Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table
.
Winners, losers, and maybes
Winners
Ef ciency in all sectors (if you don
it emit)
Coal (with carbon capture and storage and pollution controls)
Hydroelectric
Geothermal
'
it use it, it doesn
'
(near-surface systems)
Nuclear
Natural gas (as a replacement for coal)
Solar heat and hot water
Sugarcane ethanol
Solar photovoltaic (at present for off-grid applications only or in
places with high daytime electricity cost)
Wind (as long as it is not too large a fraction of total electricity)
Advanced batteries (for plug-in hybrid or all-electric vehicles)
Losers
Coal (without carbon capture and storage or without pollution
controls)
Oil for transportation
(replaced with electric drive)
Corn ethanol
Hydrogen for transportation
Ocean systems
Maybes
Enhanced geothermal
(deep mining
for heat)
Solar thermal electric (needs cost reduction)
Solar photovoltaic (large subsidies needed, so only for the
rich now)
Advanced biofuels
New technologies not yet invented (remember it is hard to
predict the future because it hasn
'
t happened yet)
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