Solar Electric Powered Aircraft

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 14:26:59 -0500, Corky Scott
wrote in
::

There does not appear to be any viable substitute for oil
based energy at this time or on the horizon, not at the colossal
amounts we consume per day now anyway.

Don't forget about coal. There's a lot of that.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/infosheets/coalreserves.htm
Worldwide, coal is the most abundant of the fossil fuels, and its
reserves are also the most widely distributed. Estimates of the
world's total recoverable reserves of coal in 2002 were about
1,081 billion sort tons. The resulting ratio of coal reserves to
production exceeds 200 years, meaning that at current rates of
production (and no change in reserves), coal reserves could in
theory last for another two centuries.

More he
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/reserves/front-1.html
http://www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/.../coal/coal.asp

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 21:16:21 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

Don't forget about coal. There's a lot of that.

I was actually thinking in terms of what's useful to burn for energy
in our airplanes.

Many industries switched from coal and high sulfur oil to liquid
petroleum gas to reduce emissions in the last two or three decades.
Their profits are tied to the cost of oil, which is rising rapidly
right now.

It doesn't matter that we still have an estimated 200 years of oil to
use up, it's still a finite reserve, it isn't being magically replaced
somehow. At some point in the much nearer future, what is relatively
easily tapped right now, will become increasingly more difficult to
remove. Something will needed in the future to replace it. Perhaps
it will be nuclear (or as GW puts it, newkular) I don't know but the
time to think about this is now before it becomes a crisis and the
world goes to war over oil. Hmm, going to war over oil... Isn't that,
oh nevermind.

Corky Scott