Alec Cameron wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:
 AC> Hi Roy
 AC> On (11 Dec 96) Roy J. Tellason wrote to BILL BAUER...
 RJ> 3.  Power need.  I read an article some time back that ran the numbers, 
 RJ> and if you were to convert all of our existing transportation as it
 RJ> exists
 RJ> now (assuming that it was feasible for technological reasons) you'd have
 RJ> to *double* the existing power grid.  Not too likely...
 AC>     ^^^^^^
 AC> No big deal. Power grids since 1945, have typically doubled in 
 AC> capacity at intervals of about 8 years thanks to the hunger for 
 AC> energy and the wasting of it. I guess that now, the redoubling 
 AC> period is more like 10 or 12 years.
It's been a while since I read that article,  but the author didn't seem to 
think that it was going to be that easy.  Lack of good sites for hydro,  
concerns about construction of nuclear (which has basically gone to zero in 
the US),  and similar problems.
 AC> From 1946 to 1976, NSW regularly commissioned one turbo- 
 AC> generator per annum. The sizes just kept climbing- 30MW set in 
 AC> 1950, 275 MW set in 1965, 660 MW set in 1980. These were all 
 AC> single shaft 3000 rpm 50 cycle machines, steam turbine driven.
While I'm not up on the current numbers,  I would expect to see that trend as 
having flattened out significantly.
 AC> Battery cars are far too dear for you and me right now.
I am amazed that GM has actually got one in production,  and yet no one seems 
to have any sort of hybrid vehicle out there excepting the occasional 
experimental prototype.  Seems to me that there's a lot of untapped potential 
there.
 AC> Taxes and regulations will change the ways our children travel 
 AC> in the decades ahead. It will be battery cars, bikes and shoes. 
 AC> And mebbee a few horses!
Could be,  though I don't see it happening at the present time.
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