Sweden Oil-free by 2020

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Sweden Oil-free by 2020

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The country that brought us Volvo, Saab, ABBA, and Aqua are preparing their latest export: freedom from oil.

According to John Vidal of the U.K. news source The Guardian, Sweden has been preparing for months to move away from an oil-based infrastructure, a first among the major Western powers. This goal is in response to environmental concerns and dwindling oil resources. Says Mona Sahlin, minister of sustainable development, "a Sweden free of fossil fuels would give us enormous advantages, not least by reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices. The price of oil has tripled since 1996."

The country plans to be practically oil-free by the year 2020. Currently, fossil fuels are used primarily in transportation with hydroelectric and nuclear energy sources providing much of the countrys electrical needs. Biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are being considered as oil-replacements.

Other countries with goals to move away from oil use include Iceland and Brazil.
 
"biofuels" are just a "book perfect" ploy... people need to realize that it takes a s*** load more energy to create such fuels! and where does that energy come from? ;)
 
Biofuels are carried out by fermentation theMAN and that energy is harnessed from the sun in the form of corn. It is considered a renewable resource because the carbon we released was carbon we had grabbed from the atmosphere. It's all good.
 
TheMAN said:
planting, nurturing, and harvesting them doesn't require energy? :rolleyes:
It's less energy than what it takes to hire engineers, engineer oil rigs/pumps,
hire workers, develop oil rig, hire engineers, engineer supertanker,
hire workers, transport the oil, pay for transport, engineer oil processing/refinery
plant to purify the crude oil, transport the oil/gasoline to stations.

All you need is a couple farmers with a corn picker and a refinery
with trucks running on their own biofuels to distribute the oil.
That doesn't even touch the basis of the fact that the biofuels are
coming from renewable resources that don't have to be imported.
They'll be paying $0.50/gallon for fuel that burns clean while we'll be
stuck paying $20 a gallon for gas if someone doesn't hurry up and
start selling a feasible hybrid car that runs off of methanol/hydrogen.

I'm glad that someone has finally set a deadline to rid of the oil industry.

(thumb)
 
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Prodigy said:
It's less energy than what it takes to hire engineers, engineer oil rigs/pumps, hire workers, develop oil rig, hire engineers, engineer supertanker, hire workers, transport the oil, pay for transport, engineer oil processing/refinery plant to purify the crude oil, transport the oil/gasoline to stations.

All you need is a couple farmers with a corn picker and a refinery with turck to distribute the oil.
That doesn't even touch the basis of the fact that the biofuels are coming from renewable resources.

(thumb)

plus the fact that farmers are being paid NOT to grow stuff...
 
The side effect of this whole thing is the way the corn will inevitably harvested. The upscaling of the infrastructure to meet the demand of this thirsty nation will force farmers to push their crops to get higher yields with firtilizers that create poor water quality and impacts water runoff to rivers.
 
so we're screwed either way. Screw you guys, i'm moving to the Moon....
 
Nuclear energy is one of the only power sources that is efficient. Unfortunately people are afraid of pollution of the water supply by nuclear waste. What they don't know is that the underground water supply in the midwest is depleting faster than it is being replenished. We have surface water, but you can only hold so much and only in places like lakes or ponds. I guess we're screwed either way.
 
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melicha8 said:
The side effect of this whole thing is the way the corn will inevitably harvested. The upscaling of the infrastructure to meet the demand of this thirsty nation will force farmers to push their crops to get higher yields with firtilizers that create poor water quality and impacts water runoff to rivers.
What they should do is use organic fertilizers combined with an ever
increasing amount of land specifically set aside for growing so that they
won't destroy the fertile land by trying to overproduce on the same spot.
 
melicha8 said:
will force farmers to push their crops to get higher yields with firtilizers that create poor water quality and impacts water runoff to rivers.

Genetic engineering takes car of these problems. We can make disease, and insect resistant corn that will grow to maturity in half the time in Montana if we only focus appropriate resouces on the problem.

I do believe, however, that at best biofuels are energy nuetral in theory. In reality, they will probably remain net energy negative for some time. Thats where nuclear power generation comes in. Clean, cheap, abundant power will facilitate the production of biofuels (even hydrogen in mass quantities if we want) for use in transportation.
 
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