[Moshineko]

Isn't that sort of what happens to water now? Call me crazy, but I seem to remember a little thing called rain.


Seems it's a much more noble pursuit than gas-burning hybrids, at least, or using ethanol. At least until cellulotic ethanol is perfected.

The problem with energy is two-fold. Firstly, any large-output energies involve large amounts of heat, which almost invariably comes from burning something. Things such as hydrogen power or ethanol are produced using power that most likely comes from burn fossil fuels or woods (hydrogen is pulled out of water by electrocuting the water, splitting the molecules into their component atoms, hydrogen and oxygen, and ethanol needs to be processed using more energy than we can derive from it), or from using nuclear fuels, which, while better than gas or coal, still aren't that wonderful (no immediate output of pollutants, but an eventual production of nuclear waste).

Two, the passive forms of energy production, wind, water and solar, just don't make enough energy yet to provide for the needs of developed and developing countries. At the moment, I believe about 90% or so of the energy that goes into running the millions of servers that make up the internet and various intranets is used to cool the servers, not to run them. Not sure of the exact number, but I do know that it's quite a bit more to cool than it is to run.

So, in the end, until solar, hydro, geothermal and wind power production can be made vastly more efficient and productive, we'll be best off with a hybrid power structure, really. Burn as little as possible, and rely on nuclear and "renewables".