Re:I work at an accelerator. My boss asked me to predict the...
by raywu on Saturday February 08, 2014 @09:56PM
(#7204103)
That's a good point: peak when electric vehicles become mainstream. Is transportation the main driver for crude oil? How about plastic?
I'd love to see solar take a dominant role in energy—the question I have is will PV technology and geographic climate constraints push solar forward fast enough?
Writing a response to you also made me think about energy storage. I think that'll play a much larger role and I didn't think of it earlier.
Re:I work at an accelerator. My boss asked me to predict the...
by jndetlefsen on Sunday February 09, 2014 @03:04AM
(#7204809)
The energy storage issue for renewable energy can be solved with today's technology just by making the grid bigger. Think of distribution networks spanning multiple timezones and geographic region.
For plastic i believe the recycling rate is already very high.
Re:I work at an accelerator. My boss asked me to predict the...
by raywu on Sunday February 09, 2014 @05:58AM
(#7205134)
That's interesting, I didn't know; what are some companies betting on energy storage?
Re:I work at an accelerator. My boss asked me to predict the...
by maxerickson on Saturday February 08, 2014 @10:29PM
(#7204207)
More than 80% of U.S. petroleum consumption is transport fuel:
Re:I work at an accelerator. My boss asked me to predict the...
by raywu on Saturday February 08, 2014 @11:14PM
(#7204347)
Thanks for this—I need to read up!
Re:I work at an accelerator. My boss asked me to predict the...
by maxerickson on Saturday February 08, 2014 @11:26PM
(#7204369)
If it is a major economic activity, it is a safe assumption that the U.S. gov is collecting statistics on it. The pain in the ass is finding where they publish them.
He completely dismisses solar power, even though it has seen accelerated decrease in price/Watt already, in some countries/regions even surpassing coal-based energy in price, and it's still very early days. I also have quite opposite views about fission. If we figure out fusion, we might use that quite a lot, but I really doubt everyone will use an order of magnitude more fission reactors than we do now to power the 3d-printing and space economy.