Comments for Ontario readies for electric cars »
Posted By altnrg 11 months ago in Science & TechnologyOntario is taking its first baby steps to position itself for the coming revolution in electric cars by backing a California high-tech company that plans to build battery recharging stations.
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birdsabound11 months ago
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Here in St. Louis I recently purchased gas for $1.19/gallon ---although by Inauguration Day it was back up to $1.75 . (This at a time when the “price of oil” is below $40/barrel.)
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The thing is, though, there REALLY is no valid reason why “we” should be paying ANY dollars per gallon for gasoline derived from raw oil to brainlessly burn in personal automobiles. Technological alternatives are finally (QUITE BELATEDLY!) being SERIOUSLY pursued that should largely ELIMINATE most (if not all) of that! THE CHEVY VOLT INITIATIVE POINTS THE WAY!
The VOLT is a “chimera” combining TWO VERY OLD technologies: the ELECTRIC car (which has been around since the EARLIEST days of the automobile!) and another paradigm that has been around (on a MUCH LARGER, HEAVIER-DUTY scale FOR ABOUT FIFTY YEARS now!) --- on the RAILROADS in the form of the DIESEL-ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE, and in THE LARGEST SHIPS.
The BATTERY --- charged initially from the “grid” (about 80 cents worth of power “fills the tank”, or even better yet eventually FOR FREE from your own photovoltaic or wind-powered low voltage, intermittent / variable “auxiliary” ENERGY GATHERING system!) --- will carry the VOLT about FORTY miles. When the battery runs down, an internal combustion engine kicks in. But THAT motor is NOT coupled MECHANICALLY to the wheels through a transmission and drive train. It DRIVES A GENERATOR, which supplies power to the same ELECTRIC motors as does the battery.
The thing is, statistics show that FULLY THREE-FOURTHS of all driving of personal autos is short-haul runs that “fit” within a 40-mile “power budget”. SO THAT MUCH OF THE TIME, YOUR GASOLINE ENGINE WILL NEVER RUN!
Moreover, when this technology ends up being EXTENDED by ALSO layering in REGENERATIVE BRAKING (the concept of re-capturing and recycling a large fraction of the kinetic energy of motion of the vehicle, a la the Toyota Prius), the range of that battery can be about DOUBLED, ELIMINATING (OVERALL) ABOUT SEVEN-EIGHTHS OF ALL GASOLINE USAGE BY AUTOMOBILES! And heavier duty vehicles (trucks, trains, boats) can be converted over to NATURAL GAS --- which “we” POSSESS IN AMPLE SUPPLY FOR “OUR”SELVES.
Now THERE is foreign oil independence for you!
Moreover, all those elaborate, troublesome, expensive TRANSMISSIONS and associated drive train components are ALSO eliminated. There is NO transmission in a Diesel-Electric Locomotive or in the drive of a large ship! Such a heavy-duty contraption COULD NOT BE BUILT, which is why the MAGNETIC drive of ELECTRIC motors is needed for such HEAVY loads, which is why the Diesel-Electric paradigm was developed in the FIRST place --- LONG AGO NOW ALREADY!!
Indeed, note that what is involved in all of this is NOT “exotic”, futuristic technology, and THERE IS NO REASON WHY THIS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN DONE DECADES AGO! People REALLY should be asking themselves (and facing up to the fact of the sordid, PHONY “ECONOMIC” reasons) WHY it was NOT done!
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