The avg US home uses 11,700 kWh a year or 32 kWh a day. This figure only increases every year due to increased demand for air conditioning, electric car adoption, and more. As developing nations reach similar standards of living the global demand for household energy will be immense. This is why the interest in net zero homes has been rising.

Net Zero Homes

To achieve a net zero energy home there are 2 main principles:

1. Reducing household energy use

2. Generating energy through household means

Reducing Household Energy Usage

There are a wide variety of things that go into building an energy efficient home.

Solar Orientation Architecture

Cool Roofs

Insulated Foundations

Insulated Windows

Vapor Barriers

Energy Recovery Ventilation

Radiant Floor Heating

Smart Thermostat

Appliances

Holistic Applications

Retaining more water in the environment with nature reduces ambient temperatures which can help with air conditioning costs. There are additional benefits such as increased biodiversity, and many studies indicate that greater integration of nature enhances people’s wellbeing. This is why we should apply principles of permaculture to our lawns and neighbourhoods.

Generating Household Energy

As of 2023, there are only 2 realistic options for household energy generation:

1. Solar photovolatic

2. Turbineless wind energy

Grid Independence

When the grid gets knocked out in your neighborhood, your home is cut off from energy. Your fridge stops cooling, your lights don’t turn on, and your HVAC won’t be working. There are multiple ways to combat this by installing a fuel generator or a home battery system. However, if we want to be truly independent of the grid we should only consider energy storage systems. If we had a decentralized grid instead of the conventional style of grid, energy security would be vastly greater and overall prosperity may be greater.

Autobidders

Homes with energy storage systems could profit from adding stability to the grid. There are softwares already utilized by grid scale utility companies which determine energy prices based on supply and demand. If we have a greater amount of supply from grid independent homes we could see energy prices decline. Moreover, demand could decline since the grid independent homes may be able to be self sustaining, especially with the use of energy generation.

Home Storage

Currently home storage batteries are rather expensive for a low amount of capacity that degrades rather quickly. One upcoming contender in this industry is Forever Energy. Their promises are bold, but if they are met we will see a huge cost and capacity improvements.

As you can see fusion has none of the downsides of fission power plants, however fusion power plants simply do not exist yet. Once fusion reaches commercial viability an entirely new era will begin for humanity. The wonders of physics based innovations bring us the biggest leaps in our civilizations understanding and material progress (future post coming!).

Research Tokamaks

This is a device where we are essentially creating a mini star using an immense amount of magnetic confinement. To further fusion research we must build these bigger and bigger as the device scales effectively with size. The typical star relies on incredibly strong gravitational forces from the body’s sheer size.

STEP

Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production - UK Atomic Energy Authority

“STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) is an ambitious programme to deliver a prototype fusion energy plant, targeting 2040, and a path to commercial viability of fusion.”

ITER

International Nuclear Fusion Research and engineering megaproject

Stellarators

“DOE (Department of Energy) Explains…Stellarators”

These are geometrically computer-optimized designs of a Tokamak, but people argue whether the trade offs are worth it. Such as difficulty of repair versus a conventional Tokamak.

Inertially Confined Fusion

Instead of magnetically containing large amounts of plasma which is super complex we can use sheer kinetic velocity to smash atoms into fusion.

Helion Energy

General Fusion

Zap Energy

First Light Fusion

Commercial Tokamaks

This is definitely decades away, at the minimum, nevertheless companies are starting to work on this.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Tokamak Energy

Commercial Viability

Net Energy Gain

Initial Investment

Fusions research process will cost us billions if not trillions of dollars to perfect, but once we do energy will essentially become free beyond that point.

Further Readings

What is encouraging is that coal consumption is trending down steadily, but natural gas consumption is rising. Natural gas doesn’t release soot like burning coal, nevertheless we have a limited supply of it and it produces emissions. Hydro power production remains relatively stable as there only so many dams that can be built. We can see the start of exponential growth in solar and wind. Hopefully more innovations can accelerate this!

This chart gives you can idea of the difference between solar and wind. Wind has a much larger upfront cost, but you will see an innovation down below that has enabled low cost wind. Solar efficiency is a big area of research in an effort to bring the cost per kWh down, hopefully enabling faster wider adoption.

LCOE

What matters is Levelized Cost of Electricity.

Solar Photovoltaic Innovation

Microinverters

Synergistic PV Applicability

Conventional Wind Power Innovation

Low Impact Wind Power

Low Cost Wind Power

Experimental Wind Power

Alternative Energy Sources

Tidal and geothermal energy is generally underutilized across the world, but facilities do exist. There are limiting co-related factors such as the difficulty of drilling, upfront costs, power efficiency and scale, as well as geographic availability. We are starting to see some impactful innovations that can bring about wider adoption.

Low Impact Tidal Power

Conventional Geothermal

Typically geothermal plants are done where there is volcanic heat readily available.

