Quote:
Originally posted by taxwonk
Hydrogen cells work off of water. Their emissions are called "steam." Solar is too expensive and cumbersome to make the effort to power vehicles with it. However, anybodywho has ever had a solar calculator should be able to intuit that the technology can be made to work on a small scale. Maybe at $8/gallon, it will become cost-efficient to finally get serious with solar.
I don't think we're ever going to be able to comletely wean ourselves from hydrocarbons. But as the resource becomes more expensive (and more dangerous to obtain) we will see more applications of renewaable resource technology. And the majors will probably be at the forefront of bringing them to us.
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Solar power for producing electricity, which may be used to charge a car battery, is completely different than solar power used on an actual car. The latter is fantasy. The former is developing and, I believe, may be viable in the next decade. It requires two developments:
1. Plug-in hybrids, rather than the current form. Hybrid cars now charge their battery from the car itself (from the motion of the wheels, or some such... I forget.) You don't plug a hybrid in, and they don't give you that option. (Though there are people who will alter a hybrid for you to allow for this.... the mfrs don't recommend it.)
2. Cheaper solar power. This is happening and has been for some time. The hope is that we get to the "Moore's law" point of doubling power every 18 months.
no, I don't have a hybrid car; I tested one but at the time they didn't have enough power to deal with SF hills. I am considering solar power, which I think would be a cost-benefit for my home given our electricity use and sun exposure.
