Question about oil

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: Markbnj

In the end, the developing nations just might end up with a better, greener energy infrastructure than the developed nations have.

I agree. It's always easier to build new than to convince people to change what's already been built. But most of those countries also don't have the appetite for petroleum that we do. Their economies can only go up, for the most part, and they will likely build out the next generation of successful marketplaces based on the new technology. We, on the other hand, have a huge investment in the old stuff. We'll be the Unisys of countries.

If we invent the stuff the other countries adopt we'll be able to afford our oil addiction.

Also, I'm somewhat skeptical about increasing efficiency of solar panels. It doesn't get much simpler than illuminating silicon and harvesting the current flow.

The solution (as usual) is nuclear; both fission and fusion. Lubricating substances can be fabricated, and since we'll be on nuclear we can use electric cars powered by carbon nanotube capacitors. Semis could be a tough one perhaps. I don't know enough about plastics to talk about potential replacementsThe good news is, then we would stop polluting the environment with it!

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: Markbnj

In the end, the developing nations just might end up with a better, greener energy infrastructure than the developed nations have.

I agree. It's always easier to build new than to convince people to change what's already been built. But most of those countries also don't have the appetite for petroleum that we do. Their economies can only go up, for the most part, and they will likely build out the next generation of successful marketplaces based on the new technology. We, on the other hand, have a huge investment in the old stuff. We'll be the Unisys of countries.

If we invent the stuff the other countries adopt we'll be able to afford our oil addiction.

Also, I'm somewhat skeptical about increasing efficiency of solar panels. It doesn't get much simpler than illuminating silicon and harvesting the current flow.

The solution (as usual) is nuclear; both fission and fusion. Lubricating substances can be fabricated, and since we'll be on nuclear we can use electric cars powered by carbon nanotube capacitors. Semis could be a tough one perhaps. I don't know enough about plastics to talk about potential replacementsThe good news is, then we would stop polluting the environment with it!

The problem with solar is that there are only so many watts per square meter. Increasing the efficiency means increasing the number of watts of electricity we end up with per square meter of solar cell. You can either use twice as many solar cells, or you can double the efficiency of each solar cell. Don't forget to factor in the amount of energy it takes to build that solar cell.

 

[wwswimming]

one of the interesting factoids about fossil fuels is that
we (people on earth) are using an amount of energy
equivalent to 6 years' worth of sunshine - every year.

meanwhile, population is ever increasing - based on
the availability of cheap fossil fuels.

one other factoid - we (people on earth) will have to
produce as much food in the next fifty years as we
produced in the last 10,000 years.

sources of factoids -
http://www.energybulletin.net/index.php
http://www.theoildrum.com/

so, in the year 2050, when earth population is 9 billion+,
it will be quite challenging for us to get by on then-
available fuel sources (decreasing fossil fuel reserves,
nuclear, coal, solar/wind/wave/OTEC).