The electrification of vehicles....
I’m pretty sure that unless some type of Star Trek/Star Wars type of technology comes along some time soon, there is no way to produce the amount of electricity needed to charge all the electric cars they want. Whoever they are, because I’d rather not have one.
Those wanting and owning an electric car while still charging it using a fossil fuel generator are kind of hypocritical, are they not? They want to be ‘GREEN’ but know they can’t be all the way ‘GREEN’ because that would mean having to wait for their renewable energy system to charge their vehicle and there’s a chance that may not work. So, instead they still rely on the convenience, predictability and stability of fossil fueled power generation. If you’re gonna go ‘GREEN’, go ‘GREEN’. 100%. Then again, no one is getting a very generous tax break from CornPop to buy an gas guzzling F150, either.
Electric Vehicle Push Is Sparking Massive Deforestation, Environmental Damage
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/electric-vehicle-push-is-sparking-massive-deforestation-environmental-damage/ar-AARCll7?ocid=uxbndlbing .... guess having a Tesla or Volt ain’t so green after all.
I’ll wait for all the Pro-EV folks to start chiming about how, in the future, batteries will get better, cars will drive longer, the Chinese won’t hold the world hostage after controlling most of the lithium mines, they’ll figure out a way to recycle everything to include the wind turbine blades, make renewable energy more efficient, etc etc etc.
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Interesting tidbit I read. Not sure if it’s true as I don’t live or work in this world. Perhaps someone can comment on it.....
A two-megawatt windmill is made up o f260 tons of steel that required 300 tons of iron ore and 170 tons of coking coal, all mined, transported and produced by hydrocarbons. A windmill could spin until if falls apart and never generate as much energy as was invested in building it.
As a power system, electric traction motor powered vehicles are just fine. The problem is with the SOURCE of the means used to generate the electricity, and how that electric power is gotten onboard to power what is essentially a free-range vehicle.
Batteries are a stop-gap solution, and in terms of longer range capability, a dead end. Both the storage capacity and the difficulty of a rapid recharge for the system are severe limiting factors. So an on-board generation system, independent of reliance of the electric grid, is essential.
Fuel cells are perhaps the simplest and most elegant solution, except that hydrogen is a b!+c# kitty to work with. NOT a naturally occurring element in the free state, it would most probably have to be produced by electrolysis of water, and captured in some kind of collection system, to be compressed and transported to point of refueling the on-board fuel cell system. Simply swapping out storage tanks, with an automated system to prevent any dangerous leaks during the exchange, with purchase based on the weight of the compressed hydrogen in the fully filled storage tank.
But perhaps this is still too far into the future for current technology. Then a power generation system on board the vehicles, much like the hybrid vehicles already in use, using the batteries only as a back-up system, is most feasible on the short term. An internal-combustion engine, fueled not with gasoline, but with propane or compressed natural gas. Or if you want to go real retro, a small steam-powered dynamo to provide the rotary energy necessary to generate electricity on an as-needed basis.
Plug-in electric vehicles are not cost effective, especially with the exotic materials now in use for the battery system.