energy sources other than oil

I read the article you sent on the costs of ethanol and other energy sources versus oil, and I do not know if anything definite can be concluded. If the 52-cent per gallon subsidy is ended here, then ethanol will be about $2.40/gallon, still less than gas. It is holding at $2/gallon in Brazil, but water is cheaper there and sugar cane yields more sugar than corn. As they said, nuclear power has the highest subsidies, and these should be discontinued. If they did, then wind would be less than nuclear.

The problem is that the utilities want power to be available on demand at peak hours, something that you can get from nuclear and hydrocarbon fuels, but not from wind or solar (no wind = no power; no sun = no power). Solar units for houses would be practical if they did not require DC – AC inverters, which waste 25% of the power. Currently, RVs run refrigerators, hifi’s, light, and even computers on battery (DC) power without inverters, but developing this technology for houses would require investment and manufacturing subsidies. More politics.

Something better than any existing technologies will be needed within the next 50 years if we are to keep going at the current pace. This probably will involve energy from zero point or cold fusion, or perhaps something else. There is, for instance, enough power in the Van Allen Belts above the earth to run everything down here for a long time.

7/1/2006