6)
Leading
Scientists and Thinkers on Energy - Thomas F. Valone
David Houle, Evolutionshift, September 21, 2007
http://www.evolutionshift.com/blog/2007/09/21/leading-scientists-and-thinkers-on-energy-thomas-f-valone/
In this eighth installment of our on-going series of interviews with some of
the leading thinkers and scientists on the subject of energy, we interview Dr.
Thomas Valone.
Facing and solving the multiple issues concerning energy is the single most
pressing problem that we face as a species. There is a lot of media coverage
about energy, alternative energy and global warming, but what has been missing
is the knowledge and point of view of scientists, at least in the main stream
media. If you have missed the first seven interviews, please scroll down the
right side of the page and click on ‘Scientists – Interviews’.
Dr. Thomas Valone is a physicist and licensed professional engineer with 30
years professional experience, is a patent examiner, research engineer,
instrumentation designer and also an author, lecturer, and consultant on future
energy developments. He is President and founder of Integrity Research Institute
and formerly a community college teacher and a Research Director for Scott
Aviation-ATO, Inc. He helped design the HullCom® for naval intraship
communication, a 60 Hz gaussmeter without harmonic distortion, two bioelectric
therapy devices, and a dental mercury vapor ionizer-precipitator. He is editor
of Future Energy, Energetic Processes Vol. I & II, Turning the
Corner: Energy Solutions for the 21st Century and a few conference
proceedings, as well as author of Zero Point Energy: The Fuel of the
Future, Practical Conversion of Zero-Point Energy, Homopolar Handbook,
Electrogravitics Vol. 1 & II, Bioelectromagnetic Healing, Bush-Cheney Energy
Study, Clinton Administration Energy Study and about 100 published
reports and articles. He has also served as an expert witness, an expert
declaration writer for court cases and appeared on CNN, A&E, and the
Discovery Channels, besides a few commercial energy videos. Currently, Dr.
Valone is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the
Bioelectromagnetics Society, the National Space Society and the Unlon of
Concerned Scientists. He is also a Fellow of the World Innovation Foundation.
His works have been published in German, French, Korean and English.
I met Tom at the Foundation for the Futures’ conference on the future of
energy (http://www.futurefoundation.org/) and
was taken with his positive outlook and the fact that he has been a patent
examiner.
Evolutionshift.com: As a scientist and patent examiner you
are in superlative company. Any other similarities with Albert Einstein?
Seriously, how does your work with the government patent office compliment your
scientific work and research?
VALONE: Any comments that I make in this regard do not
reflect the views of the US Patent and Trademark Office and are only my personal
viewpoints as a private citizen. Of course, when a recent biography of Einstein
was aired on the PBS channel, I was happy to watch, being a physicist and patent
examiner. However, I learned from the narrator that “Einstein was employed at a
dead-end job at the Swiss Patent Office” before he was freed by publishing three
seminal journal articles and receiving other job offers. The work at the US PTO
often feels like a dead-end, repetitive job since it is piecemeal, production
work with no job security. However, I have tried to follow in Einstein’s
footsteps, who was born in the same month as I was, by taking General Relativity
as a physics graduate student years ago, using it for analyzing non-inertial
reference frames in my physics Master’s thesis on the homopolar generator, and
recently by buying the book “How to Think Like an Einstein”, and also writing a
PhD thesis on zero point energy performance of useful work from the quantum
vacuum. This last work, which I hid in my drawer at the Patent Office just like
Einstein did, has evolved into the popular book, Zero Point Energy: The Fuel of
the Future, which presents practical suggestions for converting ZPE into
electricity. That’s where the ability to search the scientific and patent
literature comes in handy…finding science and engineering inventions in a
particular field and thus doing ‘due diligence.’
Evolutionshift.com: You presentation at the Foundation for
the Futures’ future of energy conference was one of the more urgent
presentations about the need for alternative energy sources. How urgent is the
global energy situation?
VALONE: To answer the urgency question, we have to realize
just one of the IPCC findings. That is, with every single degree of global
temperature increase, there is a whole category on the average of increase in
hurricane strength. We have already experienced this in our lifetime. A category
5 hurricane now will suck enough energy from the ocean to become a category 6,
etc. The melting of the Antarctic and most importantly, the Greenland ice sheets
is not only inevitable, according to a climate chart published by MIT’s
Technology Review in July, 2006, but roughly equals the 80 meters of
extraordinary sea level rise that is predicted by that calibrated chart. As
fossil fuels continue to push carbon dioxide levels past the 400, 500 and the
expected 700 ppm levels, we are entering new, uncharted territory on an earth
that has not exceeded such levels in 400,000 years. We really need to introduce
a completely clean and inexpensive source of energy for electricity, such as a
zero point energy diode generator, in the next ten years to have any hope of
revolutionizing the climate and energy usage.
