Posted on 01/23/2014 8:24:46 PM PST by ckilmer
These are interesting times in the automotive and electric-utility businesses.
(Excerpt) Read more at autos.yahoo.com ...
Next up, February, when I am "used" to some frigid weather (this year I fear it like no other).
i don’t accept climate change caused by man and won’t have antything that doesn’t run on gasoline and have over 300 HP.
The GM guys didn’t come up with this. They sold tgeir soul to obama’s regecand, with it, all incentive, motivation, independence and creativity
Idiots
I could see a solar-chemical process, possibly, which would produce fuels. That could get better than that 18%.
I love my solar chain saw. It cuts down marshmallow trees in unicorn forests.
Oh great. GM sold their soul to the Obama regime etc
Ford didn’t.
Thus, driving up the cost of bi-polar medication ...
“I’d say we are no more than 10 years from having solar power that is cheaper than fossil fuel power.”
You clearly haven’t done the math. At best, with 100% conversion efficiency you would get only 1KW from a solar panel. That’s with the best sunshine...
Even a small car requires 20KW which is a little less than 20 horse power. It just isn’t going to work... Most people don’t have enough square footage on their property.
Yabut, what about the dilithium crystals?
many Chevy Volt owners report going
1000.plus miles on a 10 gallon tank.
The biggest problem with solar power is that consumers are far away from best source, the deserts. Transmission losses and infrastructure costs are the main culprits. Fossil fuel power plants are located close to population clusters.
Where did they get the electricity to charge batteries, and which fossil/nuclear fuel was used to generate the electricity are the pertinent questions.
No.
They prolly live in milder climates [ie: northern CA], where they don't have to ue wipers, heaters, A/C and such much. Also aren't driving great distances [ie: <10 miles per trip]. And, are they "topping off" the battery each night with a charge?
Good for the Chevy Volt owners. Only problem is they get their electricity from traditional fuel. That 10 gallons of gas came from somewhere. Those batteries won’t last forever either.
BTW, not knocking the volt, I would just like to see how well it does in some serious weather for six months. The technology is not quite “there” yet.
Most of it is just straightforward math. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_gallon_equivalent gives most of the numbers necessary, and consider that the absolute maximum possible for solar is 1.3kW/m^2 with the realistic norm being about 1% of that. Being past midnight, I’ll leave that as an exercise to the reader, noting that the “solar strip-mining” involved (solar collectors deprive an ecosystem of most of its energy source, remember, at large scale) will be huge. Once it really becomes commercially viable with large-scale adoption, the greenies will be screaming bloody murder about all the fields & forests having their sunlight stolen and the chemical holocaust resulting from widespread exotic materials mining & processing.
I’d rant more but sleep deprivation beckons.
If....and I say a BIG if.....a solar panel can be gotten to be say 40% efficient or greater—than MAYBE in 10 years you could be right. But that is NOT very likely. As stated 18% efficient is considered GOOD right now.
Drill..
Drill!!
DRILL !!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
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