Auto sales: Plug-in electric sales nearly double in 2013

csmonitor ^ | January 3, 2014 | John Voelcker,

[ckilmer]

More plug-in electric cars were sold in the US than ever before in their third year of sales. The 2013 total of roughly 90,000 electric vehicles didn't quite double the 2012 total of about 53,000,  but the numbers seem likely to grow again this year.

[ckilmer]

there’s something missing in all this. what does it do to the electric grid if 6 million cars are plugged in overnight
...............

agree. demand for electricity is going up.

It will take roughly 6 years to reach 6 million cars at roughly current rates of expansion (say a rough double every year.)

However, there’s a huge supply of natural gas that will be used to power new electrical generation plants and alarger supply of coal which for now won’t be used.

Right now half of new electric generation capacity is coming from solar and wind. You can see the solar plants in the southwest if you fly to LA and the big wind farms in wyoming if you fly to san francisco.

The big deal imho will be 4th generation nuclear reactors. But I don’t think we’ll see them for a couple years at least. Five years from now however, when demand is higher and the technology is more advanced, 4th generation reactors will swing into more general view.

imho there will come an enormous public international race to make the first lftr thorium reactors in a year or two.

[ckilmer]

You made your point by analogy. And that’s beautiful.

I made my point with numbers. The number of electric cars purchased has gone up five fold in the last two years.

Maybe the increase in volumes of electric cars purchased will come to a screaming halt.

Maybe they won’t.

We’ll see.

[ckilmer]

I saw a hybrid running slowly on its tiny engine on the Rockies a few weeks ago. Wonder if they made it to another gas station.
...........
I would not want to drive a hybrid or an electric car in the mountains in the winter. That’s just plain stupid.

They’re best suited for California, the southwest and the southeast for the time being.

[familyop]

Agreed. I use batteries with a PV solar system for electricity (too far from powerlines here). Cold weather shrinks charge capacity terribly. I’ve read that the batteries for electric cars don’t suffer as much from cold but that they are affected. There are also the steep climbs through passes, long distances between stations and other hinderances.

[DoughtyOne]

Exactly...

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the link. Good read...

[ckilmer]

ping

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ckilmer.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

recharge the batteries quickly

Hey Doughty,

The other night I was reading a thread about a Korean produced device which allows a person to breath underwater without a scuba tank.

This in itself was interesting as it filters O2 out of the water using battery current. What was real interesting was the claim that they had created a new battery technology that has a much longer lasting charge, and recharges in the fraction of the time.

I'll try to find it.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Here we go:

“Triton uses a new technology of artificial gill model. - It extracts oxygen under water through a filter in the form of fine threads with holes smaller than water molecules. - This is a technology developed by a Korean scientist that allows us to freely breathe under water for a long time. - Using a very small but powerful micro compressor, it compresses oxygen and stores the extracted oxygen in storage tank. - The micro compressor operates through micro battery. - The micro battery is a next-generation technology with a size 30 times smaller than current battery that can quickly charge 1,000 times faster.” – Yanko Design

Sources:

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/triton-oxygen-respirator

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Spotlight-Odd-Looking-Scuba-Mask-Turns-You-Into-a-Fish-413882.shtml

http://www.yankodesign.com/2014/01/03/scuba-breath

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the mention. I look forward to seeing what you find.

[DoughtyOne]

Very cool... (Thank you...)

Here we go:

Triton uses a new technology of artificial gill model. - It extracts oxygen under water through a filter in the form of fine threads with holes smaller than water molecules. - This is a technology developed by a Korean scientist that allows us to freely breathe under water for a long time. - Using a very small but powerful micro compressor, it compresses oxygen and stores the extracted oxygen in storage tank. - The micro compressor operates through micro battery. - The micro battery is a next-generation technology with a size 30 times smaller than current battery that can quickly charge 1,000 times faster. – Yanko Design

Sources:

Respirator

Scuba Mask

Scuba Breath

Activated your links...

[DoughtyOne]

BTW: I want one of those real bad... :^)

The battery component is interesting also.