Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The real problem are transport and heating. In most countries, those consume significantly more primary energy than the electricity sector and are still mostly fossil fueled. For example, more than half of the primary energy consumed in France is oil and gas. Heat pumps and electric vehicles or trains can now finally change this, but the transition is very slow.


You have to look at useful energy vs. primary energy. An ICE is 10-30% thermally efficient. Then you have all the energy wasted on getting the fuel into the tank.

For ground transport this is already solved by BEVs and rail. For ferries running fixed routes batteries also already solve it.

What we have left is aviation and longer maritime shipping. They will likely need chemical fuels for the foreseeable future, but to get to them we need to start with the easier applications first and develop the technology.


A heatpump in every home!




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: