creativforce

How PHEVs and EVs Will Sabotage America's Drive for Energy Independence

It's all good. John, your all-or-nothing thinking does not contribute much to the discussion (although I do love the research, facts and figures you deliver). The first electric car to hit the market will not be the last model. The 2014 Nissan Leaf may offer three different battery chemistries at three different price points. The Aptera, if successful, may come out with a four door sedan in 2011 on three wheels that doesn't even offer an electric motor. A small diesel would get better than 100 mpg in their highly aero dynamic, lightweight skin.
The Prius is a very good start, but that start was 10 years ago! We've spent 8 years in the wilderness under Bush. Thank the good Lord we are finally seeing some innovation. Can't wait to see what wins the X-prize. Hope I can bolt Poulsen Hybrid wheels on my 98 Corolla next year (that oughta be good for another 200,000 miles).

Stick with Gold and the Oil Stocks

Energy is the most crucial part of the infrastructure that has been ignored.

Here's a scenario that keeps running through my mind. Imagine the great Northeast Blackout of 2003 happening in January when the temperature is hovering below zero. Imagine it lasts two days instead of one. How many of the 55 million people affected have backup generators or adequate fireplaces? How much violence would result in major cities as backup generators "change hands"? What would the cost be for frozen plumbing? When frozen plumbing thaws it can literally destroy a house ... how many homes would be lost? How many accidental fires would start as people try to stay warm? What about the riots as refugees overwhelm warm-up centers? How many people would die of carbon monoxide poisoning? How many people would freeze to death?

It's a pretty easy scenario to imagine, since a catastrophic blackout has already happened in the summer. Our antiquated, inefficient power grid is run by local monopolies that have absolutely no financial incentive to change. Smart grid initiatives are a joke when our tax dollars are going to dumb monopolies.

The solution to this danger is simple and it solves a lot of problems at once--reduces dependence on foreign oil, reduces green house gas emissions, reduces air pollution, reduces overall energy consumption by 30 to 40 percent, creates a dynamic new green business.

Home fuel cells running on natural gas with battery backup systems.

Deregulate the monopolies. Use incentives to create a consumer market for power generation. In a consumer market, gas powered fuel cells that provide heat and electricity would be no more expensive than a furnace and water heater is today. Over a 20 year period most homes need to replace these appliances anyway. Fuel cells like to run at a constant speed, so battery systems would handle peak loads, excess could be sold back to a nationalized grid. Home energy production is 30 to 40 percent more efficient than our current system so even though it would run on NG the CO2 would be greatly diminished. A battery system with enough capacity to handle summer air conditioning would get a home through a day or two running the furnace blower if the NG pipeline is disrupted. Cheap back up tanks of LP could substitute.

The technology is here now. These systems are already on the market in Japan. It won't happen unless we can develop the political willpower to reorganize the local power companies. With deregulation there would be a free for all of capitalism developing lots of better ideas.

We would all be richer, safer, and healthier for it.

Battery Wars

Texaco is right.

Battery Wars

Thank you for one of the most interesting articles I have read on the subject. Everyone who has followed the plight of the electric car since the late nineties has wondered "Who Stole the Electric Car?" As an investor in ENER during those heady days of the electric revolution with the EV1 in California, I thought I would soon be rich as ENER ramped up production of the NIMH battery. When Shell (who later sold to Chevron) initially bought into the company, I assumed the huge infusion of cash ENER needed would soon be on the way. As we know this was the beginning of the end. CA mysteriously repealed their zero emissions requirement, and the stock price at ENER went to hell for a decade. Cobasys has been a joke and their leaky batteries have seemed like intentional screw ups. Last year Mercedes had to sue them for failure to deliver and GM who built one of the most remarkable cars of the 20th century (EV1) can't get access to the batteries they helped test and develop.

So now we learn that the NIMH battery revolution failed, not because of oil company interference, and a deep, abiding faith in the profit power of planned obsolescence at GM ... but because Toyota cornered the market on lanthanum? The story just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

It would make more sense if oil money paid everyone involved to keep the technology on ice for a decade...just think of the billion$ the lack of an electric alternative has saved Big Oil until now!!

Lockheed Martin also makes most of their money on war in the middle east, providing the funds to keep EESTOR locked up for another decade or two seems like money well spent to me.

It's not that I want to believe in conspiracies, but any detective will tell you to follow the money. So rather than all these back room dealings we suspect, we now must believe that it all comes down to profound stupidity at GM. Well, I guess that's not too hard to believe either.

Li-ion Batteries: A Speculative Field of Dreams

I was holding ENER stock back when Texaco bought in. I was excited because I thought they were serious about being an energy company, not an oil company. I thought my stock would skyrocket. Duh. Boy did I get burned. And I'm still pissed. Little did I know at the time that the oil companies would succeed at suppressing NIMH battery technology for a decade. The entire world should be pissed. I am beginning to believe that they can't keep the genie in the bottle much longer. But I am extremely suspicious when breakthrough technologies like EEStor and PWTC mysteriously disappear or simply stay hidden. I don't know anything about battery technology, but I do know that oil companies (the greatest concentration of wealth in the world) don't want to lose market share. Don't think the free market will ever bring battery powered cars to consumers because oil money can always trump small start ups. It has to be done with legislation. As California has repeatedly proven, if you have the legislation, the technology will follow.