Re: Are Biofuels the Answer?

Hi, I'm new to this forum and I find your discussion most interesting. Are biofuels "the answer"? I suppose it depends on what the question is. As a short-term stopgap that reduces emissions but allows us to continue using essentially unmodified vehicles - yes. As a complete replacement for fossil fuels (even solely in transport) - no, until we can e.g. build vast numbers of algal reactors (all needing energy/light input, water) etc.

Or, as pointed out by ctyankee, solar energy becomes cheap enough to enable mass electrolysis of water for hydrogen (or an equivalent process). Whatever we do will need increasing amounts of energy. If energy was really cheap then it would make many other processes economically viable. I am convinced that solar energy is the way to go - free, maintenance free, 5 billion years of fuel, available almost everywhere, blah blah!

If solar panels were doubled in efficiency (with no increase in production costs) then that really would be revolutionary. It is possible to construct more efficient solar PV panels from non-polluting, non-exotic components, but getting the money into the research is a problem. I have a horrible feeling that fusion reactors are what the "powers that be" want - even more centralised power production, costing billions and using decades of time (so far). Oh well. It's politics again isn't it? I shouldn't really expect things to be run in a rational manner. Sigh.