Future Fuels
Some would argue that Peak Oil has arrived, and certainly we are long past the era of cheap oil. New discoveries are not replacing reserves as quickly as we are depleting them, and much of what is being found is difficult and expensive to extract and in many cases is ‘sour’, needing excessive refinement.
Yet demand is increasing rapidly, with China and India developing at a phenomenal rate.
The coincidence of Peak Oil with climate change concerns has made the search for future clean energy urgent.
Electricity is an energy source that we can provide from renewable resources that can be easily distributed. With recent breakthroughs in batteries and super-capacitors it now looks viable to use the electricity grid as the power source for our future mobility, and it is expected that over the next decade or two there will be a wholesale switch to purely electric drivetrains.
The world is unlikely to run out of oil, but it will soon become far too precious a commodity to burn in our vehicles!
