The Latent Power Turbine concept is counter-intuitive. To help you feel at ease with it, we offer two pages of discussion.
(i) If you want a technical explanation, please visit this page.
(ii) If you prefer a 'black swan' type philosophical argument click here.
IS THIS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU?
Please read through the page below. There are a surprising range of opportunities for businesses, academics, environmental groups and politicians to get involved.
If you are interested, please get in touch with us.
Bill Courtney is available to give talks about Latent Power Turbines.
Latent Power Turbines offer seven core benefits to humanity.
- For as long as the sun warms the earth, they can deliver all the ‘mains electricity’ humanity needs without polluting the environment. They will run on ‘free’ fuel in the form of heat extracted from their environment. Apart from an annual service cost of (say) £100 per consumer, plus some form of government tax, there are no running costs.
- They can operate at full output 24 hours/day with surplus electricity being used to manufacture hydrogen fuel for transport systems. This will provide carbon free transport fuel. Alternatively, if LP Turbines can be shrunk to fit into vehicles, they could be used to power the vehicles directly. The second option is likely to be most attractive in warm climates.
- Heat extracted from the atmosphere can be used to provide free air conditioning. In warm climates, air cooling may become the primary application for LP Turbines, with electricity being produced as a free by-product. Finding uses for this surplus electricity will drive innovation in warm climates.
- The air conditioning process will also extract moisture from the air. Cooling a house for a small family will also deliver sufficient clean water to meet their drinking, cooking and basic hygiene needs.
- All of the electricity that customers need can be generated locally, eliminating the need for a national power grid. Developing countries will be the main beneficiaries because they will avoid the cost of building a national grid.
- Businesses in the developing world could take control of their own power and hydrogen fuel production. This will liberate them from some of the most damaging corruption and bribery problems that they have to face.
- Economic migration within Europe and into Europe from the developing nations will slow down.
Internal migration will be reduced because there will be an economic boom across the continent, with the greatest benefits being experienced in the warm southern states where unemployment is highest.
External migration will be reduced because those who are currently bold enough to seek their fortunes in Europe will now have a far greater incentive to become entrepreneurs at home. To reach a migration tipping point, starting an LP Turbine based business would need to be financially cheaper and less risky than migration.
Page contents
1 Resource implications
1.1 Low cost, pollution free energy
1.2 ‘Free’ air conditioning
1.3 Low cost hydrogen fuel
1.4 Oil substitutes for chemical feedstock use
1.5 Low cost fresh water for arid regions
1.6 Increasing land values in hot arid climates
1.7 Fertiliser manufacturing
1.8 Economically important metals and other minerals
1.9 High level nuclear waste
1.10 Rain forests
1.11 Nursing people and buildings back to health
1.12 A unique opportunity to create new manufacturing businesses
1.13 New job opportunities for communities left behind by
globalisation and automation
1.14 Heat Island and Chill Island effects
1.15 Weakening Militant Islam
1.16 Geopolitics
1.17 Animal spirits (consumer confidence)
1.18 Geoengineering implications
2 How LP Turbines will change the our lives during the next 50 years
2.1 An initial period of uncertainty and possibly recession
2.2 A threat to making post Brexit trade deals
2.3 LP Turbines could deliver similar benefits to Brexit,
but without the upheaval of leaving the EU
2.4 During the second half of this century, the currently
emerging nations will take over as the new world
powers.
3 How LP Turbines will change the our lives
beyond the next 50 years
Conclusion
**********************************
1 Resource implications
1.1 Low cost, pollution free energy
- LP Turbines can run on heat extracted from
(i) the air around us,
(ii) the ground underneath us
(iii) the seas that surround us
(iv) waste heat produced by industry. - LP Turbines are very benign.
No high temperatures, high pressures, toxic chemicals or expensive construction materials are required. - Depending on size, power output can vary between several kW and several MW.
- ‘Energy’ accounts for approximately 30% of the production costs of many of the primary products our society depends based on.
Here are a few examples where we can expect to see a big drop in ‘raw material’ prices:
t plastics t steel t glass t cement t bricks t prepared food t electronic data storage and processing services. - "Power to the people!"
A small LP Turbine could meet the heating and power needs of a family of four. - Mechanically LP Turbines are less complicated than a domestic washing machine.
- A very crude (and cautious) estimate is that a 4 kW LP Turbine could be manufactured using the same amount of materials and cost about the same as two domestic washing machines.
Cost comparison
“In 2014, the average dual fuel bill reached an eye watering £1,344. The average electricity bill was £599, and the average gas bill wad £752.”
So, as a rough guide, a four person household could recoup the cost of purchasing an LP Turbine in about a year.
And, that’s only the basic domestic energy saving. There are other benefits too.
Resilience to cyber attacks, massive solar storms and natural disasters
Stand alone LP Turbines and small local grids will be less tempting and far more resilient to attacks by hackers and cyber criminals.
Nature’s equivalent in the form of massive solar storms will also be less of a threat. [Solar stroms are discussed in this article: http://uk.businessinsider.com/solar-storm-effects-electronics-energy-grid-2016-3?r=US&IR=T]
LP Turbine based micro-grids will also be more resilient to earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural forces compared with complicated national electricity grid systems.
1.2 ‘Free’ air conditioning
If LP Turbines are run on heat extracted from the air, the air cools as a consequence. This could be a nuisance in the UK in winter. So we may need to use other winter options such as shallow geothermal energy.* But in warmer parts of the world, LP Turbines would provide power and free air conditioning, for the price of buying a single LP Turbine unit.
Factory working conditions and productivity would improve in hot climates as a free bonus of power generation. [Evidence from Indian manufacturing: http://www.isid.ac.in/~pu/dispapers/dp14-10.pdf]
*If the UK continued to consume electricity at the same rate as today, private householders could use LP Turbines to generate their own electricity and city air temperatures would fall by a degree or so. But once cheap, green electricity becomes available, electricity consumption will shoot up as communities use it for more powerful street lighting, outdoor space heating, melting ice on roads and pavements etc. See Figure 2 on this linked webpage for our geothermal power station design.
1.3 Low cost hydrogen fuel
Hydrogen can be used as a pollution free alternative to petrol and diesel for many of our transport needs. In principle, car owners could manufacture all their hydrogen by passing an electric current through water to split it into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen would then need to be compressed to a very high pressure to make it compact enough to fit into a fuel tank.
Using existing technology, the total energy required to manufacture the hydrogen and then compress it makes hydrogen fuel prohibitively expensive. But if householders used their domestic LP Turbines off-peak to make and compress hydrogen, the production costs would be minimal.
Essentially, householders would just need to buy a hydrogen making and compression unit. [https://www.theengineer.co.uk/issues/23-january-2012/british-firm-boosts-hydrogen-compression-and-storage/]
Other forms of transport such as ships and trains could also be adapted to run off hydrogen. But aircraft would need to be completely redesigned because they would probably carry their hydrogen in the fuselage in liquid form.
[Our Parallel Stirling Cryocooler could be used to keep stored hydrogen cold.].
Liquid hydrogen may also be useful for vehicles used for the shipping of perishable foodstuffs. Re-warming the hydrogen back to a usable temperature could provide free food chilling.
The H2 Help network
A cottage industry for the hydrogen age
An LP Turbine based hydrogen manufacturing plant could operate 24/7, with the only running cost being any taxation paid, plus maintenance costs.
Hydrogen powered car owners who have the facility to manufacture their own hydrogen could sell off their surplus fuel. A Smartphone App could link together buyers and sellers with buyers being able to reserve a supply on remote payment of a deposit.
An international network of this type would allow the rapid move to a hydrogen fuel economy, even before a traditional network of refueling stations had been established.
Southern Europeans and others in warm climates are likely to be early adaptors because they could gain free environmental air cooling as they manufacture hydrogen. In cooler climates in winter, the electricity could be provided by solar cells or a local electricity micro-grid.
Strategies for the petrochemical industry to compensate for the loss of fossil fuel sales
- Manufacture and sell compressed hydrogen from vehicle refuelling stations.
- Lease and service home hydrogen manufacturing and compressing units, charging a small royalty on the hydrogen produced.
- Save costs on running service station chains by developing apps that will link home hydrogen manufacturers who wish to sell with potential buyers.
- Work with all segments of the transport industry, land, sea and air, encouraging them to adopt a similar hydrogen fuel economy model to that developed for road transport.
- Work with other industries, municipal authorities etc to develop a similar model, but with the emphasis on capturing and compressing the oxygen generated as a by-product of hydrogen production. This could be used for example, for the high temperature burning of municipal waste. The virtually pure carbon dioxide could then be captured, compressed and injected into old oil and gas wells owned by the petrochemical companies.
- (vi) Hydrogen could replace natural gas in our existing gas supply networks. https://www.theengineer.co.uk/converting-the-gas-network-to-hydrogen/
But, there is a caveat.
It is far too early to say for certain, but it may be possible to miniaturise LP Turbines so that they can be incorporated into the structure of cars and other vehicles. This would allow vehicles to run off electricity generated by extracting heat from the surrounding air.
Cooling hot city air in warm climates would be a bonus. But it may be a nuisance on cold days in the UK in winter. [In order to cater for the more challenging weather conditions of the UK, our patents describe mobile LP Turbines that can be adapted to run off hydrogen or other fuels in winter.]
1.4 Oil substitutes for chemical feedstock use
Approximately 20% of oil is used as a chemical feedstock in the manufacturing of plastics, paints, drugs, fertilisers and other products. Synthetic replacements for oil are already available. They will become commercially competitive if the energy component of their manufacturing can be reduced.
1.5 Low cost fresh water for arid regions
There is plenty of water in our oceans. The snag is that desalinating sea water is a very energy intensive business. [It requires about 3kWh of electricity to desalinate 1 m3 of sea water.]
Further energy is then required to pump the desalinated water inland.
LP Turbines could reduce the cost of both desalinating the water and then delivering it to the customer.
Please visit our dedicated water purification page for further details.
1.6 Increasing land values in hot arid climates
Arid land has a low economic value. But if LP Turbines are used to ‘green the deserts’, countries ‘blessed’ with arid landscapes would enjoy a sudden increase in the value of their territory.
Figure 1. For maximum productivity, glass houses would be used to minimise the loss of water by evaporation. LP Turbines would condense the extracted water vapour so that it can be recycled.
Glazing to keep the water in would also keep locusts and other insect pests out.
The LP Turbines could provide illumination at night, making 24 hours/day plant growth possible. This would approximately double the returns on glasshouse investment.
Glass manufacturing is an energy intensive process, but with LP Turbines providing the energy, glass manufacturing prices would fall by about 30%.
1.7 Fertiliser manufacturing
Arid lands will require fertilisation to speed the greening process.
