FUEL 2050: BYE, BYE PETROL
Conventional fuels are only bound to get more expensive, and that’s where Dr Greg Offer comes into the picture. “In the short term, over the next decade, it will be hard for any new fuel sources to challenge our dependence on oil, except biofuels, but they have limits. However, in the long term, within 50 years, it appears to me that it is inevitable that electricity will take over. We don’t have a choice,” he says. Buying that Rewa seems like a sound investment now. Offer, who teaches at the Imperial College of London, states that the rise in oil prices is a straight offshoot of the developing world aspiring for the same level of mobility that the developed world enjoys. “In the long term, beyond 2020, we must shift to alternative fuels such as electricity (whether via batteries or hydrogen doesn’t matter), or face declining living standards in richer countries and limits to development elsewhere.
By 2050, I imagine that the range extenders will probably be fuel cells, and the fuel may be bio-methane or hydrogen made from renewables. There will probably still be some combustion engines in specific niches where both very high power density and energy density is required, but because aviation will still require liquid chemical fuels there may be little left for road transport.” Calling the American transport system a fuelintensive one and not one that should be copied, Dr Offer puts his faith in public transport. “I believe public transport, in particular subways for major cities, and high speed rail interconnecting cities would be a sound investment, alongside fuel efficient private vehicles and a national road network.” Dr Offer applauds Ratan Tata’s vision ofr an affordable car. “The Tata Nano is an excellent example, but what I would really like to see is an electric Nano, with the same vision of affordability. That could change the world.”
TOICREST 12N1111
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