Energy policy

[Accounting Troll]

The world will run out of oil late this century. While new oil reserves are still being discovered, we are not discovering new oil fast enough to replace the oil we are using up at the moment. Coal will last rather longer, but even coal supplies are limited.

 

What alternatives should we develop in order to avoid a global economic collapse?

 

Nuclear has the same supply limitations, and it is an ecological nightmare. Hydroelectirc can only supply a small portion of our needs. Solar power is all very well, but what happens if it is cloudy? Wind has the same limitation as solar power. Gas has potential, but it is very difficult to transport long distance.

 

And what of the effect on climate change? If we burn through all our fossil fuels before we start using alternatives, then there will be a massive hike in global temperatures. It isn't just America that is blocking action on carbon dioxide emissions: China and India are building hundreds of inefficient coal power plants to power their industrialisation. China will overtake America as the biggest emitter of green house gases in 5-10 years.

[FullAuto]

Short of re-discovering phlogiston, solar seems like a good bet. We'll be using solar, wind and hydroelectric in increasing numbers as time goes on. There's simply no other alternative.

[Accounting Troll]

So far this only seems to be happening in Europe and Japan, and that's mostly because we want to reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil. I can't see China spending the money in the next few decades.

[FullAuto]

I don't think a billion commie Chinese give much of a shit, right now. Sadly, socialist governments tend to be a little near-sighted on such matters, too busy planning on being paranoid.

[Jman4117]

At present, I'd say something like biodiesel or ethel in vehicles and hydroelectric and perhaps coal for the power grid. Nuclear fission has the problem of waste/meltdown. Wind/solar is still a bit expensive. Methane might be good if we could gather all the **** effectively....

 

Later on fuel cell vehicles, continued hydro power, and perhaps something like that solar tower thing in Australia if proves feasable.

 

Further on, maybe fusion or solar.

[FullAuto]

Ah, methane. No more lighting your farts, people, we need them for electricity.

[Bomb Bloke]

A satelite or two orbiting around hte globe picking up solar energy doesn't need to worry about cloudy days. Would be a bit of a problem if, while transmitting it's energy load down to earth, it missed...

[Carlos the Jackal]

Hydrogen fuel cells, artificially produced oil (YES! They have done it in labratories and it IS viable for mass production, even better it uses common household WASTE to produce it), Nuclear power (Which is more than safe and ecologically sound when done correctly) Solar power, Thermal energy, Hydro power, Wind power, Coal power (Dirty, I know, but carbon can be re-absorbed and buried.. it even turns back into coal), Nuclear Fusion (It currently CAN be done by containing the plasma in a magnetic field. Too bad the magnetic field costs more energy than the core puts out )

[Strong Bob]

The world will run out of oil late this century.  While new oil reserves are still being discovered, we are not discovering new oil fast enough to replace the oil we are using up at the moment.  Coal will last rather longer, but even coal supplies are limited.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This isn't quite true. Current extraction techniques can only acquire approximately 50% of the oil buried in a tap. This whole "no oil in 50 years" deal simply means we won't have a means of getting all that extra oil unless we get better machinery. (This is based on stuff I have read, and a discussion I had with Dragonhawk a little over a year ago.)

 

I think we don't need to worry about the lack of oil in our lifetimes, or our children's lifetimes, just yet.

[Accounting Troll]

A good point. This is the situation with coal mining in Britain. The mines closed down because they were no longer profitable, and the government didn't want to subsidise the industry. However, this merely buys time, and there is still the CO2 emissions problem.

 

The artificially produced oil technology sounds interesting. It would have the added advantage of solving the problems associated with finding new landfill sites.

[Crazy Photon]

Nuclear fusion is an alternative that is being developed, but we have to wait 40 years or so to see them implemented. The toxic waste generated by those reactors will be much less than a normal fission plant, there will be no meltdowns due to the mechanism in which energy is generated, and the latter generation plants will produce NO waste. Source will be just water, so supply would last for many millenia.