Biofuel from cellulose is something we think about here, being surrounded by wood that grows at several cubic metres per hectare per year, and in the interior of the province much that is dead on the stump, killed by bugs that don't get knocked off anymore with forty-below weather ... the technology will come along eventually, there are enzymes and whatnot to make the conversion, a private company called Iogen is working on it, among others, mixed success so far and nothing proven scalable to the point of getting financed
Ultimately we'll have many sources of energy, site-specific, area-specific, depending on what's to hand ... on this wet coast of BC we tend to think of things other than solar about nine months a year -g- ... run-of-river small hydro sounds like a winner ... the big solar tower in Spain is interesting, should work, and once in place will have low operating cost ... there are plenty of ways, geothermal, solar-thermal, wind, tide - lots of tidal potential in BC
All energy we use with the exception of nuclear is really solar - oil/coal the result of chlorophyll doing the conversion eons ago, hydro the result of the hydrologic cycle, etc ... no wait, tidal would be lunar power wouldn't it
I'd like an electric pickup, got a rough configuration for it worked out, ready for whoever wants to make it and sell it to me at a reasonable price ... 120km or so range on batteries, probably lithim-ion, and with a small detachable diesel generator, genset would weigh no more than say 30kg and its tank the same, easily detachable by hand, where the engine is in the hood of my current Ford ... carbon fibre chassis, sealed to the point of being amphibious, independent suspension and little locomotive motors on all four wheels, which are placed low enough on L-struts to give half-metre clearance ... good sound enduring electronics to control it all, i'm offering fifty grand if you hear of anybody interested -g- |
