Why Renewables Can’t Save the Planet

Personally, I am also very skeptical about e-cars and find them only conditionally suitable as an alternative.
If it's just that I have to drive 10 miles to work and back home every day, or the normal other trips to the grocery store and all the other things and I do not need my car, then it's a viable alternative.
But if I need it for longer distances, then everything changes!
Let's say I have to make a journey of 600 miles and a tank of fuel lasts for 300 miles. Then I drive to the gas station in time, need 10 minutes to refuel and pay and then I drive on.
With an e-car, I only get 100 to 150 miles and the batteries are leet. Before I can continue, it takes hours to recharge the batteries!

And since every manufacturer uses their own battery systems that are completely incompatible with others, even the simple solution of a "click and change the batteries" at the gas station is not possible!

But there are other working and better alternatives to the e-car for climate protection ... only one has to want and promote by governments and manufacturers!

 

It's in the article.

 

Why would anyone have to replace a battery at 70K miles?

I have 300K miles on the lithium ion batteries in my Prius, and they show no sign of deterioration. And the service writers at my dealer tell me that they have quite a few like me, and a couple past the half million mark. I can get my batteries rejuvinated on site for less than the cost of a transmission rebuild.

Oh, and lithium ion car batteries are being recycled and refurbished in place now.

I guess it didn't occur to you that the regular maintenance that you're talking about does not exist with an electric car. No oil changes. No tune ups. No filter, antifreeze, transmission fluids and filters. As for electric motors. There are electric motors in your home that run longer than you drive your car every day. When was the last time you even gave one a thought? Much less had to rebuild or replace one?

 

I know a couple of EV owners. Nobody's crying.

What you think you know about electric cars is ridiculously out of date.

You ranted for several posts about replacing batteries. But the degradation issue in lithium ion batteries was solved a long time ago. And your notions about how long it takes to charge one, are just as outdate.

And battery technology, contrary to what you seem to believe, is advancing rapidly.

You dismissed the savings in maintenance costs out of hand.

Sorry, but arguing with people whose minds are stuck in the past hardly seems worth it.

 

Not every battery manufacturer is as reputable as certain others.

 

Gosh, you should troll the Tesla customer forums then... They might find your opinion from the cheap seats illuminating...

 

Exactly.

This is what I think will happen:

Nobody will own EV batteries anymore, people will rent them for a monthly fee. The Smart Electric already is starting with this model.

Gas stations will be replaced by battery swapping stations. When your battery is empty, you simply pull into the station, drop your empty battery and get a fully charged one. That could be faster than filling up your tank with gas and will solve the range problem of EVs. It will also take the risk out of your battery going bad.

 

Sweet. I assume it will be ready in 11 years or so.. you know.. tic toc... and then the end of the world happens, well at least according to the Bronx Oracle....

 

Yes, sweet. If it were up to the naysayers, it would never be ready, we'd still be riding horse buggies.

 

And yet, we wouldn't. Remember, I'm a part of the "reformed" here. Usually, constructive criticism is recognized for the value that it creates, not ignored for religious reasons.. But then, sometimes it's really hard to tell who the true faithful are here.

If, and its a big if, but IF these vehicles can be normalized and made reasonable for use, then, I don't see why you wouldn't want one. But, to ignore the problems that plugging into the grid introduces, it doesn't aid the conversation. If you have a plug in, you're still relying on fossil fuels to generate the electricity that you consume in your plug in. Simple as that. Not to say that won't change over time, but it is, none the less true, and will continue to be true for a really long time. I would also point out that for those of us who have experimented here, the cost of creating your own at home charging station isn't trivial. The extra cost of the charging isn't insignificant. The load that more than just me might place on the existing power grid would be staggering. Which means more power stations that likely would still be LNG. We aren't in a zero sum game here where just because I plug in, the environment doesn't still suffer. It's disingenuous to continue to suggest that it is.

 

The problem right now, is just expense. I do think that algae will be an important component of our energy future, but not until the price comes down a lot.

