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Phoenix-D said:
Quote:
Renegade 13 said:
Problem is, ethanol has already been thrashed to death. Neat idea, might work on a small scale to reduce overseas oil exports, not feasible as a large-scale oil replacement. Bring on hydrogen!  
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Hydrogen isn't an energy source. You have to produce it, either by cracking water or other slightly more complicated methods. Either way you need power to do it, which leads right around to the same problem..
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True, but the same can be said of all energy sources. They all came straight from solar energy at one point or another. Well, you also have some energy produced by the decay of radioactive materials within Earth's crust plus a little bit of tidal heating, but those are minor considerations. What we really need is more efficient ways of gathering and harnessing all the massive amounts of solar energy that just goes flying by. Would large solar collectors in orbit work? Make them a few thousand kilometers wide and you'd capture a hell of a lot of energy. I'm sure the logisitics of getting something that large up there and maintaining it would be horrendous, and it might be hard to get the power down to Earth in a usable form, but imagine the sheer power!
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