For instance, the mag suggests a 700-fold increase in wind energy to replace all of coal, if I recall correctly. That’s pretty huge.

It is pretty huge. Current world wind capacity (end of 2005) is about 60 GW and is increasing at close to 30 percent annually. I think it may be possible to sustain that rate of increase for quite a while, but most articles I've seen on the outlook for coal are quite optimistic too.

And, while the authors do include its energy needs as part of the equation, finding the extra alternative electric power sources to power up plug-and-play hybrids only adds to the problem from the Peak Oil side.

Come again? It would seem to me that any added input to transportation from electricity would have to reduce oil demand.

[W]hile a fair amount of it seems spot-on re the concerns, the answers do not quite put me at ease, or easiness.

I don't think there is much to feel easy about.

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
www.ifnotwind.org
Tom Gray | Homepage | 09.10.06 - 9:56 pm | #

Good comments, Tom.

On the electric supply side, what I meant was that, if plug-and-play hybrids become as common as the authors of the Sci Am piece hope, we've got to find the electricity for the charge-up, not the regenerative side, of their electricity, from somewhere, right?
SocraticGadfly | Homepage | 09.10.06 - 11:15 pm | #