 

The price is down from about $30 a gallon back when I first go into it, to just over $5 or $6 according to companies on the cutting edge. So we are just about there.

If we made the decision to make a WWII sized effort, like AOC suggested, and as I suggested over 10 years ago, we could convert the country in five years.

For the price of the Iraq war, we could be running on algae fuels now. If we had put half of those trillions spent on the war, to ending our reliance oil, we wouldn't need the ME anymore.

 

https://www.energy.gov/eere/bioener...reduce-cost-and-time-algal-biofuel-production

DARPA also claims it can get the price down to $3 a gallon. They plan to grown algae in the battlefield, for fuel. Apparently fuel shipped in to supply US hardware, costs about $100 a gallon.

My own model, which required very large farms, in excess of 50,000 acres, also showed a profit at $3 a gallon. It was also clear that price-competitive fuels do require the economy of scale.

 

I wonder if wind generators could be placed in air flow ducts of the vehicle to recharge batteries?

 

what does the non-existence of perpetual motion machines have to do with my hypothesis? Maybe you can address it.

At the advent of the Automobile, gas stations across the country did not exist, however, there were plenty of places where you could go rest and feed your horse. People could have brought up the same argument back then, namely that cars were impractical because of the limited range.

 

And ALL the Democrats headliners buy and promote this tripe.


Green Skater God Beto O’Rourke: The Apocalypse Is Nigh

Beto, pseudo-punk skateboarder and now another ‘hip’ Democrat for President candidate in 2020, that — the Apocalypse is coming.

 

But you were fine with Obama cozying up to Iran and sending them billions in cash, which went straight to funding terrorist groups and nuclear weapon development?

Obama and his DOJ/FBI/NSA were used as weapons against American citizens. Soviet Union style.

 

Not if you factor in intangibles and all the times you need to stop and recharge those batteries.

 

Didn't mention perpetual motion?? Mentioned wind generators that will 'move' and create energy when the car is moving which can charge batteries. Just as you 'suggested' replaceable batteries I suggested wind generator onboard charging. I have no interest in changing batteries. I want improved battery technology and onboard charging with no fossil fuel requirement...

 

Well there is no question that an onboard windmill can spin an alternator to supply electricity to the automobile. But why do you think the auto engineers are avoiding doing that?

 

I found this.


A car's crankshaft generally operates at around 1000 - 4000 rpm. For this reason, a Delco car alternator isdesigned to put out good charging voltage and amperage at around 3000-12000 rpm. By comparison, a small wind turbine with a roughly 60-inch diameter rotor might hit 850 rpm in 25 mph wind!
all-about-delco-style-alternators-use-wind-generators - Web

https://www.windynation.com/jzv/.../all-about-delco-style-alternators-use-wind-generato...

 

Don't know? I don' care how it is achieved...I prefer onboard charging. Maybe there can be a hydrogen powered charging unit? Maybe it can be done with several wind generators? Solar cells in car roofs? Maybe magnetic field charging from the road to the vehicle battery? I feel the same about home power...it should be generated either on the property or within one city block...

 

Wind generators I'm thinking are located in air ducts, one or several of them, each containing many wind generators...whatever is needed to generate enough power to recharge the battery...

 

If that idea was sound, it would have been done by now.

When I was flying, we had engines on the airplane. And the engines spin alternators. We could have had what you wanted on the airplane too but we used the engines. We had a lot higher wind speeds than automobiles have. Our typical airplane engine was only spinning at about 2600 rpm and your auto engine spins much faster.

 

Actually, they did.

The general view was that the automobile was not particularly practical, and was only useful for short distances. This had to do with several factors. Early cars were not reliable. Roads ended at the edge of town. None the less, the lure of personal transportation available at any time was irrestable. Consequently, the technology continued to improve and the infrastructure got built.

That is happening with electrics now. I would posit that we are about at the same point in the evolution of an electric transporation grid, as we were with the automobile in 1905. Showing lots of promise. Advancing rapidly. Attracting investment capitol, and on the cusp of a paradign shift.