Photo by Daniele La Rosa Messina on Unsplash
I’m looking forward to a future with Solar Power and unchaining mankind’s future from fossil fuels. But I have always watched it with a careful eye – solar panels needed fossil fuels to create them initially. Then batteries good enough for cars suck up the scare lithium of our planet, using either pit mining techniques or extensive chemicals sprayed underground, with the possibility of entering the water table, to extract the necessary ore. All the while Climate Change and our huge carbon footprint has been ticking a countdown clock.
Will we, as a species, beat the clock we set in motion? Will we run out of coal, (a resource created before microbes started breaking down plantlife (as found in the planet’s present cycle of growth, death and renewal) and so now will never be created again)? We will run out of oil (a resource made on the bones of dinosaurs long extinct)? Will we stop burning our plantlife, releasing carbon into the atmosphere before the greenhouse moves from oven-warming to full-on bake?
Two new things carry a lot of promise of making solar energy cheaper and even more feasible, and they don’t come with a huge chemical price tag further damaging our environment either gathering the material or making it.
The first is a carbon material that is strong, light, and conductive. Resulting from a $20 million investment by the US Air Force, Department of Energy, and NASA, Galvorn is made by splitting hydrocarbons and basically can be made into a variety of fiber-like products: yarn, thread, or mesh cloth. As strong as steel and as light as aluminum, the material can be used instead of rebar to support cement. All the crazy things Frank Lloyd Wright did with the new reinforced concrete may be taken on another level by those who dare to experiment. Imagine walls with areas built in for recharging (because Galvorn is also as conductive as copper)! Beyond sneakers flashing while walking, entire outfits could be designed to carry electric needs. Already used to help de-ice plane wings, this light material applications are only beginning to be defined. (Kazmer)
An added bonus is Galvorn types up carbon. MIT also used carbon to develop a new supercapacitor. While cutting back on carbon footprint has been a struggle when going green, combining green materials with containing carbon is a win-win. Simple readily available cheap renewal materials to make green products. Winning the Geeking Science game all the way around.
And as cool as what Galvorn is, MIT really outdid themselves. They made cement into a supercapacitor. Not just a conductor, moving energy from one place to another, like Galvorn, but a capacitor – a storage device! We can solar power all the houses we want, but without the ability to store the energy to be used at night or on rainy days, power grids (and power grid failures) won’t be going away.
But now imagine if the cement foundation of the house stored about a day’s worth of energy! Fill it up during the day, use it during a long winter’s night. Still not perfect for rainy Seattle, but a huge step in the storage solution. Carbon is carried by water throughout the cement mix and creates a percolated carbon network. So much win all the way around – still strong enough to be a foundation to a house (still need testing on longevity), no new equipment needed to be build in or maintained, no real change in how a house functions for the people living inside it. The perfect answer to a solar house needs; as new buildings are built, solar roofs and cement capacitor foundations will become a way of life. It won’t be as good for urban environments, but wait … there is more. (Chandler)
Road are made from concrete, of which one of the primary ingredients is cement. Imagine road being recharging stations for electric cars. You drive, but you don’t run out of power! Just like the wireless technology to charge your phone, the capacitor-cement will recharge your car. Parking lots could have solar pavilion coverings (a god-send of shade in the south), which immediately dump the energy into the storage that is the parking lot cement itself, and recharging the cars in the lot without anyone plugging in.
Folks this is hard near-future science fiction. We have the technology; we just have to implement it.
Cheap, easy, sustainable. No extra work for the average joe or joan. It isn’t even a lot of new skills for construction workers – a few new tests to make sure the capacitor distributed appropriately during the drying process. The next step is develop the machines and distribute them; some incentives will be needed for companies, because new equipment always is costly.
If you have been putting off getting an electric car because of lack of distance and/or ability to recharge, imagine if every Interstate was basically one long trip without a single plug-in needed. No gas cost at all from New York to LA.
I want this for Christmas.
Bibliography
Chandler, David L. “MIT engineers create an energy-storing supercapacitor from ancient materials.” MIT News. 31 July 2023. (https://news.mit.edu/2023/mit-engineers-create-supercapacitor-ancient-materials-0731 – last viewed 11/16/2023)
Kazmer, Rich. “Scientists discover ‘magical’ material that’s stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum – and its potential is dizzying.” The Cool Down. 29 October 2023. (https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/galvorn-material-conductivity-steel-electronics-copper/ – last viewed 11/16/2023)