Here is the news come from http://archive.newscientist.com
An oil-free economy within 50 years p.16 by David L. Chandler
Increased use of wind generators and photovoltaic arrays, both directly to supply electricity to the grid and indirectly to make hydrogen fuel for cars, would do the same. Adopting just a few of these could stabilise levels of global greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2050.
The authors do not estimate the costs. Their aim was only to refute the notion that such technologies do not yet exist, and in this they succeeded. They showed that established methods could provide vast energy gains that are not only sustainable and clean but will also provide “a tremendous stimulus to the economy” that Socolow says makes them cost-effective in the long run.
None is a panacea, and each comes with its own problems: adopting hydrogen fuel, for example, will require a massive investment in delivery infrastructure. But moderate successes in just some of these areas would add up to a viable alternative energy strategy.
A study released last month goes further. In a detailed 335-page report it sets out a step-by-step programme for change that it says would allow the US to cease oil imports by 2040 and virtually eliminate all oil use by 2050. The net cost would be zero ? a far cry from claims that such a move would cripple big business.
An oil-free economy within 50 years p.16 by David L. Chandler
Increased use of wind generators and photovoltaic arrays, both directly to supply electricity to the grid and indirectly to make hydrogen fuel for cars, would do the same. Adopting just a few of these could stabilise levels of global greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2050.
The authors do not estimate the costs. Their aim was only to refute the notion that such technologies do not yet exist, and in this they succeeded. They showed that established methods could provide vast energy gains that are not only sustainable and clean but will also provide “a tremendous stimulus to the economy” that Socolow says makes them cost-effective in the long run.
None is a panacea, and each comes with its own problems: adopting hydrogen fuel, for example, will require a massive investment in delivery infrastructure. But moderate successes in just some of these areas would add up to a viable alternative energy strategy.
A study released last month goes further. In a detailed 335-page report it sets out a step-by-step programme for change that it says would allow the US to cease oil imports by 2040 and virtually eliminate all oil use by 2050. The net cost would be zero ? a far cry from claims that such a move would cripple big business.
