npr.org— Switch grass can produce 1000 gallons of fuel per acre. At even $1.50/gallon, that's a gross of $1500/acre. No other crop we grow has that potential.
Feb 2, 2006View in Crawl 4
I have to agree with an earlier poster... This is not realistic. The amount of energy in a gallon of ethanol isn't anywhere near the amount in a gallon of gasoline. Not only that, but by the time you can get up an infrastructure to produce and sell ethanol country-wide, we'll have much better methods of energy generation/storage (nuclear, wind, and solar)We're much better off weatherizing homes, improving the efficiency of plain old gas vehicles, researching solar tech, and switching over to hydrogen for just about everything. Think about this: 25% of the U.S.'s energy consumption goes to heating hot water. HOT WATER! If the U.S. mandated that all homes had to utilize solar hot water heaters (like in Israel), we could cut that figure down to about 5%. That would reduce our oil consumption by like 28.8 billion barrels nearly instantaneously.Weatherizing (insulating, fixing air leaks, etc) can save 40-50% on a home's heating and cooling costs. Why don't we have a massive Presidential-style initiative on that?It seems like we can do a hell of a lot of things RIGHT NOW to fix our "oil addiction" that no one seems to give a damn about. The reason why it isn't happening is that no one would re-elect a politician that forced them to spend $3000 on a hot water heater. "$3000 for a hot water heater! HOT WATER!"-Riskable<a class="user" href="http://riskable.com">http://riskable.com</a>
daelFeb 3, 2006
Well, since what Bush says about Energy and what he does is usually the opposite, we don't really have to worry about the gov doing anything about switch-grass.. it's all talk, and no deeds.Example: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is firing researchers because of budget cuts.<a class="user" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/politics/02energy.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/politics/02energy.html</a><a class="user" href="http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/13767738.htm">http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/13767738.htm</a>
eskimoFeb 3, 2006
And how many gallons of switch grass fuel produes the same amount of energy as a gallon of gasoline
zippoFeb 3, 2006
And the big oil companies will fight it tooth and nail...
soldanFeb 3, 2006
so to use solar you need to think small.... better designs for dwellings ...solar power for public buildings instead of the artwork....
riskableFeb 4, 2006
I have to agree with an earlier poster... This is not realistic. The amount of energy in a gallon of ethanol isn't anywhere near the amount in a gallon of gasoline. Not only that, but by the time you can get up an infrastructure to produce and sell ethanol country-wide, we'll have much better methods of energy generation/storage (nuclear, wind, and solar)We're much better off weatherizing homes, improving the efficiency of plain old gas vehicles, researching solar tech, and switching over to hydrogen for just about everything. Think about this: 25% of the U.S.'s energy consumption goes to heating hot water. HOT WATER! If the U.S. mandated that all homes had to utilize solar hot water heaters (like in Israel), we could cut that figure down to about 5%. That would reduce our oil consumption by like 28.8 billion barrels nearly instantaneously.Weatherizing (insulating, fixing air leaks, etc) can save 40-50% on a home's heating and cooling costs. Why don't we have a massive Presidential-style initiative on that?It seems like we can do a hell of a lot of things RIGHT NOW to fix our "oil addiction" that no one seems to give a damn about. The reason why it isn't happening is that no one would re-elect a politician that forced them to spend $3000 on a hot water heater. "$3000 for a hot water heater! HOT WATER!"-Riskable<a class="user" href="http://riskable.com">http://riskable.com</a>