Gas from Algae
While it might now be possible to buy a plug-in electric “car” for less than $20k (if you call three wheels and two seats a car), I honestly don’t see myself driving a plug-in vehicle anytime soon. Transportation for the foreseeable future will continue to rely on internal combustion for the vast majority of people. Why? because the technology is proven, reliable and getting better all the time, and the distribution system is in place to allow mobility everywhere. It is damn difficult to beat the energy density of gasoline in spite of it’s many drawbacks.
Which is why I’m glad that all this “green” research is not ignoring internal combustion fuel alternatives. Start up company Sapphire Energy has claimed that it can produce a product chemically identical to gasoline from Algae, and that the process should be able to scale to commercial production levels. That means that existing technology and delivery systems would not require changes, and that land would not need to be sacrificed from growing crops for food to grow crops for fuel. This is great news for anyone who truly wants energy independence, and horrible news for anyone who says they want to be independent of Middle East oil but really just wants everyone to stop driving.
Secretly (or not so much so) I believe that cheap, renewable energy sources are the last thing the hardcore “green lobby” actually wants. They can push technologies that they can be reasonably certain will not be able to scale or will have other fatal flaws that will prevent widespread use and appear to support the search for a long term energy solution. In reality cheap energy means continued economic growth, which means continued population growth, which means continued consumption, which means continued use of natural resources. These are all BAD things in their eyes. The only good outcome for them is one that causes economic collapse, shrinking population and a return to “simpler” (read caveman) living with a “smaller footprint”. For the hardcore, mankind is not a part of nature, it is a cancer on nature.
Ingenuity and inventiveness will rule the day. One way or another energy will eventually be cheap AND plentiful AND green. We will be able to keep the wheels of progress moving quickly and continue to grow as a species, all the while demanding more of our mother planet (and quite probably others) and learning how to sustain it at the same time. What will be the next “global warming” crisis that those who would have us live in caves will rally around to scare us into their deception?
Either that, or we’ll be hit by an asteroid before it matters.
