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Hawaii Planning State-Wide Electric Car Network
MojoKid writes to tell us that Hawaii is planning on implementing a statewide electric car charging network. While the initiative seems to highlight the lower carbon footprint, Hawaii doesn't exactly seem like the ideal candidate for this initiative. One reader pointed out that perhaps a solar or wind power generation initiative might be a little better suited for the island state. "We have tons of wind and sun here that could be harnessed for electricity, but Hawaiian Electric Company has enough control over the government to block most wind and solar projects, and they make more money burning oil and diesel because the PUC lets them pass the fuel costs directly on to the consumer. Gov Lingle is taking all the credit, but if she actually wants to make a difference in oil consumption in the islands she needs to get large scale wind and solar projects pushed through first."
Being from Hawaii, and knowing how small Oahu really is.
Get a bike.
You can drive around the circumference of the island in about 2 hours. Enjoy paradise before you're whisked away to college and never get to go back.
Second, it's warm all the time. Cold temperatures are a real battery lifetime and performance killer, and this may become a real problem with electric cars in the mainland 48, since people in Minnesota are going to want electric cars. It's a good idea to deploy the technology in the favorable places, like Hawaii, first.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
The infrastructure for electric cars is already in place as the majority of places are already on the electricity grid. All that has to happen is for the cars to be fitted with a plug and be able to charge off of house current (110/220). Then some enterprising person will come up with a 'coin operated' charging unit to be placed at the front of all comercial and public parking spaces. And it is all done.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Gov Lingle is taking all the credit, but if she actually wants to make a difference in oil consumption in the islands she needs to get large scale wind and solar projects pushed through first."
This isn't necessarily true. Solar and (especially) wind generation technologies are developed and being deployed. The barriers in this case are political and secondarily economic, but once those barriers fall (due to cost of fuel, or due to political changes), adoption can be relatively rapid. Deploying large-scale wind is an understood problem.
Electric cars, on the other hand, are likely to require a much longer adoption curve. For one thing, they are private vehicles, subject to private decisionmaking and biases. For another, there still isn't a really good, affordable electric car on the market. Third, they will require a well-established infrastructure before anyone but the early adopters will use them.
So IMO it makes sense for them to focus on electric cars now, and on wind/solar tomorrow, because the leadtime on cars is going to be long. On the other hand, the benefit of moving to renewable electricity will hit the bottom line much faster, so they have an incentive to be working that angle actively too.
"Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." -- Wernher von Braun
>>because the PUC lets them pass the fuel costs directly on to the consumer.
Of course, that's what businesses do!
Hawaii is a terrible candidate for solar power. Obviously the author has no idea of how many hundreds of acres would have to be blanketed with solar arrays to provide enough electricity to run a fleet of cars. Additionally, studding the crest of every hill with windmills hardly seems like a plan. People come to Hawaii for its beauty. And considering the limited size, it's not like they have the equivalent of a southwest desert to plant these arrays. Operators would have to chop down trees and build them on hillsides.
Of the 'green' alternatives, geothermal seems like a low-impact possibility. Nuclear, too. Small, safe, extremely high output, dependable.
When has wind or solar ever been shown to be an effective, reliable replacement for fossil fuels? We need to develop methods for storing massive quantities of electrical(or thermal in the case of solar-thermal) energy before these power sources could be anything other than a supplemental power source.
Perhaps they could consider a nuke plant instead. Those are actually cheaper than fossil fuels, and they are certainly more reliable than wind or solar.
You just recycle the batteries. It isn't that big a deal. The atoms don't wear out, the molecules do (that is, a stable, reversible chemical reaction is a neat trick; when you are recycling them, you don't need to worry so much about the stable or the reversible anymore, so you can recover the material).
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
They have, and there are some small geothermal problems. One of the problems presentin Hawaii but not elsewhere, however, is cultural. Among some native Hawaiians, the volcano is still revered. Think of it as though someone discovered a way to generate electricity from Jesus statues involving drilling into them.
Praying is hilarious. Surely he knows what you want already? 'I just want to hear you say it! Beg! I'll think about it.'
That'd be awesome
"Strangers have the best candy" -Me
Yeah...but, they're fun to drive.
But, even while I could see myself in a high performance electric car, like a Tesla some day...I shudder to think about losing my gasoline powered motorcycle!! Half the fun of that is the smell and sounds of a rumbling engine and well tuned exhaust. When that all goes, I'll be sad...hopefully it will be LONG after I'm dead and gone...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
The smells and sounds of a well tuned engine and exhaust are "none" and "none". The only "good" smells people describe from an engine are caused by leaks, and all noise is wasted power.
Hold on, 92 * 92 = 8464 square miles, there are ~300 million people in the US so 8464 / 300 * 1.2 =33.8 square miles. Unless you think the people in Hawaii uses 3% of the electric that the average person in the US.