Lots of people live along the coasts and they can use the electricity without having to add many transmission lines. In New England much of their current energy comes from existing coal power plants(which would be nice to get rid of).
Sending electricity over transmission lines is highly efficient. If you try to convert electricity into a fuel then you need to deal with huge conversion losses and distribution overhead.
Hydrogen is a really inefficient way to store energy. Batteries are much more efficient for transportation. Pumped hydro-electric is much better for large scale electric utility storage.
If you have distributed wind generation then you have much less of a problem because the wind is always blowing someplace. You can easily use Hydro-electric dams and pumped storage to smooth out the peaks and valleys in wind generation.
We don't need to send power from the coast to Kansas. Coastal areas are heavily populated and so the power will not need to travel very far to be used effectively. Kansas is a windy place, they will have their own land-based turbines.
These wind farms would not be in international waters. They would be on the continental shelf which are by definition national waters. We already patrol and scan these areas for evil dooers.
Electrical cables for wind farms would be more distributed and harder to disrupt than the current system of power plants.
btw tesla engineers the battery pack controller specifically to minimize the possibility that the battery would ever go completely flat. If you get into an extremely low charge situation I think it will start to limit your max acceleration and max speed in order to maximize the remaining battery power and allow you to limp to a charging location.
Depends on where you get your electricity from. I buy wind power for an extra 1cent per kwh. Costs me about $5 extra per month. My friend works for the electric utility and he says that wind turbines pay for themselves in 5-7 years. So there really isn't a good reason to build any more coal power plants.
Even existing coal plants can be retrofitted with emissions controls and power electric vehicles more cleanly than gasoline cars. With gas you have millions of pollution sources which makes them impossible to control or improve.
Plug in electric cost to drive 100 miles should be less than $2. Your electric bill may be higher, but you will be charging at night when rates are low and wouldn't have to spend any money at the gas station ever again.
If you spend $300 a month on AC maybe you should switch to CFL bulbs and a little insulation to your house. Your high electric bill does not make driving an electric car expensive.
And we will create the hydrogen by grinding up invisible pink unicorns. Since there is an infinite supply of invisible pink unicorns and they are really easy to grind this will solve all of our energy problems.
Wasteful energy conversion and distribution will never allow this process to be as clean or as efficient as using wind power electricity to charge electric battery powered cars directly. Powering electric trains via electrified rail is even more efficient.
Propelling vehicles by creating controlled explosions will never be efficient or clean if you look at the total energy required.
ICE engines are only 20-25% efficient which means that this process would be a big waste of energy. You could also use an expensive 50% efficient fuel cell to convert the hydrogen to electricity. But, you would still have to waste a huge amount of energy to collect, reprocess, redistribute the aluminum.
Or just use existing lithium ion batteries which are already 90% efficient and can be transported over wires.
But don't let scientific facts get in the way of your brainstorming.
Use adblock plus element hiding helper to get rid of the floating div(you might also need to crush the background overlay div). Then you dont need to click close ever again.
Wind resistance is friction. Aerodynamic drag increases as the square of speed.
On flat ground an average car(0.378 CD, 2450lbs) will have equal wind resistance and rolling resistance at around 35mph. At 70mph wind resistance accounts for about 80% of total friction.
The Aptera 2e has a CD of 0.15 and a weight of only 1480lbs which means that the wind resistance=rolling resistance at 45mph. At 70mph wind resistance still accounts for about 75% of total friction.
So aerodynamics is very important if you wish to attain maximum efficiency.
Solar Panels provide the most power at a time when we pay peak rates for electricity. This means if you feed power back into the grid during the middle of the day the power company should pay you a higher rate(.14 per kwh).
Most people are out of the house during these hours and household consumption is relatively low(.10 per kwh).
So if his power is priced based on time of day, and he doesnt use a lot of peak power, he could use a smaller solar power installation(4kwh) and power his house daily using mostly off peak power(5kwh) and end up with an electric bill near zero.
I dont know whats right and whats real anymore I dont know how Im meant to feel anymore
Lifes about film stars and less about mothers Its all about fast cars cussing each other But it doesnt matter cause Im packing plastic and thats what makes my life so fucking fantastic
And I am a weapon of massive consumption and its not my fault its how Im programmed to function When do you think it will all become clear? Cuz Im being taken over by The Fear
How will consumers be brainwashed into buying the latest shiny new piece of plastic crap?
Large sections of the population will either find themselves truly free and happy for the first time or they will enter a state of mass depression as they realize that nothing they buy can rescue them from their pathetic miserable lives.
I watch netflix for entertainment. TV is dead to me. I plan on having a party on the day the tube goes dead.
Coal is only cheap because it doesn't include the full cost of waste containment and disposal. Each year 25,000 people in the US die of causes related to of coal pollution.
Radioactive "waste" that gives off powerful radiation still contains useful energy should not be treated as waste. We should reprocess spent fuel until the amount of radiation released is minimal.
