I agree. There is no perfect solution. Yet,
There is perfect solution! Put a generator up in space above the equator. Run a big belt around the equator to the generator. Place sliprings on both sides of the equator. Run wires back from the generator with brushes on the ends to make contact with the sliprings. Draw the electrical power generated off the sliprings.
Besides free energy, the rotation of the earth would be slowed by the drag of the generator. Thus, the days would be longer and I could get more done.
LOL!!! How much would that cost? As far as nuclear waste just shoot it far into space and let the space aliens deal with it. similar to just dumping all our crap in the oceans. sarcasm.
Or you could fire the nuclear waste into the sun.
Like I said, I probably wonât be in the market for an electric any time soon but Motor Trend this month had an interesting article on a test drive of the new electric Jaguar. They drove it 700 miles from London to Berlin with a range of something like 240 miles. I think they generally liked it and at one point hit 124 on the autobahn, but they had some difficulty with charging stations, and of course the time involved. Different vendors require different payment methods, some of the chargers were way slow, and the one good one still took them almost two hours of down time for a full charge for another 240 miles.
So yeah, for the $70,000, a range of 240 miles is a very limiting factor. Iâll do 800 miles in one day and got no time for charging if I want to get home. Just like a truck driver, you really canât drive more than five hours without having to take a couple hours break for a re-charge.
It was an interesting article anyway but Iâm still not going to re-new.
Do you enjoy reading Motor Trend?
Or do you only read it, because you somehow managed to get a free subscription . . . I mention that because relatives occasionally give me magazine subscriptions as a gift, or a free subscription is sometimes given as a ârewardâ for completing a survey, etc.
I gave up on that magazine a long time ago, because I felt the articles werenât terribly interesting, and they also didnât seem objective
Naw, I paid $10 a year for it. Thought Iâd enjoy it but really not much use to me. Once a year or so they would have car comparisons but the specs are never complete so really not worth it. Iâm probably asking too much but I donât care about the 0-60 times or how it does on the trail, but I do care about the longevity and serviceability of the engine, trans, etc., the platform, where its made, what sets it apart, towing capacity. Stuff you donât get by just driving it around for a year and recording the cost of oil changes.
Yes, it does. Unfortunately in US we are not thinking in terms of âclosed nuclear fuel cycleâ, only in terms of âburialâ
Electric cars are good on some roads:
I imagine the re-gen on the the way back down Pikes Peak was impressive!
An electric car makes the same power in a complete vacuum as it does at sea level, although there are motor cooling issues at high altitude.
Gas powered cars not so much. At the base of Pikeâs Peak, 9000 ft above sea level, the air already has only 71% of the density of sea level air, and at the top, the air has only 59% of the density of sea level air.
When the air is only 59% of the sea level density, an internal combustion engine will only make 59% of its sea level power.
Iâm surprised that the electric team had to have the car towed back down on a truck because they only had enough charge to make it up the hill. Couldnât they have just coasted back down using regen braking to partially recharge the battery?
Good analysis and a decision on electric vs hybrid will be based on future battery development and application.
Itâs expensive and unavailable at any price and you have to keep count of where youâre travelling because it has limited range. Just those two things are already enough to put off my chances of getting an electric car.
Unavailable at any price? Chevrolet, Nissan, BMW, Jaguar, Kia, Hyundai, Ford, and Volkswagen all have electric cars for sale here, not to mention, obviously, Tesla. The prices range from under $30,000 to over $100,000. So, lots of prices theyâre available at.
I work with a few people who own electric cars and also plug-in hybrids. The only real drawback is long distance. And itâs not impossible. Just plan your trip. Itâs a great commuter vehicle. Most only need to charge once a week. One guy has a longer commute, but still only charges twice a week. We have chargers here at work (a large number of office parks do).
I have no idea what that statement is supposed to mean.
If I lived in a two car household, owning an electric car just for commuting and a gas burner for the spouse with the shorter commute and for long trips would make perfect sense. Imagine how much less maintenance it would require, let alone the fuel savings. Even when gas is $2.35/gallon the electric car would have measurably lower fuel costs.
In most areas an electric car would cost about one half the amount to keep a gas powered vehicle running.
If you are doing this for environmental reasons, please not that in areas where power is generated by coal fired units, there is NO SAVINGS IN CARBON EMITTED.
Coal, by nature has twice the carbon content per million BTUs and the transmission losses add to it. The only advantage the power station has is that it generates power somewhat more efficiently that your car engine But that does not close the gap.
Wide-eyed climate crusaders seen incapable of grasping these basic scientific truths.
If you live in an area where power comes for hydro-electric sources you are making a net contribution to greenhouse gas reduction
Electric auto charging in a region supplied almost entirely by hydro power will only be green if there is excess hydro power not presently being used. I am not awarer of anywhere that significant hydro power could be used to charge cars that would not necessitate drawing âdirtyâ power from somewhere else.
That is in addition to the problem we have now that the grid is in danger of failing now on very hot days due to a/c use and we are getting hotter.
Everything is interconnected and we canât solve one problem without solving the others.
Even nuclear power, forgetting the safety, radiation and waste disposal problem, what do we do with all the excess heat generated by all the additional power use?
In your scenario isnât the car being charged by >90% of hydroelectric power, with <10% of the power coming from a dirty source?
Thatâs still an improvement over an internal combustion engine.