Oil

[Parts]

I think the answer lies in artificial bacteria that can eat one thing and excrete a good syntectic oil.

The people who are anti genetic engineering will raise hell about that.

  Until they're looking at a choice between paying through the nose for "clean" oil or buying cheap synthetic.

Then their ideals will mysteriously vanish.

That's the way it seems to work  Money Talks

[Tesla]

I think the answer lies in artificial bacteria that can eat one thing and excrete a good syntectic oil.

The people who are anti genetic engineering will raise hell about that.

  Until they're looking at a choice between paying through the nose for "clean" oil or buying cheap synthetic.

Then their ideals will mysteriously vanish.

I fear the containment of that type of bacteria...  What if it gets out, and into the water supply, or the oceans...

[Teejay]

The thing is, although there are more hybrid cars and electric cars, there are still aircraft, cargo ships, and plastics and whatnot.

I think the answer lies in artificial bacteria that can eat one thing and excrete a good syntectic oil.

I think algae growing in the deserts, the sea or even feeding off sewage and coal power plant smoke will be developed that can produce biodiesel. People are now buying diesel cars in large numbers are probably betting on biodiesel taking off in a big way.

[Alex179]

I wish solar power was more efficient, but right now we just can't make it work correctly.   Wind and geothermal also would be nice to utilize better.   The energy crisis is definitely a problem, and we can't rely on oil forever.   Hydrogen fuel cell cars are making some progress at least, they just need to make the fuel cells the size of a gas tank and they might be more viable.

I like electromagnets as far as moving large amounts of passengers, like magnetic trains or the system used in Minority Report (could have used magnets to move those cars automatically).   That way people would not be driving the cars themselves, which would reduce the accident total to basically zero.    Car and Driver covered an automated car competition where 100+ drivers tried to fuck with computer controlled cars.   Only one car failed to signal and none got in any accidents IIRC.   The sensory equipment was the most expensive part, but the government only wanted the software for the AI/protocol to drive the cars.   That makes me believe they already have something more viable as far as sensing the surroundings.

[Phlexor]

The thing is, although there are more hybrid cars and electric cars, there are still aircraft, cargo ships, and plastics and whatnot.

I think the answer lies in artificial bacteria that can eat one thing and excrete a good syntectic oil.

The people who are anti genetic engineering will raise hell about that.
I think the price of oil  will spark invention what was once too expensive to consider will be viable
I am seeing this in my industry already.  I used to give people prices and they would laugh now they consider it

Well thats the thing, isnt it. The other choice is Nanomachines making synthetic oil, and I trust them less considering that the consequences of them causing havok are much worse than some GM bacteria.

[renaeden]

A lot of different technologies will be spurred on by this some of the buses use regenerative braking using the electric motors   to generate power as  the buss slows down

The new trains in our area is using this technology.

[Peter]

I wish solar power was more efficient, but right now we just can't make it work correctly.   Wind and geothermal also would be nice to utilize better.   The energy crisis is definitely a problem, and we can't rely on oil forever.   Hydrogen fuel cell cars are making some progress at least, they just need to make the fuel cells the size of a gas tank and they might be more viable.

Solar power works just fine, and even in cloudy Scotland it's become a decent investment to have photovoltaic panels fitted to the roof of your house; we currently pay about £0.12/$0.24 per kwh for electricity from the national grid, giving a payback time for a domestic photovoltaic system of about 15 years in this country at the moment.  Given that the price of photovoltaics will continue to fall as production capacity is increased to meet demand and energy prices will continue to rise as fossil fuels become increasingly difficult to extract, solar power will become ever more economical.  Right now the price of photovoltaics is high due to a lack of manufacturing capacity for producing silicon semiconductors on the scale needed for a mass deployment of photovoltaic power, and will come down as more manufacturing capacity is added.  We also have a lot of wind power here, and have started building offshore wind farms, and we've had a lot of hydro and nuclear power for decades.

[Peter]

I think the answer lies in artificial bacteria that can eat one thing and excrete a good syntectic oil.

The people who are anti genetic engineering will raise hell about that.

  Until they're looking at a choice between paying through the nose for "clean" oil or buying cheap synthetic.

Then their ideals will mysteriously vanish.

I fear the containment of that type of bacteria...  What if it gets out, and into the water supply, or the oceans...

Then it'll get eaten by all the wild organisms that haven't been genetically engineered to produce oil.  It would be like a dairy cow being released into the African savannah; it would be lucky to last a day or two before something ate it or it got ill or had heat stroke or it's udders burst from lack of being milked.

