It is going to be very strange not to scour newspapers, websites and journals looking for new projects and research to blog about. I feel I have begun to read things though a pair of "blog potential" glasses.
At the start of the blog I decided I wanted to investigate three main areas: energy demand, energy sources and the future for fuel supply. With growing population and more importantly increasing living standards it is certain that the demand for fuel is going to increase. Particularly in cities and rapidly developing countries the demand increase could be exponential. I looked at the current sources of energy: focusing on gas, oil, nuclear, coal and renewables. Over the next 50-100 years we are likely to see a shift towards natural gas and nuclear with many experts predicting that oil supply has peaked and will now decline. Growth of renewables will probably continue at the slow steady pace but the next big milestone will be the commercial scale of hydrogen fuel cells.
After a few weeks of writing the blog I kept finding articles about new inventions that were being researched but weren't necessarily producing industrial scale amounts of electricity. So I introduced the "Technology Idea of the Week" section alongside my focus sections on different energy sources. They ranged from algae and artificial leaves to mining meteorites and hydrothermal vents. It was fascinating investigating these new ideas and seeing them being turned into business. There are definitely some I will follow over the next few years! One of the biggest lessons I have seen through every section of this blog is that energy supply is big business and it needs to be profitable. New, renewable, clean technologies have to be more profitable if they are going to be successful. I loved the wordle on Helen's blog (
gaiaocean.blogspot.co.uk) and was intrigued to see what the one for my blog would be. With the words energy, solar and hydrogen jumping out I think it summarieses it very well!
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| Energy Enquiry most used words - produced by Wordle |
At the start of this investigation, I wondered about what ingredients do you need to make a successful blog? Well informed content, interesting new topics, amusing titles, bad puns, pictures and videos have all played a part for me. By far the most important aspect has been writing on a topic that you are really interested in. Writing becomes enjoyable rather than a chore and you feel a sense of responsibility to provide accurate and interesting posts. My search for the right balance of ingredients reminded me of the Roald Dahl book: George's Marvellous Medicine: I think I have discovered the recipe that works for me!
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