I think biofuels and atomic energy will be the power sources of the future. There are serious problems facing the biofuel market. I'm not even going to touch the energy in/out ratio for producing ethanol, as no one can give good solid numbers. The general pulse is that biodiesel gives net energy after production so I will shoot it down right now.
In the last week the price for canola was over $17 a bushel. One can only get about 12 liters of oil out of a bushel of canola, so just the feed stock costs 1.42 a liter. One has to crush the seed, filter it, reform it (which is done with methanol, since it is still CHEAPER to make it from natural gas than it is to distill ethanol from corn or small grains), and distribute it.
Now the supporters of biofuel will tell you that the processed grains and oilseeds can be sold for animal feed to offset the cost of the feed stock. This is true, but the price for livestock is depressed when the grain market is high. This means the feedlots don't feed out as many animals because the returns aren't there for them (too much money is spent on feed), and if the prices remain low long enough the primary producers (family cow/calf producers) liquidate their herd, which means there are fewer animals for the feedlot to buy and the price will come up in a normal market. Now that the market isn't normal because of the demand for food grains for fuel is growing. So if the biofuel plants sell off the "used" grain for less than they need to balance the books the price of their fuel is no longer viable because of the cost. It's an endless circle...
Any way I feel once methods for producing biofuel from WASTE products (straw, bark, grass) products come of age they will be a very economical, and benificial energy source.
To make a real dent in carbon outputs electricity production needs to be shifted away from fossil fuels to wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear. Out of all these nuclear is the only one that is mature enough to have a chance of meeting demand.
Out of all this we still have all of this carbon in the atmosphere to deal with (that they say will doom us all). The earth is a closed ecosystem, so the carbon that is here has always been here, so how much harm will it really cause?
Just some food for thought.
On all equipment there are 2 levers...
Lever "A", and Lever F'in "B"