If you haven't noticed yet, I use this blog to work-out ideas that the wife and I come up with when we go on road trips. Today's rant has to do with the Energy Paradigm and the need to radically shift it.
The current paradigm is centered on the burning of fossil fuels to generate energy in the form of electricity or some type of motion (e.g. cars, trucks, planes, ships, etc.) Fossil fuels, such as gasoline and diesel fuel, are great for vehicles because they are stable, full of energy, and relatively easy to refine from crude oil. Coal, on the other hand, is better suited for stationary conversion into electricity.
What about wind, nuclear, solar, or biofuels? Wind and solar are great for generating electricity in that you are feeding off an existing, renewable source of energy. The problem, though, is that the availability is erratic, and there is no way to effectively us it for directly powering vehicles. Nuclear is fraught with problems due to toxic waste products and biofuels need to be tweaked more so that the net energy produced is consistently positive (more energy produced then used to produce.)
Why not just stick with fossil fuels? Two words: finite supply. There is a finite supply of oil and coal on this planet and once it is gone, it is gone. The same is true for coal. Another problem is the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Already we are at 2% global concentration and the number is rising. Eventually, it will reach 4% at which point some scientist speculate all hell will break loose.
So, what is a group of highly motivated, highly intelligent Americans to do? We need to develop an energy system (yes, system) that is as easy to use as petrochemical, limitless as solar, doesn't produce carbon dioxide (like fossil fuels do) or toxic waste products (like nuclear does), and which can be used to power houses, cars, factories, and everything else that we use energy for.
Are we up to the challenge?
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