While a real free energy device would be greatly
welcome, it would only take one lesser invention to solve most of our
energy
and pollution problems.
One good battery.
With all the overnight excess generating capacity -
and cheaper solar cells, society and international politics would be
transformed by
a better way to make electricity much more portable.
With that thought in mind, it was depressing to see
so much research in the 70's and 80's go nowhere. Just browse thru some
old volumes
of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society from that
era and you'll see what I mean.
Even the much touted ( and still barely
commercialized) vanadium redox cell has gone almost nowhere after being
developed in 1987,
18 years ago. It's amazing how little has changed since
the 'energy crisis' of a quarter century ago. Chrysler praises its
"hemi" engine
to an audience that doesn't know it's a technology from
the end of the 19th century.
With us still so dependent on $2+ a gallon gasoline,
maybe we could generate current from Tesla spinning in his grave.
Oh yeah, and in the 21st century, we still ain't got
no flyin' cars, either. Petroleum is like heroin for the economy.
