ENERGY..FREE LIGHT

LET THERE BE FREE LIGHT
Such wishful thinking might just come true in the 21st century. One of the world’s foremost advocates of nanotechnology, Justin Hall-Tipping, believes that the power grid of the future is no grid at all, and that power will soon be clean and free for all.
Why? “Because the source of energy is right there”, pointing to the sky on a bright, sunny day in Goa. The field may be nascent and free energy may seem far away, but that doesn’t deter Tipping. “Look at it from a historical perspective”, he says and points to the evolution of the telephone, mobile phone, and now, Skype.
“Who would have thought this was possible, even 20 years ago”, he asks.
The same, he says, applies to the automobile industry. “When they came out, 25 mph was said to be the maximum speed. We need to stop looking at our world through the lens of ‘normal’”, he declares.
Tipping has come a long way in his quest for free energy, which began on March 15, 2000, when the massive B-15 iceberg broke off the Rossi shelf. “I wondered: what if the solution to some of our biggest problems could be found in the smallest of places, where the difference between what is worthless and valuable was a matter of atoms”. That started the race: “To get control of the electron-the essence of energy”. That’s what it all boils down to. “Things get more interesting at the molecular level. Down there, conduction is 1,000 times more than copper”, he says, adding that “we only need to harness this technology”. And he says we’re not very far from the time this comes out of the lab and into the real world. You may say he’s a dreamer, but he’s not the only one.
Nanoholdings, a company which he formed with other scientists he thought ‘could take us there’, has a number of researchers around the world going down to the smallest of things to solve the problems that plague our world. Some discoveries are in the realm of science fiction. One is a carbon film that can, once on a window, control temperatures by flicking heat and light. Another is a device that can enable you to see at night by gathering infrared rays and turning it into an image.
Then, how about a device that parks electrons until you need it and then release it? With storage and conductivity at the nano scale far more efficient than at the macro, he’s convinced “the power grid of tomorrow is no grid at all. Tomorrow, energy will be free”. However, he’s not prepared to wait for it to happen. “Governments should look into this,” he says, adding that “nothing’s gonna happen unless you do it”.
Tipping believes the time will come when people push for this, and for that, he says “they have to be informed about it”. And what’s more, he has placed his hope in one technology giant. “India will lead the nanotechnology movement,” he predicts.
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