Alternatives - Using less Energy

Energy use has changed and evolved with time.  Here are some ideas on alternatives to the way we currently use energy.

Private - Public  Transport Apart from more careful planning in the utilization of private transport, public transport could be made more available.  This would make more sense than spending vast amounts of capital on roadways that soon fill up, and if people drive less often, this capital would be underutilized.

Hybrid cars could cut down the fossil fuel consumption of cars as well.  Several manufacturers are now planning on building them.

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Aircraft As fossil fuel becomes more expensive in the aircraft transportation field, changes will have to be made to airline companies.  The business model of providing a flight every hour or so will have to change.  So will the aircraft, fuel will be too expensive to be used to provide lift.  So aircraft will need to provide lift in other ways.

Over London, Paris and Antwerp during World War I, they introduced the world to the bombing of civilians. Between the world wars, they became a hallmark of luxury travel, floating four-star hotels that carried the rich across the Atlantic on a puff of hydrogen.  But when the Hindenburg, the Nazi swastika on its tail, crashed in a ball of flames in Lakehurst, N.J., in 1937, the dirigible's glory days were over.

Modern dirigibles would use helium rather than highly flammable hydrogen.  Helium has about twice the weight of hydrogen but it is the buoyancy of the air displaced that is the important factor.  Helium balloons have only a slightly smaller lifting percentage than hydrogen ones.  However, airships are fair-weather craft; historically dirigibles like the Hindenburg didn't fly in winter.

See more on dirigibles at:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/cargolifter.htm 

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Electricity Solutions such as wind power and tidal power exist but conservation of electricity, such as using heat pumps fluorescent lighting and better insulation, to cut demand, offer the most immediate solution.

Will Hydrogen become a source of energy in the future, no.  First of all where is the Hydrogen fuel to come from?  It will have to be manufactured and then there are all the problems of handling it. For example if you parked a hydrogen powered car in an under ground car park the car would be empty of hydrogen in about a week and the garage would be explosive! 

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