Welcome to the future, page-2

Hi filby,

Sorry about my tardiness in picking up on your interesting reference. I do consider that we will be seeing major changes in transportation, with not only the technology of electric vehicles but with substantial changes in vehicle use. The Uber model is one example of structural change; dramatically improved and diversified public transport (imagine for example a network of driverless buses collecting commuters and dropping them off at a fast, frequent and ultra-modern rail link).

For Anteo, as we all know, the hope is that its technology can be an important part of battery development, especially for electric vehicles. But while our enthusiasm is understandable, we may need to temper our ideas about a timetable. For instance, let's imagine an Australian city of the not too distant future which garages about 4 million cars. Let's assume that 2 million need to be fully charged each night. Hmm, how much energy would be required to do that? I think it would be pretty fair to say that our current electricity generation couldn't support that demand. But for our future city, where would we get that power, and get it reliably? Will our clean electric vehicles be actually powered by clean renewable energy (as well as by Anteo-enhanced batteries, of course)?

There is considerable enthusiasm for used of solar and wind power, but in 2009 its global use (incl tidal and wave was 1.8% of that produced by non-renewable sources.

(See https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...AhWFzbwKHZShCekQ9QEIUjAG#imgrc=gbt9PI0oyUy54M

That percentage from 2009 will have increased (I think I have seen recent figures around the 2+%), and will continue to do so, but it does indicate that major industrial change will need to occur to power our vehicles in that city of the future. (Incidentally, a manager for a major university's facilities was recently explaining them briefly to some new staff; he related that during orientation weeks, people often say "hey, wouldn't it be great if we had solar panels on all the university's roofs, and we could be completely off the grid!" His response was that should that be so, those panels would supply about 2% of the university's power needs.)

But undoubtedly the electric vehicle market will flourish, together with its need for much improved batteries - lighter, packing more power, charging faster etc. So back to my question, from where shall we get the power we need to charge our 2 million cars? My money would be on nuclear energy, but meanwhile I do think the internal combustion engine will be with us for some time yet, especially in China and India - not just for vehicles, but for all kinds of other purposes.

In summary, I consider there is a great deal more than technological development in vehicle power, to the future we would all like to see at the global level. Meanwhile, my money is on Anteo; later, maybe, on thorium.