(i) Nitrogen
Currently, the bulk of the world’s nitrogen fertilizer is manufactured using the Haber process. This converts methane gas into nitric acid, the key ingredient in manufacturing nitrogen fertilizers.
The alternative is to use the Birkeland–Eyde process which dispenses with the need for methane by using nitrogen extracted from the air instead.
Until now the Birkeland–Eyde process has been uneconomic because it uses electricity very inefficiently, with most of the electricity ending up as low grade heat.
This would not be a problem for an LP Turbine based system, because the waste heat could be converted back into electricity again.
(ii) Phosphorus
Phosphorus obtained from rocks is a finite resource and some experts fear that we will run out of supplies in a few years.
The experts also believe that we could still meet all of our phosphorus fertilizer needs if we recycled the runoff from our agricultural land and sewers. Currently this form of recycling is an energy expensive process. But LP Turbines would significantly reduce the recycling costs.
(iii) Biochar
Biochar is a soil enrichment material that was famously used by the native Brazilians to improve the fertility of their barren rainforest soils. It is made by heating any form of organic material (for example horse droppings or plant waste) in a closed oxygen free environment.
Biochar manufacturing offers several bonuses compared with converting organic material to compost:
(i) Biochar can be made in a few hours, but composting takes several months.
(i) The manufacturing process creates a very useful general purpose fertiliser known as wood vinegar.
(ii) Evidence from the Amazonian rain forests suggests that biochar can trap atmospheric carbon for up to a thousand years.
Currently biochar manufacturing is a time intensive low technology industry.
We have designed a modern technology alternative:
our LP Turbine fired biochar reactor was originally intended for disposing of horse stable waste, but could be adapted for general farm waste recycling. This would encourage the wider adoption of biochar for trapping carbon and enriching soils.
1.8 Economically important metals and other minerals
(i) In addition to phosphorous, trace quantities of important metals such as copper, silver, mercury, cadmium and gold can be found in sewage material. Low cost energy would make their extraction economically viable. The removal of these toxic metals would also render the sewage safe for recycling as fertiliser or biochar.
(ii) Sea water contains sodium, chlorine and trace quantities of magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, bromine, strontium and other valuable materials. Their extraction also becomes economically viable if low cost energy is available.
1.9 High level nuclear waste
How using LP Turbines to incinerate nuclear waste could prevent people from getting wet feet
LP Turbines will price nuclear energy out of the market.
But this still leaves the problem of our existing high level nuclear waste for future generations to deal with.
Left to decay naturally, this high level nuclear waste will take many thousands of years to decay to a safe level. But if the radioactive materials are broken down in a 'nuclear incinerator', this decay time can be reduced by at least an order of magnitude.
Fortunately, the type of nuclear reactor required, called a molten salt reactor is a lot safer than today’s power station reactors and even has the support of many environmentalists who were formerly anti-nuclear.
LP Turbines open up the possibility of making these reactors even safer by reducing their operating temperature and adding an extra failsafe method.
Our improved safety nuclear incinerator design can be found on this linked page.
The problem is what to do with all of the electricity they will generate!
Here are some suggestions:
- Vertical farms could be established in the vicinity of the nuclear incinerators. The foodstuffs grown could include tropical fruit and vegetables.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming]
The farms could also be used for the production of clean meat. That is meat produced by cellular culture instead of traditional farm animals. - Coastal nuclear incinerators would be ideally placed for the extraction of metals and other resources from sea water.
- (iii) Space centres: Using the electricity generated to split water into hydrogen and oxygen would supply the fuel required for spacecraft launches.
- Greening the deserts.
Countries possessing large tracts of desert land could sign 200 year leases allowing guest countries wishing to 'burn' nuclear waste to set up nuclear incinerators on their coastal land. In return, the guest nations would use the energy generated for the desalination of sea water. Other services offered to the host country could include fertiliser and greenhouse glass manufacturing.
For example, this is how Australia could benefit.
Figure 2. Remotely generated ‘nuclear electricity’ would not be cost competitive with locally generated ‘LP Turbine electricity’. Instead we propose using ‘nuclear electricity’ for desalinating sea water, for irrigating part of the Australian interior.
Our proposed nuclear incinerator will generate working heat at about 100oC, which is far warmer than the 24 hour average for hot desert air. This will allow larger size LP Turbines to be employed, reducing their capital and running costs.
There should be no serious concerns about this strategy leading to nuclear arms proliferation because the nuclear waste fed into the incinerators is unsuitable for the manufacturing of thermonuclear warheads.
A secondary benefit
Sea level rises linked to global warming threaten to destroy coastal communities and trigger mass migrations. Greening the deserts will allow an orderly migration of populations to higher ground. For example:
(i) 85% of Australia's population live in coastal zones, with many homes under threat. [http://www.ozcoasts.gov.au/climate/sd_visual.jsp ]
(ii) In the short term, oil rich Arab countries may look upon LP Turbines as a threat to their economies. But in the long term, they will gain far more from greening the deserts. A 2009 study suggests that at least 37 million people in Arab countries could be displaced by the end of the century. [http://www.carboun.com/climate-change/the-impact-of-sea-level-rise-on-the-arab-world-2/]
We discuss greening the deserts in more detail on this linked page.
Important note: Greening the deserts should not be equated with prairie scale monoculture farming. We advocate a mixture of carbon capturing woodlands and small 'Victorian era' cropping fields that encourage bio-diversity.
Desert greening will also allow us to strategically rebalance our influence on the environment. For example, palm oil cultivation could be partially shifted to greened land and the current plantations allowed to re-wild.
