Harvest the Elements: From Extreme Weather to Extreme Resource

Harvest the Elements

Abstract

Tackling the world’s largest problems is about flipping the current vantage point and approaching it with innovation. One of the largest phenomena decimating our infrastructure today is natural disaster. Currently, we are viewing solutions as a mitigatory “minimize the damage” philosophy instead of an opportunistic “harvest its power” approach. The latter is what this proposal offers. Natural disasters are all-powerful and it is power that we are looking to harvest for sustainable energy, right? Instead of avoiding extreme weather at all costs (extremely high costs, in fact) let’s investigate how to tackle them head on and harvest their power into manageable forms of energy. Imagine a world where floods, tides, waves, sun and tornadoes are the power sources fueling our world. That world is closer than we think…

In this proposal we will highlight multiple methods of capturing extreme weather and converting it into extreme power. Additionally, we will investigate how to mitigate damage of extreme weather on the energy grid and stress from the heterogenous players on the grid. These solutions will have the end result of eco-friendly cost savings that are inclusive to the populations around it.

Harvesting energy from Natural Disasters - Heterogeneous Sources

Flooding

Floods have the power to decimate entire cities, reducing apartment complexes to rubble. Floods also have the power to provide significant energy to those cities and apartment complexes if that power can be captured and transformed into hydroelectricity. We can do so by installing netting systems with miniature water mill gears. Imagine a volleyball net – each corner of the inner webbing houses a gear. Each line of the net is composed of waterproof fiber optic cables carrying energy from the gear system towards the poles where the energy is transferred below ground to the energy grid. Every time these gears spin, it harvests energy using the same mechanics as a large-scale water mill. The reason why this is a viable option instead of placing entire watermills in cities is 1. The obvious obstruction of the large watermill and lack of space in cities 2. These are portable, stored in locked storage units near the poles, and can be immediately attached to their poles which are pre-installed. There is another option for the poles to be stored elsewhere with the netting and installed on demand only in preparation for an oncoming flood. The holes in which the poles are secured in the ground are pre installed either way and are the port for the energy to transfer to the ground. In the portable pole model, the in-ground ports would be covered by a cement lid (think sewer covers but ¼ of the size) that is removable to allow the pole to insert itself and attach to the underground grid, transporting the electricity harnessed from the net.

This technology allows multiple modifications to best suit the environment. Two of these options are listed below:

1. Existing traffic lights can be reinforced with steel to withstand flood damage. The existing power lines will be amended to carry the hydropower harvested through the miniature gears on the net and will travel down through the poles underground to the attached grid. The nets will be installed from traffic light to traffic light perpendicular to the origin of the flooding water.

2. Another option is a larger water mill system installed below ground in high-frequency flooding zones. Larger gears can be installed below ground, just under the cement and when floods come in, they are elevated to the surface (like water sprinklers that retract underground when not in use). These gears are attached to a below ground energy system that is safe from any weather elements and harvest the energy from the flood at a high efficiency. They are attached to the energy grid directly as described below in further detail. Depending on the natural disaster, this battery storing generator varies on positioning and construction. This will be explained below.

Tides and Waves

Imagine the power tides and waves have right near shore. They can knock over even the strongest of humans and they can literally reshape stone. This extreme power needs to be harvested. Tides are incessant. They are abundant. They are everywhere and they are all-powerful. We need to capture their energy. We can do so by installing the netting systems with mini water mill gears. This could be installed in two ways:

1. This can be installed using the same pre-installed underground ports that are attached to underground electrical grids. The poles are installed near the water at low tide and the high tide flows through the entire net system maximizing the gears turned. For beaches that are uninhabited, this system can be permanently fixed and capture electricity daily without the need for daily labor installation.

2. The second option is a more portable version. There are concrete anchors that are transported to the beach. These anchors have slots for the poles to be inserted and they also have a port for a fiber optic cable to be connected to 1. A portable battery or 2. The energy grid (i.e., traffic lights or the nearest location that the energy grid reaches).

The disturbance of nature is an obvious potential problem. This will be avoided by installing the nets in waters that fish are not present - shallow waters near shore on the ocean will help avoid this problem. Leaving enough space in gaps from one net to the next will allow the option for animals to travel around the nets. For any aquatic life on the seafloor, there will be space left for them to travel beneath the netting without disturbance. Another precautionary step that will be taken is a natural animal repellent infused on the cables to repel any aquatic life. This will organically dissolve in the water. Examples of this are cinnamon, lavender and citrus. Fish dislike these scents and they all are natural ingredients leaving no harm behind.

This same hydroelectric netting technology can be applied to any sea vessel. Cruise ships for instance can drag these nets behind the boat capturing energy. Ocean dwelling oil rigs can hang the nets off of the rig and the waves create energy in the gears which is transferred through the fiber optic cables to the energy source of the ship. It will be held just below the surface and installed with eco-friendly sealife repellant to ensure animals don’t get caught in them.

