Lifeboat has published an interesting view of what the world energy situation could look like in 2020 It was written by Jose Luis Cordeiro, M.Sc., MBA
Some main things envisions being developed:
Cars with electrical engines with nanobatteries for hybrid cars with flexi-fuel engines. (EFH electric-flex-hybrid” cars)
Synthetic bacteria that efficiently produced hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide and water under controlled lighting.
Chicken meat grown from chicken stem cells and beef grown in factories. They hold the potential to be cheaper to produce and more environmentally and health friendly.
Robotic “spiders” to build large-scale structures in space such as solar power satellites.
I agree with most the general themes of the paper except I think that nuclear fission will and should be a larger part of the near and mid-term energy solution. Thorium reactors and massed produced fission reactors
Within ten years we will have various ways to get environmentally benign cars and transportation. We can revolutionize food production efficiency and healthiness with factory produced meat including fish. I think space power can be done better with magnetically inflated structures along with robotic and magnetic construction.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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