Evolutionshift.com: Do you believe in Peak Oil? When will
we be passing through it and when might the planet run out of oil?
VALONE: Peak Oil is not a matter of belief. It is a fact
that Hubbert established to everyone’s satisfaction by predicting the United
States’ peak of oil production twenty five years before it happened. His
prediction for the world oil production has all the experts arguing about the
give-or-take of only a couple of decades! That’s how close the tolerance is for
Hubbert’s Peak. In other words, we are actually experiencing the maximum oil
production that the world can sustain at the present time: about 72 million
barrels of oil per day. This black, dead fossil liquid consumption by living
human beings is on the same order of magnitude as the water flow over the
American Falls in New York State, where I grew up. The only direction for this
rate is downward. The U.A.E. presently is preparing for their Peak Oil by
investing heavily in tourism resorts near Dubai and by building islands in the
ocean with mansions on them. Technically, to answer the second question, the
planet will never run out of oil. However, as Nikola Tesla pointed out, we won’t
be able to continue burning it for fuel for the sake of our future
generations.
Evolutionshift.com: What are the best sources of
alternative energy for the next 20 years?
VALONE: The best sources of alternative energy for the next
20 years depends upon what application is in mind. The top of the list has to
include photovoltaic solar electricity. I recently wrote an article in the
Integrity Research Institute’s Annual Report about a “Revolution in Solar
Energy” which summarizes the latest discoveries. The ability to generate more
than one electron from a photon of light, has now been demonstrated by Los
Alamos labs. Alan Heeger , who won the 2000 Nobel Prize for his co-discovery of
electrically conducting polymers, and his colleagues at the University of
California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), have recently created process for multiple
layers of plastic PV material with flexibility and high efficiency. The company
Konarka based in Lowell, MA is the one to watch. Their polymer PV cells can even
generate electricity with background room lighting. Another source of
alternative energy that is on my “best” list is the permanent magnet motor,
utilizing the ‘magnetic gradient.’ IRI has a spiral stator design that improves
upon the old Kure Tekko Japanese patents of the 1970’s with several innovative
magnetic pulsing techniques. We can foresee the day when a magnetic car will
compete favorably with the electric car, since it will not need recharging.
Geothermal energy is another ‘best’ and ubiquitous source of energy that has
been highly recommended for municipalities and centralized power. Another
favorite of mine is zero point energy, since I have performed a feasibility
study and found that ‘zero bias’ diodes are manifesting the rectified
electricity which we all desire for a generator. The quantum vacuum continually
generates random non-thermal noise (called ‘zero point energy’) in solid state
devices, causing tunneling and electron flow. It is time to start using this
free energy source in a big way. The end product will have a construction, much
like the tiny LEDs in our flat screen televisions, with millions of diodes all
transducing zero point energy into electron current. For the application of
medium to large industrial plants, I recommend the conversion of waste heat into
electricity. The company, Primary Energy, headed by Tom Casten, has a wonderful
offer they cannot refuse: allow him to build the electrical generation plant on
site and they save about half on all future electricity bills. Other promising
alternative energy sources include off-shore wind generators, tidal generators,
and ocean current electrical generators. For the transportation sector, I
advocate compressed air cars and plug-in electric cars, which are making their
debut in every other country but the US. The US, as you might remember, is the
country and GM is the company “Who Killed the Electric Car.” This debacle of
purposely crushing every leased EV-1 electric car by GM is now recorded on DVD
(by SONY Classic Pictures) for historical posterity. As Europe, Iceland, and
other countries become energy independent and non-polluting, our EPA has yet to
declare CO2 an environmental pollutant.
Evolutionshift.com: How soon do you these sources
significantly impacting the world’s use of fossil fuels? What can be done to
accelerate the timelines?
VALONE: As mentioned above, the US EPA is at fault, just as
the California Air Quality Board was in 2002, for not standing up to the most
problematic greenhouse gas and limiting its emission rate. Once legislation has
been passed, the industrial sector has proven its ability to adapt, which will
accelerate the timelines. As was the case in the 1970’s after the first Mid-East
Oil Embargo, the US has the will power and the resourcefulness to put into
practice the conservation mandates that are recommended by government. For
example, conservation has not been advocated recently but back then it was and
the US responded by almost a 50% savings in energy consumption. Today the
Alliance to Save Energy here in DC is famous for “Energy Efficiency” forums,
awards and programs. As Amory Lovins points out, it is easier and cheaper to
save energy than to generate it. Therefore, to answer the question, in the short
term, we can significantly impact this country’s use of fossil fuels, while the
5 to 10 year lag of development of zero-fuel devices takes place.
Evolutionshift.com: What might be the sources of
alternative energy longer term? What do you see that is promising?
