Infer: increased use of other energy sources?
How might an increased use of alternate energy sources such as wind and solar radiation affect the lifetime of fossil fuel resources?
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 3rd, 2010 at 2:14 am
The more we use other sources of energy, the longer fossil fuels can last. In fact, given its use in plastics manufacture, it would be ideal if we burned no petroleum products at all. At present, neither wind nor sun is a suitable substitute for nuclear and combustion power, because the sun does not shine all day all year anywhere, nor does the wind blow constantly anywhere either. Germany gets 80% of its electricity from wind, but 20% from combustion. If we reduce fossil fuel consumption to one fifth what it is now, it will last five times as long before it runs out. There is, at present, no truly commercial scale solar power plant in the world. If we can figure out how to store sunlight (or the energy from it) for use at night, solar power will become commercial. At present it is too variable to be a component of contemporary power grids.