Which alternative energy is ready for mass production and will be readily available, & economical?

Question

There are many alternative energy sources out there, but none that are readily available, cheaper then gas, and easy to retrofit on an automobile. Electric cars are great but have you seen any recharging facilities near your home? No.

Joe Cool- Yes I have seen a wall outlet, but you need to research electric vehicles. A regular 120 wall outlet will take about 10 hrs to full charge a SMALL car, 4 to 5 hours to charge with 240.

They do have magna-charge inductive charging paddles which are the "facilities" that I am talking about, and take a few minutes to fully charge a car. How many of those have you seen?

I dont think that electric vehicles are economical at this point, because electric cars energy is definitely cheaper then gas, but an electric cars range is about 50 miles on the liberal side, before you have to charge it for 5 hours. You cant go on a road trip with an solely electric car, unless your stopping constantly and recharging which is an inconvenience, and the opportunity cost definitely outweighs the benefits.

Joe Cool- I think change will occur, when consumers drive demand for these alternative fuel vehicles. Right now hybrid vehicles are more expensive then regular gasoline cars.

And also as you suggest the charging times takes a few hours, which is for a small euro car which typical americans dont want. And even if they did, how many americans take road trips? No one has time to take in the local flavor and spend more time and money to wait 4-5 hours to charge their vehicle just to drive a few hours and repeat the process. Typical Americans wont go for that unless there are "facilities" that are readily available.

Change wont happen, until consumers drive demand that forces businesses to put out alternative energy vehicles that are more economical and efficient then gas. So I ask my question again. Also what do you all think of biofuels and biodiesel?

Lazez Faire- Mile per gallon on an electric vehicle is not applicable to that vehicle, there is no gallons of anything in electric, it all depends on charge. Unless you show me a source, I highly doubt that a person can ge 100 miles off of one charge. Also you make it seem like electric cars are cheap and most American families can buy another car to drive, to offset their gas counterpart. So if it is so economical and cheap then why dont you have one? Also those batteries you talk about, cost a couple thousand dollars to replace, and you need to replace them every few years.

Dont get my wrong, I believe in electric cars but I dont see the efficiency in them. I drive over 80 miles a day and once a month I drive 500 miles round trip for business trips. I dont think electric cars are viable at this point in time. A company needs to come along and make an efficient electric car, with networks in the US to charge these cars within a few minutes.

Answer 1

Butanol is the next most likely alternative fuel for cars. There are two different companies developing pilot plants right now. One of which is hoping to start mass production within a handful of years.

Butanol is a more complex alcohol than ethanol and can replace gasoline directly with less special needs than gasoline has currently. It evaporates less than gasoline, isn't corrosive like ethanol, and more energy can be produced from a bushel of corn through butanol than ethanol. The only down side is that it has 10 to 15 percent less energy than normal gasoline mixes which is excellent compared to ethanol.

You won't have to retrofit a car for this fuel. It already runs fine in standard gas engines, but won't be widely available for at least a decade. The biofuel industry will need time to convert and build production plants after all.

Answer 2

I think you are wrong on the electric car.

Most families have more than 1 vehicle. Why can't the 2nd or 3rd car even be electrical? Even with a 50 mile range, that would work for many millions of families as their second car.

It would work for me personally about 90% of the time, and for my wife virtually 100% of the time. There's no reason a family like mine couldn't drive the electric most of the time, reserving the gas car as the other vehicle, or for days where we need more range.

Voltage a problem for recharging? Let's see, I'm spending $25 to $35k on a car. I can't add in $500 to have an electrician come in and install a 220 outlet in the garage or by the driveway? You could even have the automaker specifically rebate that amount back so the electrical work gets folded into the auto loan, but the consumer has a check in their hand to pay the electrician.

I also think plug-in hybrids are another great solution. There are people now that take the Priuses and void the warranty by adding more batteries and some other mods, and then proceed to drive those mostly on electric power the first 40 or so miles every day. The end result is gas mileage well over 100 mpg for PLUG-IN HYBRIDS THAT USE GAS.

