Your Questions About Sustainable Energy Definition

Donna asks…

How much hydrogen (gas and/or liquid) could an oil tanker covered in solar panels produce in a day?

if you take one of those big enormous oil tankers that they have today, and convert it and cover it with solar panels and park it on the equator, how much gas hydrogen could it produce in one reguarl sunny day? and how much liquid hydrogen could it produce?
thanks for the info Ecko, i was really thinking of the feasibility of a hydrogen powered commercial airplane that could travel from LA to Miami. not really cost effective, but green energy is not about making a profit, just being sustainable and beneficial

admin answers:

Not much tbh. The cost in steel and materials to build them would far far far outweigh the benefit the panels would bring in the form of electricity.

An related more interesting concept being bought up these days is solar roads .. Let me find a link.

Http://singularityhub.com/2010/08/08/solar-roadways-crackpot-idea-or-ingenious-concept-video/

Edit:
I’m not the guy that replies here to get points so I am not worried about saying what i think as opposed to what others want to hear . That being said , the main issue is , how much energy is needed to :
Mine enough iron ore and coal , drive the stuff to the mill . The percentage of the steel mill () lets say it takes X days of mill time to make the steel , the amount of energy it took to make the mill divided by it’s lifetime multiplied by X days needs to be added), work hours and energy needs for the people that make that steel for the duration of the construction of the boat , the energy needs for sustaining the families that will construct the boat , the energy needed to keep the maintenance of such a boat to a level where it can keep working . In essence the detailed total energy cost to conjure such a boat into existence .. What is that converted in KW.

QUOTE ” not really cost effective, but green energy is not about making a profit, just being sustainable and beneficial”

Taking a zero profit margin , if that boat would have to keep running beyond it’s construction lifespan , it would by definition be a hindrance on the environment .
My impression in the reply i gave is that it can never produce in energy during it’s lifetime what it’s going to cost in energy to make.

As I said it was my impression , however , after reading this post a few times , I am now curious what the total amount of energy would be to create such a ship and keep it in operation.

Second unrelated thing. I have always wondered if geothermal energy could be exploited at feasible levels to power the globe with .. Could Iceland , or any part of the world be converted into a generator park that could be used to make in essence , energy without fuel.

Edit2:

I started a question myself about the total energy thing .
Http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110331100328AAdISL9

Maria asks…

5 ways in which sustainable development can be achieved in modern society?

admin answers:

Sustainable development does not focus solely on environmental issues. More broadly, sustainable development policies encompass three general policy areas: economic, environmental and social. In support of this, several United Nations texts, most recently the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, refer to the “interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars” of sustainable development as economic development, social development, and environmental protection.
Scheme of sustainable development: at the confluence of three preoccupations.

The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (UNESCO, 2001) elaborates further the concept by stating that “…cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature”; it becomes “one of the roots of development understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence”. In this vision, cultural diversity is the fourth policy area of sustainable development.

Green development is generally differentiated from Sustainable development in that Green development prioritizes what its proponents consider to be environmental sustainability over economic and cultural considerations. Proponents of Sustainable Development argue that it provides a context in which to improve overall sustainability where cutting edge Green development is unattainable. For example, a cutting edge treatment plant with extremely high maintenance costs may not be sustainable in regions of the world with less financial resources. An environmentally ideal plant that is shut down due to bankruptcy is obviously less sustainable than one that is maintainable by the indigenous community, even if it is somewhat less effective from an environmental standpoint.

Some research activities start from this definition to argue that the environment is a combination of nature and culture. The Network of Excellence “Sustainable Development in a Diverse World” SUS.DIV, sponsored by the European Union, works in this direction. It integrates multidisciplinary capacities and interprets cultural diversity as a key element of a new strategy for sustainable development.

The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development lists the following areas as coming within the scope of Sustainable Development:[4]

* Agriculture
* Atmosphere
* Biodiversity
* Biotechnology
* Capacity-building
* Climate Change
* Consumption and Production Patterns
* Demographics
* Desertification and Drought
* Disaster Reduction and Management

* Education and Awareness
* Energy
* Finance
* Forests
* Fresh Water
* Health
* Human Settlements
* Indicators
* Industry
* Information for Decision Making and Participation
* Integrated Decision Making

* International Law
* International Cooperation for Enabling Environment
* Institutional Arrangements
* Land management
* Major Groups
* Mountains
* National Sustainable Development Strategies
* Oceans and Seas
* Poverty
* Sanitation

* Science
* Small Islands
* Sustainable tourism
* Technology
* Toxic Chemicals
* Trade and Environment
* Transport
* Waste (Hazardous)
* Waste (Radioactive)
* Waste (Solid)
* Water

Sustainable Development is an ambiguous concept, as a wide array of views fall under its umbrella. The concept has included notions of weak sustainability, strong sustainability and deep ecology. Different conceptions also reveal a strong tension between ecocentrism and anthropocentrism. Thus, the concept remains weakly defined and contains a large amount of debate as to its precise definition.

During the last ten years, different organizations have tried to measure and monitor the proximity to what they consider sustainability by implementing what has been called sustainability metric and indices.

Powered by Yahoo! Answers