As the world reels under the impact of global warming, the necessity for alternative sources of energy seems even more urgent. With the cost (financial as well as environmental) of using traditional fossil fuels increasing day by day, mankind’s survival depends on exploiting alternative, renewable sources of energy. Here, we take a look at some of these sources, and the pros and cons of each.

1. Solar Energy

Pros: Present everywhere. Limitless, clean, renewable and sutainable.

Cons: Current technology to exploit solar power is very expensive. Requires large land area to be fully utilized. Not useful on rainy or cloudy days, or in areas that do not get adequate sunlight.

2. Wind Energy

Pros: Present everywhere, limitless, and renewable. Wind power is a very clean source of energy.

Cons: Like solar power, requires a very large land area to be of actual use. Wind strength not the same everywhere; can only be exploited where the wind speed is high enough. Wind mills are an eyesore and destroy the landscape.

3. Nuclear Energy

Pros: Clean, sustainable, renewable. Can be tapped anywhere.

Cons: Expensive. The radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants is very dangerous and almost impossible to dispose off. Still, one of the most promising energy sources in wide use today.

4. Hydroelectric Energy

Pros: Clean, virtually limitless, sustainable.

Cons: Expensive. Can be tapped only at large waterfalls. Requires huge physical infrastructure. Diffifulty in transporting produced power.

5. Geothermal Energy

Pros: Clean, virtually limitless.

Cons: Can be tapped only in regions where it is available (which are few and far in between), limiting its effectiveness. Difficult to tap. Not very sustainable or practical.

In the future humans will have the ability to thought-swap. This will come from enhanced bio-engineering or technologically advanced devices or a combination. That is where the future is going, but no one knows which breakthroughs will make it so, and thus, no one can tell us when all this will happen. Some might say that humans should not have the ability to thought swap.

One individual thinker actually confided in me that they believed if humans could thought swap and transfer ideas and concepts a lightning speeds that it would cause a severe problem with the advancement of mankind, as technology increases. Why you ask? Well, because the ideas would come faster than the ability to implement them or write them down.

Well, I would question that. Do you read Sci Fi? If so, ideas, concepts, technologies, and innovations are woven into thoughts and stories. Imagination and innovation go hand in hand for those authors. We have risen to the occasion and developed many of the more viable options that these envisioned abstract thoughts have propelled.

Some have alluded to the fact that much of what mankind comes up with in innovation is spurred on by incremental leaps; perhaps, this argument of how disruptive thought-swapping would be could thus be relevant. For instance, if we read the works of certain famous dead white men on philosophy and psychology they seem to believe that one cannot imagine something for which he has no reference.

Thus, with massive thought swapping there would be a finite amount of new innovation, but would there be? And with more references and combinations, there could also be an increasing number of new innovations approaching such a huge number that it would be impossible to keep track of, but “impossible” is such a limiting word.

Nevertheless, the Internet has increased innovation by rapid sharing of information around the world, which was ARPA-net’s intended purpose, and if we look at things like the TED Conferences with videos online we see increasing sharing of thoughts, thought swapping is nothing more than Moore’s Law applied to information flow, no different in philosophy, just a different venue with a different device.

After all, when I started my first company we did not have cell-phones, fax machines, pagers, none of that. We did not have computers, and the Internet for common use and personal email accounts were still 15-years away. We’ve increased the flow of information, we’ve had some disruptive technology, and still, we have moved the ball forward faster, and society has adapted, humans can do that.

Thought-swapping is going to be a great technology, some say too disruptive, I say bring it on.

They can be seen on any street and in any neighborhood. The un-mowed lawns, boarded up windows and vacant driveways of foreclosed and bank owned property. There are many ideas on how to turn these neglected remnants of corporate greed and misguided trust back into marketable homes.

We should strive to make these homes into more than just a marketable home. We need to start the process of transforming the way we power our homes. The renewable energy technology is available to make these foreclosed homes models for our communities.

There should be incentives given to banks who sell these properties at a discount to contractors or prospective home buyers. The new owners would contractually agree to remodel their home to a set of standards such as the HERS rating system. The work should include installing a renewable energy system, (i.e. Solar, geothermal or wind). The outer shell must be completely sealed, also known as closing the envelope of a home. The windows, doors and all the appliances should have high energy star ratings.

