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 The PigBazinaPremium
join:2009-09-11
1 edit | reply to badtrip
Re: Dollar to be dropped as the oil currency by 2018 To go totally electric on cars you'd need a generator the size of a mac truck to run it without the help of OIL.
The generator in your car now only keeps your tiny battery charged because the battery doesn't use that much electric.
Do you really believe you can drive cross country or even a few hundred miles without a recharge from an outside source?
Solar power stores power in batteries that can and will break down one way or another, any idea on how long it would take to find a bunch of dead ones amoung a few million of them? How many solar panels/batteries do you think a state like New York or California would need to supply everyone with power and how much will something like that cost? now mulitipy that by 49.
And what happens when it's cloudy for weeks on end? And/or the wind doesn't blow?
You really think it's a wise idea to depend on Mother Nature for power?
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 badtripI heart the East BayPremium
join:2004-03-20
Albany, CA | Where I live there are many, many people who use electric vehicles as their primary transportation. There are distance limits and the technology isn't quite there yet for the mainstream but I'll bet that unless something catastrophic happens in the US, vehicles that are primarily electric powered will be mainstream within 20 years (and probably less).
Oil, of course will be around for a long long time. I won't argue against that.
said by The Pig:You really think it's a wise idea to depend on Mother Nature for power? I think that is the WISEST idea. Hell, it's good enough for every other living being on the planet, it's good enough for us.
You do realize you completely depend on "Mother Nature" to power your body, do you not? | |
| reply to The Pig
said by The Pig:To go totally electric on cars you'd need a generator the size of a mac truck to run it without the help of OIL. What do you imagine to be the fuel for the generator if not gasoline or diesel? The generator in a Prius is much smaller than a Mac truck although it runs off of gasoline. Ethanol, biodiesel, hydrogen, ammonia and natural gas are other possible fuels, none of which require oversized generators.
Take a look at plug-in series hybrid vehicles (PHEV) in which a battery is recharged by plugging it into the wall. Initially the vehicle runs off of the battery for several miles. The GM Volt's battery range will be 40 miles. The battery can also be recharged partially by regenerative braking. When the battery discharges to a predetermined point, a liquid fueled generator turns on to provide the average amount of electricity needed to propel the car. If the driver floors the accelerator, some electricity will come from the generator and some from the battery to give him the needed power. Electric cars are 3 to 5 times more energy efficient than gasoline powered ICE ones. This method provides an extended range of hundreds of miles while greatly reducing liquid fuel consumption (~75%) because the majority of local travel uses electricity from the grid. The liquid fuel consumption is reduced enough that perhaps biofuels can provide enough liquid fuel for long range travel. It is also easy to modify a PHEV to use different types of liquid fuels because the worst case would require replacing the generator and fuel tank as opposed to removing the ICE and fuel tank of a conventional car.
said by The Pig:Solar power stores power in batteries that can and will break down one way or another... There are several ways to store electrical energy besides using batteries. One that is already practical is pumped hydroelectricity.
One portion of your argument seems to assume that all of our electricity might be provided by photovoltaic arrays. Consider the situation in which we use several different methods of generating electricity: photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal and nuclear fusion. Photovoltaic systems without storage are good for providing peak power demands during the sunny summer when air conditioners are running during the day. Solar thermal systems are easy to build with storage tanks for overnight or cloudy days. Pumped hydroelectric can be combined with wind and solar to increase the amount of continuous electricity. Wind turbines can be interconnected across long distances. If you have a high voltage power line over a long distance rail line that extends 3,000 miles from east to west across the U.S., the odds are really high that at any given moment the wind will be blowing somewhere along the transmission line providing a certain minimum amount of continuous power.
said by The Pig:... any idea on how long it would take to find a bunch of dead ones amoung a few million of them? A battery array that huge would be built fault tolerant allowing a bad cell to be automatically isolated from the array. The Li-ion battery used in the Tesla Roadster is designed in this fashion.
said by The Pig:How many solar panels/batteries do you think a state like New York or California would need to supply everyone with power and how much will something like that cost? There is enough roof area on U.S. houses for photovoltaic and solar hot water systems to provide all the electricity and hot water that those houses consume. There is not enough roof area on apartments, high rise buildings and industrial buildings for their consumption. Again there is no requirement that solar panels mounted on roofs provide all of the power by themselves.
said by The Pig:And what happens when it's cloudy for weeks on end? I have had an off-grid photovoltaic system for more than 18 years, and have never run out of electricity. On cloudy days the PV panels output about 20% to 25% of the power on sunny days. If one sizes the system appropriately or reduces power consumption on cloudy days, there is no problem. It is a matter of cost and preference.
said by The Pig:You really think it's a wise idea to depend on Mother Nature for power? All of our power sources come from Mother Nature, even crude oil which was originally solar power. Do you think it is a wise idea to depend on finite, depleting and polluting fossil fuels for power until the last drop or your last breath? | |
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