Re: Uploaded Energy Overview

[Jed Rothwell]

By the way, the NREL graphs show convincingly that the most 
energy-efficient way to use fossil fuel for automobiles would be to convert 
natural gas to hydrogen and use it in a fuel-cell car. This would be 
roughly 30% more efficient than burning fossil fuel and using electric 
cars, which is the second-most efficient technique. These graphs do not 
cover hybrid automobiles, which had not been developed in 1990. Hybrid cars 
are tied for second place with electric cars, but in the real world they 
are much more practical than either fuel cell or pure electric cars.

With present technology, only the electric car is ready to run on nearly 
any kind of fuel, including fission and wind power.

As I said before, the emerging consensus is that the best near-term 
solution would be the "plug-in hybrid," with a larger battery pack than 
today's hybrid. EPRI recommended this, and so did James Woolsey, of all 
people. See:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_15/b3928103.htm
Funny quote:
"EPRI Program Manager Robert Graham is convinced that Toyota already has 
prototype plug-ins running. Toyota says no. 'We keep looking at the 
concept, and at some point it might be feasible, but it isn't there yet,' 
says David Hermance, Toyota's executive engineer for environmental 
engineering."

- Jed