Bring It On --- If They Build it, People Will Buy It!

Engineers are getting closer and closer to the day when, “normal” (non George Clooney $108,000 Tango) people will be able to buy reliable, efficient, competitively priced electric cars. This has been a passion of mine for over 30 years, and I have always believed that electric vehicles (cars, trains etc.) are the future of transportation in this Country.

The Lithium-Ion
Car

Altair Nanotechnologies plans to road test an advanced electric vehicle prototype.

The burning question on everyone’s mind when ever I write about this stuff is;

Where the hell are we supposed to get all this electricity to run these vehicles?

Well, how about;

Renewable Energy and “0-Consumption” Energy:

1. Photovoltaic Solar – Currently inefficient and costly, but advances in nano-materials are about to exponentially change all that.
2. Wind – Somewhat inefficient, but with enough of them, they could have a substantial impact on power generation. Take a look at what’s happening in Germany & Spain right now.
3. Tidal/Wave – Completely underutilized, this could have as much impact on the grid, as Hydropower did 80 years ago. It uses basically the same proven technology as Hydropower, and generating facilities could be built almost anywhere there are adequate tidal fluctuations.
4. Geothermal – Limited access, but still a good, clean way to generate electricity.
5. “Thermal Solar” – Again, completely underutilized, focus sunlight to make steam, use the steam to make electricity. This technology has been around forever (kinda). A friend and I built one of these in the '70s with 1' mirror tiles on a frame (kind of like an old satellite dish), an old pickup heater core and an old water heater. It made tons of instant steam (blew up once), but we never knew what to do with it.
   

Solar Thermal Solar Generators -- Solar Furnace in France generates 33,000 deg. cel.

Rendering of the Nevada Solar One facility.

Other Energy sources:

1. Nuclear – Never been a big fan, because of waste storage and the cost, but in climates that don’t have good access to the sun, I’m not opposed.
2. Fusion - Science Fiction – for now.
3. Hydrogen – As a direct transportation fuel, I think it’s stupid. Think about it; You set up a plant to make Hydrogen, so you can truck or pipe this highly volatile fuel to gas stations (that don’t exist, yet) to put in your fuel cell car to make electricity to drive down the road. Hmmmm. What if you set up a plant to make Hydrogen, and produce electricity right at the plant. This can be done right now without the added infrastructure.
4. Bio-Fuels – If they can make these fuels cost effective, they will make an excellent transition fuel, for people who can’t buy a new car. But, after that, just like Hydrogen, make it and use it to make electricity.

I know….There are a lot of other energy sources out there (like Methanol), but these are the ones I could think of, off the top of my pointed head, and we will always need some gasoline around (I refuse to convert my wife’s ’65 Mustang to electric).

As I have said before, there is no reason why we have to continue to burn gas & diesel to drive down the road in our “everyday” cars. We simply have to get off our butts now, and start building the generating capacity that will be needed in the near future.

Companies are getting close to producing the electric car people like me have been dreaming about for years……just have to wait a little longer.

When they build them…. We will buy them.