Reply #20: In the long term, biofuel has its place. with solar energy too. [View All]

[mwooldri]

Biodiesel can be manufactured from corn, and most gasoline engines can be converted to work on ethanol. Make enough of the stuff and there goes a good chunk of our dependency on fossil oil.

If every home is equipped also with solar panels, that would go a long way to reducing our demand on electric generating plants. Combine this with more efficient lighting and appliances then you can have a household, especially in rural areas, that would not need any electricity from the electric company.

Wind power can also help... but there needs to be at some point some source of energy that's always going and can start up and shut down quickly to cope with spikes in electric demand. Nuclear can cope with the background demand for electric but America is to coal as Saudi Arabia is to oil - i.e. we got a lot of it. Gasify it and use that in power stations for the peak supplys, until everyone can have personal power storage units in their home.

Mark.