Guest blog by Manny Topiques Here are some interesting and somewhat offbeat energy stories that haven’t gotten much media attention over the past year.

Is coal the new future for clean energy? In an amazing new discovery just announced by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the Perseverance Rover discovered an outcropping of high quality space coal not far from the spacecraft’s 2021 landing site. Using its rotary percussive coring drill, the rover was able to penetrate approximate 6 meters below the planet’s surface to confirm that this outcropping was the surface exposure of a large deposit of anthracite space coal. Further exploration on future missions will be required to determine if this deposit is native to Mars or the remains of a meteor that impacted the surface in the distant past.

If native, it creates an incredible opportunity to solve the problem of global warming. Dr. Paullie Yanna of NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Energy Center explained: “I believe that the entire subsurface of Mars consists of coal or coal-type substances. The ancient oceans which covered almost the entire surface of the planet would have been ideal grounds for decomposition of Martian biologics as the planet lost its atmosphere. The oceans would have slowly transitioned into swamps and then finally the deserts that cover Mars today, leaving huge deposits of space coal.” When asked what was being done with this new information, Dr. Yanna excitedly explained how she is working with a digital coal company in West Virginia and a high-tech startup in California. The coal company was developing a coal burning process that would work without requiring oxygen in the atmosphere. The greatest part was that with no atmosphere all the particulate pollution, noxious gasses, and carbon dioxide could be discharged directly with no pollution control equipment. The California start-up is working on implementation of NASA’s power beaming concept to beam energy directly from outer space to earth. Unlimited energy with no concern over pollutants – the holy grail of politicians, environmentalists, and the coal industry.

Scientists Discover How to Make Energy from Air In Australia, scientists have discovered an enzyme (called Huc) from a bacterium that converts atmospheric hydrogen into energy. The discovery was somewhat unanticipated, but now researchers are examining other biological organisms and associated enzymes that could also provide additional energy utility. It may not be green, but slimy, wiggly and fungy is still good for the earth. Atmospheric energy sources could then be coupled with metal-air batteries to produce a truly robust and clean energy grid.

Earth’s Axis is Tilting As was reported last year by OWOE Staff, wind turbines are accelerating the earth’s rotational speed. Since then, it has been discovered that the human activity of pumping ground water form aquifers is shifting the earth’s axis. OWOE staff aren’t sure if this is a problem requiring a solution, but just in case, OWOE has been awarded a research grant to train hordes of blah blah bunnies to run in certain directions in order to both correct the axis shift and the earth’s rotational speed. OWOE staff have the bunny speeds properly calibrated but still need to work on the directionality.

Reducing Global Warming by Cooling the Sun Numerous academics have proposed that it could be possible to cool the earth by spraying aerosols and fine particulate matter into the upper atmosphere in order to reflect more sunlight away from the earth (see sciencealert.com and scientificamerican.com). Alternatively, some scientists have proposed deploying a large, space based parasol to shade the earth. However, Dr. Shirley Yurnutz, lead researcher at the Society for Protecting the Earth through Cooling, Transformation, Reduction and Engineering (SPECTRE) and her team have proposed that a lower cost and more effective means to cooling the earth would be to re-engineer the sun. Dr. Yurnutz’s team proposes to bombard the sun with iron atoms to reduce the heat output at the source. Her team has calculated that cooling the sun could be very effective for a long duration with only a few rocket launches. Other researchers at MIT, Caltech and similar, when contacted for comment, were too busy trying to book inter-stellar space on future X-Space launches.

Dippity Doo, Vintage Bar Novelty Could be another Clean Energy Source The evaporation effect that powers the classic drinking birds has now been coupled to a triboelectric nanogenerator to produce a 100 V potential operating for 50 hours continuously. This is small, but researchers believe that the technology is scalable and could be used to complement future solar and wind-based grids to provide power when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Larger scale prototypes have already been installed in some municipalities (see Dunking Bird Statues in front of Calgary Central Public Library) and results have been promising.