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[truepurple]

First I wonder if the author is lumping coal and natural gas in with oil when they say "petroleum" probably not since "liquid", and if not, is the author forgetting coal and natural gas even exist?

 

The second and third "great things about petroleum" mentioned in chapter 2, are incredibly oversimplified and wrong/misleading.

 

"Eroei"/efficiency of energy spent for energy returned.

     First, it's laughably absurd for the comic to assign what amounts to arbitrary numbers for all of petroleum products, all solar, and all wind. There are MANY factors both in what energy is necessary getting the product to use, and its use,

 

     You need to factor in how far the product travels, you need to factor all the equipment and resources used to extract that product, you need to factor in what is using that power and how. Even with a very specific example, "My X car with Y gas from Z pump (that all came from the same oil rig and not mixed sources like RL) that I drive through town hitting 4 red lights and 3 stop signs with average speed of 40mph. NO ONE can tell you what the "eroei of that energy use is.  So to give numbers for EVERYTHING under a broad umbrella, amounts to averaging guesses and lots of personal prejudice. So this guys just a asshole or idiot spouting off BS that his sucker... fellow employees just take for absolute truth. But really it's the author telling us this BS, so of course all the characters within just agree. And these differences, are HUGE.

 

     Also probably not figured under these eroei numbers pulled out of the authors ass, is things like say a solar panel, can continue producing energy for a super long time, and without motors to cause them to track the sun, should require very little resources/energy/no maintenance or need to replace from wear and tear since no moving parts. Surely say a hundred years of use of a solar panel will produce a total eroei number way above any petroleum product. So how much time do we factor in? Maybe the author roughly figures in a days use of energy or something? Who knows, not us!

 

It's a liquid, so therefore its easier to transport and use.

    It being a liquid can easily make it HARDER to transport and use. While electricity is lost going over lines, electricity is ALSO used to pump liquids through pipes (and pipes require construction installation and maintenance, just like power lines!), further travel, more required. I don't which results in the least energy loss but distance always means lost energy. Also, the risk to the environment if a power line goes down is limited to its immediate area. The risk of a oil line or tanker developing a hole can be to a immense area and cause lots of devastation. Especially through water whether it be pipe or ship, thanks to it being a liquid!

 

     Lets say you are out in the boonies, far from any power plant or coal/gas source. You get up with the sun, and stop working when it sets. You need some way to charge your cell phone, a few lights in the house to see things, maybe some air conditioning to keep cool or a refrigerator to make your food last longer.  This is exactly the situation for remote villages in Africa etc.

 

Which is more efficient and easier to transport and use?

 

1.     A gasoline or coal power plant constructed some miles out of town with power lines leading to the town and each house.  You will lose electricity from it going through power lines. You have the resources required to build the plant, maintain it, build and maintain the power lines, you need resources to get people to and from the power plant and to work there (water, food, air circulation and maybe air cooling, electricity for lights, systems) You need roads to and from the power plant, cars to go to and from the power plant. Well maybe we could build the plant in town or have people walk or bicycle to and from work on  unpaved pathways? I doubt it though. You need some transportation for the coal or gasoline to get to and from the plant, you need to refine the gasoline to make it usable. You need filters to keep the air clean and filters need replacing and aren't perfect barriers to air pollution. You need to mine or extract the coal/gasoline, which may be terribly inefficient if its a harder to access source, which they do become more and more inefficient to remove as time goes on. You need resources even to locate the resources. Plans, satellites ground survey equipment etc to find coal and petroleum products.

 

2.    You can build power lines for hundreds of miles over rough terrain. from existing major power plants. You just needs lots and lots of steel and asphalt, pretty decent maintenance resources and ignoring all the energy lost over these lines.

 

3.     Each home can have their own generator, or share generators with neighbors.  Many of the same issues as #1 aside from the power plant and the power lines. But in addition, small generators burning petro or coal are going to be terribly inefficient and polluting. Each power generator will need resources to make and transport, and will wear out needing both maintenance and replacement ever so often.

 

4.    You could put solar panels on the roof of the house and connect a decent battery to it. The battery might need occasional replacing, but that's about it. Aside from the initial resources of the panels and batteries which surely isn't more than the resources involved in generators & roads or a power plant, power lines and roads.

 

5.    Future technology where someone develops a way to inject gasoline etc into our light bulbs, phones, computers, air conditioners, refrigerators, etc to directly power them. Problem though, this technology doesn't exist yet. It almost seems like the author thinks energy consumption starts and stops solely with vehicles!

 

     Maybe you will decide me crazy for thinking this, but number 4. seems the most efficient way to get power for everyone, the best eroei number, both money wise, and earth resources wise, and a larger and larger difference over greater time periods. But before you think me crazy for thinking this, others also decided this is so. http://www.scidev.net/global/energy/feature/solar-revolution-west-africa-villages.html

 

    Author seems to have forgotten that solar panels can be put on roofs. This means no additional real estate used, less power lines since the source of the energy and its use are in the same place. It can even be put directly on the items that would use its energy.  Like a solar powered calculator, lights for the yard so you don't need power lines to them, or solar panels on the top of a hybrid or electrical vehicle etc.

 

   Looking it up online, it seems solar cells can lose a small percentage of efficiency over time, but it is very small, and it is not a leap to think technology does or will exist that allows zero loss of efficiency over time. Also solar technology continues to improve and get more efficient, we've reached a small wall regarding getting more efficiency from say a combustion engine, the latest way? Hybrids, in other words, the way to greater gasoline efficiency is ELECTRICITY!

 

     Solar is not the only answer, since it can't provide all the power needed in a city that uses alot of it. Though it could be nearly that, if people simply relied less on electricity in the first place. But to say the only benefit of solar is not running out, ignoring how efficient it can be and how easy to use it can be, is absurd. No, the author doesn't ignore that solar can be super efficient and easy to use, the author claims the exact opposite with blanket statements for all situations.

 

    P.S. I thought Japanese were obsessed with getting good schooling, what's with the huge amount of ignorance in how the world works shown in many mangas?

 

Also, it seems the main or perhaps only message of the comic is, electric cars suck, do gasoline cars, hybrids don't exist, and nothing besides vehicles need energy to run. Perhaps the authors are subsidized by big oil?

Edited by truepurple, 29 July 2017 - 08:39 PM.