No new technology will come close to the 90% efficiency that is provided by current battery technologies. The batteries that power your cell phone are good enough and more efficient than any emerging technology.
Hydrogen doesn't occur naturally and any process that can be used to create hydrogen can be used to create electricity more efficiently.
Electricity: 90% efficient storage existing distribution grid domestic production renewable sources
Hydrogen: low efficiency, very very expensive fuel cells hard to store, transport low energy density
Oil companies and the Bush Admin like to talk about hydrogen power because it make them look like they give a shit about the environment and they can hand out government money without affecting the current power structures. They don't like to talk about where the hydrogen will come from - reformulated natural gas which leaves the Exxon in control.
Batteries can already store electricity at 90% efficiency. Electricity -> Battery -> Electricity = 90%
Electricity Hydrogen electrolysis is not very efficient, using fuel cells to create electricity is not very efficient: Electricity -> Hydrogen -> Electricity = 40%
Hydrogen will only work as a fuel storage mechanism if you have an abundance of very cheap electricity(nearly free).
1903 Ford Model A engine: Flat-2 mpg: ??? mileage is not listed in wikipedia, but the motor is only a two cylinder, 8hp, it had skinny tires(low rolling resistance) and top speed was 45mph so It would probably get pretty darned good gas mileage on the paved roads we have today.
1923 Ford Model A engine: L-head-4 mpg: 25-30
Modern ICEs are more efficient in terms of producing horsepower, and today's cars are generally heavier so they do more work per mile, but they haven't improved mpg much at all.
Individual coils on the generator can be activated as needed. It doesnt need a transmission, that's the whole point.
What you should be asking is: Would this design work in electric car motors? The Tesla currently uses a 2 speed transmission. How much extra would they pay for a motor that doesn't need any transmission(or only needed a simple gear reduction)? Would it improve engine efficiency or regenerative braking efficiency so that they wouldn't need such a costly battery pack?
Future electric car dealers could standardize and simplify engine design since an electric motor of this design would be modular, they could easily build an electric engine with 4 coils for cars or one with 8 coils for trucks.
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Lots of people live along the coasts and they can use the electricity without having to add many transmission lines. In New England much of their current energy comes from existing coal power plants(which would be nice to get rid of).
Sending electricity over transmission lines is highly efficient. If you try to convert electricity into a fuel then you need to deal with huge conversion losses and distribution overhead.
Hydrogen is a really inefficient way to store energy. Batteries are much more efficient for transportation. Pumped hydro-electric is much better for large scale electric utility storage.
If you have distributed wind generation then you have much less of a problem because the wind is always blowing someplace. You can easily use Hydro-electric dams and pumped storage to smooth out the peaks and valleys in wind generation.
We don't need to send power from the coast to Kansas. Coastal areas are heavily populated and so the power will not need to travel very far to be used effectively. Kansas is a windy place, they will have their own land-based turbines.
These wind farms would not be in international waters. They would be on the continental shelf which are by definition national waters. We already patrol and scan these areas for evil dooers.
Electrical cables for wind farms would be more distributed and harder to disrupt than the current system of power plants.
About as well as ANY OTHER CAR.
btw tesla engineers the battery pack controller specifically to minimize the possibility that the battery would ever go completely flat. If you get into an extremely low charge situation I think it will start to limit your max acceleration and max speed in order to maximize the remaining battery power and allow you to limp to a charging location.
Depends on where you get your electricity from. I buy wind power for an extra 1cent per kwh. Costs me about $5 extra per month. My friend works for the electric utility and he says that wind turbines pay for themselves in 5-7 years. So there really isn't a good reason to build any more coal power plants.
Even existing coal plants can be retrofitted with emissions controls and power electric vehicles more cleanly than gasoline cars. With gas you have millions of pollution sources which makes them impossible to control or improve.
And I bet the study was don't by a bunch of economists that place zero value on having clean air to breath and clean water to drink.
Sending transportation dollars to wind farms in Iowa instead of the Middle East, South America and Canadian tar sands also has no economic value.
Plug in electric cost to drive 100 miles should be less than $2. Your electric bill may be higher, but you will be charging at night when rates are low and wouldn't have to spend any money at the gas station ever again. If you spend $300 a month on AC maybe you should switch to CFL bulbs and a little insulation to your house. Your high electric bill does not make driving an electric car expensive.
And we will create the hydrogen by grinding up invisible pink unicorns. Since there is an infinite supply of invisible pink unicorns and they are really easy to grind this will solve all of our energy problems.
Wasteful energy conversion and distribution will never allow this process to be as clean or as efficient as using wind power electricity to charge electric battery powered cars directly. Powering electric trains via electrified rail is even more efficient.
Propelling vehicles by creating controlled explosions will never be efficient or clean if you look at the total energy required.
There is no such thing as clean coal.
ICE engines are only 20-25% efficient which means that this process would be a big waste of energy. You could also use an expensive 50% efficient fuel cell to convert the hydrogen to electricity. But, you would still have to waste a huge amount of energy to collect, reprocess, redistribute the aluminum.
