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To: roadcat

One thing you never hear about is battery-swapping stations.
Charge a farm of batteries along the highway with ? windpower, and drivers pull over to swap out.


68 posted on 07/15/2010 9:59:07 AM PDT by txhurl
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To: txhurl
One thing you never hear about is battery-swapping stations.

There was a pilot program going on in Honolulu, Hawaii. Nissan was interested initially but abandoned this concept as unworkable. Reasons are that batteries are rapidly evolving, and a static carrier case for swapping would limit use of newer batteries. The main company pushing battery swapping is Better Place.

One car I find interesting is the Deka Revolt. It is a hybrid electric car that uses a Stirling engine to generate electricity to power auxilliary devices and to recharge the battery pack. A friend of mine (recently passed on) was an inventer and had several patents on Stirling engine designs. These show great promise, as they can burn multiple types of fuel without harm to the engine. I've experimented with these engines running on various fuels including solar and they're amazing. But - gasoline engines are still better at this point of time and for the foreseeable future.

75 posted on 07/15/2010 9:44:50 PM PDT by roadcat
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