Posted on 09/28/2011 4:23:12 PM PDT by decimon
It took just one worker in Yuma, Arizona to plunge millions of people into the dark in the Southwest U.S. and Mexico, a few weeks back. A fluke, perhaps, but not a rarity.
If anything, major power outages are becoming an increasingly serious problem and at precisely the worst time possible – at least if you're an advocate of electric propulsion. Utility officials concede that it will be increasingly difficult to win over potential battery-car customers if they can't be certain of a steady supply of electric power.
Yet, that's precisely what American consumers are facing. In the Detroit suburbs, two months back, a heat wave popped the circuits at a number of sub-stations around the city. It plunged much of my own little community of Pleasant Ridge into the dark for as much as three days. We were lucky. The hurricane and tropical storms that struck the East Coast, from the Carolinas to Maine, just days later, cut power to millions more utility customers, some for weeks.
(Excerpt) Read more at autoblog.com ...
What good is a gas mobile when there is no Gas? Or if the gas costs too much?
wait a few years when the current buyers of these toys find out they have to spend another few thousand dollars to get rid of them....it’s not like the batteries can be tossed out, sooner or later,the gubment is gonna figure out a way to soak them again.
If we get rid of Baraq and the Dem senate we can have all the electricity we want.
And the onrushing glut of nat gas is going to fuel a sh!tload of electric production AND mobile transportation usage.
So if more people had solar cells or wind mills to produce their own electricity we would not need to depend on these power lines?
That problem has been little to none. Power outages are common.
What burns me up is that it’s been 25 years since the Back To The Future movies and we still don’t have nuclear-powered cars.
Installation.....$9,999.00
Whats hilarious is the feel good liberals that buy the 50K boat anchor dont realize its plugged into a coal fired electrical power plant.
Yes, but why do you need to drive if you don’t have a job?
And why do you need a job when there is public assistance.? Thanks, I should have thought of this. ;-)
“So if more people had solar cells or wind mills to produce their own electricity we would not need to depend on these power lines?”
No, unless you also want to also live like they did in the 1800’s part of the time.
The Leaf literature says you are good for 3 years on the $10k battery change if you rapid charge it all the time...6 years if you slow charge. Like anyone has that laying around for a “routine” a maintenance.
“Whats hilarious is the feel good liberals that buy the 50K boat anchor dont realize its plugged into a coal fired electrical power plant.”
It won’t be as soon as the EPA finishes shutting down all of the coal powered power plants.
They spent the off-time seeing the local sights, doing rubbings of engravings at the local cathedral, visiting museums and otherwise poking sarcastic fun at the stupidity of forcing an impractical and ridiculously expensive technology on the public.
I saw that episode this week. Clarkson was hilarious on the test drive. That is were I got the info on the car. I try to see if the numbers they give are correct and what they mean in dollars. I hate when shows give me stuff in Metric and Foreign Currency so I have to look the stuff up.
Gasoline can be stored, and it is stored at many facilities all over the country. Electric power can't be stored - it has to be produced and consumed at the same time. The power grid doesn't have too many redundancies, and you can't quickly lay another 100 kV cable if existing connections are damaged. But it would take a pretty large disaster to destroy roads and prevent delivery of gasoline. The delivery truck can be easily rerouted, and you need only one usable road to supply a large territory.
Or if the gas costs too much?
At this phase of our civilization gasoline is generally cheaper than electric power, joule for joule. Some electric companies offer discount rates on nightly charging, but when it matters 1 kW*h of electric power costs 30 cents. One gallon of gasoline produces 36.6 kW*h, and today one kW*h of gasoline energy costs $3.80/36.6 = 10.4 cents. This would be a very low rate for the electric energy, even at night and at the lowest tier.
Also if the price of gasoline (and oil) starts climbing the other energy prices will follow soon.
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