1.10 Rain forests
Here are some design concepts for a rainforest power station:
Figure 3 This is a plan view of a replanted rain forest based LPT power station. (Not to be confused with a Dalek on a bad hair day!)
Replanted rain forests can earn extra money by acting as carbon sequestration sites. The following vertical cross section through an LPT moist air conduit and adjacent land shows how.
Figure 4. The archaeological evidence suggests that biochar can remain locked in rain forest soil for more than a millennium. Rain forests growing on improved soil have a lower canopy and denser undergrowth. This should improve the moist air holding capacity of the forest. [“Hand made”, New Scientist, P42, 4 June, 2011.]
The high value cropping areas inside the tunnels will be protected from physical erosion caused by violent tropical rainstorms.
What do we do with the power generated?
It could be used to provide power for local vertical farms. These are indoor farms that provide shelter from tropical rain and insect pests.
Some power could also be used for manufacturing hydrogen fuel for drones.
The drones could be used to rapidly move the farm produce to market. This would keep people and heavy traffic off forest roads, allowing many of them to degrade with time.
[Recent developments in drone technology mean that future drones will be almost silent: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27696-silence-of-the-drones-how-to-quiet-that-annoying-aerial-buzz/ ]
Rain forests and sea level rises
Bangladesh has approximately 11% rainforest cover, but this is under threat due to population movements caused by rising sea levels. By making better use of its rainforests and wetlands, this reduction in natural habitats could be minimised.
A similar argument applies to other tropical countries where rainforests are being cut back to make way for coastal comunities.
1.11 Nursing people and buildings back to health
Before the development of antibiotics and other medical breakthroughs, one of the most effective ways of nursing people back to health was to use large well ventilated wards, flooded with natural light. Good ventilation and strong light helped to reduce the transmission of infections.
A key reason these healthy buildings went out of fashion was that large amounts of energy were consumed in controlling room temperatures. Similarly the trend in the design of homes, offices, factories and schools has been to build more energy efficient designs with small sealed windows that are energy efficient, but very claustrophobic.
LP Turbines could run on heat from the extracted air and use this to warm well ventilated building interiors in winter. In summer, any solar overheating caused by large windows could be neutralized by LP Turbine cooling.
Mental and physical health is likely to improve in all types of building if LP Turbines are used to improve temperature control.
1.12 A unique opportunity to create new manufacturing businesses
The many changes we have outlined above will offer manufacturing entrepreneurs 'the chance of a lifetime' to file patents relating to new inventions and dominate their manufacturing sector for at least 20 years. Unfortunately Brexit will shrink the size of British innovators home market and make life more difficult for them.
Figure 5. New products have to be designed and tested to meet regulatory requirements. British companies working in an ‘independent Britain’ will incur extra testing costs if they want to sell into the EU, the world’s largest market.
If you are an innovator, you will find it easier to operate in the EU, America or Japan.
After Brexit we are likely to see a brain drain of our best designer and innovative engineering talent.
See for example, the pending loss of a brilliant graphene researcher at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/brexit-latest-scientist-andre-geim-graphene-discovery-university-manchester-eu-exit-withdrawal-a7886416.html
CASE STUDY
Some completely rubbish innovation opportunities !
(A) Cleaning plastic from beaches and oceans
Beaches We are in urgent need of an international army of robots that can patrol the shorelines of the world, cleaning up our plastic waste. To allow them to work day and night without consuming fossil fuels, they will need to be hydrogen powered.
LP Turbines could be used for splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen to provide this fuel. The oxygen could then be used for burning the plastic at very high temperatures. This is essential to prevent the combustion process releasing toxins into the atmosphere.
Unlike most robots, which displace human workers, these robot armies will create jobs at a local level. Human gang masters and servicing technicians will be required to keep the robots hard at work. Cleaning the beaches will also protect jobs in the tourism and fishing industries.
Oceans Clearing plastic from the oceans is a far more difficult task because the garbage is so widely dispersed. ’Fortunately’ ocean currents encourage the garbage to collect in certain parts of the oceans known as gyres. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/29/if-you-drop-plastic-in-the-ocean-where-does-it-end-up]
Gangs of small autonomous vessels could prowl the gyres looking for plastic. This could be collected and transferred to a gang master vessel for disposal. Satellites could be used for spotting large items or clusters of floating plastic. Hydrogen powered drowns could also be launched from the gang master vessel to seek out smaller items of floating plastic.
The vessels themselves could be powered by LP Turbines drawing their heat from the ocean water.
Similar teams of vessels could patrol selected river estuaries, to collect floating garbage before it drifts out to sea.
The ocean cleanup enterprise could be funded by a very modest but worldwide tax on manufactured plastic.
(B) Reducing municipal waste CO2 emissions
Any municipal waste that cannot be recycled is usually burned using air as the combustion gas.
The solid residue is buried and the combustion gases released into the atmosphere. Combustion extracts oxygen from the air and replaces it with carbon dioxide (CO2). However, capturing this CO2 is challenging because the main constituent of air is nitrogen. This remains unchanged by the combustion process and is intimately mixed with the CO2.
This is how LP Turbines could green the process:
(i) LP Turbines at the recycling centre could be used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen.
(ii) As for the beach cleaning scheme, the hydrogen would be used to fuel the rubbish collection vehicle fleet and the waste would be burned at a high temperature in pure oxygen.
(iii) Burning in pure oxygen results in the production of almost pure CO2.
