“There’s an interesting recent story of a guy who just got 8-figure funding for a system of battery swap stations where people could swap out their car batteries like you’d swap a propane tank. Pull into it, the attendant takes 3 minutes to swap you out, and you’re good for another 150 miles or whatnot.”
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This is an excellent idea. The problem with electric cars is the battery, and the problem with batteries is it takes forever to recharge one. Someone on a long distance trip is going to put up with sitting at a gas station for 15-30 minutes every 60 miles.
This idea requires a buttload more nuclear power plants to be built. Also, a large continuously variable excise tax on gasoline and diesel, just in case OPEC gets any funny ideas about increasing production.
Ready to take the big step? Didn’t think so. NEXT!
We need more nukes for this and more. But a widely distributed storage system in the form of millions of car batteries is a beautiful thing for wind energy and other renewables. Turbines spinning at night have very limited market for the power today, but once people are charging cars overnight that equation changes drastically, and makes the economies of wind energy look very very good indeed.