Or just use existing lithium ion batteries which are already 90% efficient and can be transported over wires.
But don't let scientific facts get in the way of your brainstorming.
It sucks, speeds on par with 802.11b, worse speeds as you add devices.
Plus power line networking adapter would likely add 4 watts of additional power requirements.
Use adblock plus element hiding helper to get rid of the floating div(you might also need to crush the background overlay div).
Then you dont need to click close ever again.
http://adblockplus.org/en/elemhidehelper
Netflix Ajax Remover
This script removes the ajax handlers from all of the netflix add to queue links.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/4055
This guy modified his honda civic to achieve .17 Cd and now he gets 95mpg at 65 mph:
http://www.aerocivic.com/
Wind resistance is friction. Aerodynamic drag increases as the square of speed.
On flat ground an average car(0.378 CD, 2450lbs) will have equal wind resistance and rolling resistance at around 35mph. At 70mph wind resistance accounts for about 80% of total friction.
The Aptera 2e has a CD of 0.15 and a weight of only 1480lbs which means that the wind resistance=rolling resistance at 45mph. At 70mph wind resistance still accounts for about 75% of total friction.
So aerodynamics is very important if you wish to attain maximum efficiency.
Solar Panels provide the most power at a time when we pay peak rates for electricity. This means if you feed power back into the grid during the middle of the day the power company should pay you a higher rate(.14 per kwh).
Most people are out of the house during these hours and household consumption is relatively low(.10 per kwh).
So if his power is priced based on time of day, and he doesnt use a lot of peak power, he could use a smaller solar power installation(4kwh) and power his house daily using mostly off peak power(5kwh) and end up with an electric bill near zero.
And you don't have to pay for batteries.
I dont know whats right and whats real anymore
I dont know how Im meant to feel anymore
Lifes about film stars and less about mothers
Its all about fast cars cussing each other
But it doesnt matter cause Im packing plastic
and thats what makes my life so fucking fantastic
And I am a weapon of massive consumption
and its not my fault its how Im programmed to function
When do you think it will all become clear?
Cuz Im being taken over by The Fear
- Lily Allen, The Fear
How will consumers be brainwashed into buying the latest shiny new piece of plastic crap?
Large sections of the population will either find themselves truly free and happy for the first time or they will enter a state of mass depression as they realize that nothing they buy can rescue them from their pathetic miserable lives.
I watch netflix for entertainment. TV is dead to me. I plan on having a party on the day the tube goes dead.
Ever heard of mercury in fish?
Coal is only cheap because it doesn't include the full cost of waste containment and disposal. Each year 25,000 people in the US die of causes related to of coal pollution.
Radioactive "waste" that gives off powerful radiation still contains useful energy should not be treated as waste. We should reprocess spent fuel until the amount of radiation released is minimal.
No new technology will come close to the 90% efficiency that is provided by current battery technologies. The batteries that power your cell phone are good enough and more efficient than any emerging technology.
Hydrogen doesn't occur naturally and any process that can be used to create hydrogen can be used to create electricity more efficiently.
Electricity:
90% efficient storage
existing distribution grid
domestic production
renewable sources
Hydrogen:
low efficiency, very very expensive fuel cells
hard to store, transport
low energy density
Oil companies and the Bush Admin like to talk about hydrogen power because it make them look like they give a shit about the environment and they can hand out government money without affecting the current power structures. They don't like to talk about where the hydrogen will come from - reformulated natural gas which leaves the Exxon in control.
Batteries can already store electricity at 90% efficiency.
Electricity -> Battery -> Electricity = 90%
Electricity Hydrogen electrolysis is not very efficient, using fuel cells to create electricity is not very efficient:
Electricity -> Hydrogen -> Electricity = 40%
Hydrogen will only work as a fuel storage mechanism if you have an abundance of very cheap electricity(nearly free).
Ford actually produced 2 cars called Model A.
1903 Ford Model A
engine: Flat-2
mpg: ???
mileage is not listed in wikipedia, but the motor is only a two cylinder, 8hp, it had skinny tires(low rolling resistance) and top speed was 45mph so It would probably get pretty darned good gas mileage on the paved roads we have today.
1923 Ford Model A
engine: L-head-4
mpg: 25-30
Modern ICEs are more efficient in terms of producing horsepower, and today's cars are generally heavier so they do more work per mile, but they haven't improved mpg much at all.
Individual coils on the generator can be activated as needed. It doesnt need a transmission, that's the whole point.
What you should be asking is: Would this design work in electric car motors? The Tesla currently uses a 2 speed transmission. How much extra would they pay for a motor that doesn't need any transmission(or only needed a simple gear reduction)? Would it improve engine efficiency or regenerative braking efficiency so that they wouldn't need such a costly battery pack?
Future electric car dealers could standardize and simplify engine design since an electric motor of this design would be modular, they could easily build an electric engine with 4 coils for cars or one with 8 coils for trucks.