Could The Electric Car Save Us? »
Posted By monte-g 1 year ago in Science & TechnologyLet's face it: Gasoline-powered cars are a gigantic problem. They pollute, they keep us dependent on foreign oil, and when gas prices go up, they cost a fortune to drive. But what's the alternative?
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Mr-opinion1 year ago
And were do you think your electricity comes from - why do you think its so expensive and goes up when gas prices go up (read below).
Your solar panels, though an admirable venture, and will save oil, will cost you more than they will generate in usable electricity, and also contain toxic heavy metals which you will need to dispose of in 15 years (average life expectancy of panels)
I hope we find a solution, up to now it's just not there yet and all the discussed options come with their own curses ---
conservation, not driving Hummers or Excursions, walking and turning off ligts when not needed are still the most productive solutions.
There should be a law that requires all shopping centers to turn of advertising, parking and internal lights after closing- don't give me the burglary issue because with lights on - they don't need extra light - lights out they need flashlights and you know how far they are visible in the dark for a cop to see.
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cheif1 year ago
Finally...a great posting (you agree with me).
I think we should begin a grassroots effort to try to get some of the lights turned off at night in every city. If you want to see waste, fly over a large metropolitan area and look at all the lights - almost daylight - and 90% is just for security. Just how much security do you need on the 20th floor of a building? Why not just light up the bottom one or two?
Why do we need so many street lights? Why can't we make them light up if someone intrudes into that area - much like a lot of our porch lights do now? That way, if nobody comes around, the energy isn't wasted.
We don't need to burn corn to make ethanol - prairie grass is much better and a whole lot cheaper...or hemp...
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nccneon1 year ago
You skipped a very powerful means. Abandoning incandescent lighting wherever possible. Extremely inefficient.
Also, it should be noted that advances are being made in solar cells.
http://www.physorg.com/news99904887.html
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brittler1 year ago
Solar electricity plug-in hybrids lithium battery technology = much higher gas mileage cars = Detroit can easily meet higher fleet MPG. First, we need to OUR government (= your vote counts) to subsidize the cost of solar technology. Action is needed, not lip-service. 1 MPG/year increase is embarassing, Mr. President. If Europe can do it, why can't we figure it out???
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Mr-opinion1 year ago
Detroit can - the buyers cant, the want monster cars with monster engines
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Mr-opinion1 year ago
You ever gone near an electricity generating windmill (enough to power one to 10 houses - IFF the wind blows) --- You would want one on your roof, they sound like helicopters
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StarLord1 year ago
What about biodiesel, otherwise known (if I recall correctly) as artificial fossil fuel? That would solve the supply problem, but not the pollution problem.
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colcam1 year ago
Part of the problem is oversimplification-- the search for a magic bullet to solve all of our problems in one painless stroke.
That is not going to happen, and while the electric car is both overdue and a part of the solution, it is not "the" solution. We need to continue working with hydrogen, with home solar powered cracking stations, and with redesigning life as we know it.
In 1957 there was no one able to predict what the electronics revolution would mean because they didn't have a reference point. That's our problem, now-- a lack of a reference point, a lack of ability to see where we will be going.
Just don't buy into magic bullets, electric or otherwise.
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wildman65571 year ago
Or Iraqi? Our attempted conquest of MidEast oil didn't go off too well, did it?
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Mr-opinion1 year ago
A FOOLS PARADISE ....
HOW DO WE GENERATE ELECTRICITY
Contrary to comon belief - it doesn't just come out of your wall socket. 70% of electricity in this country is generated through fossil fuel, be it oil or coal, about 15% Hydoelectric, 5% nuclear and 5% misc.
Electricity is actually very inefficient, compared to your internal combustion engine. It making and using electricity wastes about 20-30% on BOTH ends of the system, largely in heat and more in generating than usage. Your cars engine produces heat - but as it doesn't two it twice is more efficient. Solar and Wind electrical generation take vast amounts of land, compared to the real output therefore, though usefull will never be able to create enough to be of real value.
So realy you got the choice Interal combustion or nuclear energy - pick 'em.
Hydogen, for those that don't know, will guaranteedly never be short in supply, is generated by seperarating water into oxigen and hydrogen using vast amounts of -guess- electricity.
