• Question: Which alternative energy source do you think is the most promising?

    Asked by phill to Akram, David, Gill, Jack, laurenceharwood on 15 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by sasha26, makejason, bruce01, tedbuscus, chocolatelover.
    • Photo: Laurence Harwood

      Laurence Harwood answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      We should be using hydrogen which is produced by electrolysis of water. The hydrogen is easily stored by being absorbed into finely divided precious metals such as palladium. When the hydrogen is combined with oxygen in a fuel cell it generates energy and gives back water.

    • Photo: Jack Snape

      Jack Snape answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      I think solar power will supply a big portion of the world’s energy in the future – it’s getting cheaper and cheaper all the time.. but I’m not convinced that it can supply everything because you need to cover too much land. We also need what’s called ‘baseload’ energy that can supply a constant output. For that we will probably need nuclear fission, or fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage … or in the future nuclear fusion. We need to use a mix of energy sources, we can’t just rely on one 🙂

    • Photo: Gill Menzies

      Gill Menzies answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      We need diversity (variety) so when the sun does not shine (like in Scotland most of the time) we can rely on the wind or the waves, or when the wind does not blow we can rely on the hydro. We need a mix of reliable energy sources, and some sources you can deploy quickly for high demand times (like when everone boils the kettle during the adverts of the X-Factor final)

    • Photo: Akram Alomainy

      Akram Alomainy answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      Solar power and energy harvesting from wireless signals around us 🙂

Comments