Authorities in Europe are scrambling to find a long-term solution to the energy issue so that the region can survive this winter and the next. Already, solar panels are being installed on 50% of all newly constructed residences in the EU, and the European Commission is planning to have them installed on all commercial and public buildings by 2029. Although past experience suggests that any predicted cost figures can be safely doubled, the European Commission puts the cost of these measures at €565 billion.
However, even casual observers are aware that the winter’s short daylight hours and numerous gloomy days significantly impair the effectiveness of solar panels. Does this imply that more solar panels will need to be put in order to produce enough electricity during the winter? What about the extra electricity that these solar panels produce in the summer? It would either need to be partially turned off or the excess generation would need to be fed into the centralized system. But due to the operation of already-installed solar panels and wind turbines, Europe has frequently seen negative electricity prices during the summer months throughout the years, suggesting a surplus in the market.
Wind turbines can make up for the shortage of vital electricity during the winter because their output is highest during the winter and lowest during the summer. The most advantageous locations for wind turbines are already occupied, and adding more wind turbines in less advantageous places lowers the installed capacity’s utilization rate. As a result, there are a variety of issues. For instance, in Germany, industrial users are primarily located in the south, whereas the best places for wind turbines are in the north. Even now, when there is plenty of wind and sun, the current transmission lines are unable to handle the electricity flows from north to south.
The lack of rainfall during the last summer has caused a sharp decline in hydroelectric production, while rising water temperatures and low water levels have curtailed output and even forced the retirement of some nuclear power reactors, as in France. Given everything said above, it is debatable whether it is even conceivable to create an effective system for supplying power using just renewable energy sources (RES). It is unlikely to make sense or be feasible to build an electricity system on weather-dependent technologies.
The economic aspect of a renewable energy system is crucial because in the near future, the populace will be unable to afford the growing energy bills, businesses will become uncompetitive, and this will lead to a rise in business failures, joblessness, and lower tax revenues. Already, this trend is seen in Germany, where energy-intensive sectors are being moved to the United States and other nations where gas and power costs are drastically cheaper than in Europe. If this continues for many years, irreparable damage will be done to Europe’s industrial infrastructure, leading to de-industrialization and a precipitous drop in living standards across the continent, with the United States and China benefiting most from this process.
The sharp drop in the value of the euro against the dollar was the first indicator of turmoil in Europe’s economy. A sharp drop in the value of the euro against the dollar is the first warning sign that Europe’s economy is in trouble. There is little doubt that European leaders and the European Commission are aware of the dire state of the EU economy. However, for ideological and political reasons, they are powerless to do much about it. „The fire is partially smoldering and partially has already set the cabin ablaze. Regardless, our economy’s long-term health is at jeopardy, and serious damage could result if we do nothing „German Environment Minister Robert Habek made this statement.
New alternative technologies in power generation, energy storage systems, and new materials have received a significant boost from the energy crisis. The advancement of batteries in particular is crucial to the spread of electric vehicles and has seen significant improvement in recent years. However, it is also important to attentively examine the progress of new technologies in the field of power generation that make use of the so-called „free energy.“ The widespread misconception that „free energy“ refers to the development of a machine capable of perpetual motion is a myth that is held by many regular folks. The law of conservation and transformation of energy states that energy does not arise from nowhere and does not disappear anywhere, it only passes from one kind to another or from one body to another.
The technology known as neutrinovoltaic, which was created by the Neutrino Energy Group, is built on this fundamental idea that underpins its logic. The development of graphene and research into its properties made it possible for the company’s president, a mathematician named Holger Thorsten Schubart, and his colleagues to develop a multilayer material consisting of alternating layers of graphene and doped silicon. This material is capable of converting the thermal Brownian motion of graphene atoms as well as the kinetic energy of the surrounding radiation fields, including neutrinos, into electrical power.
Why can’t other nanomaterials generate energy like graphene does, and why has graphene become the preferred nanomaterial for this purpose? The property of graphene’s crystal lattice, in which the carbon atoms are in sp2-hybridization and coupled by – and -bonds to form a hexagonal two-dimensional crystal lattice, holds the key to the solution. It has been established that only in the 3D plane can graphene exist. Researchers from the University of Arkansas examined graphene that had been placed on a plate of copper for their research. With the help of a scanning tunneling microscope, they were able to observe shifts in the positions of atoms.
At the same time, a very important finding was made: a wave, resembling those on the sea surface, arose in graphene. This wave was caused by the coupling of small spontaneous motions, which then caused the emergence of bigger spontaneous motions. Surface waves with horizontal polarization—known in acoustics as Lyav waves—appear when one atom’s thermal displacement (Brownian motion of atoms) is amplified by particles of the surrounding radiation fields and adds up with displacements of other atoms. Because of the unique properties of graphene’s crystal structure, its atoms vibrate in tandem, setting these movements apart from the spontaneous movements of molecules in liquids. Professor Thibadeau (University of Arkansas) said in an interview with Research Frontiers: „This is the key to harnessing the movement of 2D materials as a source of endless energy. A sheet of graphene becomes rippled as a result of tandem vibrations, enabling the most recent in energy extraction nanotechnology to be used.
The Neutrino Energy Group was able to solve the technological problem of producing electricity from neutrinos and other forms of non-visible radiations because graphene has the ability to respond to the effects of temperature and ambient radiation fields by increasing the amplitude of oscillations of graphene atoms and going into resonance. This ability has been emphasized by Holger Thorsten Schubart in a number of his statements.
The appearance of what physicists refer to as a „oblique scattering“ effect, in which electron clouds deflect their motion in one direction, i.e. an electric current, was made possible by the use of almost impurity-free graphene, the choice of alloying elements, and the developed technology of spraying graphene and silicon onto metal foil. Neutrinovoltaic technology is anticipated to be implemented for the first time in industrial licensed production in Switzerland by the end of the following year or the beginning of the following year (2024). Although it will be many years before neutrinovoltaic electricity sources have an impact on the overall energy production balance, this development will undoubtedly start the process of creating an autonomous and distributed electricity generation system. However, this solution can be seen as the first real and practical step towards a CO2-neutral energy generation system.
