Electric Cars & Solar: Will They Make Gasoline & Utilities Obsolete?

yahoo ^ | 1/23/2014 | John Voelcker

[Ghost of SVR4]

This January is colder than I have seen in 10 years. High's of 6 degree's and lows of -OMG my balls just froze in a second. The technology is NOT there yet and I would not depend on one of these vehicles to get me safely from point A to point A.5 in this weather let alone point B where I was going.

Next up, February, when I am "used" to some frigid weather (this year I fear it like no other).

[dalereed]

i don’t accept climate change caused by man and won’t have antything that doesn’t run on gasoline and have over 300 HP.

[stanne]

The GM guys didn’t come up with this. They sold tgeir soul to obama’s regecand, with it, all incentive, motivation, independence and creativity

Idiots

[HiTech RedNeck]

I could see a solar-chemical process, possibly, which would produce fuels. That could get better than that 18%.

[ElkGroveDan]

Electric Cars & Solar: Will They Make Gasoline & Utilities Obsolete?

I love my solar chain saw. It cuts down marshmallow trees in unicorn forests.

[stanne]

Oh great. GM sold their soul to the Obama regime etc

Ford didn’t.

[Lmo56]

If Tesla makes 100,000 cars per year, they pretty much exhaust the world’s production capacity of lithium.

Thus, driving up the cost of bi-polar medication ...

[babygene]

“I’d say we are no more than 10 years from having solar power that is cheaper than fossil fuel power.”

You clearly haven’t done the math. At best, with 100% conversion efficiency you would get only 1KW from a solar panel. That’s with the best sunshine...

Even a small car requires 20KW which is a little less than 20 horse power. It just isn’t going to work... Most people don’t have enough square footage on their property.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

the world’s production capacity of lithium

Yabut, what about the dilithium crystals?

[RockyTx]

many Chevy Volt owners report going
1000.plus miles on a 10 gallon tank.

[entropy12]

I can guarantee...unconditionally...that gasoline powered cars will become obsolete. But we will have to wait until oil in ground is exhausted. Minimum 200 years away.

The biggest problem with solar power is that consumers are far away from best source, the deserts. Transmission losses and infrastructure costs are the main culprits. Fossil fuel power plants are located close to population clusters.

[entropy12]

many Chevy Volt owners report going 1000.plus miles on a 10 gallon tank.

Where did they get the electricity to charge batteries, and which fossil/nuclear fuel was used to generate the electricity are the pertinent questions.

[PA Engineer]

No.

[Liberty Valance]

[Lmo56]

Many Chevy Volt owners report going 1000.plus miles on a 10 gallon tank.

They prolly live in milder climates [ie: northern CA], where they don't have to ue wipers, heaters, A/C and such much. Also aren't driving great distances [ie: <10 miles per trip]. And, are they "topping off" the battery each night with a charge?

[Ghost of SVR4]

Good for the Chevy Volt owners. Only problem is they get their electricity from traditional fuel. That 10 gallons of gas came from somewhere. Those batteries won’t last forever either.

BTW, not knocking the volt, I would just like to see how well it does in some serious weather for six months. The technology is not quite “there” yet.

[Liberty Valance]

[ctdonath2]

Most of it is just straightforward math. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_gallon_equivalent gives most of the numbers necessary, and consider that the absolute maximum possible for solar is 1.3kW/m^2 with the realistic norm being about 1% of that. Being past midnight, I’ll leave that as an exercise to the reader, noting that the “solar strip-mining” involved (solar collectors deprive an ecosystem of most of its energy source, remember, at large scale) will be huge. Once it really becomes commercially viable with large-scale adoption, the greenies will be screaming bloody murder about all the fields & forests having their sunlight stolen and the chemical holocaust resulting from widespread exotic materials mining & processing.

I’d rant more but sleep deprivation beckons.

[Rca2000]

If....and I say a BIG if.....a solar panel can be gotten to be say 40% efficient or greater—than MAYBE in 10 years you could be right. But that is NOT very likely. As stated 18% efficient is considered GOOD right now.

Drill..
Drill!!
DRILL !!

[wku man]

No, but I bet they're good for fire extinguisher sales.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!