RJ asked: It seems they are still too expensive to purchase. Studies have said that if we do not cap greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2012 (or something near that), our global temperatures will rise higher than they have ever been, increase disease, famine, cause drought in some areas and
excessive rainfall in others. This is small list of what would change if we don’t stop. It makes sense to do something now and make these energies more affordable for the
people in the global community.
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Ok the technology will improve, processes will be cheaper but…
Don´t forget we will have around 9 billion of people to feed. Biofuels, Reservations (for biodiversity) and food will all 3 compete and we will have to balance them.
The best way to go first is to increase the efficiency. That way, even if the fuel is more expensive, it won´t cost you more to realize the function since you need less for the same use.
There is still now in the US a kind of “productivist” idea which is to see that we consume that much of energy so to go green we need to produce as much green fuel to substitute. That is totally wrong. Energy efficiency is the first way to go:
-> use less resources to do the same function an reach the same level of satisfaction.
Example: why produce biofuels to go green ? The mileage in the US is still like 20MPG… good diesels can achieve 50MPG and its even not hybrid. If we were to reach this mileage, it would be good. In deed, the cost would even be negative for the society (+200$ on a more efficient motor saves roughly 2000$ gas on the cars lifespan).
So then, with the plan to produce ethanol to substitute 20% of the fuel… you could by producing the same quantity achieve 50% of green fuel !
Indeed energy is a triangle which we have to attack on three sides: DEMAND / EFFICIENCY / INCREASE OF RENEWABLES.
It will be cheaper when there are more companies suppling it. Right now there are very few companies that dabble in alternitive fuels, and there is a low demand for them. If the government ever mandates that everyone must have a hybrid, more companies will go into the field, and there will be a greater supply, pulling the price lower.
The auto industry, the oil industry are much too powerful to allow affordable alternative fuel vehicles.
The price on alternative fuels will remain relatively high until there are enough refineries to increase the supply available. That wont happen until there is enough of a demand to cause a need to increase supplies. When Americans get tired of making big oil rich then you will see a change.
as demand increases.
I think that some of the alternate fuels are already cheap and others will only get more expensive. For example solar electric power is already cheap. Yes the initial cost of the solar panels is a bit heady but the rebates and tax benefits cut that cost by 50% to 70%. If you have an electric car that cost can be regained in five years with the gas savings on your car alone alone. If you use the solar voltaic power to run a geo-thermal heat pump to heat/cool your house that number drops even further.
Natural gas is still cheap, and though a fossil fuel, is very clean compared to gasoline. You burn it in your house to cook.
Bio-fuels on the other hand are never going to be cheap fuel. In the short time that corn based ethonol has been the eye of the storm around bio-fuel the price of milk has shot up to $3.50 a gallon. Cows do not produce as much milk if they do not eat. So now dairy farmers have to buy the ever scarcer corn at an escalated cost. They pass the cost on to the customer. A silent cost of the alternate energy. And we can not grow enough corn or grass or sugar cane or …(fill in the blank) to replace oil, so we will have to buy ethanol from other countries, like Brazil, and be dependant on another country for our energy.
We need to stop burning fuel to create energy. A conglomerate of sources like solar, geo-thermal, and wind are good places to start.