But you would have to be driving by at just the right time! :-)
Posted on 02/11/2015 5:10:39 AM PST by thackney
Ecowhackos trading one earth element for another. The magic fix is not available
and will not be for another thousand years, or more. It doesn't exist and has not
even been contemplated yet.
Perfect earth utopian fantasy.
Well there was a theory for awhile that said you could use superconductors to make electricity much more efficient by reducing the electrical resistance dramatically. The problem was temperature. If they ever find a workaround maybe that is the breakthrough needed. If you can run a vehicle using much less electricity then batteries become much less of a problem.
According to Star Trek Encyclopedia, lithium was originally used as the basis of power generation and warp technology. However it was soon realized that lithium is a real element with known properties. Dilithium was invented to allow for a fuel material with unknown properties. In the Star Trek: Enterprise episodes “The Augments” and “Affliction”, it is established that the NX-class Earth ships and the Klingon Bird-of-Prey in fact already used a dilithium matrix in the mid-22nd century.
Lithium in a crystal form was utilized in “lithium crystal circuits,” important components in the power-generation systems of Constitution-class starships. In order to be utilized in this fashion, lithium crystals were required to be processed in large “cracking stations,” such as the one on planet Delta Vega. (TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”)
Overexpenditure of power could damage the lithium crystals, as happened to the Starship Enterprise in 2266, when chasing a Class-J starship into an asteroid belt. Forced to extend her shields around the vessel to protect it from asteroid collisions, the Enterprise burned out three of four lithium crystals, forcing the crew to supplement with battery power. The fourth crystal subsequently failed, overstressed from handling all of the ship’s power. (TOS: “Mudd’s Women”)
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Lithium_crystal
Even tiny changes to the composition of a material can have a significant impact on performance, so for all Envia knew, its record-setting battery worked because of a contaminant in a batch of material from one of its suppliers.
...
The most probable explanation is that Envia committed fraud.
That’s my meter.
I do miss the old Simpsons though.
I agree... and once battery storage is vastly improved, solar power could actually start becoming more viable (rather than a tax-revenue-sucking failure). Here’s to hoping someone makes a few billion with a ground-breaking idea in this area soon!
I would think that something like they do with propane tanks for gas grills could alleviate this somewhat. You have someone remove your battery and trade it for a fully charged one (for a fee, of course). That would likely take longer than a fill up with a gasoline-powered vehicle, but certainly not as long as charging the battery would take.
...
If the batteries are made standard and made easily removable, the process could be done with a simple robot, and take much less time than filling with gas.
Even including the overhead of the pack enclosure, connections between cells in modules (and modules in the pack), sensors, and circuitry, Tesla likely has lower pack costs than any other maker of plug-in electric cars.
Simplifying a cheap cell
But for the Model S, Tesla redesigned what was already a relatively simple cell to be much less complex, and to have a much lower manufacturing cost—largely by removing expensive safety systems built into each individual cell.
When used as a laptop battery, each cells requires a safety mechanisms to prevent fires. But in a large, electronically-controlled, liquid-cooled battery pack like the one used in the Tesla Model S, having certain safety features on each cell would be redundant.
In this case, the company’s cell design eliminates the relatively complicated battery cap of the commercial cell, and replaces it with a simple aluminum disk.
Intumescent goo
Having radically simplified the cells, Tesla then designed simple and inexpensive fireproofing systems into its battery pack. Among many innovations, Tesla appears to have incorporated a form of intumescent goo that it sprays onto the interior of the pack to aid in fireproofing.
When exposed to heat, a chemical reaction occurs in the goo that helps cool the heat source, while simultaneously forming a fireproof barrier to protect the rest of the pack.
...
Kudos to Musk for figuring out what works and is commercially viable. I know the market is subsidized, but that won’t always be the case and he’s still doing a much better job than anyone else. He’s doing the same thing with rockets, too.
I wonder if Boeing has considered using the Tesla battery in the 787?
Connect the lightening rod to the car’s flux capacitor and you can get there in no time.
But you would have to be driving by at just the right time! :-)
“You cannot get more out of something than you put in it.”
Talk to the welfare bunch. :-)
Bingo! Breaking or ignoring! Same ting.
LOL!
The problem with dilithium is that as it is more strongly energized the crystal structure breaks down faster. So going from warp four to warp six is hard on the crystals, but going from warp six to warp seven induces even more fracturing.
Battery technology bump for later...
Self-driving cars will soon make it practical for the middle class to live 2 hours away from their jobs in the filthy cities. There already is an exodus out of the cities occurring, mostly white Americans. Because city governments always set up Ponzi style retirement programs, they are now scrambling to import people from third world countries to keep their Ponzi schemes going a little longer. In the northeast a substantial and growing percentage of all tax revenue goes straight to government retirees, many of them now receiving their tax loot far away in Florida. Economically that is unsustainable. The old cities are going bankrupt.
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Breakthrough of the protective outer casing wasn’t the goal in mind...
I hear you,,, we’re working on it...
There is already capacitor technology to charge very rapidly and store a huge amount of power using carbon nanotubes in forest-like arrays. The basic problem about to be solved is the measured drain of the charge.
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