me so far on this?
It all comes back to the fact that energy can not be created, but only transformed. We are fortunate that all forms of energy are "not" at the same "potential" because if they were, it would be impossible to get any energy out to serve us humans. If all the books were on your desk, without some other form of energy, it would be impossible to put one of the books back up on the high shelf. It would be possible, however, to "exchange" one book for another on the shelf and keep the total energy the same. It is like a teeter totter. With equal weight kids on each end, how much energy does it take for each one to go up and down? Almost zero. This is a very round about way of coming back to the point that we are not going to be able to invent or discover and new form of energy. That is a dream.
Here on earth, we only have a few forms of serious energy that is at a high enough "potential" to have any real value. Those are coal, oil, solar and nuclear. Wind is just a mechanical form of solar. If the atmosphere were not unevenly heated by the Sun, we would have no wind. Wind is the atmosphere equalizing the uneven heating affect of the Sun.
There are really only a few things that we can do regarding energy. We can move energy from a higher "potential" to a lower or we can move lower "potential" energy to a high "potential" and thus store energy for use later or in a different form. You can look at these processes as "exo---" means to take energy out and "endo---" meaning to put energy in. Burning oil and coal are "exo--" processes while charging a battery is "endo---". In all these processes, no real energy is created or destroyed. The point that I have finally gotten to is that we need more "endo--" processes with respect to the Earth. How do we get more energy here on Earth? One of the best ones is to take energy from the Sun and make use of it here on Earth.
Now let's look at global warming. I am not going to debate if it is true or not, but if it were, what should we do? It is clear to all that the cause of global warming is due to heat from the Sun. The claim is that the Earth is collecting more heat from the Sun than it is radiating back into space. It is simple as that. All this business about green house gas and such is based on changing the balance between absorption of heat from the Sun and the radiation of heat back into space. Do you follow that?
What if we screw with the balance and the Earth starts radiating "more" heat into space than it gets from the Sun? It could happen and we would all freeze. You know we just had an Ice Age 10,000 years ago. Back to reality. What happens when the Sun shines on a tree? The tree takes the energy from the Sun and with an "endo---" process, converts that energy into wood. The key here is that the wood is not hot. The wood is at room temperature, but it has extra energy that it is hold which is at a higher "potential". Because the energy is at a higher "potential", the wood can be burnt at some point and the stored heat taken out. The point is that growing trees actually cool the Earth by taking the heat energy from the Sun and storing it at room temperature in wood. Isn't that a great concept. Eventually the wood would be converted into both coal and oil. Hey, I think we might be onto something. Think how much hotter the Earth would now be if it were not for trees and plants collecting all the heat from the Sun and storing it in coal and oil.
Have you ever heard any news person explaining how hot the earth would be right now it all the coal and oil were burnt? It has to tell you that in the past, this Earth was a lot hotter than now and it just might be again.
