Originally Posted by Guest

You're welcome.

I usually know what I'm talking about.

Doug...it IS physics...oil is concentrated energy from the sun accumulated over hundreds of millions of years...(unless you subscribe to the abiotic oil theories)...we can just pump it out and use it...as is.

A battery must be manufactured and then it must be charged. As I said earlier...it takes 32 times more energy to MAKE a battery then you'll get out of it. It takes 32 barrels worth of energy to get out 1 barrel of energy from the battery.

You are concerned with PRICE of energy which is an artificial descriptor of "cost". Whereas I was talking about the amount of energy actually used to make the battery.

For a barrel of oil EQUIVALENT in energy...it takes 20% of that barrel to get 1 barrel of oil.

For a barrel of oil EQUIVALENT in energy...it takes 32 barrels of oil equivalent of energy...to make and charge your battery.

It takes 160X more energy to make a battery than it does to pump out a barrel of oil.

The PRICE paid in dollars has little to do with the ENERGY costs because NOW...using fossil fuels...energy is ALMOST FREE in dollars.

It's like water...it's almost free...leave your sprinklers on all night and it'll cost you less than $10.

I've got it! WATER!

Fossil fuels are like water...we pump it out of the ground and it's cheap.

Your batteries are like BOTTLING the water.

It adds an extra step. Extra hassle. It takes MORE energy.

You can't run a city ONLY on bottled water...bottled energy. A city needs open spigots.

Monetary value...the cost in dollars changes, it's variable.

The ENERGY cost of building batteries is enormous...160X the energy cost of pumping fossil fuels.