What no-one tells you about renewable energy is that soon the golden days will be over...<br>
All energy ultimately comes from the SUN, we had a built up capacity of
energy from however long oil was forming in the earth before we started
pumping it out.<br>
Same thing with Coal.<br>
Once all of the expendable resources are used up, we will never reach a level of efficiency that we had before.<br>
We will HAVE to put in more work to get less nomatter what... unless we
somehow blanket the earth in solar cells, and sterling engines, or
drill a giant hole deep into the earth (another unlimited resource)<br>
<br>
The problem with all alternative energies are a couple things ...<br>
1.) Gasoline is the most dense form of energy available pretty much ...<br>
2.) Most energy carriers are less efficient than gasoline (gasoline as
been forming in the bowls of the earth for ... well awhile)<br>
3.) Of the other forms of energy carriers, transfer is less efficient
than gasoline - you have to use a High-Energy to yield another
High-Energy (coal, to chemical electrical) and the efficiency loss is
*pretty* high.<br>
4.) What is the actual source of the energy ?<br>
<br>
Eventually everything will have to be Wind, Water, Solar, or Geo-Electric ...<br>
And at that point a Hydrogen economy makes the most sense - you can
pack hydrogen into solid forms and keep it almost as dense as it would
be at a liquid state - and hey cryogenic cooling in the summer time
eliminates the need for an A/C Compressor and Coolant :)<br><br>It's unlikely Capacitors, or Batteries will ever become efficient storage mediums for energy - chemicals wear out, and the energy loss during transfer is quite great, but hey Obama wants to build 12 new Nuclear Power Plants - we'll be in good shape haha<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 2:58 PM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Bill_Raterink@spartanstores.com">Bill_Raterink@spartanstores.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br><font size="2" face="sans-serif">I had seen a documentary that said switch
grass was the most efficient biofuel.</font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<table width="100%">
<tbody><tr valign="top">
<td><font size="1" color="#5f5f5f" face="sans-serif">From:</font>
</td><td><div class="Ih2E3d"><font size="1" face="sans-serif">Rick Vargo <<a href="mailto:rick@vargo.org" target="_blank">rick@vargo.org</a>></font>
</div></td></tr><tr valign="top">
<td><font size="1" color="#5f5f5f" face="sans-serif">To:</font>
</td><td><font size="1" face="sans-serif"><a href="mailto:grlug@grlug.org" target="_blank">grlug@grlug.org</a></font>
</td></tr><tr valign="top">
<td><font size="1" color="#5f5f5f" face="sans-serif">Date:</font>
</td><td><font size="1" face="sans-serif">11/19/2008 02:51 PM</font><div class="Ih2E3d">
</div></td></tr><tr valign="top">
<td><font size="1" color="#5f5f5f" face="sans-serif">Subject:</font>
</td><td><font size="1" face="sans-serif">Re: [GRLUG] OFF TOPIC Electric Car</font></td></tr></tbody></table>
<br>
<hr noshade>
<br>
<br><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">
<br><tt><font size="2">Corn is a terrible bio fuel you can only get about
700 gallons from an<br>
acre. Sugar cane is the best. Around here, the best thing to grow for a<br>
bio fuel is probably sugar beats. I think an acre will make about 1700<br>
gallons of alcohol.<br>
<br>
Rick<br>
<br>
<br>
Michael Mol wrote:<br>
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 2:29 PM, Collin Kidder <<a href="mailto:adderd@kkmfg.com" target="_blank">adderd@kkmfg.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
> <br>
>> An electric motor can be made darn near 100% efficient. As a bonus<br>
>> electrical lines are found almost everywhere. It's like a built
in gas<br>
>> station in every building you see. So, I do believe that electric
cars<br>
>> will end up being the way forward.<br>
>> <br>
><br>
> It remains to be seen how efficiently synthetic hydrocarbon fuels
can<br>
> be made; If those can be made sufficiently efficient, powering cars<br>
> off the grid won't work.<br>
><br>
> Granted, corn doesn't appear to be getting us off to a good start.<br>
> <br>
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