The E-cat Works & is Marketable
With release of the third-party review of Industrial Heat’s E-cat still pending, and with the expectation that the findings are clear and impressive, here is one pundit’s view of possible impacts:
Industrial Heat LLC is a group of companies owning, developing and deploying Andrea Rossi’s E-cat technology. The company will soon move forward with a demonstration of a pre-production reactor in an industrial setting, and will likely announce where components will be manufactured and where final assembly will be conducted.
The publication of the report boosts commercial prospects for many flavours of LENR/Cold Fusion. Its release will immediately impact stock prices of existing energy producers and energy distributors. And, while it will take over a decade to reduce air pollution in Asia’s large cities, fast introduction of the technology by major corporations will soon upset the world’s competitive landscape.
Germany will be an early customer for LENR, as back-up reactors for solar and wind farms are needed. England will scrap its plans for new nuclear reactors. Japan needs turn-key non-nuclear power plants. The United States will scramble to protect employment through adoption of lowest-cost energy. Oil and gas rich Russia will be slow to transition to the new and dominant energy source.
OPEC members will meet in Vienna for a critical strategy session.
Meanwhile, Canadian leaders appear to opt for economic uncompetiveness and sustained environmental pollution. The LENR train left the station without their engineers, entrepreneurs and scientists. A possible exception is Ontario. Like Germany, this province anticipated deployment of LENR by quenching coal-fired power plants and eliminating new nuclear plants from its Long-term Energy Plan.
In the absence of disease and strife, poorer nations unhindered by legacy energy and transportation infrastructures will likely be winners in the longer term.
For developed countries, the publication event heralds the end of the fossil fuel era, the timely retirement of risky nuclear reactors -and the potential transmutation of stock-piled radioactive wastes.
Update # 1
Here is an abstract (provided by UK's White Rose Research Online) of a German paper providing an assessment LENR's future potential.
Update # 2
According to Spectrum IEE, France, the world’s 2nd largest generator of nuclear energy plans a 50% reduction in nuclear power over the next 10 years. If renewables pick up the slack and overall power needs increase, the government would not have to close one atomic plant to meet its nuclear target. Just where coal and LENR fit in is not revealed.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/nuclear/renewables-up-nuclear-down-in-french-energy-plan
posted by jd sweeney @ 13:23
4 comments
4 Comments:
Good overview.
Roger Bird, PhD, LENR Epistemology
(:->)
I struggle with how the rollout will occur because there are so many variables. I think that large industrial systems will happen first for manufacturing plants, wastewater and large scale water systems, anyplace that uses large amounts of heating. Over time as the tech matures we will see replacement of existing power plants and standalone applications with high energy costs. Lastly there will be a switch away from centralized energy to a distributed on-site cogen systems.
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LENR is real. LENR+ is real. So, the next set of comments will likely be:
"Why the rush? Energy infrastructure upgrades and replacements are currently planned on a 10 to 20 year cycle. So, let's wait another 10 to 20 years before factoring LENR into the mix."
The problem with that approach is that:
a) we are at a point in time where developed countries are looking at having to invest many Trillions of Dollars to replace their aging infrastructures
b) developing countries are looking to add rapidly (actually, exponentially) to their generative capacity as well
c) fossil fuels are finite, even more so when there is every chance that we will not be able to burn even what we have "discovered" without expensive repercussions
d) fossil reserves are also very valuable for other reasons (like medicines, plastics, hi-tech materials), so burning them makes little sense. It's just that their geopolitical relevance as a weapon will reduce / disappear
e) in relation to that last point, the relative scarcity of fossil reserves, and particularly their location, is stoking up tensions around the world, and causing the suffering and death of millions of people - and that is happening now, before those reserves have reached their "political peak potential" for supporting regimes diametrically opposed to the common good...
f) renewables are fine as far as they go, but they do need a suitable backup generating infrastructure for when the wind does not blow / sun does not shine, and while solar (in particular) will be good for living off-world but close enough to the Sun or other star, it definitely can't get us up there, so leaving large populations bottled up on Earth
g) countries adopting LENR will quickly see a MASSIVE competitive advantage opening up over those who don't ( change? :o ), and not just in energy costs, but also new opportunities
h) all the while, the majority of the world's population go on suffering with inadequate supplies of clean water and energy, two of the bedrocks of a healthy society, one able to dispense with (economic) slavery and control through scarcity - the scourge of humanity down the ages. With access to, and control of, fossil reserves, many dictators - and their terrorist opponents - are threatening stability not just in their local conflicts but wider afield as well. Further, there is clear evidence of the willingness of certain regimes to use fossil reserves as a weapon of war, damaging economies around the world still further, and plunging many more into despair each and every day - you just need to turn to any news outlet to see this catastrophe opening up before your eyes.
So, if/when asked the question "why the rush?", just remember the points above - plus many others that accrue from the positives that LENR brings in its wake - and ask "why the wait?". The positives really will outweigh the negatives in the shortest possible time, and ideas thought of as just "pipe-dreams" (like a decent living standard possible for all across the Earth) will now become reality, where the will exists, and the "Lords of Scarcity" are seen for what they are, enemies of reason, development, progress, opportunity, health, a cleaner planet, higher living standards for all, a golden future, and, ultimately, the common good.
As Charles Dickens once wrote:
"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
Business devoid of humanity is but another name for evil.
Gordon Docherty, Concerned Citizen
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