(iv) Our published patents explain how LP Turbines can be used to liquefy the CO2 with the heat extracted during the liquefaction process being used to generate electricity.
(v) Potentially the CO2 that has been captured is a useful chemical resource. Currently this is not commercially attractive because converting the CO2 into other products requires an input of energy. Low cost energy generated by LP Turbines could overcome this problem.
1.13 New job opportunities for communities left behind by globalisation and automation
Artificial intelligence, computers and robotics can all replace human operators. This is a threat to jobs, especially low and semi-skilled work. Globalisation has made the problem worse because in addition to low wages, the emerging countries can keep manufacturing costs down by using dirtier, but cheaper energy.
In contrast, LP Turbines will create new jobs because low cost energy will allow us to do new things. It will also eliminate the competitive edge offered by nations run on 'dirty energy'.
Please visit this linked webpage for further details.
1.14 Heat Island and Chill Island effects
Meteorologists speak about a “heat island” effect in their weather forecasts. This refers to the higher temperatures in our towns and cities compared with the surrounding countryside. In part, the higher temperatures are caused by heat leaking from our buildings and motor vehicle engines. But the bulk of the excess temperature is caused by the materials incorporated into our buildings, roads and other artificial structures. These have a superior heat absorption and retention characteristics, compared with the natural environment.
If we use LP Turbines to locally generate sufficient electricity to meet all of our needs, including the manufacturing of hydrogen fuel, there will be a corresponding ‘chill island’ effect. Overall the balance will still favour heating, but the excess temperature will be reduced.
The balance will become a lot more complicated in the UK and other countries with cool climates, if we want to exploit LP Turbines to keep outdoor spaces warm in winter. The laws of thermodynamics prevent us from simultaneously extracting heat from the environment to run our LP Turbines, and then use this energy to keep the same environment warm.
In order to prevent a technology handicap during the early stages of an LP Turbine era, householders should be free to generate their own electricity, even in cool climates. But larger LP Turbine power stations will also be required to meet our outdoor lighting and space heating needs. [See Section 1.1 on this linked page for a suggested large LP Turbine power station design.]
[Home power generation will need to be electronically monitored for taxation purposes. The electronic system can be used to curb excessive use if some homeowners are creating an unreasonable chilling effect.]
1.15 A unique opportunity to tackle Militant Islam
Poverty and draught in Islamic countries are important recruiting sergeants for militant Islam.
LP Turbines could lift communities out of poverty by providing cheap, reliable electricity and water This would help to create jobs and offer an alternative occupation to becoming a self righteous terrorist.
But this strategy requires careful planning to avoid donor funds being stolen by corrupt officials. We make some suggestions on this linked webpage.
1.16 Geopolitics
International political influence based on oil wealth will collapse.
The main losers will be Russia and the oil rich Middle Eastern countries.
The Middle Eastern countries will have the consolation of being able to use LP Turbines to help green their deserts. But there are no hot deserts in the heavily populated parts of Russia. We offer some alternative futures for Russia on this linked page
The wealthy in Venezuela and Nigeria will initially suffer in an LP Turbine era. But LP Turbines will eventually deliver a more equitable society.
Refusing to sell the North Koreans LP Turbines will be futile, because they are so easy to copy. Instead, we should use LP Turbines as an ice breaker, encouraging North and South Korea to cooperate with other nations in exploiting their potential.
1.17 Animal spirits (consumer confidence)
Currently the trend towards renewable energy is based on fear rather than consumer appeal. - And fear does not arouse our animal spirits.
It is expensive and unreliable, but at least it might save us from global warming. Expensive energy also tends to increase inequality, because the rich can afford more of it.
In contrast, LP Turbines offer all the environment benefits of solar panels and wind turbines, but without their unreliability or cost.
Their unique combination of benefits will help to stimulate animal spirits, even among the poorest nations. ‘Fortunately’ the poorest nations are also the warmest nations. So LP turbines will give them a competitive advantage compared with many cool climate advanced states.
Hopefully, gaining more energy benefits will shatter the self fulfilling belief that poverty is an unavoidable curse of mankind.
“The poor will always be with you.” [John 12:8.] is in need of a more upbeat re-write. Low cost energy tends to reduce inequality, because, at a personal level, there are limits to what the rich can usefully do with it.
1.18 Geoengineering implications
LP Turbines cool their environment by converting heat into electricity. However, this does not result in permanent planetary cooling because all forms of energy raised by humanity, for example to power industry or drive our transport systems ends up as very low grade heat.
On the other hand, for every joule of energy raised by using LP Turbines instead of burning fossil or nuclear fuel, approximately two joules of direct planet heating is prevented. The factor of two appears because the current designs of heat engines that run on fossil or nuclear fuels are only approximately 50% efficient.
LP Turbines can be used to enhance the effectiveness of several geoengineering systems proposed by other workers. For example, they could reduce the cost per joule of cooling produced by cloud or ocean surface brightening.
LP Turbines also open up new cost effective geoengineering possibilities. Here is an example.
Thickening polar region ice shelves
Warm ocean currents are reducing the thickness of many polar region ice shelves by melting them from below.
LP Turbines offer t (at least) two methods for chilling the currents below 0oC, so that they cool the ice shelves instead of melting them.
(i) LP Turbines could be suspended underneath pontoons that are placed in the line of attack of the ocean currents. These would generate energy by extracting heat from the flowing water.
(ii) Atmospheric air could be compressed, cooled to just above -2oC (the freezing point of sea water) and injected several metres into the ocean current as air bubbles. As the bubbles rise they will expand and cool to below -2oC.
