H.E - The Hunt for Energy

The author of this comic is extremely ignorant and/or dishonest, lots of BS and limited perspective in it. I get into it here https://vatoto.com/forums/topic/27661-he-the-hunt-extremely-flawed-information/

Now I know im not the only one who thought those were dildos.

 

Silly Boichi.

This is a controversial issue, and a manga comment page isn't the best place to address it, but you do realize the Japanese people's diet mainly consists of fish and rice, and water heating kills fish? There is no way to actually generate "clean" energy, due to the second principle of thermodynamics, and the huge amount of energy an atomic fission can produce implies an equally huge amount of dispersed energy that goes to pollute everything around it. What can (and must) be properly handled is the radioactive waste, but that isn't the only polluting factor in the process.

You do realize that the heat is dispersed by the cooling towers and fish cannot be killed by 20/30 degree Celsius water?

And that the only radioactive water is located in primary water curcuit and when reactor is to be destroyed, the primary water IS the radioactive waste?

Radioactive waste IS the only polluting factor. And it must be (of course) handled properly, which does not deny the fact that atomic energy is way cleaner than coal/oil energy.

I vote for the geothermal energy!

And lower our entropy demanding and wasteful society.

we're talking here of a low cost, no maintenance solar plant. I might be wrong but those 2 kind of storages seems expensive as fuck, making moot the idea of a free "solar" energy. And this to a world scale.

We're looking for an alternative to petroleum who is easy to produce, efficient and cheap.
However, I'm not an expert in that field and I believe Boichi's aim isn't to make us one but rather to sensibilise (japanese) people to energy alternatives. Going to length and covering every aspect for every kind of energy would make this educative manga boring as heck. But if you get interested in one kind of energy, nothing stops you to search more about it.

But you do make a valid point.

 

I actually work in the power industry, and your points are exactly the reason the most advanced stuff is rarely used. Simply put, to mass-produce energy there is a need for major investment, and investors want returns. Since there is a limited time for any plant to generate those returns, the net income of those plants have to be high. This can be achieved by jacking up electricity tariffs or reducing cost. Currently, solar power is only viable if the after-construction costs are low, because the margin for increasing tariffs is extremely limited given the heavy competition from and widespread availability of fossil fuels. 

 

Vacuum flywheels, batteries, and even supercapacitors are great ideas that increase costs so significantly that a plant using them becomes economically viable only with subsidies in the form of government incentives or carbon credit. The CC market is currently so depressed that out of the world's 15 major CC traders set up in the past decade, only 3 are in operation today, and out of those only 1 is still functioning as a trader. That leaves government incentives. The future is bleak for that part of the market. As ridiculous as the implementation sounds to be in the manga, Maintenance-free solar plants are the way to go. They're simply the most economically viable. That said, they're totally useless and inefficient from the standpoint of primary generation. I'm sorry to say that any serious energy company can only consider them worthwhile for good publicity and maybe some tax breaks.

 

In a way, this manga is AHEAD of the curve in covering the Kawasaki solar plant. Today's economic reality simply means that all the fancy stuff is sadly not affordable. The immediate future allows only the kinds of plants shown here, unless there's a technological breakthrough lowering the setup costs of solar power.

We must also consider the problem of the shortage of metals, that is causing several issues with future "green" energy production.

 

I have compiled lots of official data regarding metals and how long we'll still have them in that pastebin, if you're curious, would you take a look ?

 

http://pastebin.com/VvGLBazQ

 

This is a MASSIVE wall of text, I know, but then again, this is a serious issue regarding mankind's future, and it is all based on official figures, originated from the mining industry officials and from the governments, not from leftist catastrophists or from an Hollywood scenario.

I still find it very odd to read a Boichi manga without any ecchi or borderline hentai

Huh. Very odd.

 

No mention of vacuum flywheels or compressed gas storage for the storage of solar energy produced in the day for consumption at night.

