When I sold my car six years ago, I pledged that I would not purchase another until hydrogen fuel cell technology had matured, and a fuel cell car was commercially available. At that time the technology was mirage-like, shimmering on the technological horizon decades away from feasibility.
The car is only a one part of a complex equation, however. Hydrogen, a volatile gas at room temperature, is infamously difficult to isolate and transport --- Hydrogen production has been pegged as a process dirtier than fossil fuel rarefication (consuming more energy for the isolation process than is yielded in the finished fuel), and transportation has been deemed impossible due the the highly explosive nature of the gas.
The solution involves a paradigm shift, replacing centralized refineries with a dispersed system of mini-generators proximal to refueling stations. New processes use solar energy to electrolyze water, producing hydrogen and oxygen in a sustainable zero-carbon cycle (where older means of production used fossil fuels [hydrocarbons] as the hydrogen mine, freeing huge amounts of carbon to isolate the hydrogen).
Imagine walking through a grand public space --- say the Transbay Terminal --- abreast with thousands of other city-dwellers secure in the knowledge that the simple act of walking provides light for the space through which you move. That footsteps power the system announcing arrivals and departures five floors below. That one person's mad rush to catch a train heats tea for a dozen others less pressed for time.
This could become a reality with widespread adoption of piezoelectric power generation. Certain crystalline structures --- including readily-available materials such as quartz, cane sugar and rochelle salt --- create an electrical charge differential in response to an applied mechanical load. If provided conductive polar pathways and not allowed to short circuit, this charge can induce voltage usable as electricity.
At this point, the technology has been deployed only in fairly unsophisticated applications. The smokers amongst you are familiar with slick single-click lighters, the one-button dealies lacking a circular flint strike. Those utilize piezoelectricity, transferring your thumb's point load to ratchet mechanism which strikes a quartz crystal to induce current across a tiny gap, creating an arc to ignite the gas.
Wind turbines have long had a place in the exurbs of California---what would the drive down the 5 be without white blades spinning in the hills? Inclusion of wind turbines in new skyscraper designs from Bahrain to San Francisco seems to indicate a sea change in progress: wind power is being re-contextualized, coming out of hiding in the rural periphery for integration into the urban fabric.
Along with increased interest comes exciting new technology. Take, for example, maglev wind turbines, just now transitioning from concept to reality. These turbines replace the mechanical connection between rotor and stator with a passive magnetic levitation scheme, usually utilizing the halbach array (a super-slick arrangement of magnets which cancels the magnetic field on one side of the array and amplifies it on the other side, all without electromagnetic input). This bearing-free design allows all of the wind's mechanical potential to be harnessed for conversion to electrical current, instead of a significant percentage re-radiating into the troposphere as friction-produced heat. These turbines are still limited by the efficiency of the impulse turbine (theoretically recovering ≤60% of the kinetic energy incident upon it).
Combine this technology with David Fisher/Dynamic Architecture's inclusion of horizontal wind turbines between each floor of a highrise and you have a perfectly inhabitable power plant which could pump hundreds of megawatt-hours back into the grid.
Added bonus: abatement of the urban wind tunnel effect all downtown inhabitants rue on the daily.
Years ago, the iPod brand spearheaded an industry-wide move toward planned obsolescence with the introduction of rapid-discharge devices sans consumer-serviceable batteries. While Apple claimed this move would improve post-consumer waste management by ensuring proper disposal of heavy metal laden batteries, it in fact worsened the situation as people discarded the entire device instead of just swapping out a dead battery.
Now Apple delivers another fantastic money-grabbing mobile power ruse: iPhone batteries that are replaceable, but only at a price. Consumers will be forced to "submit their iPhone to Apple for battery service. The service will cost users $79, plus $6.95 for shipping, and will take three business days" to complete, during which time the consumer has the option of paying almost that much again for use of a rental phone. Do you really think people will do it? Or will they just re-invest in a shiny new iPhone Nano, conveniently set for release around the time iPhone batteries will begin to expire en masse...
Here are three great technologies Apple should fund, technologies which might actually reduce their iWaste quotient, not just boost the bottom line:
Stick in to the sun, Steve. Follow in the footsteps of Chinese technology manufacturer Hi-Tech Wealth, which recently released asolar-powered cell phone. Personally, I think that the iPhone's glossy top surface would be elegantly restated by a glass+photovoltaic laminate bottom, lending a textural unity to the whole (and denecessitating the strangely out-of-context rubber bum/antenna cover, as silicon and glass don't interfere with RF communications nearly as significantly as metal).
Honda recently announced that the FCX, a 130hp hydrogen car with a top speed of 100mph, will go into production in 2008. If this happens, Honda will beat Mercedes-Benz's 2012 serialization date and Ford's 2015 estimate into the ground, along with my personal guess at a timeline.
The solution involves a paradigm shift, replacing centralized refineries with a dispersed system of mini-generators proximal to refueling stations. New processes use solar energy to electrolyze water, producing hydrogen and oxygen in a sustainable zero-carbon cycle (where older means of production used fossil fuels [hydrocarbons] as the hydrogen mine, freeing huge amounts of carbon to isolate the hydrogen).
