An Energy Leap Forward for Humanity?

Wow - it's been a while - but here's an "energetic thought" I am transferring and slightly adjusting from my response to a TED discussion post:

Energy and the issues around this, will be the most important issue (especially when it connects with overpopulation) to this planet for the foreseeable future. While I am not a scientist, let alone physicist, an incredible leap in my imagination would be harnessing the concept of energy transfer from one place to the next. Hopefully this would not only solve the incredible thirst mankind has for powering all our activity - but reduce pollution and waste of all kinds.

For example, many human activities generate heat - which is then dissipated. Electrical currents bleed off wires and are all around us. A quantum leap will be in understanding how to harness the energy all around us - rather than shipping fossil fuel from the far reaches of the planet.

This may already be in existence in small ways, like solar collection panels on individual homes, or geothermal heating and cooling systems in particular. And I heard of someone who has developed a process that mimics photosynthesis - but which is many times more efficient than how plants do it (on NPR's ScienceFriday) - which will potentially be commercial with a decade, changing the concept and nature of solar energy. But as a larger concept - I suspect there may be scientists and perhaps mathematicians studying this. Perhaps there is a follow-on equation to one of the basic laws discovered - "energy cannot be created or destroyed."

Battery science might be either an important interim step - or potentially a distraction from the real goal? But one thing that could help get us there - which in itself is also a 'far out' idea is the concept of quantum computing - which is being studied by think-thanks and mathematicians in places. This will make current computing power look like the invention of the wheel or the stone age.

Now - shall I keep blogging here or transfer my energies to a new, blogging approach with more random - and less 'deep' thoughts?? Hmmm...