Answer 3

"Electric cars are great but have you seen any recharging facilities near your home?"

Yeah, it's called a standard wall outlet. Many electric cars currently being designed are able to plug directly into a standard polarized plug. It is cheaper than gas. It is not easy to retrofit it into an auto, but people are continuously replacing their cars on the societal level.


"A full charge using the home system can be achieved in as little as 3.5 hours" -Tesla Motors

"A full charge takes 8 hours. The 110v outlet plug needs to be rated at a minimum of 20 amps and a minimum extension cord of 12AWG (gauge) is necessary, if cord is longer than 24 feet use 10AWG extension cord." -ZapXebra

That's the top of the line, and bottom/goofy of the line EVs.
Even at at hours, for a full charge, that's accomplished in the time that an average person is unconscious. But the thing about new battery technology is that you do not need to do a full recharge every time you use the vehicle. Much like batteries in new cellphones, you only recharge the energy amount that you expend.

In the event that you need to do some sort of extended cross country road trip, either do it in shorter bursts and make more overnight stops (good way to absorb local flavor) or use mass transit like a bus or train.

When gasoline powered cars were invented, people didn't wait until there was a gas station on every corner to buy one. Once again, consumer demand and support of the vehicles is what is going to prompt more advanced technology and charging stations.

Answer 4

There is an alternative energy ready to go. It is available to 100 % of the population. In fact it is in almost every home in the world.

Food.
Yep food can be eaten and turned into a readily usable energy sources. Glycogen and fat. It seems that many people these days are finely tuned fat storing machines.

This amazing energy source is capable of propelling the human body to impressive speeds. The current record is 130.36 km/h (81.00 mph), set by Sam Whittingham of Canada on a fully faired Varna Diablo front-wheel-drive recumbent lowracer bicycle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle

Most average people can manage 15 mph on a bicycle. With training can achieve distances over 100 miles.

If you don't want to try and match this effort. Food can supply the energy required to get you to the corner store. You can walk or ride a bicycle as you wish. This is the most economical form of transport around.

General rough guide the average person can travel 100 miles and use up about a pound of fat on a bicycle.

The best things are

It seems most people have a few pounds of fat that they don't even want.
People actually enjoy refuelling
It has virtually zero emissions (except for baked beans etc)

Answer 5

In terms of cars, I think that we should utilize corn and sugar cane in place of oil. Electric cars and hydrogen cars are great in theory but not realistic. Fuel flex and ethanol work great for Brazil and many other countries around the world. A huge, oil-addicted country such as the US should make the switch. We could harvest corn and sugar crops along the midwest and southern states, and turn these crops into an alternative enery that's cost efficient and abundant.

Answer 6

As of now solar energy seems to be the most easily usable and economical form of alternative enrgy.

Solar water heaters and cookers are already very cheap and have a very small payback period.
Solar PV prices are dropping fast and pretty soon when these get manufactured in countries like India they will be cheaper by atleast 50% mass manufacturing will lower costs drastically.
So solar energy seems to be on verge of mass production in fact its already widely used for water heating applications.

Answer 7

HAHAHA..... Glenn had it right.....

SO many LAZY people want an Alternative Fuel solution to propel their lazy butts around the earth with NO effort on their part!

Methanol takes 40% more energy to produce than it releases, so that's not an option.

You want alternative fuels?? Walk, Bike, Jog etc.....Then that will cure the weight problem and keep you from buying into all of those stupid diet plans on TV!!!!

You'll be physically fit and not use oil, what could be better???

Answer 8

Solar Energy

Answer 9

But, remember the biggest issue with electric cars is that in the US we're using fossil fuels to generate electricity (mostly). So, using electric cars creates as much carbon dioxide as does gasoline-powered cars. With today's techology, the only practical alternative is nuclear power, and it has its own issues.

Answer 10

For right now, gas is the way to go. But we can make cars with better gas mileage.

And alternative cars are being developed. Which they should be.