What is energy ? What is efficiency ? Are there good and bad sources of energies ? How can we do things well for the best price ? Here are some questions I will try to answer. Master in solar power, I know this subject quite well and hope to give a light in a dark world.
I What is energy ?
II What is efficiency ?
III What is good or bad ?
IV The ideal of simplicity
I What is energy ?
Energy is a matter of fluxes. The light of the Sun, the force of a spring, the heat from a fire, the body combustion of food, they all bring energy.
Material energy cannot be created or destroyed. Look at the following figure.
The sum of the energy fluxes out from the computer (light + sound + heat) equals the sum of the energy fluxes to the computer (electricity). This is the principle of conservation of energy.This is it : energy cannot be created or destroyed, it only changes its form.
Then how much is the energy of the world, the Earth ? If we consider the total energy, we would have E
Earth = m
Earth c² = 5.38 x 10
41 Joules.
But this mass energy is like the blocked fortune of a millionaire who doesn't spend that money : physically nothing. Time is money, and time is energy as well. Therefore, just like you would count in $/month the money you have, we should count in Joules/second, that is, in Watts. Remember : 1 W = 1 J/s.
Energy is actually meaningless, and the reality is the energy fluxes, that is scientifically called "power" and measured in Watts.
Therefore, the power of the world is the power of the light received from the Sun, that is around 1.3 x 10
17 W. It's more than 10,000 times the human machines power consumption.
II What is efficiency ?Efficiency means making a lot with little means. In physics, efficiency is defined by
η = E
useful/E
spent.
In everyday life, there are processes with efficiency greater than 100 % : love, education, invest. Most processes however have less than 100 % efficiency, like finding a job, a home, or a partner. Efficiencies multiply : if when seducing, you have 10 % disponibility, 60 % beauty, 50 % intelligence, you will have 0.1 x 0.6 x 0.5 that is 3 % of success everytime. Obviously, the rate of answer, or disponibility, can nearly be confunded with kindness, as evil people will be more avoidant, and good people more interested.
The most important efficiency is the energy cost in money, counted in $/J. If we look at a renewable energy system,
Energy cost = Efficiency x Local resource x Lifetime of the machine / Cost of the machine.
It means that cheap renewables are efficient, long-term reliabble, sold cheap, and placed in a place with rich natural resources. A merchant cannot say "This solar module is 180 W.", because the production of a solar module depends on the local weather ! The peak Watts are given for a simulated power of 1,000 W/m², that is, the maximum power sunlight we can reach in practice. As an artisan, I advocate for giving the efficiency and the area on the technical data. Not Watts nor peak Watts.
To make an efficient system, you must make something very small, but working at full power.
With a small budget but intelligence, Greeks place only two solar thermal modules, but with the best angle and the water tank above.
III What is good or bad ?
Are there good or bad sources of energy ? The answer is yes.
Depletable energies like fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) as well as nuclear are cheap in the beginning, but make crisis on the long term. Global warming has killed millions of people in India, and the Fukushima catastrophe is estimated to 210,000,000,000 $ of damage, and has ruined a country. On the contrary, renewable energies like water, geothermal, wind or solar, can be expensive at the beginning, but once the invest is done, it costs nearly nothing, you don't have to worry about any crisis ! :-)
This is it : ecology is the natural economy, and when you chase Nature, it eventually comes back. Instead of $/(person x year), the natural economy is counted with mm of water/(person x year), proportional to the rainfall, the fall of water, the fall of love, creating psychic energy. We should probably add a coefficient for the temperature, as psychic energy and life go faster in hot areas.
Actually, depletable energies are like a person under cocain : powerful, but its life expectancy is shorter. On the contrary, renewable energies are like a family : reasonable, but long-term reliable. Maybe earth would be the mother and sky would be the father.
In one word, renewable energies are good, because they provide peace and prosperity, whereas depletable energies are evil, because they provide war and crisis. We must cut the subsidies to fossil fuels and nuclear, and work together for a sufficient, affordable, renewable and clean energy.
IV The ideal of simplicity
How to make quality at the best price ? The answer is : simplicity.
Simple systems are cheap, easy to use, repair and recycle, efficient and long-lasting. In technology as well as in relationship, simplicity is the key of success, and the base for harmony.
