Thorium has great stationary energy potential.
But I don’t see it as a alternative to oil.
Electricity as transportation energy isn’t constrained by the cost of generating electricity. It is storage and recharging limitations that keep it from mainstream. Thorium doesn’t solve either problem.
I absolutely agree, but here’s how I see this playing out, if we can get enough idiots out of the way:
Supplant natural gas generation with nukes. Develop NG as a transportation fuel. It can be shipped in pipelines, we already have pipeline capacity, LNG terminals are capable of storing large amounts of energy and the boil-off can be used for local power generation or distribution.
Right now, NG is being sucked up into the power generation market at a very rapid pace, because it is the only viable alternative to coal.
Exactly, but it’s amazing for electrical generation. :)
I am very intrigued by the idea of electricity used to generate hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas can be transported and used in vehicles. Power plants that have non peak demand, could be using their surplus power to generate hydrogen. Other electricity generating schemes that could benifit from a storeage mechanism could be generating hydrogen.
Some people will say that generating hydrogen is an inefficient use of power. I say, hydrogen as a storeage system, at least gets us there using high school chemistry technology.
Already the Mercedes Benz Company has their B-Class F-Cell hydrogen fuel cell car. They have proved that you can use hydrogen for transportation.
What makes me frustrated is that the American public is being kept in the dark about technology such as Thorium energy, Algae Oil and hydrogen.
It would be, if somebody really gets their act together with supercapacitors. The combination of thorium and supercapacitors could eliminate 90% of the petroleum economy.