From Guest Blogger Will Sandford: The Secret Behind a Brilliant Mind – Tesla’s Renewable Energy Projects

While Nikola Tesla was widely perceived as an eccentric with a phobia of germs who in his later years claimed he communicated telepathically with pigeons, he was also a visionary genius behind an electric motor, polyphase alternating current, the remote control device, the X-rays and nearly 300 patents in 26 countries. However, not many people know that he was a fervent advocate of renewable energy. Even though none of his inventions were able to deliver free energy in his time, his advanced ideas have laid the foundation for many renewable energy technologies we use today.

Tesla on coal power

At the onset of industrial coal era, he claimed that the energy in the future must be obtained without consumption of any material (Century Magazine, June 1900). In a lecture at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers at Columbia University May 20, 1891, he said that movement is everywhere, and where there is a movement, there is energy, so all the efforts should be focused of using this energy more directly. Calling the thermo-dynamic process of burning coal “wasteful and barbarous” he even envisaged the “spectre of exhaustion” of oil and natural gas, as a consequences of the world’s unquenchable thirst for these limited resources.

Hydroelectric power – a dream come true

Drawing heavily from the drafts of their lighting-in-bottle electrical engineer, in 1893 Westinghouse Electric designed a large alternating current system for the world’s first hydroelectric power plant Niagara Falls. It was the hallmark of Tesla’s polyphase alternating current electricity, over the much praised but ineffective direct current. In his speech at the opening ceremony, Tesla said that while it is a monument to subjugation of natural forces to the service of man, the hydroelectric power also relieves millions from want and suffering, referring to the coal miners working underground and people unable to afford coal-powered electricity.

Power of the sun inexorable

Recollecting on his childhood fascination with electricity in nature, Tesla believed that nature has provided an abundant supply of energy in various forms. Often taking example of the sun, whose rays bear “a quantity of energy so enormous that but a small part of it could meet all our demands” he believed it can be captured by a cold and highly efficient process in photoelectric cells, which would become essential in the future. Today, every electro-engineer understands the shortcomings of coal-powered electricity and its lower overall quality. In an effort to boost the power quality and help the blackout-plagued region of South Australia, a company that bears the name of this great scientist, Tesla, Inc. has completed the world’s largest lithium-ion battery as of December 1, 2017. Powered at 129-megawatt-hour, the Australia’s mega battery has already proven its worth, firing up in milliseconds when a coal plant failure threatened the grid later in December.

Wind power – ancient inspiration

In his article in Century Illustrated Magazine from June 1900, Tesla pointed out that since the antiquity man has used an excellent machine that enabled him to use the energy of the ambient medium – the windmill. Even then, he believe that the power obtained from the wind is more than considerable, going even to the extent that a wave- or tide-motor has small chances of competing commercially with a power windmill, which allows a much greater amount of energy to be harnessed in a simple way, making it a better machine in his view. Tesla was an innovator who always thought that the true genius lies in finding simple solutions for complex problems. Coupled with the Tesla’s mega battery, Hornsdale Wind Farm is a perfect example of how a stable renewable energy resource can rise up to its role, providing the energy to be used locally and exported to the national grid.

Geothermal – energy of the core

Addressing the problem of the current electric energy production, in his 1901 paper “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy”, Tesla pointed out that as we are getting closer to the centre of the globe, the temperature rises 1°C for every hundred feet of depth. In his article “Our Future Motive Power, 1931”, he further argues that all that is necessary to access unlimited resources of power on every point of the world is to find feasible and efficient way of sinking deep shafts. The U.S. Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) estimates that only 6.5% of global potential has been exploited, with greenhouse emissions of geothermal plants rarely exceeding 5% of today’s coal-fired plants.

Fascinated by the constant motions, rotations and oscillations in the nature, Tesla has put forward his renewable energy theories ahead of his time. Holding burning fossil fuels a backward and retrograde technology, he turned to, water, wind and sun, compelling contemporary minds to consider new sources of power which not only were inexhaustible but which would propel the entire humanity with giant strides forward.