Online Forum: Editors on the Future of Energy

[jkash]

Experts generally agree that our current reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable. Clean energy sources like wind and solar power—not to mention still-unproven hydrogen technology—are gaining popularity, especially in Western Europe. But even as prices approach $50 a barrel, the alternatives don't yet make enough economic sense to replace oil. Will that change? What are the most promising innovations to use alternative energy sources? And what about hybrid options like `green’ gizmos and the popular Toyota Prius? You wrote to us with queries about the future of energy. Here are the responses to some of those questions from NEWSWEEK Middle East regional editor Christopher Dickey and Forbes.Com editor Paul Maidment.

Omaha,  NE: Do you think that  Ford and GM are stonewalling on the hybrid car?  Why are these U.S. automakers not  making them if Toyota has a big waiting list for the Prius?

Dickey: They're not stonewalling, just cautious. Ford and GM only began investing in hybrid cars when the U.S. Department of Energy began to offer them money to do so. Also, insofar as the U.S. market is concerned, Toyota is gambling that energy prices—and the political uncertainties of the Middle East—will stay high. But at least since 1973, sporadic American passions for conservation prompted by surges in Mideast violence and related jumps in oil prices, have proved very short lived. Remember “compact cars”? Remember the 55-mile-an-hour speed limit? Car manufacturers who bet on those trends were left with a lot of little runabouts nobody wanted when gas prices went down again. American cars came back bigger, bolder and just about as thirsty as ever. In the USA today, the SUV culture makes the tailfin era of the 1950s look positively green. So Toyota’s Prius may or may not succeed over the long term in the American market, which is key to Ford or GM. But in other countries with higher gas prices, it will continue to hold great promise.


Read entire article by clicking this link.

[DaveinOlyWA]

some good points, a lot of very optismistic unproven points presented as facts. overall, more misleading than enlightning

[TonyPSchaefer]

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Dickey: They're not stonewalling, just cautious. Ford and GM only began investing in hybrid cars when the U.S. Department of Energy began to offer them money to do so. [/b]

And how long has The Department of Energy been paying them to do so?, you ask.

Originally posted by US DOE website
FreedomCAR
The current partnership with the auto industry was initiated in September 1993 as the \"Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV).\" The program emphasized research and development (R&D) programs designed to triple automobile fuel efficiency. The PNGV program was to culminate in the production of prototype family autos in the year 2004, with the expectation that the technologies would be incorporated into even more efficient production vehicles about four years later.

The situation has changed.  The National Research Council Peer Review recommended restructuring the PNGV program because of developments and advancements in related fields:

Automobile fuel economy is declining as SUV market share increases
Significant R&D progress has been achieved  
Industry partners have announced they will introduce hybrid technology in production vehicles within the next few years

Read more at:
http://www.energy.gov/engine/content.do?PU...DE=PRESSRELEASE

Nothing, absolutely nothing, boils my blood more than sitting around on your hands doing nothing. Except perhaps claiming that you're going to do something and then not following through on it. Well, maybe taking money from a tax-funded program for work you're not doing. Oh, maybe when you make the situation worse by doing the exact opposite of what you were supposed to be doing in the first place. Other than that, nothing ticks me off more.

[DaveinOlyWA]

ok Tony... now you are beginning to understand how i felt about the "SuperCar fund which was one of the things that came from this program you mentioned. its interesting to read the stats from Hybrid vehicles built by the big three getting up to 70 mpg, that never came about. it was claimed to be too expensive and too complicated to build... 3 months after they made that statement, the Prius was introduced to the american market.

[skruse]

The future of energy is "distributed power" not a single source such as fossil fuel (diesel, gasoline, ethanol or hydrogen). Car bodies (windows and "sheet metal") will integrate photovoltaic panels using noncrystaline PV techniques. You can see through the windows, yet the windows still produce electricity in sunlight.

Vehicles will have the options of "fueling up" as well as "plugging in". Hybrid technologies will include what Toyota currently offers and integrated photovoltaic panels. The PV panels will not provide complete power but offer "trickle charging" when the vehicle is parked outside all day. Carports and parking lots increasingly will make us of PV panels, connected to the grid and cars will also be able to plug-in while parked (at your place of work, schools, businesses and retail shopping areas, and home). The eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains will lead the way in wind power, the southwest and California in solar PV panels. All areas, including buildings and vehicles, will focus more on efficiency for heating, cooling and operating.

Emphasis will be placed on renewable energy sources (tides, wind, sun and hydroelectricity), not finite single-sources.

[madams]

I believe that the Hybrid IS the way of the future (or at least for the next 10 to 15 years). Why? Infrastructure. Even if they figure out how to build a efficent fuel cell car for about the same price as a Prius (I have heard current prices for such vehicles runs about $120k+) it will take at least 10 to 15 years for stations to be hydrogen ready. Also with all the problems people seem to have just putting gas in the cars -- I'm not so sure that I'd want to be around many people trying to fill their cars with HIGHLY ExPLOSIVE hydrogen!

Another thing is the price of our power plants will go down as more and more people jump on the hybrid bandwagon. It happens with everything. The more they build and the more they refine and the more they innovate the lower the cost. I would be willing to bet that the battery technology today will laughable within the next 5 or 6 years. The hybrids, or at least Toyota Hybrids will probably be getting 120 miles mpg because the batteries will refresh faster, we will run much longer on the stored energy and the ICE's function with the motor(s) will reverse, that is to say the ICE will assist the motors rather than the other way around. :guns: :guns: