Energy Policy

Rational economics is fundamental to the New Manifesto. A rational energy policy has to be part of the economic theories we espouse.

A national energy business news letter recently described the "Hydrogen Economy" as less efficient then fossil fuels because hydrogen isn't found free in nature. They claim coal is 50% efficient and oil 30-40% efficient while hydrogen fuel cells only release 34% of the energy consumed in separating the hydrogen from water molecules.

This analysis lacks a certain accuracy.

Fossil fuels are stored energy. Solar Energy from eons past produced green plant material containing carbon, oxygen and hydrogen bonds. Time, heat and pressure turned this material into oil. If you count up all the energy expended in making oil and coal, these fuels would be considered 1 or 2 % efficient. So inefficient it wouldn't and isn't feasible to make them from scratch.

On the other hand: If 1 watt of energy creates 1/2 watt of stored energy in hydrogen and this 1/2 watt of stored energy releases .34 (34% of the energy it took to make it) watts of usable energy then the efficiency of hydrogen (calculated in the same way as oil or gas, that is the amount of recoverable energy over the amount of stored energy -- not the amount of energy required to make the fuel-- makes hydrogen 68% efficient. If you like numbers games, that's not bad.

Now if you're using conventional electrical sources powered by fossil fuels to store energy in hydrogen then you're nuts. This wastes the recoverable energy from the fossil fuels. But if you use off peak power from windmills and hydrogenerators (which is wasted power because the electrical grid can only use what is demanded, it can't store it ) then the energy is effectively free. Every watt recovered in hydrogen can be used at a later time. Off the grid.

In fact, hydrogen can be made off the grid by low tech wind farms, solar generators, and hydro plants. Without the need to satisfy the stringent regulatory requirements of the national grid system hydrogen production facilities for hydrogen can be focused on the efficient capture of released hydrogen, containerizing and using less than ideal power. For instance regulated 60 Hertz 120 volt power is not an absolute requirement for making hydrogen. Even an unregulated DC generator when connected to a pair of electrodes will produce H2 in some quantity.

The New Manifesto needs to point out the specious arguments of the vested interests. When big money is threatened by a new technology it lies cheats and steals to denigrate its upstart competitor.

Witness the beginning of our national grid system, without the development of this distribution grid the world as we know it wouldn't exist today. Nikola Tesla was the inventor of the three phase distribution system, generators and transformers we use to get power around the country. He sold his patents to General Electric and supervised the construction of the first hydroelectric power station at Niagara Falls.

Thomas Edison was the competition. He owned coal gas and DC (direct current) generating facilities as well as several patents on DC generators and electrical distribution of DC. His company was the Status Quo. He went so far as to claim all AC (alternating current) was good for was to kill people. So he invented "Old Sparky" the electric chair, which turns out to be one of the most inefficient execution methods ever devised.

Politicians take heed.

Speak the truth.

Hear the truth.

Live the truth.

Anything else defies the special relationship between the elected and the proletariat.