Read more reader reponses to DN Editor-in-Chief John
Dodge's "Get
Energized about Energy" column in the August 11 issue as well as Design
News' exhaustive hydrogen
fuel cell vehicle and fueling infrastructure package.
Good article (DN
08.11.08). Your call to wake up is badly needed. However, do not forget about
the need for an extensive PV systems to support it!
Conservation is also
important. As fuel prices are creating challenges for industry, business and
families, they do "teach" the need to think about and rethink about energy
usage. The problem is, as prices drop usage will increase. We never learned much
from the oil embargos of the 70's.
Since WWII, Europeans
have had high fuel prices because of taxation. The revenue was used to build and
maintain great public transportation. One can drive from Germany to Italy and decide
to take the train back home, with the car "piggy back" at the end of the
train.
BTW, Ferdinand
Porsche's specifications for the "Peoples Car" (1938) included the fuel
consumption to be 33 mpg.
The sunbelt in the
US is capable of supplying abundant
electric energy with PV systems. Imagine 25% of the homes with a minimum of 3 KW
PV system. The advantage is that they are already on the grid. With the surplus
power generated at daytime, hydrogen can be produced and true "Plug In's" could
be recharged for pennies. Talk about job creation!
T. Boone Pickens's
problem is the need for transmission lines from his proposed Texas wind
farm.
As you suggest,
everyone should let their legislators know, the beer glass is not only half
empty, but to consume the rest the effort to do so is
progressive.
Wilfried
Haas
Arvada,
CO
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