Dam wrote:
> Plus, green autos would make very inefficient use of this
> electrical power.
Pure electric cars are indeed inefficient, and all you're doing is moving
the pollution from the production of the electrictricity to a power plant
elsewhere.
However, to say that *green* autos are inefficient is not true.
Hybrid cars are extremly efficient, and will become more so. They're
approaching 80mpg now with some of the cars, and this is while retaining a
fair slice of 'performance': 0-60 in around 10 seconds, top speeds of around
100 mph.
LPG is becoming a lot more common in Europe.
There's more than one option for efficient engines.
Not lugging 2.5 tonnes of metal about when a 1200kg car would be fine is a
good option too.
To answer a different point:
Solar energy. I have a solar boiler. So does almost every house in Cyprus.
No government subsidy, no huge cost. It's cheap, only a matter of a couple
of hundred dollars more than fitting an electric boiler alone. I need to use
electricity to heat my water only when we've had a day with no sun when the
ambient temp is below 10 degrees. The rest of the time, toasty water. 2
hours after sunrise, it's at around 45-50 degrees, plenty hot enough for
showering and washing up.
Charlie