Tornados

There are windmills transforming wind into electricity every day. This wind produces energy from inputs as low as a few kilometers per hour, but imagine the energy harvested from tornado and hurricane wind speeds of up to 200 km/hr. The current windmills in a tornado would be torn apart with the excessive torque placed on the fragile wings. This is because of its long, rigid lever that provides great resistance to high winds and would be decimated by a tornado. However, a more feasible system would have lower resistance and can bend and flow with the winds while allowing gusts to pass through. This system would be a netting with thousands of miniature windmills in them. This net provides some resistance (which is necessary to capture the power of the winds and convert into energy) but not enough to cause it to be torn apart. An example of this technology is a highly durable fiber optic cable connected as a net. Imagine a series of volleyball nets stacked vertically and horizontally in hexagonal groups (to capture the wind from all different directions). These nets would be filled with the strongest materials that lack rigidity to allow some type of bend against the harsh winds. They would also have enough strength to resist the wind and provide power for the mini gears spinning with such speed from the high winds – they would capture tremendous amounts of energy.

Rain

This same volleyball net renewable energy technology can be used to harvest rain energy. The same exact principles of water rushing through a membrane of spinning gears causing electromagnetic energy conversion passing through waterproof fiber optic cables into an energy grid. These can be installed as stacked layers with custom spacing, creating incredibly dense groupings of energy harvesters. This energy capture is particularly interesting because it taps into hydroelectricity and gravity powering the water droplets. It can be installed as easily as hanging Christmas lights and it taps into a commonly occurring energy source. This can be the most personalized and common household items of the group. The same poles that the netting is attached to is transporting the energy down into the underground energy grid, a portable generator or directly into the household power source. In urban settings where space is limited, the nets will be placed next to the edge of the roof to have concentrated rain runoff as the power input.

Sound Waves

Similar technologies can be applied to thunder, noise pollution, concerts and factories. Sounds are composed of waves. What we view as excessive noise is actually powerful waves that we cannot see. Just like harvesting energy from waves in the ocean and tide from the shore, we can capture waves in a less traditional sense. Think of the pain that is caused in our ears from loud bursts of noise. This is not imaginary, just because we cannot see it does not mean it is not tangible and powerful. It is extremely powerful and it is limitless. It’s time that we tap into another abundantly powerful source of energy. The science behind this exists and involves converting the energy from soundwaves into electromagnetic energy. This captures a “spin current” in between metal layers which is then transported to the energy grid or a super battery.

Grid Revamp

Now that we have solutions for converting extreme weather conditions into newfound sources of energy in the grid, we need to investigate how to mitigate stress overload from all of these heterogeneous sources of energy combining into one grid. This solution involves a different physical layout of the grid, different physics principles, more efficient energy storage and more efficient energy transmission.

Stress on the Grid

Structural layout

Underground - The first principle is protection from the elements. One mitigatory method to protect the electrical grid from disastrous elements is providing physical barriers. One way to do this is by installing the grid sites underground. This provides natural protection from floods, storms, fires, tornados, extreme temperatures and natural disasters of the like.

1. A similar effect can be created by covering the above ground facility with soil to create a hill encapsulating the power centers. This hill can then be covered in solar panels to harness further energy. This natural hill cover provides the added layer of temperature regulation in addition to the weather protection. Excess concrete is becoming a problem and this provides an outlet to transform concrete into a value-added protective layer fortifying the hill from natural elements and providing further insulatory temperature regulation.

2. The underground structure also allows for containment of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is a method of energy storage that is potentially dangerous, yet extremely effective given that it can store more energy in smaller spaces. This greater efficiency would help alleviate overload on the electrical grid by storing and tapping into this energy. It would need to be properly converted and highly contained. This method of underground grid would allow for increased containment and the nuclear site could have its own chambers separated from the main grid in case of spill.

Benefits on Vi and Ri of Underground structure

Temperature regulation - Earth presents a coolant for that underneath it. It blocks a significant portion of heat that passes through the air. By having an underground electrical grid and electrical facility, this allows for much less energy expended to cool the facility and cooler conditions that are far more regulated to begin with. This saves money and decreases the likelihood of malfunction from the system overheating.

The aforementioned proposal would do wonders to improve the Vi and Ri. Essentially all weather related hazards are mitigated through proper protective insulation of the earth and concrete or other applied material layers. These layers shed water, resist temperature and all natural disaster elements. The hill apex provides watershed and flood damage mitigation by displacing the water elsewhere.

One thing that isn’t covered is earthquakes, which can be mitigated through shock absorbing foundation pillars. This lends itself to the hill model where the foundation is elevated from the earth’s surface by shock absorbing cylinders. The area surrounding the structure can be filled in with weather proofed insulating layers and sealants to continue with the weather resistant model but the multitude of shock absorptive columns will be plentiful to support such structures while allowing protection from earthquakes.

