nakedjaybird

PHEVs and EVs: Plugging into a Lump of Coal

Thomas Brennen - actually, the old, comfortable path is very rewarding; the questions are: for whom, and how long???

Change for the sake of change is not necessarily beneficial; but, change to fix what is broken --- now, that's beneficial.

Knowing what's really broken is the key!!!!!

The rest is floundering, which looks very familiar.

PHEVs and EVs: Plugging into a Lump of Coal

Let's make that Dr. Chu.

PHEVs and EVs: Plugging into a Lump of Coal

Der Chu - are you listening??

PHEVs and EVs: Plugging into a Lump of Coal

JIC - regarding HYBRIDS ......

nakedjaybird: Comments (609) Follow

Fred Linn (and John) - as some of us know, in the near future (I'll tell you more after I've finished acquiring my positions - selfish greedy little me!), the ONLY ONBOARD STORED ENERGY in hybrid vehicles will be a small GRASS TANK refillable at every yet existing refueling pump dedicated to renewable non-food-chain-threate... BIOFUELS which will be burned in a NO-MOVING-PARTS BURNER (non-ICE) while capturing 70-80% of the energy in solid-state direct conversion THERMIONIC DEVICES for the electric drive HYBRID. Possibly, just possibly, they may be an onboard quick charge/discharge device, but small at best, and more than likely NOT an electrochemical device (why bother with all that messy manufacturing stuff to then contend with its charge/discharge inefficiencies). This market will grow in concert with the an exaggerated biofuels market (assuming aircraft demand does not cause an initial delay in the available biofuel supply).

Then, look out! As you well know, the first 10% reduction in crude consumption has already arrived (for the second time - the first being 1973!). So the world is awash in crude all the way to zero - while the folks continue to play their pricing games.

But the replacement market for the new hybrid vehicles need only grow at a few percent a year to make huge new markets for much stuff, while the crude traders die with buggywhips in their hands.

Aug 30 03:14 PM |Report abuse| Link | Reply 00

PHEVs and EVs: Plugging into a Lump of Coal

Dave Marsh - hey, I've got a novel idea for you; another Gov't program called "Nukes for Clunkers" (the coal type). That way the coal generators will be equally or overly compensated and won't have to totally waste their assets already sunk (not to mention the uproar and lobbying we'd see from the whole coal mining industry).

But, hey, maybe we can also compensate them somehow too.....we'll call it "OBAMASIZED".

Hey, even better, let's dismantle, ship and reconstruct all the US coal fired plants in China (and then sell China all of our coal - you know, why keep it - we'll never use it!! Everyone will be pleased!!). And then we can also export all our clean coal technology, services and equipment - help the trade imbalance.

That's what we should have done with all the auto clunkers instead of just squashing them - China could have used the vehicles til they wore out - (and helped keep the world oil demand up!); they're going to get the scrap iron, regardless!!!!

Marsh said- "John's last sentence about will power goes equally for nuclear power. It is not cost prohibitive when done properly, only when re-starting a dormant program as we have here. China is building 45 reactors, and twenty or so other countries are building nuclear plants also. I believe John spends time in France, where they derive >80% of their power from nuclear, have the cleanest air in Europe, and if they are not laughing at us, they should be. One hundred fifty two-unit plants could eliminate coal-burning completely. Staggered over twenty-five years it's completely possible, as is restarting fuel reprocessing which will close the loop on the nuclear fuel cycle, and qualify nuclear power as largely renewable. Onl then will your EVs become CO2 free and not "plugged into a lump of coal." Grid-scale storage for intermittent wind and solar is not going to be economically viable in our lifetimes, if ever. Storing a single ten-hour night's worth of power from a single two-unit nuclear plant (e.g. Diablo Canyon - two 1100 MW reactors) would require 22,000 Megwatt-hrs of storage, i.e. 22 million kilowatt-hrs. Even at $100/kW-hr, that's 2.2 trillion dollars. How absurd. No amount of Rube Goldberg "smart grid" shell-gaming will get around this. We need nuclear power to make things like pure EVs - largely recharging at night - viable over the long haul. As has become all too common, the rest of the world is passing us by, and we will deserve our fate. Step up to the plate Energy Secretary Chu." Aug 30 11:24 AM