VALONE: As mentioned above, for the longer term, zero point
energy devices will be developed and are foreseen by many experts to permanently
solve the energy problem, also making practical space travel possible. Cold
fusion devices will also become available, along with other exotic sources of
energy, such as the pB-11 plasma focus fusion under development at the
University of Illinois. Still, the biggest breakthrough for the future has to be
the Konarka multi-layer polymer solar cell which is predicted to be inserted
into almost everything, since it generates electricity from ambient room
light.
Evolutionshift.com: Why is cold fusion so promising? Hasn’t
the scientific community at large ridiculed it? Please explain to my readers
why significant resources should be directed toward developing this type of
energy?
VALONE: The International Conference on Cold Fusion is
scheduled for Washington DC in 2008 for the first time and I look forward to
participating in it. My nonprofit www.IntegrityResearchInstitute.org has sponsored one
cold fusion seminar (LENREW-2000) and has consistently featured one “token” cold
fusion speaker at both Conferences on Future Energy (COFE and COFE2). Suffice it
to say, nature creates transmutation of elements at the cellular level, well
documented in peer-reviewed journal articles, and reported by Dr. Ed Storms at
COFE in 1999 and elsewhere. Cold fusion also achieves similar transmutation of
elements through tabletop electrolysis, which is not so strange once we realize
that nature does this consistently. It is so promising because the fact that
transmutation means a nuclear reaction has to take place. Repeatable experiments
of cheap, efficient heat production have been demonstrated in over a dozen
government labs, which also indicates its promise. To answer the second
question, we only have to thank the American Physical Society for creating
enough obfuscation in 1989, mainly by Dr. Robert Park who for years fulfilled
the role of public affairs director. He took it on himself to raise the skeptics
flag and has waved it ever since. My removal from the Patent Office in 1999 was
credited to him by the arbitrator who reinstated me. He acknowledged the bad
publicity he created for my first COFE and the phone calls he made to the
Commerce Department to discredit me, all for having one cold fusion speaker at
COFE, which might have taken place at the State, Energy or Commerce Department.
The ridicule mainly comes from a lack of understanding and, as my arbitrator
pointed out, the fear that if successful, cold fusion will draw from the same
limited pot of funding that hot fusion now enjoys. I know that once we become
aware of the billion-dollar fusion boondoggle called “magnetic confinement” or
the “tokamak,” which the DOE admits will not become commercially viable for
electricity generation even by 2050 (always 30 years or more in the future), the
urge to include plasma focus fusion, cold fusion, electrostatic confinement
fusion, and even bubble fusion becomes much more defensible.
Evolutionshift.com: Are you optimistic that humanity can
replace fossil fuels in time to avoid an environmental cataclysm?
VALONE: Every time there is an administration change in DC,
I generate great optimism for energy policy change. I have given several slide
shows for Congressional staffers and even advised Senator Kerry’s office when he
was running for President. The question of avoiding the inevitable tidal wave
from a number of likely causes (including the Canary Island landslide), the
inevitable eruption of the Yellowstone caldera, or the unavoidable increased
heat waves and stronger hurricanes due to global warming, as well as the
inevitable sinking of most of Louisiana and Florida as the sea rises in the next
century, all depend upon the next 20 years of preparation. If we as private
scientists and entrepreneurs can break through the development and production
barriers, while China manufacturing is still cheap and their currency has not
been devalued, then the world will hopefully receive the cheap, inexpensive, one
cubic foot box which I have repeatedly envisioned as the container powering the
local home or business. Yes, I am optimistic, mainly from my belief in a
benevolent Higher Power. However, some environmental changes are necessary, just
like Katrina, to replace the impotent government agency leaders (e.g. FEMA) who
often stop progress and instead, maintain inefficiency.
Evolutionshift.com: Any final thoughts or comments?
VALONE: Everyone can do his or her part to conserve energy
and reduce their personal carbon dioxide emissions, including recycling their
waste, installing passive solar in their homes and buying a hybrid, if they can
afford to do so. Writing their Senator and Congressman to include green
legislation like the 10% renewable portfolio for each state is vital. Right now,
Europe has a 20% renewable portfolio for their energy production and the US lags
behind, even though we are the biggest consumer (20 million barrels per day) of
oil and the biggest polluter in the world. It is up to the US to change its ways
if we believe the world can change for the better. Supporting and buying stock
in Planktos, Inc., which has a wonderful plankton-feeding program for the ocean
to sequester millions of tons of CO2, is also very important for the short term.
The world’s temperature and sea level are being driven (thermally forced) by the
present heat-trapping 400 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. Planetary wide
modifications by the human race united for a common cause will solve this
problem for the better.
Evolutionshift.com: Thank you Tom.
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* Provided as a public service from www.IntegrityResearchInstitute.org
where you can request a FREE copy of the DVD, "Progress in Future Energy", a
35-minute presentation from our last Conference on Future Energy. *