Electric Cars Make Fuel-Free Power Grid Practical

[kristopher]

Electric Cars Make Fuel-Free Power Grid Practical
by Thomas Blakeslee, Clearlight Foundation

Internal combustion engines are inherently inefficient due to friction and pumping losses. After a century of evolution gasoline engines in cars are still typically only 21% efficient! Electric motors have no such limitations and are actually capable of 98% efficiency including electronic control losses! Why do we keep wasting our precious fuel on such an inefficient system? The answer is energy storage.

Gasoline, diesel and ethanol fuels are all amazingly compact ways deliver and store energy. Fuel has dominated our transportation sector because batteries are large, heavy and expensive compared to a simple gas tank. Classic lead-acid batteries, for example, need about 388 times as much volume to store energy as gasoline. Electric cars only need to carry about ¼ as much energy because of this efficiency advantage but that still means a lead-acid battery must be 388/4= 97 times larger than a gas tank. It's no wonder gasoline has dominated for a century. Gas tanks are cheap and gas used to be cheap, so why bother?

Lithium batteries have now evolved to a point where they are safe, quickly rechargeable and capable of outlasting a car. They still take up about ten times as much space as a gas tank, but the big remaining problem is cost. Mass production will eventually reduce cost significantly but for now the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) approach solves the problem nicely: Most cars are driven to work or on errands near home except for very occasional long road trips. By providing a gas engine and generator to extend range, a 20 or 40-mile battery capacity can efficiently handle almost all driving. The only time you buy gas is when you take a long trip.

PHEVs exist now only as Prius conversions. The 2008 bailout (energy) bill provides deductions of up to $10,000 that depend on the battery capacity. By late 2010 we will have a large selection of PHEV launches including the Chevy Volt. When the battery is exhausted, a PHEV acts just like a hybrid. The real payoff is during commutes and errands, when it is essentially a pure electric car. The Tesla roadster is the first lithium-powered pure electric car. It has 244-mile range and 0-60 time of 3.9 seconds. Fifty of these cars have been shipped to date and they have a large backlog in spite of the $109,000 price tag.

Tesla has done an excellent study...

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=54046

[madrchsod]

1. what are the environmental problems in lithium battery production?

plug in and the use of a internal combustion engine seems more practical than a lithium battery only. the secondary and third market for lithium vehicles maybe to expensive for that market when it comes to the replacement of the battery. an internal combustion can run on just about any fuel source and would be cheaper to fix.

[HillbillyBob]

2. Not that I am an expert, but I think Lithium batteries can be

recycled.
I think we can reduce to a very low level or totally without burning stuff.
My partner and I bought a portion of old tobacco farm in rural Caswell County, NC.
We have a motto here "It is all an experiment" the house is modern and total electric with a fireplace insert.. the place is about 14 years old.
We have a goal of a Fossil Fuel free or as close to it as is praticable.
We have already cut the power usage and the use of tillers etc by about 40% for the house and 30% for the farming equipment, by using Permaculture and organic gardening practices, oh and it is less work too. We get good food, larger crops, it also tastes better.
Aside from that, we have plugged wire and pipe penetrations, put gaskets on switch/outlet covers, light fixtures(50c ea lowes), bought insulating curtains, and use solar heat gain by opening the curtains to the Sun on cold days I can shut down the heaters it also holds more heat overnight.
We will be adding insulation, recyclable metal roofing and siding, which is 30% recycled materials to begin with. We use CFLs warm white looks like incandescet but 70% less power, as they die off and are recycled we swap to LEDs which us 90% less than incand.
Our power is generated by coal, the less we use power, the less coal burnt, we need to stop burning, or cut it down as much as possible. We have a very fuel efficient NissanVersa, its got all the toys, is comfortable carries 4 adults or in our case 2 adults and 3 medium dogs.
It gets 36 mpg at 75 mph, with a load in it.
I know for a fact that we can have autos that are hybrid or battery only.
My grandparents had a 62 Chevy Impala with a 327 V-8 4BBl carb, it got 27 mpg when you drove it sanely, like under 85 mph. GM, Ford and Chrysler have had 35 years since the OPEC oil embargo to build better longer lasting more fuel efficient vehicles. Instead they got tax breaks from RonnyRaygun (and tax breaks for SUV owners too) Why should we bail them out?
The Rs hate the idea of one payer (fixed prices health care ) would relieve the legacy burdens on the auto industry. I am on Social Sec retirement because I got hurt and sick, it is not enough to live on..can anyone tell me they can live on 800.00$ per month?
So if GM/Ford/Chrysler etal ditch the retirement plans what happens to those folks? They paid in to it and that is theft.
So here we are 35 years after the first energy crisis, Jimmy Carter had the right Idea and got shrugged off by the repug oil and auto moguls, now they want our tax dollars after cheating their employees, breaking the promise of lifetime employment, health care and retirement while the fat cats fly around in private jets and land with golden parachutes.
Perhaps we should nationalize these companies and build fuel efficient cars with the aid of Nissan and Toyota?

What most folks do not seem to realize is that the carbon we are pulling out of the earth(oil coal natural gas) was sequestered by nature oh so long ago. At the time all that carbon was present in atmosphere caused a very hot world. By putting that back in the atmosphere we are going to cause the same thing to happen again. I mean those high temps are great for swamps and dinosaurs, but we are not adapted to such a climate and I don't think we could live in it nor can the rest of the current environments denizens like our food source animals or vegetation.