The banks would receive government incentives to sell at a discount. They could possibly receive future tax credits as an example. The new home owner would receive the incentives already in place for installing energy efficient products. This includes a very nice size return for installing renewable energy. There are many incentives available from the utility companies as well as from Federal, State and local governments

We could also go a step further and require all work to comply with the LEEDS for homes guidelines. This requires the contractor, when working on the home, to install products that are the least toxic to our planet. They pollute less and we are able to them recycle later. This is commonly known as green building.

There would be many benefits to implementing this program. The resale value of the surrounding community would increase. It would add many needed jobs for the contractors and sub contractors they hire. The efficiency of the homes along with the renewable energy systems would reduce our dependency on foreign oil. This program would be better than just buying bad loans. There is a return for taxpayers footing the bill.

Our government can help turn these eyesore properties into community showcases of energy saving technology. This will help create a new wave of home remolding using renewable energy in our country. There are certainly many obstacles that would need to be ironed out for this program to work. President Obama has showed an interest in building green in his recent programs. This would be one more step in the way to a new green era in our history. All these things will certainly help create a healthier planet.

DIY energy is worth more than you realize. Many homeowners are building their own easy to put together and implement solar cells and windmills so they can generate their own electricity for life for free. It’s easier than you think to build these tools using simple DIY straightforward guides, but it’s even easier to make some serious money from them. Let’s look at some of the most popular and common ways which you can monetize on DIY energy.

While not a way to make money per se, you can save a great deal of money on your power bills using DIY energy. This is definitely worth mentioning as the average household spends over $2500 to power their homes each year.

DIY energy also spikes your home value as other home buyers would be inheriting your financial benefits by buying your home. They are also inheriting the tax breaks which you would be receiving for having the technology and generating your own electricity. The government loves people who generator electricity because less finite energy is produced, saving the country money overall.

It’s not just about saving money and power bills, it’s about making money from the power company. For every bit of energy which you generate but don’t utilize yourself, it all gets sent right back into the grid to other local homes are using that energy and you get the money. Your utility meter or read backwards and you walk away without profit.

A lot of homeowners will build multiple solar cells or windmills and generate a very attractive five figure supplemental income from DIY energy alone. Not only do you feel great about doing it as it’s clean and great for the environment, but it’s also no effort income for life. Just imagine having an extra five figure income on top of what you are making for life without having to do anything beyond putting together the initial tools over the course of an afternoon for around $100.

Xcel Systems has installed one of the first utility systems in the United States that uses a giant battery system to store wind power. A series of sodium sulfur batteries from the Japanese company, NGK Insulators, LTD., is said to create about seven megawatt hours of power. The research in battery technology has led to some amazing breakthroughs. Xcel systems has been leading the way with wind to battery technology.

Twenty batteries can create about one megawatt hour of power in almost a flash- which is enough power to run five hundred, average American homes for seven full hours. Adding additional batteries coupled with lowered usage by each household could mean even more energy creation.

The batteries are meant to store wind energy at night and then contract with the utility companies to release the stored energy as needed throughout the day. This is a huge leap in the use of wind energy for a viable alternative energy source, eliminating many of the major drawbacks to this type of energy. One of these is the unreliability of the wind itself. You cannot always count on the wind to be blowing at certain times, or not to be blowing when you really do not need it as much. Storing the energy for later use takes away some of the common worries and problems about that and makes it an even more viable alternative to other types of energy.

While the company is producing energy from stored wind power, the customers that are being served are limited. Right now, those customers are in Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, the Dakotas, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. The company itself is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Additional sites would be nice, however they are expensive to say the least with millions of dollars needed for start up and testing alone. This is in addition to the other expenses that a project of this size and nature would create.

The company is also testing other types of energy including using solar installations to generate hydrogen. The hydrogen can be burned and turned back into electrical energy. Other wind based operations are also being tested on very small scales as well. Finding an alternate energy source that is far, reliable and affordable for everybody is one of the keys to our future and we must all keep an open mind while we explore all of the various options and opportunities that are presented to us.