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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (5225)	2/24/2009 1:57:26 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 86355

“Recharging a battery is a much cleaner operation here than in Illinois.” At the same time, she added, there are issues with hydrogen and fuel cells. Just a puff piece that avoids addressing the pros and cons of both alternative energy forms. The problem with Fuel Cells lies in the use of Platinum, as well as storage of sufficient fuel in a safe manner (either pressurized or in metal hydrid form). Fuel Cells will not be viable until a non-platinum anode material is identified that is just as efficient (and great strides are being made that made bear fruit within 5-10 years). Hydrogen could use, in part, the existing natural gas infrastructure for national distribution. But the true problem is creating sufficient hydrogen generation capacity to meet the needs of our society. That's going to require the very same expanded baseload electrical generating capacity as would be needed for PHEV vehicles. But the true promise of hydrogen is to liberate the American people from the traditional service station concept. Those who own property will have the ability to produce their own fuel, possibly with Solar or Wind. It creates an additional price competition factor where people can become self-sufficient if energy corporations attempt to "squeeze" them. The problem with Lithium-Ion lies in short life span (regarding vehicles), expense, and concentration of a vital resource (Lithium) in an unstable country (Bolivia). As I've oft mentioned, the future of PHEV's lies in the use of Ultracapacitors that have a far greater quantity of recharge cycles than existing battery technology. Thus, I'm all for PHEV's if they can achieve this at a competitive price. But I just fear that batteries are not the proper path we should take if they cannot compete on price and reliability. HOWEVER, the one advantage of developing a hydrogen infrastructure is that it can still be utilized in current engine technology, which means neither Fuel Cells or PHEV's are necessary. All that's needed is the distribution infrastructure. Hawk