boost Rapid ridership

[hood]

The only problem with the hydrogen cell is currently it takes more energy to make the hydrogen than what the cell would produce, so it is actually an energy loser. And, the energy used to make them is fueled by you guessed it, oil, coal, etc. I think large scale hydrogen cell usage is still many years down the road. I think it is much more important to create a less auto-dependent daily environment. If hydrogen cells came around tomorrow, then building horrendous sprawl everywhere will continue unabated.

For non-car related energy, I think we should build more nuclear power plants. Its a risk with the potential meltdown, but I don't see a better feasable alternative at this point.

I say wait for fusion, they recently made a breakthrough and are expecting the first commercial reactors in as little as 10 years. Fusion has no emmissions and the waste is barely radioactive, and produces unbeleivable amounts of power.

[torgo]

I say wait for fusion, they recently made a breakthrough and are expecting the first commercial reactors in as little as 10 years. Fusion has no emmissions and the waste is barely radioactive, and produces unbeleivable amounts of power.

are you talking about cold fusion? who did it?

[GaryP]

Andy, you are correct about the negative energy loss in creating hydrogen. But if we did have a hydrogen economy we could find other means of producing it, such as nuclear, solar, wind, and so on, and not have to depend on non renewable resources. The real problem with hydrogen is the fact that precious metals are required to build the fuel cells, which takes away any advantage to mass producing them. Hydrogen can never be a cost effective solution when used in a fuel cell to create electricity.

As for fusion/fission... I'll believe that when I see it.