BSP_5c10n

Man why didn't I think of that?!!

brambling

We will never be able to rely on solar energy or windpower to solve our current energy needs. In order to sell power you have to be able to reliably and on-demand add your generation to the grid. Solar and wind might be selling on the spot market but I doubt anybody can say capacity of the grid is increased due to their contribution.

toyota_prius

There is no question of the benefit of a plug in hybrid electric vehicle. I sold my 2004 Scion xB and bought a 2006 Toyota Prius last winter. I have never been happier and don't miss my boxi at all. The problem with the Prius is, well it hauls around a clunky old antiquated internal combustion engine that is more than unnecessary. If it were to be replaced by its weight in the latest Lithium ion batteries, and I could plug it in every night and drive it about 300 miles before recharging it for 3 hours. It would be cleaner and a lot quieter (I hate when my gas engine klunks on and putters pollution) not to mention never need oil changes, tune ups, or pretty much all services needed by gas-powered cars except tire rotations and winshield wiper fluid. Our home doesn't burn coal to produce electricity, we generate plenty of our own using photovoltaic panels on our roof and conserve using simple energy conservation techniques (i.e. flourecent and LED bulbs inside and tinted windows to use A/C less). We usually generate so much power that we we sell it back to the power company (we are connected to the grid) and usually end up with about $250 credited back to our power bill each year and we havent paid a cent for electricty in years. The solar panels are totally worth the $25k initial investment and I just wish I could charge my Prius with them. Even without solar panels it would only cost about $0.01 per mile to charge an electric vehicle on the grid and most power companies sell green power(solar and wind) if you ask for it and pay a little more. There are electric vehicles coming on the market today and to anyone who it not in complete denial of global warming you should check out the tesla roadster (www.teslamotors.com) 0-60 in 3.9 seconds lithium ion electric car on a Lotus Elise frame. There are many more in the works including many more affordable EVs. To learn more google electric cars or check out the new movie "Who killed the Electric Car." To learn why you should drive an EV check out the movie "An Inconvient Truth" or watch the Discovery channel special on global warming with Tom Brokaw. The technology is here today for electric vehicles, why bother to develop fuel cell technology with limited range (100 miles per tank) high cost (Highlander FCV $1,000,000 if mass produced), an entirely new network of fueling stations, inventing methods to store hydrogen, inventing methods to keep hydrogen safe and stable, inventing methods of creating hydrogen other than burning fossil fuels, lowering the cost of hydrogen from over $8.00/gallon.... I mean when you really look at it hydrogen fuel cells are a joke by the gas companies to keep you filling up instead of plugging in and they will be 10-15 years away for the next 30-50 years. At least plug-in hybrids are more electric than hybrids are now and get about 100-150mpg with battery advances compared to the 45-65mpg of standard Prii. The not-for-profit company Calcars has been working on and promoting the plug-in Prius until Toyota finally does the right thing themselves(www.calcars.com)

George

Assuming that the car using about 20HP at 60MPH for those 300 miles (conservative, since constant speed is the easiest service) you will be using 20*746*5*3600=268560000J.

OK, you're recharging in 3 hours. That means that you will need to take 268560000/3/3600 to get 24867W. This is the wattage that you will need to charge that battery. 24867/240=104A at 240V (or 208A at 120V!)

Well, a household electrical service will be able to handle that sort of current, but for many services it would push their limits. Don't plan on running much else while the car is charging!

Kanotoa

There are a lot of uninformed people posting here. Electric cars are a far more efficent and clean that gasoline. Fuel Cells are a pipe dream. Electric cars are the future.

AKgoalie7

lol.. my brother's an electrician and he's helping build one right now in Nebraska.... hahahahah...

Nuclear power is safer than you think now

Kanotoa

Nuclear is way more expensive than even renewable energy sources when you take away the Government subsidies. The cost to store waste and to decomision a plant is super duper expensive. Plus I doubt Al Quida will try to crash a plane into a windmill.

George

Speaking of "uninformed people"....

Solar and wind power are both heavily subsidized by the government. So is oil, when you consider the expenses of securing the sources.

The cost to store nuclear waste is high, but waste can be reprocessed into more fuel. The only thing standing in the way are the Luddites who are afraid of anything they don't understand. How hard is recycling to understand?

Al Qaeda could crash airplanes into a US nuclear reactor all day long and not do much more than smudge the containment vessels. They're designed to withstand that sort of thing.

The Luddites have not eliminated nuclear power. They have only ensured that the leaders in nuclear engineering are French.

Kanotoa

If they reprossessed the waste Nuclear might make sense but they don't because the byproduct is plutonium which can be used to make A-bombs.

Nuclear is one of the most government subsidized source of power.

Consider yourself informed now.

George

Plutonium also works just fine as reactor fuel (ask the US Navy) and plutonium isn't useful for bombs unless it it enriched (which it isn't in a power reactor).

And all those troops in the Persian Gulf are being paid for by Exxon/Mobil, right?

Every energy industry gets a government subsidy. Solar/wind by tax breaks, nuclear by indemnity, and oil by blood.