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They'll never stop drilling. But there's hope in solar. Check out the chart in this article. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-29/while-you-were-getting-wor

They'll never stop drilling. But there's hope in solar. Check out the chart in this article. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-29/while-you-were-getting-worked-up-over-oil-prices-this-just-happened-to-solar.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-29/while-you-were-gett...

danieltillett 12y ago
They will never stop drilling because oil is an amazingly useful resource - using it as a source of energy is about the least useful thing you can do with it.
- lunarcave 12y ago
  Explain?
  - guard-of-terra 12y ago
    Everything is made out of plastic, and plastic is made out of oil.
    - seren 12y ago
      Plus our agriculture in the first world is heavily dependent on fertilizers, that are mostly oil based. We are eating oil by gallons.
      - jjoonathan 12y ago
        Fertilizer is oil based? I thought plants got almost all of their carbon from the air. Are you talking about the hydrogen feeding into the Haber process? Because most of that comes from gas-shifted water and IIRC the energy and carbon for gas-shifting water comes from natural gas. The nitrogen itself comes from air, of course.
        seren 12y ago
        Apparently, I was wrong, thanks for pointing it out, it seems to be actually natural gas dependent.
  - danieltillett 12y ago
    Petrochemicals http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrochemical http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrochemical
    - cowsandmilk 12y ago
      And yet, the majority of petrol is used on energy[1]. Replacing its use for energy will reduce drilling. Other uses will adjust to a smaller supply through adjustments to the cracking operations that will shift the remaining petrol to making chemicals. [1]http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pnp_pct_dc_nus_pct_m.htm http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pnp_pct_dc_nus_pct_m.htm
seren 12y ago
Even if those kind of graph are bringing hope, we have to remember that oil is both a source of energy (by burning it) and a compact and cheap way to store energy. A solar panel is only the former. So comparing the cost of energy production is only half the story.

danieltillett 12y ago

They will never stop drilling because oil is an amazingly useful resource - using it as a source of energy is about the least useful thing you can do with it.

lunarcave 12y ago
Explain?
- guard-of-terra 12y ago
  Everything is made out of plastic, and plastic is made out of oil.
  - seren 12y ago
    Plus our agriculture in the first world is heavily dependent on fertilizers, that are mostly oil based. We are eating oil by gallons.
    - jjoonathan 12y ago
      Fertilizer is oil based? I thought plants got almost all of their carbon from the air. Are you talking about the hydrogen feeding into the Haber process? Because most of that comes from gas-shifted water and IIRC the energy and carbon for gas-shifting water comes from natural gas. The nitrogen itself comes from air, of course.
      - seren 12y ago
        Apparently, I was wrong, thanks for pointing it out, it seems to be actually natural gas dependent.
- danieltillett 12y ago
  Petrochemicals http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrochemical http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrochemical
  - cowsandmilk 12y ago
    And yet, the majority of petrol is used on energy[1]. Replacing its use for energy will reduce drilling. Other uses will adjust to a smaller supply through adjustments to the cracking operations that will shift the remaining petrol to making chemicals. [1]http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pnp_pct_dc_nus_pct_m.htm http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pnp_pct_dc_nus_pct_m.htm

seren 12y ago

Even if those kind of graph are bringing hope, we have to remember that oil is both a source of energy (by burning it) and a compact and cheap way to store energy. A solar panel is only the former. So comparing the cost of energy production is only half the story.