It's an affair of state

Jeff Relf wrote:


What's going to happen when the /New Hydrogen Economy/ takes off and we
all start using fuel cells?

Here's the way I see it:

19th Century. The Century of Solids. Coal is the fuel.
20th Century. The Century of Liquids. Oil is the fuel.
21th Century. The Century of Gases. Hydrogen is the fuel.
22nd Century. Plasma ?

Hi Lexan Shield , You detect a pattern ,
" 19th Century. The Century of Solids. Coal is the fuel.
20th Century. The Century of Liquids. Oil is the fuel.
21th Century. The Century of Gases. Hydrogen is the fuel.
22nd Century. Plasma ? "

In each step it fuel get Locally cleaner .
But as in the cases of ( 1 ) electricity ,
and ( 2 ) importing manufactured goods ,
the pollution is exported elsewhere .

Burning coal Locally is a lot cheaper ,
but we're willing to pay for electricity and imports .

Jeff Relf wrote:


The trend is /liteness/ -- lite butter, lite soft drinks, lite fuel.

The old heavy medieval religions give way to Unitarianism -- Christ Lite.

"Lexan Shield" <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote in message
news:KQONb.13103$[Only registered users see links. ].pas.earth link.net...

Idiot. We will never have fuel cell based energy. To many expensive and
rare materials.

SR

Steve Ralph wrote:


Initially yes, because it's a /new/ technology.

But eventually they'll settle on standards and either figure out how to
do more with only trace amounts of the rare stuff or come up with
sythetics that can be produced cheaply.

Oil was once a _rare_ material.

Hi Lexan Shield ,
Re: The progression from coal to electricity ,
You mistakenly claim , " The trend is toward Liteness " .

No , Not at all ,
the trend is toward exporting pollution ...
Via electricity and imports .
( Coal is still used to make both of those ... elsewhere )

Jeff Relf wrote:


I'm amazed at how much coal is a share of the fuel mix for electricity.

Still, Army now has more than 50% of it's barracks being run with fuel
cells based on natural gas.

Natural gas pipelines is a more efficient conduit for energy than the
power grid. There's no /loss/ from transportation.

I see apartment complexes like the one I live in in Kent going with
installing their own fuel cells based on natural gas.

Hi Steve Ralph ,
You say , " We will never have fuel cell based energy " .

I agree , at least not anytime soon .

Right now it's just a Really expensive luxury .

And even if we did ,
we'd just be exporting more pollution .

Jeff Relf wrote:


50% of domestic U.S. Army barracks have fuel cells.

Laptop batteries based on fuel cells are coming to market this year.

They can outlast the energizer.


you mean a necessary basic.


actual less, because there's no loss on the power grids.

blackouts would be history.

Hi Lexan Shield , You comment ,
" The army now has more than 50 percent of it's barracks
being run with fuel cells based on natural gas "

Yea , They also have million dollar toilets too .

Maybe in the future we'll have that too , But not now .

And it will be More polluting , Not less .
( But locally cleaner )