[NEOPO]

I saw the commercial which made me go "pffft" and "heh heh" but otherwise I missed it and was hoping that some cornucopian or peaker with too much time on their hands would come post a thread and shine light on the finer points saving us all the trouble

[perdition79]

Only at Peakoil.com would the phrase "future car" be an oxymoron.

[eXpat]

Does it flight? I'm old enough to remember that i was promised by 2K flighing cars and robots that will relieve us of all human chores. I'll settle for a flighing car.

[I_Like_Plants]

When I was a kid we had (among thousands of others!) a book with planes with counterrotating props on the nose that would take off and land streight up, and a sort of flying platform with a guy dressed like Dilbert, hell no, no helmet, casually standing there holding the controls, and all sorts of other idiotic stuff.

[peaker_2005]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('perdition79', 'O')nly at Peakoil.com would the phrase "future car" be an oxymoron.

[Pablo2079]

I watched part of it last night. The parts I saw were about Hydrogen in Norway and solar cars.

The hydrogen part was interesting, yet fictional. They were discussing possible future Hydrogen filling stations that produced the gas at the location and also used solar to do it. The unit generating the hydrogen is supposedly about the size of an American Refrigerator. I thought it interesting that they pointed out "American".

After they got into the solar cars, I had to turn it off. I can only watch so much.

It was interesting trying to watch the show as if I didn't know anything about the subject at all. "Technology will save us all" was the feeling I got from the 20 or so minutes I invested.

[Peak_Modernity]

I saw the first part with ethanol and turned it off.

I still remember when they had the show "Beyond 2000" showing all the great stuff we were going to have. They conveniently left out how far beyond 2000 it would be.

[Aaron]

I love that show!

It's all about the stuff I was promised as a young man... flyin cars & RingWorlds & cute ET's & such.

Sweet...

I am Hydrocarbon Man & I will have my freakin flyin car...

[eXpat]

Flying car ready for take-off!!!!link, 8 years ago...

[PrairieMule]

In the future our cars will run on oats and sugar cubes


Tips Appreciated.

[MD]

I have three channels programmed into my favorites:

The History Channel -- Because I want to know where we've been.

National Geographic -- Because I want to know where we are.

The Science Channel -- Because I want to know where we're going.


I liked the electric solar powered ultralight car that was shown in that program.

[Chuckmak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Peak_Modernity', 'I') still remember when they had the show "Beyond 2000" showing all the great stuff we were going to have. They conveniently left out how far beyond 2000 it would be.

[advancedatheist]

I've started to watch the Discovery Channel's series "Building the Future." Just 15-20 minutes into the first episode, about finding energy for a desperate industrial civilization, it shows the construction of huge wind mills for generating electricity in the North Sea off of the Netherlands. The blades require diesel trucks to move from the factory to a ship, and the ship of course needs bunker fuel to transport the blades and foundation for installation in a rough sea. The whole process requires a massive subsidy of energy from fossil fuels to work, in other words, indicating that the windmill technology can't bootrstrap and sustain itself as the oil supply continues to decline. But the series just ignorantly passes this effort off as a "solution" to the energy crisis instead of a feel-good exercise.

[Falconoffury]

I like the part where they went on about how cheap and safe nuclear fusion-based energy is. They went on to say that we expect it to be 50 years away from commercial use, but didn't elaborate on why. Fusion has been 50 years away since the beginning of the entire project. The truth is, we have no idea how long it will take to harness fusion for our uses.

The unwavering optimism disgusts me. The people interviewed in this show basically said we have huge problems, and we'll solve all of them. Has it ever occurred to them that maybe we won't?

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Falconoffury', 'H')as it ever occurred to them that maybe we won't?

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('advancedatheist', 'T')he whole process requires a massive subsidy of energy from fossil fuels to work, in other words, indicating that the windmill technology can't bootrstrap and sustain itself as the oil supply continues to decline. But the series just ignorantly passes this effort off as a "solution" to the energy crisis instead of a feel-good exercise.

[Windmills]

Most optimists discussing wind and solar power often fail to mention that decent energy storage is not yet in our grasp. One result is that for every unit of installed wind or solar, you need a larger amount of conventional generating capacity to ensure that you don't have an intermittent system. Wind and solar can't stand on their own. They're more like conservation systems than anything, allowing us to stretch our fossil fuel reserves a little farther. And as with all conservation efforts, they will be undone by Jevons', the fact that we greedily cling to an infinite growth/consumption economic model, and constant population growth.

[advancedatheist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gnm', ' ')While I agree that the availability of cheap fossil fuel makes programs like this easy, and we could run afoul of "receding horizons" while trying to deploy alternatives, its not actually true that such systems could not produce useable fuel. Electricity can be used to synthesize ammonia which can be used to fuel conventional ice-type engines.

[gnm]

Advanced, wind is one of the few alternative energy systems which has a fairly high return on investment. There is no reason even a 19th century economy couldn't build and maintain wind generators. Maybe not 400ft monsters out in the sea, but certainly large land based ones. Now if we can get past the NIMBY crap.

Windmills, I am not generally considered an optimist. I run PV but I don't expect them to save anything. Just a way of keeping the lights on for a lucky few.

Wind should not be lumped together with PV as is far easier to construct and deploy. granted is lacks in consistency and storage capacity but lead acid batteries are a very primitive technology and aren't going away.

For small localized uses wind works great. So does PV but we'll never build enough of them to make much difference...

-G