In your oil burner the vast majority goes out the tailpipe and the radiator. In excess of 80% of the original energy.
That pretty well recapped what the note I posted said:
1,000 BTU's (that's British Thermal Unit, a measure of energy) of gasoline into an internal combustion motor of a car, you get about 220 BTU's worth of motion.
Now what is the case with electrical power?
To produce electricity from, say, coal or oil or nuclear fuel, it takes 1,000 BTU's of that fuel to get about 350 BTU's of electricity; then to transmit that electricity to your plug will waste another 50 BTU's. Finally you have put about 300 BTU's worth of energy into your car; and now you drive it while overcoming tire friction and wind resistance (no hot exhaust gas loss here) in order to get about some 120 BTU's worth of motion.
The above is based on electricity produced from coal, oil, nuclear - things we use now, which therefore greens don't like. I suppose you'd say with solar or wind, there is no "wastage". Even assuming so, there would still be transmission loss and the need to overcome friction and wind resistance. That would still eat up about 66% of the "original energy". Just for perspective.
Now, the next issue. To replace our coal, oil, nuclear infrastructure with things greens like (now) like solar and wind, we will certainly need massive investment in solar and wind farms. Do you really think the greens will go along with that or will they fight it as viciously as they fight "conventional" energy? |
