Let the Sun Shine In

Too much energy is wasted by converting it. We could cut energy use by as much as 30% in 10 years by removing some links from the energy chain.

Applying the doctrine of minimizing energy conversions to automobiles is more problematic, but still doable. Going from sunlight to biofuels to mechanical engines to hybrid electric is a non-starter. Staying all-electric is the answer, but the main problem lies in battery technology, which has yet to see a breakthrough.
Over the last 100 years, battery improvement has invariably tracked the same, slowly increasing, logarithmic curve. Even proposed battery advances using nanoparticles would just keep the rate of improvement on the same pace. It’s simply too hard to jump-start the chemical processes inherent in battery technology.

Still, battery-operated cars are just a factor of two or three away from attaining the range and horsepower required to become popular with consumers. By substituting lightweight composite materials for steel and by installing the latest-generation electric motors, we could effectively close the gap. All are readily available. Then it would just be a matter of plugging our car into solar-generated power and we’d be off, as it were, to the races.

With rare exceptions, energy security and an improved environment don’t generally require startling leaps in new technology. Nor do they require massive deprivation through conservation or insurmountable acts of political will. They do require, however, a clear focus on what works most simply and directly. Fewer energy conversions should become our watchword, whether we’re government policymakers or whether we’re investors.

Business Week