Plasma Drilling Geothermal

Much cheaper and faster way of drilling very deep down into the Earth. At depths of 10km there is a significant temperature increase in the crust whether or not you are near volcanic activity. This method can be combined with conventional bore drilling to significantly bring down drilling costs: the soft ground could be conventionally drilled and then the bedrock could be plasma drilled.

Energy Storage

Batteries

The Problem With Cobalt

Fortunately, there are many alternatives to cobalt based batteries! We just have to scale these new technologies that may posses their own unique benefits.

Lithium Sulfur Batteries

Zinc-Bromine Batteries

Sodium Ion Batteries

Graphene-Aluminum Ion Batteries

Liquid Metal Batteries

Solid State Batteries

Silicon Anode Batteries

Structural Batteries

Tesla 4680 Cells

Hydro Reservoirs

Thermal Banks

Pumped Air

Hydrogen

Other Experimental

Global Resource Economy

Thankfully lithium and iron are very abundant resources on Earth’s crust.

Raw Resource Harvesting

Strip Mining

Unregulated Mining

Ecological Dilemma

We see that mining can have devastating ecological and socioeconomic effects, but there is hope in new innovations to ethically harvest resources: brine pool lithium extraction & agri-mining (higher ore extraction yield per weight).

It is also not too bad of a choice to mine where its already barren.

Nevertheless, in the long term we will see resource harvesting grow smaller as we enter a resource recycling fully sustainable economy. Some ores such as iron(steel), aluminum, and precious metals will likely remain in high demand. This is where asteroid mining could come into play, particularly when precious metals reserves diminish.

Technocrat Manifesto

De Beers, Synthetic Precious Gemstones, Precious Metals & Asteroid Mining

[TL;DR Diamonds are worthless, precious metals are actually rare] De Beers Group…

Read more

3 years ago · Jae

As I covered in my blog post about the global energy crisis, energy is essential to the fabric of our society. Energy demand and the industries that supply it are a major driver of the global economy. Currently fossil fuels are still the biggest contributor in meeting this demand for energy.

Fossil fuels are also the basis of the plastics industry, synthetic fabrics industry, and other oil derived chemical use, often in industrial settings. As you can see, oil and other hydrocarbons make up the mode of how we live in the 21st century.

Big Oil Cartel

Big oil is compromised of historically significant international oil companies dating back to the early 20th century. They are sometimes referred to as the “Seven Sisters” and historically exerted considerable influence over global oil supply. Preceding the 1970s these companies controlled about 85% of the world’s oil reserves. However, as countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran nationalized holdings of major domestic oil companies, the cartel lost control over the large reserves; now being reduced to now controlling around 6% of global oil reserves.

Lobbying Groups

While Big Oil no longer holds the same amount of indomitable power, they still hold influence in pockets all over the world, especially the US. Utilizing legal, questionable in ethics, methods they employ capital in lobbying interests. Lobbying is essentially a fancy form of bribing, but hey what do I know?

OPEC+ Cartel

OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is compromised of 13 core members: Algeria, Angola, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudia Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC+ includes 11 additional countries: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, the Philippines, Russia, South Sudan, and Sudan. Collectively these countries control 81.5% of the world’s proven oil reserves. This gives the collective an ability to influence global oil prices; beating out the historically powerful “Seven Sisters.” Nonetheless, Big Oil does still exert some amount of influence through their control of oil drilling, extraction, and various other technologies.

Out of all these members Saudi Arabia is the most dominant player. Saudi Aramco, formerly Arabian-American Oil Company, is a “publicly” traded company that has a market capitalization of US$2 trillion (Nov 2022). If Tesla continues to crash Aramco will become the largest company in the world.

Venezuela could have been the top dog in oil, but due to severe corruption and what is now essentially a failed state, the oil wealth of the country has been squandered.

Canada, a non OPEC country, could have also been an extremely dominant player in the global oil industry, but due to domestic pushback against pipelines and the inherent difficulty of extracting tar sand oil there has been little progress in this area.

As you can see OPEC+ & Big Oil exert considerable influence through their control of the ever essential resource of oil.

Resource Wars

Due to our extreme dependence on oil, the resource has become heavily politicized. Since the early 20th century nations have fought to establish power through the capitalization of oil, domestic or foreign. The Cold War, notably, has caused an immense list of proxy wars across continents. The US and democratic allies in an attempt to stem communism in oil rich, therefore powerful, nations, has historically supported democratic/oil interest regimes changes and gone as far as to supply munitions, as well as training. All in all, you could definitely say it is THE topic of contention between and in countries during modern times.

Syria 1949

Mosaddeq & the Shah

The Suez Crisis

Six-Day War & Black September

Iran-Iraq War

Kuwait & The Gulf War

US-Saudi Relations & Arms Deal

Due to the economically quintessential and political nature of oil, the US has held very close relations with Saudi Arabia. The history of this dates back to 1933 when diplomatic relations were first established. In 1951, the Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement was formalized. As recently as of 2015, the Obama administration provided logistical and intelligence support to Saudi in their military interventions in Yemen. In 2017, the Trump administration announced a US$115 billion arms deal providing tanks, combat ships, and missile defence systems. Despite, unfaithful behaviour from Saudi Arabia and a list of awful controversies, the US remains a close ally of Saudi.

Postface: The Middle East is not the only region of the world torn apart by the Cold War and oil politics. Venezuela/South America is another notable victim. These wars wage on tearing apart families, communities, and nations, causing incalculable trauma and lost potential. Oil companies, on the other hand, profit during this entire process fueling the war machine.

Greenwashing

Deceptive marketing will try to convince you that the solution to plastic pollution lies in paper straws and recycled materials. However, it is abundantly clear that the solution is to prevent the problem before it ever exists. The best process is no process.

Bioplastics are a huge emerging industry where we can use bio-derived materials, often waste, that can behave like plastics in different applications from disposable utensils to packaging material. These bioplastics are completely biodegradable and don’t need to be arduously recycled. This is much more in balance with nature than the vicious cycle of traditional plastics or subpar paper alternatives; chopping down trees isn’t the most ecofriendly or economically efficient process.

This is a 2-parter. If you want to learn about all the ways we can switch to a more carbon/nature conscious economy read my next post!

Nuclear Anxiety

Hiroshima & Nagasaki Bombings

The Cold War

Chernobyl Accident

Three Mile Island Accident

Radiation Poisoning

Empirical Safety & Efficacy

Fission

Traditional Power Plants

Small Modular Reactors & Micro-reactors

Fusion

Tokamaks

Millimeter Wave Plasma

Energy is a fundamental basis of our society. Without energy there is no food nor internet. Conversely, with greater energy capacity we have the ability to do virtually anything. The level of our technology is only the limit. Simple mechanics such as locomotion to advanced processes such as synthetic biological engineering/manufacturing all use energy.

Global Energy Demand

Energy demand is growing at an astonishing rate. This is in part due to rising technological needs, as well as developing countries achieving greater standards of living. With greater standards of living we enjoy many luxuries we now see as commonplace such as air conditioning, meat consumption, and watching endless hours of videos on your tv, computer, or smartphone.

Energy Dependence

As you can see from the graphs above, energy demand is growing fast. This demand is being met with greater use of fossil fuels to keep up. The simple fact is with the current investment/governance climate we cannot match the growth with renewables and nuclear. This has put some nations in a very precarious circumstance. With the dependence on fossil fuels, countries such as Russia and OPEC countries control who gets what for how much.

The US has revived their oil industry with shale mining, but Canada has found it hard to compete with their big neighbour having no significant coastal exports methods with high break even costs from tar sand extraction.

Renewables

Clean energy solutions such as solar, wind, and hydro have been booming in popularity. The green climate movement has emphasized these forms of energy, but the truth is it is hard to scale these technologies aggressively. Using hydro involves large construction projects and flooding habitats. Wind is extremely unreliable and debatably cost inefficient. Solar is the most competitive option, but it is questionable if it can keep up with the sheer pace of demand. Others talk of unconventional forms such as tidal power or geothermal, but these are incredibly specialized, therefore relatively expensive, and have yet to see widespread adoption.

All of these forms of energy production also necessitate battery storage due to their inherent cyclical nature. This is a whole other problem on its own as battery production needs to scale to match our energy demands. While there is progress in this area the scale at which we would need to produce to have a significant impact on total global energy demand is near impossible.

Tesla Megapack caught on fire at giant battery project

Batteries are also volatile in nature. Battery companies, Tesla included, have been developing more reliable forms of storage such as solid state and iron (rust) batteries, but these are in early stages and yet to scale.

Nuclear Power

Nuclear power has exploded in popularity within the last half century. However, as you can see from the graph below, the construction of new nuclear power projects has stalled or even fallen slightly. The one exception may be far east Asia.

China greenlights 6 new nuclear reactors in shift away from coal

Japan Plans To Restart Seven Nuclear Reactors By Summer 2023

As S.Korea moves to expand nuclear power, disquiet grows among nearby residents

With aggressively growing energy demands it is undoubtedly clear that nuclear production must increase. If this rising demand were to be met with fossil fuel burning, nations would suffer greater damages in the form of both environmental degradation and increased deaths. Moreover, the colossal scale of nuclear energy production enables countries to once and for all cut their fossil fuel habit. Nuclear power has come a long way and the way modern power plants are built resemble nothing of old facilities with infamous meltdowns. With the right regulation and management, nuclear paves a clean and bright future for humanity. For more on this topic explore my next post on nuclear power technologies.

International Energy Security

Greater competition from more energy distributors would hypothetically create more efficiency. In an idealistic world we could stabilize global energy prices and eventually diminish the role of fossil fuels in our energy needs. Unreliable forms of renewables could be rerouted to utilize overproduction. Nuclear could become widely available, even for poorer countries. The possibilities are endless with greater international collaboration.