Making this proposal cost effective
The excess electricity generated by cooling the air and sea water could be used for energy consuming processes that are theoretically viable but presently commercially impractical because of the high cost of the energy required.
These processes include electrolysis for extracting minerals found in sea water and for splitting the water into hydrogen and oxygen.
An intriguing consequence of protecting the ice shelves could be a reduction in the damage done to the environment by current mineral mining and extraction processes.
Part 2
How LP Turbines will change the our lives during the next 40 years
Overview
We can group the many changes that will take place into four broad outcomes.
First Outcome: Uncertainty
There will be an initial period of uncertainty and possibly recession as the UK adapts to an LP Turbine based economy. This uncertainty will be worldwide, but will be most severely felt in the UK because it is complicated by Brexit. Britain will also suffer as an oil producing nation, with approximately 3000,000 jobs being supported by the North Sea oil and gas industry.
Second Outcome: A threat to making post Brexit trade deals
The manufacturing and agricultural sectors of all countries will change as LP Turbines transform production technology. It will be a decade or more before countries have clear ideas about what they want to achieve from trade deals with each other.
Meanwhile the free trading benefits of Brexit will remain unfulfilled.
Third Outcome: A stronger, better balanced Europe
The southern European states will gain prosperity at a faster rate than the cooler northern ones. This rebalancing of economic strength will solve many of the problems that caused ‘the will of the people’ to favour Brexit.
Fourth Outcome: A shift in world power
Sometime during the second half of this century, a dozen or more of the emerging nations will take over as the new world powers. Based on UN population predictions, this could eventually result in an independent Britain falling to 30th place as a world economic power.
It may seem bizarre at the moment, but in addition to India and China the new world powers who dominate our lives could include:
Pakistan, Indonesia,, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, The Congo, Ethiopia, Mexico, The Philippines, Vietnam, Iran, Egypt, Yemen, Uganda, Turkey, Tanzania, Thailand, Afghanistan, Columbia, Myanmar (Burma), Sudan [North + South] and Saudi Arabia.
The world will become a better place to live in, if ALL these countries become democracies. But it will only require a few of them to evolve into strongman states like President Putin’s Russia for the whole world to be plunged into an indefinite period of conflict.
As with most other products, LP Turbines will bring down the cost of manufacturing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
Hydrogen powered drones and rockets will provide complimentery delivery systems for these weapons.
Avoiding this doomsday scenario
We argue that a reformed EU needs to act as a midwife, helping to deliver democracy at the same time as LP Turbines and other technologies help to deliver material wealth to these nations.
You will find a number of suggestions for this EU role on our website. A good place to start discovering more is here.
A detailed discussion of the main outcomes
2.1 First Outcome: An initial period of uncertainty and possibly recession
This transition period could last up to five years.
We will make suggestions for reducing this transition period in our Conclusion below.
Here are some of the big questions that will only be answered during the transition:
- What will happen to the electricity supply industry during the transition?
Power generating companies risk bankrupsy if the cost of electricity tumbles and many customers start making their own electricity. Meanwhile those who cannot make their own electricity could be plunged into darkness
Private households could generate sufficient power to meet their present needs simply by extracting heat from the air. But increases in electricity demand are likely to result in the emergence of a new type of power station. [Possible designs for the new breed of power station are discussed in Section 1.1 on this linked page.]
Pension funds and other investors in the industry could take a very big hit if this transition is not handled smoothly. - What will happen to the petrochemical industries during the transition?
The large petrochemical industries may not survive if the car makers move over to using hydrogen to power their vehicles. But there will be a time lag of several years before petrol and diesel powered vehicles are phased out.
Advanced planning will be required to avoid a transport fuel crisis. - Will people in the car making industries be made redundant during the transition?
The market for new petrol and diesel powered cars will collapse if there are fears about conventional fuel supplies and radically improved car designs are on the horizon.
But there will be delays in delivering the next generation of vehicles while the manufacturers investigate the option of completely leapfrogging the hydrogen power stage in favour of installing LP Turbines as the primary power source in cars.
- Will the market for large item consumer goods suffer?
Energy accounts for a large fraction of the manufacturing and delivery costs of most consumer goods. Customers may delay making new purchases until shop prices have fallen.
- Will the construction industry stop building?
Raw materials for the building industry such as bricks, glass, cement and steel could fall by about 20% in price when energy prices fall. Until these new lower prices are delivered, the building industry could fall into recession. - Will any other industries suffer a short term loss of revenue?
One way or another, most industries will take a short term hit.
Here are two examples:
(i) The defense industries will see a fall in demand from Middle Eastern buyers as their oil revenues plummet.
(ii) Work on building new computer server centres will be delayed until the industry decides on the best way of exploiting LP Turbine cooling.
- Will our public services have to make further cuts?
Government income from taxes will take a temporary hit as people are made redundant and taxation sources dry up.
The NHS, social services, education, the prisons and other public services could suffer as a consequence. - How will governments get through this uncertainty period?
Governments may need to borrow money on international markets to compensate for the tax losses. They will also need to cover exceptional costs such as supporting or nationalising weakened power generating, petrochemical and car making companies. There will also be pension fund problems if shares in many of our large companies collapse. - Will an independent UK, free of the shackles of the EU find it easy to borrow money?
Borrowing conditions will be challenging and Brexit will make the problem worse.
This is why: (i) The demand for borrowed money will increase
All of the advanced economies will suffer a temporary tax loss and will be competing to borrow money on the international markets.