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MeanMotherUSA1 year ago
9-17-07...
Say What...Really Save Gas For Who Or What,i.e.Ethanol Corn Fed Low 81 Octane Cheap Gasoline Is Mixed In House Hold Cleaners And Only 15% REAL(OIL) GASOLINE!
U S Military, Air Force Uses More Gasoline Than Any Cars,Trucks,Industry Combined...Even I Put Statistics $ Cost Taxpayers In Your Face You'd Be Still Writing About Electric Cars Saving Gas...
So Like What The F--k...
MeanMotherUSA
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Mr-opinion1 year ago
Yup you got a good point, but they'll always try to make the little guy suffer.
You do mean that low altitude but constant fly over and relocating helicopters from El Torro about 75 milies from their dessert practice grounds to Sabn Diego about 200 miles from the practice area.
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Ghostcapt1 year ago
What are they going to use to generate the electricity to charge the cars? Oil, coal, natural gas? All fossil fuels and even if they find something they use will there be enough of it to use for billions of vehicles? The price of it will be soon be outrageous because someone will snatch up the commodity or patents the process to refine it. The people need to find something that everyone has access to and governments the enforce anti monopoly laws.
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derekrath1 year ago
several issues. Hybrid is a quarter step. Hybrid plus plug in is are half step. All good so far. The electricity has to be generated by non-fossil fuel methods or we are back in the tank ( literally). There are many options for this- wind, solar and unproven wave power. As someone said there is no silver bullet, but maybe five in the chamber can make a difference. At the moment we rely on just one- fossil fuels, and I suggest it is no accident that that is the biggest lobby in America's money hungry Congress is oil. The other alternatives are bio diesel ( which has a fledgling presence a gas stations) and hydrogen ( which does not).If Bio diesel can add a pump at the gas station so can we have a hydrogen spigot. If people thought a little about it the local gas station's fossil fuel pumps could quickly be equaled by a combination of electric charge stations, bio diesel and hydrogen pumps and we would all be better off. Blame? think auto industry, think Sopranos.
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Melez1 year ago
Solar power mag lev trains. Runs off sun power and would be able to store that energy to create power as well as mag lev trains--wireless electricity thrown to the mix and you could see a super power form of transportation. The exponential growth would be ridiciulous.
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Mr-opinion1 year ago
And maybe 'YOU' and 10,000 truck drivers/haulers do, but 250 million people don't - not a single Excursion, Escapade, Hummer, Humvie sold to the general public was needed by those buyers....
I didn't post the comment, but I'm sure he wasn't talking about 'work - vehicles' but rather the 2 million 4x4's that drive down LA and San Diego city streets every day
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jhnsm681 year ago
Acer just ask a question and I just answer it . It seems that Acer thinks that no one in the general public needs (or should have) a vehicle that can haul anything. He suggest that people should not be allowed to have freedom of choice when buying a vehicle and he farther suggest that Taxes should be used to make some vehicle ownership cost prohibitive in order to take away said freedoms.
Do you, Mr opinion, support taking away peoples freedoms as Acer does?
You. Mr opinion, also seem to suggest that you know what the people need better then they do ("not a single Excursion, Escapade, Hummer, Humvie sold to the general public was needed by those buyers") Would you, Mr Opinion, feel comfortable if someone (maybe the even the government) came to your house and made decisions on what you need or don't need? I think not
I on the other hand think that people should make their own decision on what they drive and / or own
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Taganan1 year ago
The plug-in EV is fine for short range and low speed, but putting an Internal Combustion powered generator in it may help with mpg and not so much with pollution. A steam engine to power the generator would be much cleaner and more efficient. A steam engine can also use any liquid or gaseous fuel and can easily be changed from one fuel to another based on price or availability.
Kerosene, furnace oil, vegetable oil, pure ethanol, methane, propane, natural gas and synthetic fuels made from biomass or coal could all be used and it would lessen our dependence on oil. A forced draft burns cleaner than IC. Stanley Steamer never had a boiler explode. Modern water-tube boilers do not explode. Steam cars were killed by the Great Depression, not by outmoded technology. All the drawbacks of steam power are solved in a hybrid and all the drawbacks of an EV are solved by a hybrid. A steam-electric hybrid solves the drawbacks of an IC hybrid.
