Alternate fuels?

[bigboab]

Electric cars could be a possibility. Cars could be designed so that the batteries can be interchangeable. You would only need to go into a garage and get your battery replaced every so many miles.

It would only be a matter of time until someone invented
a battery that would last longer than we have at present.

The new electric car would require a 'stick change' in order to keep the male testosterone levels at the required height.

[devilsadvocate]

Electric cars and more efficient batteries are just the user end of the problem. It still doesn't address the alternative fuel source that would be required to generate the electricity they would need.
As far as I can imagine the only solution to this would be smaller and incredibly more efficient and longer lasting solar cells that would even work in less sunny climates.
I'm not into conspiracy theories, but as it has been raised I do think that the oil industry, with a lot of government in its pockets, has been something of a firewall in developing these efficient solar cells.
I've heard that development of faster computer chips is far ahead of software/hardware that can handle them. I hope one day this could happen to solar cell tech.

[JunkBarMan]

Anyone seen this guy's ads? (american oil tycoon)

He has vowed to spend the same amount of money on ads for a new energy, as the two presidential candidates are on their campaigns.

He seems to want everyone to take an active approach to this problem and try and solve it together. Seems like he has a few good idea. For one he thinks natural gas is one solution...I think he just has a ton of natural gas reserves.

[lynx]

Anyone seen this guy's ads? (american oil tycoon)

He has vowed to spend the same amount of money on ads for a new energy, as the two presidential candidates are on their campaigns.

He seems to want everyone to take an active approach to this problem and try and solve it together. Seems like he has a few good idea. For one he thinks natural gas is one solution...I think he just has a ton of natural gas reserves.

Apart from the wind farms, he's simply talking about replacing imported oil with locally produced (ie produced by his company) natural gas, and that too will run out eventually. That's not an alternative fuel, it's an alternative source.

[Barbarossa]

Electric cars and more efficient batteries are just the user end of the problem. It still doesn't address the alternative fuel source that would be required to generate the electricity they would need.
As far as I can imagine the only solution to this would be smaller and incredibly more efficient and longer lasting solar cells that would even work in less sunny climates.

Don't discount the nuclear option

[ilw]

I think theres two discussions going on here, one about alternative fuels for your car and the other about alternative energy sources. The fuels one is imo a bit of a non-starter as it all depends on cracking the energy source side of things. So...

Best documentation that i've actually read was the energy white papers by the uk govt and this book http://www.withouthotair.com/

as lynx hinted at, you can pretty much ignore hydrogen and water as neither of them are energy sources, there is no naturally occurring elemental hydrogen on the planet and you can't get any net energy out of water.

My thoughts:

corn is a really bad converter of solar energy -> chemical. The only reason they're using it as a biofuel is because it makes giving farmers a subsidy easier to justify. Palm oil is currently the best biofuel but is still a bit shit, other things like algae are being looked at and could be a lot better. However, ultimately all biofuels are a bit shit, they only make sense because of the gasoline based transport system we currently have and also because battery technology has been quite a big limiter. Recent technology indicates the battery thing might be cracked in the nearish future so i reckon its better to work with photovoltaic cells and so avoid the biofuel efficiency chain: solar -> chemical -> heat -> useful power processing.

That said photovoltaic solar isn't going to provide enough power outside of the tropics unless you literally cover the countryside in it (theoretical max efficiency of a cell is 85%, realistic current tech is about 30%, average incident energy in the uk is about ~100W so covering you're entire roof in solar panels might allow you to run a conventional lightbulb). Chucking in wind and wave power helps, but the problem with renewables is that they're unpredictable so you need to back up any power generated from renewables with conventional power stations. Also you need to store the electricity because half the time you'll be generating power when you don't need it and vice versa (i.e. using it when you're not generating). Storing massive quantities of electricity is hard...

Renewables aren't enough taking Britain as an example: even though as an island we have great wave and wind power (shit solar), massive investment and implementation of renewables would produce nowhere near enough power.

Then if you assume that electric cars are going to become commonplace (and thats a fairly safe bet) then our electricity consumption is going to approximately double. I pretty much agree with the UK govt and the books author the only thing thats going to keep the lights on and give us very low CO2 emissions is a big switch to nuclear. The resulting waste is a bitch, but its not an existential threat in the way that global warming is.

Microgeneration of power in the UK is a waste of time too - for wind the turbines are pointlessly small and generally too low down and for solar we simply don't get enough sun. Its a waste of time money and resources.

[bornwithnoname]

Electric cars and more efficient batteries are just the user end of the problem. It still doesn't address the alternative fuel source that would be required to generate the electricity they would need.
As far as I can imagine the only solution to this would be smaller and incredibly more efficient and longer lasting solar cells that would even work in less sunny climates.

Don't discount the nuclear option

Barbie,

I don't think nuc powered car are a hot idea... I see dozen car accidentsa week. That could be bad

[Barbarossa]

Don't discount the nuclear option

Barbie,

I don't think nuc powered car are a hot idea... I see dozen car accidentsa week. That could be bad

I'm waiting for my on-board "Mr Fusion"...

No, I mean nuclear power-stations, providing power for battery-driven cars

[Something Else]

I think electric cars were probably invented a long time ago. The fuel companies probably bought them, along with the patents and then burned them to keep a coal powered plant going for an extra 5 minutes.

[homebizseo]

The Us and European countries need to mandate hybrid motors for autos and require solar panel on new construction. If most homes could produce 20% of their own power look at the energy savings per year.