Economic growth with declining energy?

yesplease · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Oct 03, 2006 Posts: 1231

I'm just saying...

<rant>The average passenger vehicle is something like 15% efficient, if we calculate efficiency as the ability to move a few tons of vehicle and an order of magnitude less human/stuff. According to this paradigm a SUV is more efficient than a corvette with the same engine even though the corvette gets better mileage, because, by virtue of gasoline engine fundamentals, the more an engine works the more efficient it tends to be. Of course, doubling consumption to increase efficiency by 20% still means the driver is using ~60% more fuel to do the same thing, but we won't mention that. Wink

Otoh, if we calculate efficiency as the energy cost of moving a human or few and some stuff, the average passenger vehicle is quiet possibly one of the most inefficient uses of energy in recorded history.</rant>
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energycity · Tar Sands Joined: Apr 22, 2008 Posts: 22 Location: UK