Will cars using alternative sources of energy e.g. solar, electric become mainstream?

Answer 1

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Yes, especiallly electric cars, and the batteries to make this possible are already here. Take a look at this car:
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http://phoenixmotorcars.com/models/fleet.html
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The Phoenix electric pickup truck - this completely gas-free vehicle, using new, advanced Altairnano batteries (based on research from MIT) - can:

-Travel up to 250 miles per charge
-Carry 5 passengers plus cargo at 95mph.
-Charges batteries in as little as TEN MINUTES.
-Has batteries that last 250,000 miles (never need replacement.)
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This is a real car, being built for fleet customers right now - and for the rest of us next year.
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It's interesting to note that this car, and its advanced batteries did not come from government-sponsored research, but from private research. The present administration killed a former electric car research project to instead pursue fuel cells, which will not be ready to market for decades. The Phoenix is being built now.
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Answer 2

There can't be even a reasonable shift to selection potential till this is going to become much less costly. people are not going to spend greater for it than they do for fossil fuels. the might desire to minimize our dependence on fossil fuels is glaring because of the fact there is not any longer a never ending supply, besides the fact that if it would not make sense to the first salary earner from an financial attitude. till it does this is little greater suitable than a pipe dream, and surely no longer something which will ensue in the close to destiny.

Answer 3

Not in my life time, and probably not in yours either. The big issue is cost. There is not a single alternative energy source out there that does not cost more than conventional fuels.

Exactly what government regulations on alternative fuels are you refering to Jules?

Answer 4

I hope so; the sooner, the better. Unfortunately, until they become affordable, we'll be stuck with the current field of polluting automobiles. Too bad the manufacturers can't see past their bottom lines, profit wise, and give the planet , and it's people, a break by selling them more cheaply. Make up the profit line by volume sales- what a concept!

Answer 5

Absolutely. As soon as the government eases up on regulations regarding alternative energy and with the new presidential election coming up, we will start to see changes.

Answer 6

1

Answer 7

unless you want to buy oil, and give money away to Iraq's warmer seasons. water evaporation. more sand dunes. the ozone touching our foreheads.we better do some thing, the right thing to save the planet.

Answer 8

Not in the US - we love our big gas guzzling horsepower monsters. If you want to drive a sewing machine on wheels go for it. Not me brother...

Answer 9

Yes, we are moving to alternate powered cars.

Solar Powered cars are more of a toy, but there is a lot of room for the electric car. The major sticking point is still the batteries. Nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries are some of he lightest ones yet, but we still need them to be lighter to get a practical electric car.

Ethanol is a temporary stopgap because as the world’s population grows the need for using that land to make food will grow. Also the amount of ethanol that can be made from corn is not enough to sustain our growing energy demands. There are more efficient sources of plant created ethanol, but we will still need the land for food.

The same argument holds for bio-diesel fuels, however burning the waste product from fryer vats is a very good idea. It can’t fuel the nation, but just just the waste from McDonalds alone could power a few business fleets.

Hydrogen is the ultimate and purest fuel, it is also very dangerous to store since to make it economical you need to put it under pressure and too many people know what happened to the Hindenburg. Imagine what would happen in a car crash if the fuel tank was punctured and it shot out a stream of high-pressure hydrogen. One spark would turn it into a flamethrower hot enough to melt metal. It is also very energy intensive to make.

Propane and Liquid Natural Gas supplies are still pretty common, for decades we have been just burning it off in the refineries and oil rigs so we can get rid of it.

The problem with the bio-diesel, ethanol, propane, and natural gas options is that it still creates some pollution. Hydrogen creates the least, and solar power creates pollution only in the manufacturing process, but they are not practical.

They hybrid car with both a gasoline and electric engine has not been as good as the original claims are. The cost of carrying the batteries, an engine and the motors defeats the savings; they are “greener” than gasoline powered cars are, but we can do a lot better.

We can’t use it in our cars, but nuclear power is very efficient. It does have its problems, but it provides the least waste of any current power producing technology. Of course not every country is going to have a huge mountain to bury their waste under, but we can create depots in unused land like the Gobi Desert, the Sahara, and the deserts of North America. These areas are useless for humans except that we can dig deeply under them and store our wastes there. Another good option would be to store nuclear waste in those old played out oil wells. These wells held the oil for a few million years so we can expect them to hold the nuclear wastes for an equal time. However there are other options.

The best way to power most of our equipment, and especially our cars is with electricity. Using solar power, power beamed from space born solar satellites and a few other sources (wave power, geothermal power etc.) are very clean. If we work on improving our electrical production we can make it very clean and very practical.

The biggest obstacle to electric cars is the batteries; they are even heavier than the motors that they drive. It is hard to store electricity, power companies don’t even try they just turn down their plant production during off hours. Another problem with modern batteries is they all have a limited life span. However, our rechargeable ones are getting better. The new promise lies with the nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery packs.

According to: http://www.nickelinstitute.org/index.cfm/ci_id/12764.htm
"Nickel magazine, March, 2004 -- Technological development has reduced the size, weight and cost of the nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery packs used in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Relatively compact in size, they now have sufficient power, reliability and life expectancy to have been selected for the majority of mass-produced HEVs, such as the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius.

Further improvements will increase the number of HEVs from the hundreds of thousands that are now on the road to millions in the future. The NiMH battery has made possible a large reduction in vehicle pollutants, while improving the utilization of scarce energy resources. In the future, when renewable energy is used to generate hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles, a hybrid design using NiMH batteries will be key to achieving efficient energy usage and to powering sustainable transportation."

Lithium batteries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_battery) are also promising, but we need to make them more efficient. The best area will be with Nanobatteries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanobatteries), nanotechnology is the ultimate in miniturazition. When we develop these and make them cheap then we can weave the batteries inside of the panels, roof, and floor of the car. If you include ultra-strong carbon-nanofibertubes then you will have a much lighter and more efficent car.

If we continue to work on green sources of power then we can power this cars without endangering our planet and for far cheaper then we currently pay for oil. The problem is that as long as Americans want to use oil and are willing to pay the extra costs for it there is no incentive to develop these better power plants and more efficent cars. I may disagree with President Bush’s policies, espeically those in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I do agree that we need to wean America off of oil.

Answer 10

For sure...Even though I prefer Pixie Dust ,which is environmental friendly..!