Here is a quite interesting video on “300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds.”

Reposted from a Facebook post of Christian Kobler.

A personal observation on the subject of fossil fuels: My last rental car was a Toyota Prius (Hybrid Synergy Drive).

It is interesting to see how the display of energy recovery and the cooperation of the electrical motor and the (gas) engine change the driving style.

Toyota Prius 3. Image via Wikipedia

One can easily see that slower breaking recharges the battery while abrupt breaking just creates heat on the brake pads.

Also when accelerating one sees when one leaves the “Eco Mode” range and goes into “Power Mode.”

Energy Monitor in the Prius

I found myself adopting a much smoother driving style and was awarded with the display of the current gas mileage as well as the gas mileage over the last several 5-min. intervals.

It was easy to observe that when breaking slowly there was enough energy recuperated to have the car running for a while on electricity only (at slower speeds) or see how the electrical motor aided the gas engine (at higher speeds) instantly leading to a much better gas mileage.

The average gas mileage (highway, country, city) that I achieved was between 55 and 60 mpg (3.9–4.3 l/100 km).

Maybe if our cars would give us more information on energy use and would allow us to recuperate breaking energy we would drive more smoothly. As long as we cannot replace the gasoline engines on a wide scale smooth driving will help conserve fuel.

What are your experiences with other technological approaches to energy-saving?

Related articles

• Burning Fossil fuels is expensive or cheap (wiki.answers.com)
• The Global Energy Crisis (Planet for life)
• Why Fuel Efficiency Advances Haven’t Translated To Better Gas Mileage (science.slashdot.org)
• Fuel-efficient driving (Energy Saving Trust UK)
• Modify your driving style and save at the pump (Your Green Path)
• Prius vs conventional drivetrain cars: main differences and subtle ones too! (Blog on Prius 3 experiences)