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packman

(16,296 posts)
Sun Nov 2, 2014, 12:56 PM Nov 2014

Sitting here pondering the effects of electric/solar power

First, I desperately would love to see electric cars replace gas cars and American become fossil-fuel free. Think of the impact economically and job wise. Local gas stations replaced by what? Auto repair stores like Pep Boys impacted how? Power lines torn down as homes and cities become their own at-point power suppliers. Hundred of thousands of people learning new skills for new jobs. Oil companies and refineries shifting to what? Truly it would be an epic point in our nation - an Energy Revolution on the scale of the Industrial Revolution. Brave new world.

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Sitting here pondering the effects of electric/solar power (Original Post) packman Nov 2014 OP
I'd like to live in a place with no cars. hunter Nov 2014 #1

hunter

(38,312 posts)
1. I'd like to live in a place with no cars.
Sun Nov 2, 2014, 02:44 PM
Nov 2014

I imagine it would look like some college campuses, with little electric vehicles hauling stuff about at low speeds, and most travel accomplished by foot or bicycle. Most people wouldn't own cars, they'd consider car ownership an expensive, unnecessary nuisance. Cars would be stowed away in parking structures on the outskirts of town, and renting or sharing a car would be easy.

Per capita use of energy would be greatly reduced because most people wouldn't often drive.

Energy storage is still a problem with solar, giving an edge to on-demand gas fired or hydroelectric central utilities, but we are getting nearer long lasting, less expensive, and easily recycled batteries. At the same time the amount of energy required for things like lighting, televisions, laundering clothing, keeping and cooking food, and computing is plummeting.

We are gradually replacing our compact fluorescent lights with LEDs. Both these technologies use less electricity than incandescent lights. Our new washing machine uses 1/4 the energy our old machine did, and it spins the clothes at very high speeds so they dry quicker. Aseptically packaged or dry foods can be cooked in the microwave oven and this uses far less energy than frozen foods and conventional ovens.

By some planning and good fortune my wife and I have avoided the commuter lifestyle since the mid- 'eighties. When we met we were both Los Angeles commuters. I don't miss the days it would take an hour to drive twenty miles, breathing carcinogens, and being on constant high alert for idiot, sleepy, and overly aggressive drivers.

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