October 19, 20169 yr Clearly, electric, battery powered motors have a long way to go yet. The motors are fine of course, they can propel whole trains at speeds that rival jet airliner services. But batteries are a very different issue, I'm sure they could never get anywhere near the energy density of fossil fuels, no matter how far development goes. .
October 19, 20169 yr The motors are fine of course, they can propel whole trains at speeds that rival jet airliner services. But batteries are a very different issue, I'm sure they could never get anywhere near the energy density of fossil fuels, no matter how far development goes. . Probably not in your lifetime, but one day there will be batteries with equivalent specific energy or more. Remember that we don't count the oxygen needed for combustion when we talk about energy densities of fossil fuels. Already on the horizon is the lithium air battery that is predicted to reach over 11,000 Wh/kg, which is very close to fossil fuels - 40 MJ/kg vs 48 MJ/kg. I'm sure that there will be plenty more inventions yet.
October 20, 20169 yr I'm just used to the way predictions about batteries always fall so far short of what's promised. As I've often observed, after 200 years of development we still use the earliest technology for the most common high drain usage, starting vehicles. .
October 20, 20169 yr we did not have fuel cells then. Maybe cold nuclear fusion within this century. . Pigs and aviation come to mind. .
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