 

Maybe this manga is just a few decades behind?

we're talking here of a low cost, no maintenance solar plant. I might be wrong but those 2 kind of storages seems expensive as fuck, making moot the idea of a free "solar" energy. And this to a world scale.

We're looking for an alternative to petroleum who is easy to produce, efficient and cheap.
However, I'm not an expert in that field and I believe Boichi's aim isn't to make us one but rather to sensibilise (japanese) people to energy alternatives. Going to length and covering every aspect for every kind of energy would make this educative manga boring as heck. But if you get interested in one kind of energy, nothing stops you to search more about it.

But you do make a valid point.

Huh. Very odd.

 

No mention of vacuum flywheels or compressed gas storage for the storage of solar energy produced in the day for consumption at night.

 

Maybe this manga is just a few decades behind?

It liiiiives! 

 

Interesting take on the energy crisis.  I think the discussion on why petroleum is awesome is an excellent; a conversation who support green energy have never had.

 

I must admit I am curious as to where Boichi will take this...He has admitted one 'superpower', but the science being discussed seems to be very well grounded in reality.  Sticking with that would leave us where we are--without good solutions.  But allowing for a 'supernatural' solution would hardly be any better.

its kind of like a documentary but with manga, I recommend it

And all that without increasing ecology problems.

This is a controversial issue, and a manga comment page isn't the best place to address it, but you do realize the Japanese people's diet mainly consists of fish and rice, and water heating kills fish? There is no way to actually generate "clean" energy, due to the second principle of thermodynamics, and the huge amount of energy an atomic fission can produce implies an equally huge amount of dispersed energy that goes to pollute everything around it. What can (and must) be properly handled is the radioactive waste, but that isn't the only polluting factor in the process.

The plan to phase out nuclear energy in the coming years was a great chance for Japan.

The tragedy of 3/11 happened not because they used oh-how-dangerous nuclear power. The Nuclear reactors are the most clean energy source on the planet if handled properly. The problem was placing reactors in the ring of fire without proper disaster prevention measures. Who the hell does place a reactor vulnerable to earthquakes in a place that often has earthquakes?

In Russia, there are projects of floating nuclear stations. If placed in safe, peaceful waters (which DO exist even in Japan), these stations can provide energy for entire country. And all that without increasing ecology problems.

"The plan to phase out nuclear energy in the coming years was a great chance for Japan to show the world a modern society doesn't need to depend on fossil fuels."

Denwa, nuclear energy is not a fossil fuel. Nuclear energy, unlike "green" alternative energy sources, is actually pretty cheap and is capable of producing the amount of power necessary for modern societies. France gets nearly 80% of their power from nuclear plants and is the largest electricity exporter in the world. If we can finish working out the kinks for thorium reactors, we'll be all set.

Great manga, this is the type of stuff we need to influence people to thinking differently about how use and obtain energy to fuel our needs.

I hope this manga helps people think differently. Instead of going back to the past which is what the newly elected Japanese government is doing by switching back to their dependence on nuclear energy. The plan to phase out nuclear energy in the coming years was a great chance for Japan to show the world a modern society doesn't need to depend on fossil fuels.

Reading this manga is like watching science kick Captain Planet in the balls.

Nice. Boichi is good at giving a little bit of love for each of his characters, good stuff.

If we had an Awesome tag this would have it.

Oh my gawd, the facial expressions in this are so hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing! >.<
Putting this on follow, so hopefully the chapters get released more often. >^0^<

The premise is a bit far fetched but its got a surprisingly balanced presentation of the energy crisis.
Whats more - there is no high school classroom or even highschooler to find found

this manga is back from dead

I learned more from this manga than science class in high school.

Also when I get a sea dragon, I will name it Petroleum!!!

Wow this is interesting. Definitely following this and hopefully this updates regularly. Though so far the female didn't have much of a role.

reminds me of this other manga i read long ago about this guy who could see microbes and germs and such. I thought that was a pretty good manga, well the chapters that were translated anyway.

lol never thought a 'clean energy' manga could be so interesting....but did this get dropped or something? It's been a while since an update, to say the least.