[ExI] solar cell innovation

[Mirco Romanato]

Damien Broderick ha scritto:
> At 09:03 PM 3/30/2008 -0700, spike wrote:
> 
>> In the next few decades, our gradual transition away from oil for
>> transportation will include a hundred different solutions where currently
>> there is really only one.
> 
> One of the graphs on the site Keith sent us to states that power 
> generation uses a derisory amount of oil, < 2 %. How much is used for 
> transport? Google points to 2/3 of total.
> 
> <http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/oil_market_basics/demand_text.htm>
> <oil consumption in the United States and Canada equals almost 3 
> gallons per day per capita.  (The difference is these countries' 
> transportation sectors, with their dependence on private vehicles to 
> travel relatively long distances.)  Oil consumption in the rest of 
> the OECD equals 1.4 gallons per day per capita.  Outside of the OECD, 
> oil consumption equals 0.2 gallons per day per capita. >

The EU, that is much of the rest of the EUCD, have higher taxes on the 
oil products. Currently, in Italy, the cost is 1.35 €/liter that is more 
than 5$/gallon.
This simply prevent people to commute to work on long distances without 
public transport, and the public transport is rarely comfortable or 
available when and where people need it.
Couple with a mummified house market (high prices, costly to buy and 
sell home), and people have much less opportunity to find and change 
their jobs for a better one. And this make us more poor than the US.

There is, for sure, space for improvements, but people consume less 
mainly because they are poor, not because they are smarter.

Mirco

-- 
[Intangible capital is] the preponderant form of wealth.
When we look at the shares of intangible capital across income classes, 
you see it goes from about 60 percent in low-income countries to 80 
percent in high-income countries.
That accords very much with the notion that what really makes countries 
wealthy is not the bits and pieces, it's the brainpower, and the 
institutions that harness that brainpower.
It's the skills more than the rocks and minerals.
—Kirk Hamilton

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