[Alex179]

I wish solar power was more efficient, but right now we just can't make it work correctly.   Wind and geothermal also would be nice to utilize better.   The energy crisis is definitely a problem, and we can't rely on oil forever.   Hydrogen fuel cell cars are making some progress at least, they just need to make the fuel cells the size of a gas tank and they might be more viable.

Solar power works just fine, and even in cloudy Scotland it's become a decent investment to have photovoltaic panels fitted to the roof of your house; we currently pay about £0.12/$0.24 per kwh for electricity from the national grid, giving a payback time for a domestic photovoltaic system of about 15 years in this country at the moment.  Given that the price of photovoltaics will continue to fall as production capacity is increased to meet demand and energy prices will continue to rise as fossil fuels become increasingly difficult to extract, solar power will become ever more economical.  Right now the price of photovoltaics is high due to a lack of manufacturing capacity for producing silicon semiconductors on the scale needed for a mass deployment of photovoltaic power, and will come down as more manufacturing capacity is added.  We also have a lot of wind power here, and have started building offshore wind farms, and we've had a lot of hydro and nuclear power for decades.

There is much room for improvement in the US.    Solar power would be more efficient if it didn't take up the entire roof of the house in most cases and if it wasn't so damn expensive.   A good portion of the families that I know in Florida, do not live in the same house for more than 15 years.    That would make the savings in electricity not pay off in time.   That and some people rent, which should be taken into account as most places do not want satellite dishes or pets, nevermind a large solar panel on your roof.   Silicon semiconductors are expensive because they are also used in motherboards for computers, so it conflicts with solar panel production.

The US got scared off from nuclear due mainly to 3 mile island.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident
We use French nuclear technology in our damn Aircraft carriers (Nimitz class), but choose to not do so with our public electricity.

This country could use wind power so much in some areas, it is crazy.   It makes too much sense to use wind here, as we have plenty of land that could just have windmill generators.    That is a resource we definitely should utilize better.  There are a few hydro plants as well in the US, mostly at places like Hoover dam.   Geothermal wouldn't be bad to use as well.

[Peter]

Solar power would be more efficient if it didn't take up the entire roof of the house in most cases and if it wasn't so damn expensive.

Do you have some other use for the roof of your house?  The price is rapidly dropping, and is already cheaper than grid electricity in Italy.

A good portion of the families that I know in Florida, do not live in the same house for more than 15 years.    That would make the savings in electricity not pay off in time.

The value of the solar power system is added to the value of the house, and since solar panels have very long operating lives (25-100 years), they depreciate very slowly.

That and some people rent, which should be taken into account as most places do not want satellite dishes or pets, nevermind a large solar panel on your roof.

I wouldn't expect tenants to outfit someone else's property with a solar power system.  It would be possible, however, for the owners of rented property to fit their properties with solar power systems and sell the electricity to the power company in areas where domestic solar power becomes cheaper than grid power.  If there were separate meters for the power generated by the solar panels and the power used by the tenants, it could be a profitable investment for the property owners, providing a modest income from generated power and raising the value of the property.

Silicon semiconductors are expensive because they are also used in motherboards for computers, so it conflicts with solar panel production.

Silicon isn't a limited resource; the raw material is common sand and the capacity to refine it and fabricate components from it is limited only by capital investment in new refineries and fab plants.  Additionally, silicon for microelectronics is refined in small quantities to extremely high levels of purity, while the silicon for solar panels doesn't need to be anywhere near as pure, and so can be cheaply manufactured in bulk once refineries are built specifically for producing silicon for solar panels.

[Alex179]

I know silicon isn't limited, but it would have to be more prioritized than it is currently towards solar panel production.   Motherboards might move one day to synthetic diamond, which would be interesting as far as heat and using ridiculous clock speeds.   That would free up some silicon related production companies most likely to move towards solar panel production.   It isn't about limitation of the resource, but the priority towards manufacturing due to demand.   There is more demand currently involved in motherboards, than solar panels as far as the world is concerned.

I rent currently, and they don't even like satellite dishes on the roof here.   My parents are selling their house, so they wouldn't add it right now.   Houses go up in value, solar panels do not, which is bad.   Losing investments are crap.   If it only lasts 25 years and finally pays off after 15, then that is a 10 year window to make up for the depreciation in value.

Most rental properties aren't going to invest in solar power due to the expense, the tenants are charged by the electric authority which makes money off of power consumption.   It is in their interest to not promote solar power on houses, as they would rather make more money by the customer using more energy.