Fossil fuels vs. renewable energy

[{|}$~\]

Do you think it is possible to maintain our current level of comfort and convenience using only renewable energy?

 

[Keirador]

I read in a recent National Geographic that if one quarter of all urban roofs in America were covered with solar panels, the nation's entire energy needs could be met.

 

[Maniacal]

But solar panels are made of fossil fuels, but i still voted yes, it jsut might not be in our lifetime

 

[Ramius75]

i believe so too, but there are some vehicles that can only operate with fossil fuel like commercial planes. So we cant truly do away with them,

nonetheless, i think electrical power should be generated by renewable fuel and also all cars should convert to using electricity and more high speed train should be built also.

 

[Keirador]

Fossil fuels for manufacturing purposes can themselves be manufactured using the Thermal Conversion Process. It's just not economically viable to create these fuels for direct use, as their creation requires just as much energy as burning them creates. Using them to directly harvest the power of the sun (the source of almost all our energy, including fossil fuels) would allow a significant net gain in energy.

 

[ybbor]

yes- but it would take some time

 

[Cuivienen]

But solar panels are made of fossil fuels, but i still voted yes, it jsut might not be in our lifetime

Made of plastics and other petroleum products, yes, but these are reusable petroleum products; to continue creating them you only need a tiny amount of petroleum as the recycling process is ~95% efficient.

 

[JohnRM]

No.

At this time, it is not possible. With planning and financing, it can be done in the future, but not now.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

I, annoyingly, agree with John. It would be nice for the energy problem to be fixed soon though

 

[{|}$~\]

I meant "Is it possible to do this before the oil 'runs out'?"

 

[wit>trope]

I read that the earth actually has enough fossil fuel -- especially COAL -- to keep the world running for like a couple centuries more. But using COAL is viewed as unacceptable due to the pollution.

So, I think that we definitely need to research alternative energy sources. Otherwise the world will go to hell relatively soon (like within 50 or 100 years) when the acceptable fossil fuels run low and prices skyrocket. Saudi Arabia says they have lots of oil, but people say that they probably don't have that much ... my thought is that they probable WANT us to think they have lots so that we don't research alternative energy that would put them out of business.

I also heard that in the future WATER will be a precious commodity. I don't know the theory behind it, but I believe it's true

What they should do is put a super-high tax on cars newly bought that are fuel-inefficient. So the more fuel-inefficient they are, the higher the tax. So maybe make a fuel-chugging SUV cost TWICE as much due to the taxes. That way only rich people will get them and the taxes they pay will make up for the loss of energy.

 

[taper]

We are not even close to being free of fossil fuels. Just looking at electricity, I can tell you with absolute certainty that renewables can not power our needs, no matter how many solar panels and wind towers are put up. We currently have no method of storing electricty in quantity, meaning that power is used almost the instant it's generated. Wind, solar, and tidal/wave are not reliable enough for this, biomass really isn't much better than coal, and just about everyplace to put a hydro plant is already taken.

Electricty also doesn't like being transmitted long distances, so covering the southwest with solar panels won't help the northeast much. A bit of trivia: it is far cheaper to transport the fuel(trainloads of coal, security for nuclear shipments, etc) than to build and maintain power lines.

 

[Yom]

Yes, but it requires finding a cheap source of Hydrogen (the burning of hydrogen for fuel would create only water, and no CO2), and acquiring the technology for nuclear fusion power plants.

 

[ligertiger]

There's also the possibility of a massive final world war that will deplete 70% of the world's population, leaving only a billion or two and some civilizations. They would have no problems in creating a better world if their population was kept in check.

 

[Winner]

No. With nuclear energy maybe, but the renewable stuff like those silly wind turbines or solar plants simply cannot satisfy the needs of developed technical civilisation.

 

[Hakim]

With nuclear energy perhaps, but renewables alone don't have the capacity yet. There's potential in bioenergy though, and as the energy prices rises a whole lot of energysaving inventions will make it to the market and soften the blow.

biomass really isn't much better than coal

How so? It is a renewable isn't it?

 

[carlosMM]

Yes, but in a very long run only!

The problem I see is power demand surges - you HAVE to cover for emergencies and for peak demand times. And that is only easy with fossil fuels today.

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

Now, no. Future, yes. Before oil runs out - yes, but not sure we will take the appropriate actions to make it so, hence there may be an 'energy depression' while we are forced to switch.

 

[BasketCase]

Fossil fuels are a renewable resource; that oil didn't just magically appear out of nowhere.

Conventional wisdom is that we're using it up faster than nature is producing it. A while back, it was commonly believed the planet had about thirty years' worth of oil left. That was almost thirty years ago.

Since then, known oil reserves have actually gone UP as we discover new fields. So I don't think we can say for sure whether or not we're using up oil faster than it's being manufactured by Nature.

 

[carlosMM]

Fossil fuels are a renewable resource; that oil didn't just magically appear out of nowhere.

there you go again with your usual way - 'renewable' is in this case obviosuly meant to include only those sources that do not take millions of years to form.....

Conventional wisdom is that we're using it up faster than nature is producing it. A while back, it was commonly believed the planet had about thirty years' worth of oil left. That was almost thirty years ago.

Since then, known oil reserves have actually gone UP as we discover new fields. So I don't think we can say for sure whether or not we're using up oil faster than it's being manufactured by Nature.

But we know - or do you disagree - that the oil and gas reserves are finite! And we know how long the process takes (or do you have some revolutionary new theory here?) - at least several 100,000 years for brown coal, a few million years for anything of a higher grade.

And please, with our by now quite extensive knowledge of the sedimntary rock cover of earth, where would your new source be? Please explain the depositional areas, e.g. with a map of earth that shows potential deposits.