08-01-2008, 08:58 AM | #1 |
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Is alternative energy as we know it today a good Idea?
Is alternative energy as we know it today a good Idea?
The politicians and enviromentalists have so many people believing that alternative energy is going to save the planet. But will be doing more harm than good??? Here are my opinions why it may work on a small scale but more study is needed before we go to a large scale change. 1. IF today they came out with a Electric car/hydrogen car/CNG car/Solar car etc that would perform and have the range of a Gasoline engined car it would take aproximately 16 years to replace all the cars in the USA alone. This is based on that last year there were 250 million cars in the USA, and dividing that by the number of cars sold last year. also assuming that nobody that bought one would buy another one before every car was replaced, and each car traded in would be destroyed and the materials recycled never to be used again. 2. Even If we invented a new Battery and solar cells that would equal the range of a gas powered car, What are other natural resources that would probably be used in their manufacture. also what polution would the disposal of these batteries with their exotic materials cause? 3. How many people will be electrocuted or burned to death by one of these new Electric Cars? With high currents and voltages in the cars, they would have to be able to withstand an high speed accident without causing a short circuit that may electrocute passengers, safety workers, or even cause a fire 4. Hydrogen power.. now they say Hydrogen is the most abundent naturally occuring fuel we have. This is true, but what if we start extracting it from our oceans and atmosphere at such a great rate needed to fuel our economy. What kind of environmental impact will that cause? They say burning Hydrogen only expells Water vapor from the tailpipe, introduction of that much water vapor into the atmosphere from millions of cars could effect our weather!!! 5. Wind Power, They are saying we could put millions of wind turbines out in the midwest to make electricity. But if we did could all those large spinning blades going through the air possibly change the airflow patterns and change the weather patterns across the country? And what would happen when a tornado came through and ripped out many of them, would oure electric rates jump just as they do now when a hurricane threatens the oil production in the gulf? These are just a few of the questions I have, I have not ever seen anyone asking things like this, I have many more questions that concern me. There will not be any quick fix for our problem, but we do need to produce more of every form of energy we have available to us now and push forward the development of new energy technologies, but not until we know what problems our kids and grandkids may be facing because of any quick rash changes we make today. Feel free to post any questions that concern you about alternative energy.
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08-01-2008, 10:30 AM | #2 | |||||||
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It is possible that some new battery, or any electrical-engery storage tech will arise that requires a space no bigger than a laptop battery to power your car... Just saying. In any event, I agree; right now, I'm not sure we could put our current battery tech into all the vehicles in the road due to lack of resources. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't put it in SOME. This goes along with the whole energy diversity idea. Relying on ONE sole source of energy is stupid. We're seeing the results of that stupidity with Oil.......... Quote:
Current electric cars (see: Tesla Roadster) have built-in saftey systems that isolate parts of the battery if one part of it experiences a "thermal event". This prevents the whole battery from exploding all at once. It also has sensors (similar to airbag deployment) that sever any electrical connections thought to possibly electricute passengers and/or rescue crews. In many senses, an electric car is safer than our gasoline-powered cars. Quote:
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EDIT: Maybe the tornado-scale winds could provide a surge of power that would last us through the rebuliding/repairing of the turbines! Quote:
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08-01-2008, 03:15 PM | #3 |
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mega-post coming to address all questions. Tune it later tonight . . .
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__________________ Originally Posted by FbodFather My sister's dentist's brother's cousin's housekeeper's dog-breeder's nephew sells coffee filters to the company that provides coffee to General Motors...... ........and HE WOULD KNOW!!!!__________________ Camaro Fest sub-forum |
08-01-2008, 03:25 PM | #4 |
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Regardless of time or effort, you can't write off an innovative idea. Eventually, gasoline cars became the primary mode of transportation over horses and carts. Someday, we'll see more electric transportation. There's a lot of potential in these new technologies, and you can't discount that potential based on how long or how much effort is necessary for implementation. Good ideas sometimes take a while.
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08-02-2008, 04:43 PM | #5 | ||||||||
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internet was down last night, but here is the post that I promised As we know it today? No
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Most alternatives will not be able to make any serious dent in usage. More can be done by reducing consumption rather than adding energy. This goes for cars as well as the electrical grid. 1% fewer cars on the road results in 1% less gasoline consumed. Better driving habits can result in even more fuel savings, say 5%. Then replace some gasoline with ethanol, later with hydrogen, and add in some electric cars and you have made a serious impact. On the electrical side of things it is much the same story. 1% of people and businesses could probably take themselves off the grid by installing solar panels or turbines. More can be saved by replacing light bulbs with compact florescent, or simply turning lights off when your out of the room. Run things the dishwasher at night to reduce peak demand. Then build some wind and nuclear power plants to replace coal and your are all set
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__________________ Originally Posted by FbodFather My sister's dentist's brother's cousin's housekeeper's dog-breeder's nephew sells coffee filters to the company that provides coffee to General Motors...... ........and HE WOULD KNOW!!!!__________________ Camaro Fest sub-forum |
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08-02-2008, 05:42 PM | #6 |
7 year Cancer Survivor!
