In our future economy, any economic value chain that can go from wind turbines to wires to energy services without going through molecules will win. It will be vastly cheaper. It will be vastly lower carbon. It will be vastly more efficient.
In the future, we’ll be making low-carbon electricity and getting rid of rejected energy from burning coal, gas and oil to make electricity. We won’t be making molecules like hydrogen or synthetic natural gas to burn for electricity because that will be vastly less efficient and so much more costly.
We won’t be burning coal, oil or gas for heat. The low-carbon electricity will be used directly for all of our heating and cooling requirements in industry, commercial buildings and our homes. Turning low-carbon electricity into molecules which we then burn for heat doesn’t make economic or environmental sense if there are alternatives, and there are. All of our warmth in the winter, hot water for our baths, fuel to cook our food and high-temperatures for industrial processes will be via direct use of electrons.
We won’t be burning gas or diesel in anything that travels across our roads and rails. Everything that moves around on the ground — cars, pickups, motorcycles, trucks, buses and trains — will be running on electrons too. Gasoline and diesel engines are incredibly inefficient compared to electric motors, and making synthetic gasoline or diesel throws away a lot of low-carbon electricity in the process. That means fuel costs will be triple or more if molecules are involved. So they won’t be.
NOTE: John Shanahan - Never let any alarmist do this to anyone who appreciates the wonderful world made possible by fossil fuels or their synthetic equivalents in the future. It is a scheme or anti-people alarmists.
