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Gentlemen, Start Your Plug-Ins: How does 500 miles a gallon sound to you?
WSJ ^ | 1/1/2007 | R. JAMES WOOLSEY

Posted on 01/01/2007 10:44:24 AM PST by Uncledave

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Plug-ins are a great path for us. It would significantly improve the economics for wind energy as well, as there would be a larger market for overnight power (which is also when the winds are stronger).
1 posted on 01/01/2007 10:44:27 AM PST by Uncledave
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To: RedStateRocker; Dementon; eraser2005; Calpernia; DTogo; Maelstrom; Yehuda; babble-on; ...
Renewable Energy Ping

Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off

2 posted on 01/01/2007 10:44:55 AM PST by Uncledave
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To: Uncledave

Pssst!

Don't let the bigwigs at Nascar see this.. Lots of Pit stops add so much to a race. :-)


3 posted on 01/01/2007 10:46:07 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ......)
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To: Uncledave

And before plug-in critics mention they wouldn't want a vehicle that took hours to "refuel", remember that a great deal of households have two or more vehicles. I imagine for a majority of those households having one plug-in for local trips and short commutes would fit in with their lifestyle.


4 posted on 01/01/2007 10:47:20 AM PST by Uncledave
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To: Uncledave

You are correct - and as soon as somebody invents a battery that works, I will happily buy one.


5 posted on 01/01/2007 10:49:02 AM PST by patton (Sanctimony frequently reaps its own reward.)
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To: Uncledave

How about person who is living alone? Does he need to purchase two plug in vehicles?


6 posted on 01/01/2007 10:52:20 AM PST by jveritas (Support The Commander in Chief in Times of War)
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To: jveritas

I'm sure the first generation of products won't be for everyone, as with any new technology.


7 posted on 01/01/2007 10:54:05 AM PST by Uncledave
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To: Uncledave
Discrimination against people who live alone??? LOL... OK.
8 posted on 01/01/2007 10:56:37 AM PST by jveritas (Support The Commander in Chief in Times of War)
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To: NormsRevenge

just remove the resrictor plates is all i want and with out pits stops how wood jeff gordon brush his hair and teeth


9 posted on 01/01/2007 10:57:20 AM PST by al baby (Hi mom)
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To: Uncledave

One word; Horses.


10 posted on 01/01/2007 10:58:04 AM PST by Gunny Gene
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To: Uncledave
Plug-ins are a great path for us. It would significantly improve the economics for wind energy as well, as there would be a larger market for overnight power (which is also when the winds are stronger).

And will a huge electric bill, like several hundred dollars, be a great path. Is there a breakdown on a cost comparison, on a cents per mile basis, for electric from the grid vs gasoline?

11 posted on 01/01/2007 10:58:23 AM PST by doc30 (Democrats are to morals what an Etch-A-Sketch is to Art.)
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To: patton

Oh, and make it work at 40 below too please.


12 posted on 01/01/2007 10:58:26 AM PST by DManA
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To: doc30

Shhhhhhhh... Do not mention this fact about the extremely high electrical bill if we use electric cars.


13 posted on 01/01/2007 11:02:05 AM PST by jveritas (Support The Commander in Chief in Times of War)
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To: DManA

LOL


14 posted on 01/01/2007 11:03:24 AM PST by patton (Sanctimony frequently reaps its own reward.)
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To: doc30

Depends on what the cost of that power would be. A large overnight demand would drastically change the economics of power generation.

Furthermore, millions of plug-in vehicles is in essence a huge distributed storage system: one big national battery. In this scenario wind power would be, by a significant margin, cheaper than coal and nat-gas electricity.


15 posted on 01/01/2007 11:05:12 AM PST by Uncledave
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To: Uncledave

Maybe. It could at least be another niche development. The question is, how much will these batteries cost, and how often will they need to be replaced? And will my local power company agree to charge substantially less at night?

It's still unlikely that the car could be used for more than short trips, so it would effectively be an extra for most people. How much would states charge for registering a third car for two car families? How much will insurance companies charge to insure a third car?

How can the Trial Lawyer's Association be prevented from bringing on the usual gigantic lawsuits the first time someone in one of these little cars dies in a head-on collision with a normal car?

No doubt all this can be worked out, but it wouldn't be economical unless everyone was willing to cooperate. And I wonder if even the environmentalists could persuade Democrats to cross their close friends the trial lawyers?


16 posted on 01/01/2007 11:06:06 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: DManA
Oh, and make it work at 40 below too please.

And have some longevity in a desert climate....there's nothing you can do about your garaged car (a "five year" battery generally only lasts 2 out here), but I learned the hardway to NOT store my Makita batteries out there. I've made room in the sock drawer.

Heat kills batteries, fershur.

17 posted on 01/01/2007 11:09:31 AM PST by ErnBatavia (recent nightmare: Googled up "Helen Thomas nude"....)
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To: doc30
And will a huge electric bill, like several hundred dollars, be a great path. Is there a breakdown on a cost comparison, on a cents per mile basis, for electric from the grid vs gasoline?

You must not be from Texas.

An electric car wouldn't mean a few hundred dollar electric bill, but at least a $1000 one during the summer (Since A/C alone was $600/month last summer).

I'm all for electric cars and will probably build one myself when my son gets older, but saying stuff like wind energy is stronger at night and 500 mpg throws up huge red flags for me, too.

That's is the kind of hype marketeers spew and not the engineers that actually have to make it work.

18 posted on 01/01/2007 11:11:05 AM PST by UNGN (I've been here since '98 but had nothing to say until now)
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To: Cicero

Like you said, there's much to work out. But we should welcome this new technology. It's funny how quickly so many people take easy pot-shots at it.

It takes baby steps to get where we'd like to be. I'm sitting here typing on a small Macbook with more computing power than acres of mainframes from 50 years ago.


19 posted on 01/01/2007 11:11:35 AM PST by Uncledave
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To: Uncledave

Yes...Your Gas Bill for cars will be zero, but Batterys will be $7,000 every 8 years and your PG&E will be $800 a Month.


20 posted on 01/01/2007 11:12:16 AM PST by LtKerst (Lt Kerst)
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