E-mail beesidemeusa@yahoo.co.uk for more.
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aceofspades11 year ago
Rubberbands are the way to go - I used em to fly my model planes when I was a kid & they worked just fine. All we need is a larger rubberband & someone to wind it up. - ex politicians, ex CEOs, & illegals could do that job just fine
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kcaldron1 year ago
I've recently bought a hybrid...51 MPG.. it's a great car, gave up my SUV since I don't do any off-roading in Phoenix. I'm hoping to help cut down my dependence on oil. I know it is a small step, but if you don't really need a big SUV,, why support some oil-producing country?
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nccneon1 year ago
The Tesla is old news.
Hybrids are cool, but they're pricey.
I have a problem with electric cars, as expressed in the article, "Electric cars don't produce any pollution or greenhouse gases, but some worry that they will shift the pollution to the power plants that burn coal when making electricity." And, since there are several extra steps involved it should go without saying it is inefficient.
Electric cars are helpful in two instances: Where transferring the pollution source outside an urban area is beneficial, and where the source of the electricity is non-polluting ... solar, wind, hydro. Otherwise, I give them a thumbs down. If you disagree, enlighten me.
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Mr-opinion1 year ago
Very good, and thats why I agree with USPO, and some service co's going electric, Busses going CNG or LP, but otherwise electricity is as you correctly stated, not a solution but a stop gap or a re-distribution of polution ..... A point I have been making and nobody listens... glad to have one on my side
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pureanimal1 year ago
The way to go is on the drawing boards. A diesel hybrid, since the diesel engine is much more efficient. And the europeans and japanese have quietly been working on them for years. No longer the smelly black smoke belching engines of a couple of dacades ago. Then couple them with biodiesel fuel! Jatropha could be grown in a lot of marginal aricultural land. Even use it by some farms as their fallow crop. Instead of converting every acre of farmland to corn for ethanol. Not only does it take more energy to make than it contains, but it is driving prices of our food stuffs up. Great, we'll be able to drive a little or eat. Wait a minute, maybe that's the plan to slim down America!
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Mr-opinion1 year ago
OK - so how do you create electricity????
Got a hand crank, a bicyilcle on a stand????
maybe your own river, 10 acres of arizona desert (oh- that only works daytime and propably involves toxic chemical using solar cells) - heck maybe windmills which will drown out you "getto blaster" even at full volume.....
Yes - solar powered hydro-steam turbin plans - 50 acres of mirrors for about 100 homes worth and will cover part of nightime with residual heat, and geo-thermal steam plants - costly decent, clean with very limited reliable locations ( and yes they definately should be persued - thoug I don't think it's do-it-yourself - Tim Allans Home repair kind of thing
Please tell me I'd love to know, and then I'll back you publicly in your post - but lets hear it, not just a dumb toss out comment.
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wildman65571 year ago
The big problem with electric cars is storing the electrical energy. Batteries just will not do it. Hydrogen is a possibility, but is difficult to handle and expensive to generate.
When I made my sarcastic remark about wars of conquest above, I wasn't implying that the problems have already been solved. Only that the trillion dollars wasted in Iraq could have gone a LONG WAY to solving the problems with electric cars and getting us off of oil entirely. Instead we shovel the money at the terrorists. Real smart.
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Mr-opinion1 year ago
AND the voltage they get is 800 volts, the power they consume is is about 1,400,000 watts, about 0.01 seconds out of your electric cars battery -
The arn't battery powered.
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jhnsm681 year ago
If it is possible to build a $7K electric car that is practicable, then I suggest you do it. The world will beat a path to your door (including investors)
But I submit to you that if a cheap practical electric car was possible, then some smart young man would have marketed it already. But that has not happened .. has it?
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nWoNET1 year ago
Yes they should make cars electricity to power up at a store ??? no more gas !!! Price buy electricity car should be range $7,000.00 and up ???
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HMMace1 year ago
Electric cars, charged up by nuclear electric plants..
Yes, and as soon as we are weaned...NUKE ALL THE MIDEAST OIL COUNTRYS...
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