The electrical energy equivalent to a gallon of gas can be generated for about $0.84
Electric motors are about 3.75 times as efficient as internal combustion engines
so only 1/3.75*0.84 = $0.23 worth of electricity will equal a gallon of gas!
"A desert area 10 by 15 miles could provide 20,000 MW of power, while the electricity needs of the entire U. S. could theoretically be met by an area 100 miles on a side." - Sandia Labs Website
(www.energylan.sandia.gov/ sunlab/research.htm)
Creating many different souces of energy such as alternative fuels will make
for a unworkable system for our nation. We might as well settle on electricity.
Energy independence has been a goal for the United States since about 1976. All of the Presidents since have reasserted this goal. However we come to fall further and further behind.
This is not surprising since oil prices have remained below the cost of alternatives. Because Gasoline is an inexpensive and concentrated energy source it is difficult to replace. If oil (and thus gasoline) prices were to move drastically higher from where they are now, there is no doubt that many solutions would come into play. The problem with waiting for this to happen, is that if energy prices spike up suddenly, there will be a lag time until suitable alternatives can be developed. This lag time would almost certainly lead to a great deal of economic hardship for citizens of the United States.
This is not a problem that, like most, is best solved by market forces alone. We need the government to step up and encourage a solution. Building the Trans-Atlantic Railroad was bound to happen, but the United States government became convinced it was best for the country to have it happen quickly and stepped in an created a way to make it happen as quickly as possible.
The fundamental difficulty with creating energy independence is finding cheap sources of energy that can replace our imported oil. In fact we already have one such source of energy and the really terrific news is that converting to it could remove most of this countries carbon dioxide emissions as well. This source of energy is Electricity! I will present calculations to demonstrate that electricity can be used (at least for cars and trucks) in a cost completive way, given the current cost of generating electrical power.
Electricity poses one major and several smaller problems in being used to replace oil. The major problem is storage, and minor (minor because they do not require technological breakthroughs, not because there is not a lot of work to be done) problems are generation and distribution.
Put it this way, all we need is a better battery! Of course a capacitor would probably even be better. Nanotechnology now gives us the opportunity to solve the problem
of concentrated storage of electrical power. Nanotechnology
has given us an exciting new possibility for solving this problem! - Jump to the
energy storage page for details! Electric motors are about four times as efficient as gasoline engines. This means an electrical storage device that can store only 1/4 the energy as gasoline by both unit weight and volume could be used to replace gasoline tanks in cars and trucks.
If we had an electrical energy storage device that had this energy density we could convert all of our automobiles and trucks to electric power. When this was done we would have energy independence. Depending on how this power is generated, we could drastically reduce our carbon emissions at the same time.