Clarke Earley, Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry
Kent State University Stark Campus
North Canton, OH 44720
There is a finite amount of fossil fuels. These are not distributed uniformly on our planet (which has political ramifications) and at some point in the future we will run out of these. Following are some potential sources of energy for both the near and more distant future.
If we can increase the efficiency with how we use the fuels we have, they will obviously last a little longer.
T. Boone Pickens has been actively promoting a plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by increased use of wind power and natural gas. It is estimated that up to 20% of our electricity (not all energy) could come from wind. The combination of wind and increased use of natural gas could lead to a 1/3 reduction in our foreign oil imports.
The biggest criticism of this plan is the fact that wind energy is currently subsidized by the government. With Pickens investments in wind farms, he stands to gain a considerable amount of money from this. While not is not wrong, it is useful to understand the motives behind different proposals.
In a sense, electric cars are simply trading one form of energy (gasoline) for another. The promise of the electric car is the fact that electric cars should be much more efficient than the internal combustion engine, so the fuel requirements can be significantly less. In addition, electricity can be generated from a range of sources (hydroelectric, wind, coal, etc.), so we are not dependent on a single type of fuel.
The most obvious limitation is the fact that recharging batteries is a rather slow process. If a car is low on gas, a quick fill-up solves the problem. If an electric car is low on charge, "refilling" the battery is a much more time-consuming process. Some electric cars are being designed with a gasoline-powered engine that can be used as a "backup" to solve this problem.
Fuel cells are in many ways a cross between a gasoline-powered vehicle and an electric car. While hydrogen is probably the most commonly mentioned fuel, methanol, ethanol, and other fuels are also being considered. Fuel cells share the same efficiency (if not more so) than electric vehicles, but have the advantage that they can quickly and easily be re-fuelled. The biggest problem is that the technology has not quite advanced to the point where vehicles can be made cheap enough and last long enough to be practical.
While fuel-cell powered vehicles will not be appearing in significant numbers for a while, fuel cells are likely to show up in portable electronics in the next few years. The biggest attractions of this technology are increased operating time and the ability to 'instantaneously' recharge the 'battery' by simply adding more fuel.