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Just-Call-Me-Jim t1_iwpwsr8 wrote

Truly it is a manufactured trap of polarised views into which most of us fall into, one carefully managed by the entrenched energy systems trying to fend off their inevitable demise at the hand of the newer energy systems and the changes they bring by releasing carefully managed media (mis) information news trains. Such has it ever was…

The big picture is that we are going to need battery energy storage systems, green and red hydrogen and even more alternatives. Examples here include safer nuclear power, more wind / solar / wave / deep lava drill heat exchangers etc…

But only if we want to truly leave the last hundred years of fossil fuel powered agricultural, industrial, technology and information revolutions behind.

Batteries are an essential part of the equation, as they conveniently store and release energy and are therefore a requirement to balance supply and demand. The battery technology invented in the last 5 years (NaCl, hot metal and now CO2 , to name just 3) will help us to move away from the types of batteries that are high cost, environmentally damaging with dangerous chemical and metal reactions. Over the next 5, what new battery designs will be invented even as the previous new ones mature and come to market?

Japans push into red hydrogen fuels as a by-product of scale proven quad encased nuclear fuelled power plants shows us the complimentary place for hydrogen fuels in industries where batteries are not viable (mass domestic and commercial a/c, metals, refining, heavy transport etc) and provides a possible complimentary supplement in light transport where batteries are not yet possible or desirable.

We have around 100 years of invention with fossil fuel energy systems.

We have around 50 odd years of dedicated research into alternatives, with about 10 years of one major contender challenging fossil fuels energy dominance in one tiny slice of the energy requirements we have: light vehicle transport.

What will the next 50 year’s of research and invention into all energy systems bring us?

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bremidon t1_iwtyh0b wrote

> in one tiny slice of the energy requirements we have: light vehicle transport

I would not say that 15% of the entire energy requirements is a "tiny slice".

Otherwise, I generally agree with the rest of your points.

I would add that hydrogen is *not* going to be the dominant energy transport of the future, but it will be important in certain industries.

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Just-Call-Me-Jim t1_iwu8qa6 wrote

Interesting views.

Perhaps I could have worded that clearer and included the phrase “short to mid-term comparisons of electric to fossil fuel usage vehicles…”

Current articles indicate that there are about 5.6 million electric vehicles on the road,

https://policyadvice.net/insurance/insights/electric-car-statistics/

Compared to internal combustion engine vehicles at a staggering 1.6 billion currently on the road,

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/new-analysis-suggests-we-have-passed-peak-internal-combustion-engine

Comparing electric to ICE, we have roughly 2.15% of current total vehicles on the road that are electric, world wide.

Even by 2030, electric vehicles sales are only predicted to be 50% of total vehicles sales…

In essence, currently looking at 15% total world energy usage by category of light vehicles or 2.15% of those being electric, that energy usage really is a tiny slice for me.

Agreed that hydrogen may be a minority fuel in light vehicles for at least 10 to 20+ years, unless regulators and static power producers move entirely out of fossil fuels (as most batteries are still charged by this dirty source). However, I also contend that in those 20 years we may see inventions that replace both batteries and hydrogen.

Our ability to innovate is about to jump logarithmically as AI and Quantum computer power are starting to directly assist and even ultimately may prove to be viable alternatives to pure human invention…

We certainly don’t live in uneventful times indeed, and tech inventions will be the major disruptors, no matter what industry…

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