Overall efficiency...... For example...the total American fleet demands 16 mpg... Diesel conversion changes American fleet demand to 31 mpg equivalency... US consumes 40%....but price pressure is in the interruptible top % flows...this tip demand is eliminated...
Surely this would only slightly decrease the price of crude oil, as total demand decreases. The proportion of the diesel component of crude oil doesn't get any greater with increased demand, so the cost of diesel would still increase.
No...in simpler terms... If a country uses 40% of all oil usage....and the price of oil continues to command a higher than normal premium because of interruptions that affect the top 2 million barrels....if this number is never reached ..then there would never be premiums due to interrupted supplies...There would be a smoothing of end pont timely demand....no bottlenecks.... It is this bottleneck...and interrupted flow that creates the ST premium... Furthermore...if you are demanding 50% less oil...this would have a tremendous effect on reducing or eliminating the premium driving bottlenecks.... The Bush premium established by Iraq..Iran amounts to well over $25 per barrel.... This would in effect be eliminated.... Nobody would care if one of the wild card countries might temporarily interrupt ST flows....prices would not even blink....
Sure, I can see where you coming from, however diesel engines are at most only 30% more efficient than gasoline cars, and less than half of the oil consumed by the US is used for gasoline, so the total world comsumption savings would be at most 6% (if all 140 million cars in the US became more efficient diesels). Unfortunately it seems about as likley as peace in the Middle East.
Yeah, that's the difference between government-owned oil companies and an oil company-owned government.
BigFunky wrote... Sure, I can see where you coming from, however diesel engines are at most only 30% more efficient than gasoline cars, and less than half of the oil consumed by the US is used for gasoline, so the total world comsumption savings would be at most 6% (if all 140 million cars in the US became more efficient diesels). Unfortunately it seems about as likley as peace in the Middle East. ................................................................................................. Yeah,,,I know but with downsizing it gets a little better...and the idea here is..what is a solution that allows for transitioning to alternative fuels....the Bush premium is over $25....The problem now the oil industry claims is refinery capacity bottlenecks...and thus the solution is one that keeps everybody in busness as this bottleneck is eliminated...with the increase in Asian demand...prices would be $40-$50.... Ok...so the uS converts...there are no more bottlenecks...because of a weaker dollar oil stays $40-$50....this allows for smoother and less costly transitioning to biodiesel and other options,,,,A smoothing bridge so to speak... Other options are less smooth...or more disruptive... ......................................................................................... Furthermore oil much higher than $75 and the demand will drop like a stone with respect to the bottleneck issue.... Oil is very sensitive to $200 to $700 per month incomes..I spend time in one country where already the demand has dropped by 40%...and they already have made the conversion to motorcycles and diesels.. .............................................................................................. The positive alternative energy argument lends itself to solar power grid charged batteries...and non agricultural renewable substrates... the vehicle being a diesel (not gas) hybrid...The gas hybrids are no more efficient than diesels...they are cosmetic... ............................................................................................ Anyway...the Bush OIL Administration has already blown the money for what could have been the launching pad for alts...and now a smooth transitional process seems like the only possibility... Nice commentary by the way...
I checked into this for my house since I was putting on a new roof and was thinking about using one of these. You can "sell" your excess to the power companies when you have it and get a credit against the times you need to draw form the power companies. The only problem is that my house is roughly 1400 sq/ft and the cost would have been roughly 45K. My house is only worth about 75K so you do the math. I would never get my money back. Now if I could have done it for roughly 6-8K, sign me up.
This is a pretty powerful alternative, and since it is electric, it would essentially be using cheap nuclear or hydroelectric power, rather than high-cost, high-emissions fossil fuels. http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/04/technology/business2_wrightspeed/index.htm