(ii) The supply of money for lending will fall.
The oil producing Middle Eastern countries will take their funds out of the money markets to support their own reconstruction in the post-oil era.
(ii) Britain has lost its triple A international credit rating as a consequence of the the Brexit vote.
Following the general election, it looks destined to fall further. - Bill Courtney is so concerned about the short term economic threats posed by LP Turbines that he has written to the Bank of England and the European Systems Risk Board (July 2017), alerting them to the incidental risks that the rapid development of LP Turbines would pose.
2 Second Outcome:
A threat to future trade deals as Britain leaves the EU
According to the Brexit argument, the prompt signing of new trade deals is seen as the key to Britain’s future prosperity. Bu all of the uncertainties discussed in Section 2.1 above mean that there will be a delay of several years while the new economic realities bed in.
The most striking feature is that many countries will become more self sustaining.
This table indicates the new factors encouraging self sufficiency.
|
Resource requirement |
How LP Turbines will support self sufficienyt |
|
Fuel for electricity, heating & transport |
Importing fossil fuels or electricity will not be necessary. |
|
Reduced product costs |
Low energy costs, combined with increased automation will reduce the attraction of cheap imported goods. |
|
Fresh fruit and vegetables |
Vertical farms will grow produce locally. |
|
Metals and other minerals |
Recycling costs will fall, reducing the demand for imported materials. The cost of extracting minerals from sea water will fall. |
|
Water security for farming |
LP turbines offer a range of solutions to water shortage problems. |
|
Fertilisers & other chemicals |
LP Turbines will reduce the costs of synthesising chemicals. |
|
Building materials |
The cost of locally manufactured glass, cement, bricks and other building materials will fall. |
Self sufficiency will not crush international trade, but it will shift the exchanges to more sophisticated products and services.
Nobody will want to start talking about trade deals with us until both sides know what they want to trade.
Ironically by the time trade negotiations begin, the will of the living referendum voters may have tipped over in favour of remain. [See 'The First Time Bomb' on this linked page.]
2.3 Third Outcome:
LP Turbines could deliver similar benefits to Brexit, but without the upheaval of leaving the EU
There are many things wrong with the current EU and there were good reasons for a majority in favour of leave.
Here are the most powerful arguments in favour of Brexit:
* We need to stop excessive EU migration destroying our local cultures, * We should get out quick before a major Euro currency crisis brings the whole EU down, * We are paying far more into EU funds than we are getting out, * The EU is a bureaucratic nightmare that saps our economic vitality.
* A more subtle worry is that mainland Europe has drifted into energy dependency on Russia at a time when Russia is also the greatest military threat to Europe. This could result in Britain being called upon to contribute to a new EU army.
Sadly escaping from these problems by leaving Europe comes at a very high price. It is dividing the country with older voters favouring Brexit and young voters wanting to remain. It also threatens to split the United Kingdom with Scotland and Northern Ireland going their own ways.
The LP Turbine alternative to Brexit
LP Turbines could revitalise Europe and break its addiction to Russian energy.
I Revitalising Europe
By a curious coincidence, Latent Power Turbines offer the most benefits to those economically weak EU countries that are threatening to bring the EU down.
[What follows is a pure coincidence: the inventor can take no credit for planning this rebalancing of Europe.]
LP Turbines will increase the level of prosperity throughout the whole of Europe. But they will bring most benefits to the southern European countries that have high unemployment rates.
Figure 6. The Euro crisis will not go away until the countries with high rates of unemployment can improve their economic performance. Theoretically, the most promising way of doing this would be for them to abandon the Euro. But this solution would create even bigger problems that could result in the collapse of the whole EU.
Fortunately, all of these struggling countries have hot summer Mediterranean climates. This allows them to gain more benefits from LP Turbines than cooler northern Euro zone countries such as the Netherlands and Germany.
Figure 7. The struggling Euro zone counties also enjoy the mixed blessing of hot dry summers.
But, in the words of the old song, LP Turbines could help them to
“Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative”
aspects of their climates.
These sunny southern states would enjoy:
- Low cost clean energy
- Low cost hydrogen for vehicle fuel
- Free air conditioning
- Low cost desalinated water
- An expansion in their glasshouse horticultural industries
- An opportunity to take the lead in developing new products for arid climates.
For example, the Greek shipping industry could build novel pontoon structures that exploit LP Turbines. Here is a draft design:
Figure 8. A pontoon version of a solar powered LP Turbine power station would provide moorings for boats. The electricity generated could be used for desalinating sea water and splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen, with the hydrogen being used as fuel for marine vessels.
The oxygen liberated could be used as a therapy for people with breathing problems such as emphysema and could also be used in scuba tanks.
Entrepreneurs could exploit the concentrated sea water for hydrotherapy, [evaporation makes the tank water saltier and more buoyant, as in the Dead Sea https://www.seasalt.com/salt-101/dead-sea-salt-benefits/] and other tourist attractions.
The boom in Southern Europe will favour an increase in the value of the Euro.
A relative fall in the value of Sterling caused by increased confidence in the Euro would do far more to stimulate investment in the British economy, compared with the Pound falling in value, thanks to the uncertainties caused by Brexit.
II Breaking Europe's addiction to Russian energy
LP Turbines will allow power to be generated without burning fossil fuels and some of the electricity can be used to produce hydrogen as a clean alternative to natural gas.
As Europe throws off its dependence on Russian energy, President Putin's oil related power will also decline. This will eliminate any need for a European army.
