Inefficiency of Automotive Transportation

[Cujet]

While my position on the subject is not quite as harsh as others, it should be downright clear that there is no energy shortage. Like zero, zip, none.

We have 2 billion years of nuclear fuel to meet any need.

I do think portable fuels should be used where needed for portability and not burned up in electrical power plants or for heating.

 

[Al]

While my position on the subject is not quite as harsh as others, it should be downright clear that there is no energy shortage. Like zero, zip, none.

We have 2 billion years of nuclear fuel to meet any need.

I do think portable fuels should be used where needed for portability and not burned up in electrical power plants or for heating.

Nuclear is DOA

 

[Cujet]

Nuclear is DOA

Maybe. It could be that our collective IQ will decline to the point where nuclear power is in fact unmanageable. Looking out a few centuries, we will consume known reserves of portable forms of fuel and quite likely fall back into abject poverty.

Or we can manage energy properly and intelligently.

Someone I know tried to heat a home in Burlington, VT, using Tesla solar. For practical reasons, it is not possible. 2.2 hours of solar insolation in Feb illustrates the problem. Not to mention their electric car. The commute is not too long, about 10 miles each way, and other drives are reasonable. But without a Million dollars of solar panels, it can't be done.

Certainly, in the summer, he can power his car.

 

[John105]

Maybe. It could be that our collective IQ will decline to the point where nuclear power is in fact unmanageable. Looking out a few centuries, we will consume known reserves of portable forms of fuel and quite likely fall back into abject poverty.

Or we can manage energy properly and intelligently.

Someone I know tried to heat a home in Burlington, VT, using Tesla solar. For practical reasons, it is not possible. 2.2 hours of solar insolation in Feb illustrates the problem. Not to mention their electric car. The commute is not too long, about 10 miles each way, and other drives are reasonable. But without a Million dollars of solar panels, it can't be done.

Certainly, in the summer, he can power his car.

Kind of reminds me of something much simpler, trying to heat a home in the winter, with electric space heaters.

 

[IndyIan]

Kind of reminds me of something much simpler, trying to heat a home in the winter, with electric space heaters.

I do like my steel box, fueled with wood from 100 yards away... I do use a chainsaw, but split with the maul. A new insulated house with some thermal mass in the insulation envelope makes heating with wood not much of a hardship.