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Thanks for the responses
The main point I was really trying to make was that we don't know what impact we well have with alternaive forms of energy when we try to apply it in large scale. Small scale use does not always show what we will face in 100 years of using another form of energy. could anyone forsee back in 1900 what using fossil fuels would cause today? Everything many have said on here may be true as we know today, but we will not know what problems they could cause if we went "off the deep end" and jumped to something just to stop using fossil fuels. I think there is too much panic right now fueled by Know nothng politicians and the media. One politician in particular is causing the biggest stink. and he does not even practice what he preaches, the biggest hypocrite of them all. Many people think we can ween ourselves off fossil fuels in 10 to 20 years, the point I was making about the autos being replaced just shows how impossible it would be in just that area. and that is if we already had the answers. Maybe we can do it in 50 years AFTER we have a economical safe and dependeble replacement. We just do not know when we will even have that replacement
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08-02-2008, 05:59 PM | #7 | |
I used to be Dragoneye...
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But at the end of the day, I'd rather have made a mistake trying to progress, and fix things; than dilly-dally and debate what to do forever. |
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08-02-2008, 09:27 PM | #8 | |
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Note, if I've gotten any facts wrong in the above, just ignore any points I made with them
__________________ Originally Posted by FbodFather My sister's dentist's brother's cousin's housekeeper's dog-breeder's nephew sells coffee filters to the company that provides coffee to General Motors...... ........and HE WOULD KNOW!!!!__________________ Camaro Fest sub-forum |
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08-02-2008, 11:22 PM | #9 |
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The biggest question for me when it comes to alternative fuels/propulsion, etc. is "when"? There's all these fascinating ideas tossed around in the media, in the classroom, the laboratory, and so on. Yet, they're all just that, ideas. Nothing seems to be making any real progress towards becoming a tangible good to you, myself or anyone else. Of course it's all politics that supresses the expansion and distribution of these new ideas that hold great potential and many benefits for all of us, and the environment.
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08-04-2008, 06:13 AM | #10 | |
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I don't think the politicians are smart enough or could work together enought to do that. I work for a medium sized Chemical company. Before the 1980's All our Chemicals and plastics were derived from Oil. Our company was the first to develope a profitable way of creating chemicals from Coal. Because of this we have been less effected by the increase in Oil prices than other chemical companies. Now we have been doing this for over 25 years, and we have licensed our technology to other companies. Although Coal is a Fossil fuel, the way we use it is cleaner and safer than other uses for coal. plus in this area it is very abundant. I am sure our company is also working on new technologies that will eventually replace coal. It just takes time to do that, and until that time comes we need to do everything we can to keep our economy stable, and if that means drilling for more oil and building more refineries then I say do it.
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08-04-2008, 07:11 AM | #11 | |
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It is best to move slowly and with sufficent testing before moving to large scale applications. In the meantime we need to keep the economy moving and the only way to do that is expand the domestic production of proven energy sources. Fossil fuels and Nuclear power.
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08-04-2008, 08:50 AM | #12 | |
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For better or worse, I want things done quickly. Don't get me wrong: I don't want them to cut corners or deliever a poor system...so perhaps I should have said "As soon as possible". I'm of the opinion that if there is another great war; it is going to be over energy/oil. I don't want our country to have chips in that game...so I want out now, even if that means taking a leap of faith before mapping out the jump. |
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08-04-2008, 09:02 AM | #13 | |
7 year Cancer Survivor!
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I have an Idea, To create an agency like NASA and have their one and only duty to create an alternate clean form of energy and have it available in less than 10 years. Similar to putting a man on the moon. Look at all the inventions and advancements we made just by doing that. Who knows what the Scientisits will come up with if left to their own imaginations... This instead of letting the politicians and enviromentalists argue over what to persue. I just have a feeling the real answer to the energy problem has not been invented yet. but it may be just around the corner.
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Cancer's a bitch! Enjoy life while you can! LIVE, LOVE, DRIVE...
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08-04-2008, 09:21 AM | #14 | |
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I like it! |
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