Energy can be harnessed from the most unexpected sources. As traditional energy sources are marred with strong caveats from limited availability to somber environmental impacts, novel sustainable solutions are in dire need for development.
Sustainability entails a delicate balance among availability, accessibility, efficiency and consequence. Fossil fuels provide easy solutions for the first three criteria, at a dire cost in the fourth. Classical “clean” sources provide stellar solutions in all but the third criterium. Nuclear fission is highly efficient, but poses serious consequential risks with potential to affect the generations to come.
Nuclear fusion has the potential to succeed in all four criteria. However, we can already harness its energy from a massive fusion source: our Sun. As the technologies to efficiently harness solar energy are further improving, this source is increasingly becoming a major player in sustainable energy solutions.
While efficient solutions exist to harness energy from steady or smoothly varying flows, it remains rather elusive to harness resonant energy spikes such as those associated to lightnings, wind gusts, breaking waves and overwhelmingly exo-energetic chemical reactions.
The evaluation of the potential energy that can be sustainably harnessed whilst optimising the aforementioned core criteria, including in highly resonant conditions, is the key mission of Meteoceanics Energy & Sustainability.