The problem is Hydrogen. It is abundant in nature, but it *loves* to
bond to everything. So you have to reclaim it from other things and
separate it out. That takes time and energy to do.

Indeed. A professional aerodynamicist friend tells me that the best
efficiency you can achieve from a solar charged "eternal plane" depends a
lot on the storage system. FYI the "eternal plane" is solar powered.
During the day it flys on solar power while storing energy to keep it
flying overnight.

If you use a fuel cell, splitting water during the day, storing the
hydrogen and dumping the oxygen and then using the fuel cell for night
power while collecting the water from it to recycle the next day, your
best energy storage efficiency is about 66%.

If you just charge a Li-poly battery the storage efficiency is around 85%.

Bottom line: you'll need a lot fewer nukes if you use them to charge
batteries than if you make hydrogen. Thats without considering the
cost of transmitting the electricity to chargers versus the cost of
carting hydrogen to the gas station.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. |
org | Zappa fan & glider pilot