Powering the Future

January 4, 2012

As New Mexico prepares to celebrate its first 100 years of statehood, The New Mexican asked notable residents to predict what could happen in the next century on several key topics.

New Mexico's energy production in 2112 will be radically different and based heavily on what we now consider alternative sources — and even household particle fusion, top technology and economic experts predict.

Along with wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear and algeal energy technology, Americans could get power from a refrigerator-sized machine in their homes that creates free and limitless energy, they said.

John Freisinger, president and CEO of Technology Ventures Corporation, said New Mexico is well positioned to lead the country in renewable energy production.

"All the alternatives have not only a place here, but have a reason to be here as well," he said.

Of all the technological advances that could develop in the next century, alternative energy is tops, Freisinger said.

He said New Mexico has an abundance of sun and wind and space for facilities that would turn those fuels into power.

The state also strategically is located along power transmission lines and between big energy-using states such as Texas, Arizona and California, he said.

In addition, Mew Mexico has established roots in the nuclear industry, which he predicted could grow enough to attract a nuclear power plant.

On a smaller scale, physicists are poised to harness dark matter in a way that could eliminate the traditional power grid and make each home self-sustaining, said futurist and economist Lowell Catlett, a regent's professor at New Mexico State University.

For the next 50 years, the world will still rely heavily on petroleum, Catlett said.

"After that, we start emerging into a new radical energy source," he said.

Fusion, he said, is the key.

"That's a quantum release of energy in something so small you can't even detect it. When we can harness that in a way that's controllable, energy for all intents and purposes is infinite."

Making that change, he said, "is probably going to be the equivalent of going from horses to a petroleum-based society. It will be such a momentous movement into a form of energy that comes from harnessing something that's now emerging in a subatomic level."

Catlett, a well-known speaker about the future, also predicted that our ability to map all areas of the planet will become significantly more important.

"Our knowledge of every square inch of the earth will be instantaneous and knowable," he said.

Technology like Google Maps is just the start, Catlett said. "We'll be much more able to forecast when a volcano is erupting under the ocean and causing a tsunami to head toward Japan. We'll know that instant, and we'll have precautions in place to take care of that.

"Or when an insect infestation is attacking the soybean crop in Brazil and it has potential implications to our soybean market, we'll be able to go in and eradicate that when it's small," he said.

Freisinger said New Mexico will play a big role in satellite production — part of what makes Google Maps work.

He said some of the brightest minds right now are working on small satellites, the kind that fit on your desk, which will do a variety of work above the earth.

Along with whatever else the state's researchers come up with in the next 100 years, Freisinger said he's looking forward to one cool invention in particular — one he hopes comes sooner rather than later.

"Me, personally, I'm still waiting for my flying car. I would love my flying car that runs on tap water."

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).