What happens to power boating when we run out of oil?

You are going to need to feed your fuel cells with H2 or a hydrocarbon, liquid or gas.

I am pretty sure that whatever fuel that may be cheaper to produce, it will be taxed to the same level as fossil fuel.

Except sails, hopefully...

Because not all electricity comes from fossil fuels, and the percentage that doesn't is increasing.

If your car burns fossil fuels directly there's no escaping the fact: fossil fuels must be burnt (obviously!)
But if your car runs on electricity at least you then have an energy chain that fossil fuels can be removed from.

but remember... you still need lots of energy to refine the Silicone, Gallium, and Antimony for photo voltaics and lots of petroleum products to product the composite and structural materials used in wind generation towers not to mention rare earth magnets, and energy used in mining lead and lithium for batteries. And Copper. Big energy in mining and refining.

So, if we don't start investing NOW in alternative energy in a BIG way there will be a HUGE price to pay and a HUGE gap to bridge when fossil fuels get really expensive (if they do). We need to think about alternative energy in construction and mining, and manufacturing...not just a few kw panels on your boat's pilot house.

Alternative Electrical generation is great (wind, various solar, perhaps tidal, thermal, hydro...) but my personal opinion is that the hydrogen economy is a farce and that even liquid fed fuel cells and natural gas fuel cells still require fossil fuels (Where does purified methanol come form?). They are not really an alternative energy in my opinion. Just a venture capitol suck that should be redirected to real things perhaps like algea biodiesel or GTL liquid fuels, or enyzmatic biodiesel.

How about a solar algea reactor on top of your pilot house that produces all the biodiesel your boat needs with sunlight and the CO2 from the exhaust pipe? That'd be cool...

Oil takes a lot of energy to extract and refine too.
And the energy required to produce solar cells is less than the energy they output in their lifetime.

Drilling for oil results in a net energy gain, but so do solar panels, wind farms, etc. The fact that renewable energy infrastructure can't magically be deployed for zero initial energy output (!) should be of no surprise to anyone, and is no reason to avoid renewable energy: NO energy source can be harvested by humans without an initial energy investment (oil, coal, solar, wind, wave, wood, nuclear, etc.)
Even eating a hamburger that falls out of the sky into your lap requires energy to pick it up, eat it, and digest it before the net energy gain kicks in!


On the topic of solar, here are a couple of solar powered vessels:

Production line yacht Suncat 46: Luxury yacht with solar propulsion|SunCat 46
A prototype cat with 60 pax capacity for future roles, that sailed around the world, Planet Solar: Tûranor PlanetSolar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And Wally is building this WHY solar hybrid yacht: WHY | Official website

There's a way to go before compromises don't have to be made to avoid fossil fuels, but we're on the right track.

Solar Sailor has interested me for a long time. I'd love to actually ride on one and check it out.

Off topic

GREAT Profile Picture CaptCook!

That's what the guy that manufactured buggy whips said about the Model A
Your cars wireless speedo & throttle cables that cost less than the cables
what happened to all the neighbourhood garages were you took your car in every month and cars only lasting a 100 k

We have a lot more grey matter out there now than when the first light bulb was invented and Information is transmitted in the blink of an eye and assessable.

Oil will be used for other more important things like plastic or what ever; we might one day even look at it as a natural pollutant

There will be a new source of energy tamed for use and there will always be some big changes hopefully for the better.
That just the nature of the world as we have know it

Here's another (less useful) Suncat 46 link: SunCat 46 - luxury yacht without emission -- boot Trade Fair

Fixed that!

Why dont I see LPG on this thread?
All major shipping companies and engine makers are investing very heavily in this field and its pretty much the next "Fuel". Its still a fossil fuel but we have a huge amount of it. Lots of ferry companies have changed over to LPG vessels.

As for the future of boating.. Yachting
We are I hope going to see more reasonable boats develope with efficient hull shapes. No more Semi Planning Boxes that have a large fridges shape for the underbody.
Running speeds are going to drop as we see in the commercial world, except for the uber rich of course.
Hybrid propulsion systems, Heat recovery, and massive lithium battery banks are going to be standard.
For the diesel we use every ounce of power will be extracted from it. Rather than our present state of using 1/3rd of the power and rejecting the rest either up the stack on into the cooling system..

We are also going to see plug in yachts, fully electric with no internal combustion engines onboard. Just charge it on the dock at night.

We are in a very cool time to watch some truly amazing technology develop.

Gas turbines are great, they have excellent power to weight ratios, but they're very expensive, and not very efficient at low loads. They're used in high speed ferries where the extreme need to keep weight down justifies the cost.

I'm looking forward to this too!

No I have not driven one; do I need to drive one to have a question about it's track record? My point was to ask if Tesla is a proven product given it's issues. Google "tesla problems" and you'll find more than a few fire issues. Any new product has the potential to be a hit until problems surface- and those problems could derail it's success. Until those problems go away the product is not generally considered to be "proven". An example of a new product which is not yet totally proven might be the new "Dreamliner" aircraft.
With any new technology there are folks which take a liking to it- and they are willingly looking at the potential and extrapolating that to mean proven results. They kinda romanticize it. Anything "hybrid" or "green" seems to be high on the list for this type of behavior. My father taught me that people talk about potential when they can't talk about results.
Not that I want the Tesla to be failure.

Certainly nothing new about LPG. Local governments went to it decades ago. Just like CNG, it has it's advantages and disadvantages. I remember when it was the next new thing in my childhood and then my father talked about the test cars Chrysler or Dodge had before that. Still it's not entered into widespread use. So can it be the next "Fuel"? Perhaps. But it's not new and still lots of issues to be resolved.

In many cases the entire fueling of the world needs looking at in total, not individual segments. For instance, the whole issue of Nuclear Electric Power Plants impacts available fuel for other uses. What if solar was required for all new homes and more substantial incentives given for older homes? That would certainly change the entire fuel balance over time. That's one of the few "perfect" savers as it doesn't use any of the limited resources. In turn, it frees up substantial fossil fuels.

Hi Chap..
LNG is not just for turbines.
Most engines are being retrofitted or redesigned to run on it.
I was commenting on regular reciprocating engines. The engines that I have on my current project, (wartsila 20 series, and Cat C32) Are all possible to retrofit to LNG.
Thanks
Oceaneer