>It could always be worse- one idea I keep seeing pop up when it comes
>to storing energy Really, the problem, such as it is, is that oil and the other combustible hydrocarbons are goddamn miracle materials.
We don't really conceptualize them that way, but they are. A gallon of oil can be stored at room temperature nearly indefinitely, and by merely burning it in a way that is, frankly, not all that efficient (although the humble internal combustion engine is, after a century of optimizing, also something of a little miracle), it releases enough energy to propel a ton of metal thirty to forty miles.
And that's crazyface. It's a literal wonder of the natural world created by nothing more than millions of years of heat and pressure. When we drive a car or fly a plane, we're propelling it using the force of the geologic history of the planet contained in a little tank.
It's amazing, but it isn't easily replicable, or at least not cheaply. We keep trying, but it turns out the universe isn't any eager to bow to our engineering whims now than it ever has been.
-Merc
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