How the UK will benefit from helping to solve Europe's problems
- Reduced immigration problems
EU citizens will have less incentive to come to Britain if they have better job prospects in their home countries.
- Reduced worries about a future Euro zone crisis
Improved economic growth in the southern European countries will reduce the imbalance between strong northern and weak southern Euro zone economies. This will allow the Euro to work better for everyone.
- Reduced UK contribution to the EU budget
As the weaker EU economies become richer, their contributions to the EU budget will increase. This will allow the UK to make a strong case for paying in less.
- A reduced EU directive burden
In many instances, LP Turbines will allow economic forces, rather than EU directives to bring about environmental improvements.
Reforming politicians could seize this unique opportunity to bring about a general reduction in the burden of EU directives.
- Improved export opportunities for British businesses
Currently we import a lot more than we sell to the rest of Europe. As Europe becomes wealthier, our fellow Europeans are likely to buy more from us.
The revere of these arguments is also true. - LP Turbines will weaken Britain's Brexit negotiating hand.
The British government argues that we can win a good deal with Europe because, "Europe needs us as much as we need the EU."
But all this will change if LP Turbines bring increased prosperity to Europe and its trade with the UK becomes less important.
2.4 Fourth Outcome:
During the second half of this century, the currently emerging nations will take over as the new world powers.
For a benign period of 20 years or so, improved job prospects in the developing countries will reduce the flow of economic migrants to the EU.
But what happens next could be a nasty shock because the world is tipping in their favour.
Populations in the developing countries are growing, while those in Europe, the USA, Japan and other strong democracies are ageing.
Using UN population predictions for 2050, here are the emerging nations that could become the superpowers that dominate an ‘independent’ Britain.
This threat is so serious, we will repeat the warning and list of countries involved.
India, t China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, The Congo, Ethiopia, Mexico, The Philippines, Vietnam, Iran, Egypt, Yemen, Uganda, Turkey, Tanzania, Thailand, Afghanistan, Columbia, Myanmar (Burma), Sudan [North + South], tSaudi Arabia.
The threats
- It will only require two or three of these new superpowers to imitate the bullying strongman tactics of Putin’s Russia for the world to drift into a period of prolonged bloody conflict.
- Applying sanctions will be less of a deterrent than it is today because LP Turbines combined with other modern technologies will allow any sufficiently determined nation to become self sufficient.
- The evidence from North Korea indicates that even small countries could become a threat to world peace if they become wealthy thanks to modern technology, but opt for strongman rulers, instead of democratic government.
For a more detailed discussion of these long term threats see “The second and third Brexit Time bombs” on this linked page of our website.
3 How LP Turbines will change the our lives
beyond the next 50 years
LP Turbines will support the provision of sustainable clean energy, fresh water, living space and food. They will also allow the low cost recycling of finite mineral resources.
Ultimately this will help to defuse the population expansion time bomb, allowing homo sapiens to live in balanced harmony with the rest of nature.
4 Conclusions
LP Turbines offer a radically new method of producing low cost clean energy. They can operate 24/7 and will displace other methods of generating clean energy such as wind turbines and solar cells from the market.
In order to minimise the damage to humanity caused by carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, the transition to LP Turbine generated energy must be made as rapidly as possible. This will also reduce the period of economic uncertainty as we move to a post-carbon economy.
4.1 Government planning
During the transitional period governments and industry will need to think boldly in order to minimise the temporary problems that will be created.
One option would be for the car makers and other manufacturers to make a temporary switch to manufacturing LP Turbines. But before doing so, they will need to cooperate in pre-competitive research.
New car dealers could also make a temporary switch to selling LP Turbines.
Early legislation will probably be needed, requiring all LP Turbines to be fitted with secure smart power monitoring meters. These would provide data for taxation purposess.
Temporary restrictions on sales to the general public may be necessary until plans for the new power generating networks are in place.
Meanwhile the demand for cheaper electricity could be met by using LP Turbines to improve the efficiency of existing power stations.
Figure 10. Any industry that generates waste heat could cut its electricity bills by using similar systems to convert heat into electricity.
4.2 The Brexit question
There are four reasons why Latent Power Turbines are not compatible with Brexit.
- All countries will suffer uncertainty and possibly recession during the transition to a LP Turbine economy. But the UK will suffer more than most because of the parallel uncertainty caused by Brexit.
- Britain’s hand will be weakened during the Brexit trade deal negotiations because LP Turbines will make the remaining EU countries less dependent on the UK for trade.
- Striking new trade deals with other countries will be delayed because it will take several years for countries to work out what their new trading strengths and needs are.
- In the long term, an independent Britain will be exposed to new threats as it slides down the ranking of economic powers.
On the other hand, staying in the EU will be more acceptable to voters because LP Turbines will make the EU countries more prosperous and ease migration pressures on the UK.
The role of our company Latent Power Turbines Ltd in speeding up the transition to an LP Turbine economy.
We own the intellectual property relating to LP Turbines.
We envisage LP Turbines being manufactured on a franchise model, with any number of manufacturers worldwide taking out franchises. (Subject to UK or UN sanctions not being breached.)
We need a larger company to take over our business and work on this or similar agreed business model. The company concerned will need to have a good track of business innovation and an ability to move swiftly.
Please get in touch if you think that this means you.
In order to deliver the best outcome for the British people, the UK government needs to abandon its Brexit plans and take the lead in developing a reenergised Europe 2.0.
This new Europe must then act as a midwife, helping to deliver democracy the emerging nations.