Overall there are two proposed models that protect energy grids from natural disasters. These both improve Vi and Ri through technology and architectural principles that currently exist. They have large overlap, with many shared pros and each model addresses cons of the other. These are a product of their environment and will be strategically selected by the types and frequency of environmental hazards. For instance, high temperature, high tornado environments lend themselves to the below ground structure as the insulation and wind protection neutralizes both of those hazards. For earthquake impacted environments, the hill structure with shock absorptive foundational pillars has a larger positive effect on the resilience and restoration KPI’s. The proposed models provide exceptional KPI protection for nearly all of nature's extremes.

Electricity Transportation

We currently have centralized energy generators distributing energy along the grid far and wide. This causes great stress on the grid making it susceptible to breaking points, loss of energy and high maintenance costs. Long-distance, high-tension cabling accounts for up to 30% of electrical costs in certain cases because of these factors.

The solution to this is a new, modernized decentralized grid system. This system contains two principles: decreased length of electricity transportation and increased efficiency.

The decreased length of electricity transportation comes from pocketed hubs (10 square kilometers). These hubs are completely self-sufficient and can stand on their own. They will have the function to connect to the national energy grid and act as their own peaker to sell excess energy to the larger grid. Each hub is comprised of:

1. Renewal Energy Harvesters - including hydro and wind nets as described above and solar photovoltaic cells. These are installed with each participating structure (house, factory, commercial space etc.). They are connected to the underground grid and can either be a self-sustaining unit or can sell its extra energy to the hub’s grid. The hub then totals its entire pocket’s net energy and can either sell or purchase excess energy from the national grid depending on the amount of production/consumption of its pocket.

2. Nucleus Hub - The nucleus hub is where the energy ultimately is sent to. This is the underground facility that controls everything. It is the central command center of this operation. It has the most modernized, high-efficiency battery storage cells, converters to receive each type of energy and transport it to the battery and a distribution center to send all of the energy to its end destination for consumption.

3. Distribution Center - the distribution center is like a railroad for electricity. It stems from a centralized station but can deliver to a wide variety of end destinations based on the route it takes. More information on this is described below.

Inclusivity

This grid allows everyone to participate in not only electricity purchasing, but electricity creation. The excess energy per household or business can be sold back to the pocket hub. This is where the excess electricity is sent and the meters read the input/output to adjust the monthly payment.

The second part of the electricity transportation solution is more efficient energy transportation. The distribution system is made up of decentralized nucleus hub stations and pathways of electricity transportation.

The decentralized nucleus hub stations are miniature versions of the command centers described above. They either receive electrical input from the command center and transport it along to the end destination (like arteries) or they receive electricity from the above ground energy sources returning excess energy to the command center (like veins). In the case of the arteries, the mini hubs pass the current on to the end destination or the subsequent mini hub. In the case of the veins, they convert the form the energy came from (i.e., hydro) into the easiest transportable form for the command center.

These mini hubs have the added benefit of redirecting the electrical current to wherever the shortest possible distance is for consumption. Instead of going all the way back to the command center, they are controlled to redirect to the nearest above ground structure that will consume that energy. This is an example of the agile train tracks of underground electrical transmission.

The underground earth protection allows for further conduction as other waves and air particles are prevented from interfering. It also provides extreme weather protection and temperature regulation.

Electricity Transportation (Fiber Optic and Wireless)

This brings us to the actual form in which the energy is being transported. Instead of above ground electrical wires that are exposed to the elements – natural disasters, artificial disasters and extreme temperatures – these avenues will be below ground providing protection from all of those factors. There are two types of transfer that will be used in this proposal. One is simply a better version of what is commonly used above and below ground for power transportation. The other is a completely new method that is theoretically the future of energy transportation.

The first is underground fiber optic cables. These have more protection than above ground wiring and have faster transmission rates than the copper underground feeders. These cables will be installed along the lines of every train track, vein and artery.

The second technology is wireless transportation. We have wireless power transfer sitting in our pockets. If we can accomplish it at such a small scale, imagine the power that can be transferred from much more powerful sources. Distance is a current barrier to this solution and that is why this system will rely on vacuums. Vacuums have no resistance and can facilitate long distance energy transfer at rapid speeds and efficiencies. This allows for maximum energy transfer speed, minimal loss and optimal efficiency across distances. The mini hubs will be replicated to connect to the wireless energy transfer. The wireless energy transfer will be passed along the entire train track from command center to end destination. For now, it will be converted to nonmetallic (NM) cables found in homes today, but in the future, wireless hubs will be installed in every home and will charge all devices without cables.

Conclusion

Revolutionary improvements to the energy grid are becoming a necessity. The current rise of occurrences and magnitudes of extreme weather events are accelerating and leading to a rise in the importance of mitigation. The technological advancements in energy systems place us in a position to transform our grid system. This proposal provides a viable solution to capture energy from extreme weather events (floods, tides, tornados, wind, sound waves) and convert them into efficient, safe forms of energy with a higher network resilience index (Ir). This is a necessary advancement as the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that 58% of installed energy sources will be derived from renewable energies. This increased reliance combined with rising climate change requires improved renewable energy systems that ensure a safe, efficient and sustainable future of global energy.