fireofenergy

Will China Stay the Capitalist Course?

China has too many hard working people to fail...

Look Who's Betting on Inflation

Ron Paul is an alarmist but (since I don't know that much about the markets) I think he's right. Makes me wonder why youtube removed his video (that I favorited). Perhaps we should all quit paying registration and insurance... and buy gold instead!

Lithium-Ion Batteries for Hybrid Vehicles?

I would think the NiMH is a better choice (if made in a large format) because it is much more rugged and lasts longer. It's only about half the energy density as the lithium, but so what. the ingredients for NiMH could never be in short supply... Or could they, I'm not sure?

Debunking PHEV Mythology

It is up to us to make changes for the better, that those deprived in other countries can live a better life. Obviously they are freezing in the dark because the oil economy has passed them by (and their own decisions). Idealists with money (not I) have shown examples of using science to help out over there. A green grid is essential for any hope for the the future as the oil economy will pass us by too, eventually.

Many people believe that GW is true. That alone is another reason to advance battery research at a cost beyond stupid wars!

We are barely seeing the effects of excess CO2, why then the capture by Satan himself? Ever since we created the wheel, we've been learning how to make brakes...

Debunking PHEV Mythology

In ten years, the battery replacement will be at least half the price, but who will want to (for the Chevy volt) when EV's of then will be so much better!

We need to perpetuate electric cars to stop excess CO2. It is going up every year and the signs of warming suggest that we must not be penny pinching in the ways of solving the climate (and post oil) problems.Though I can't afford an EV, others who care, well. Just as the entertainment industry went from 8-tracks to little postage sized chips that contain hundreds of songs, eco-glamor will be needed to shrink the size and costs of the all important battery.

I don't think there is any limit that this great Earth has for the manufacture of batteries and concentrating solar thermal power built across the deserts (just one option needed for clean juice). The Author's point on limited resources must reflect upon platinum needed for fuel cells.

The real change needed is the ability to overcome the old doom and gloom visions of the past that state everything is limited. No! there is enough silicon, aluminum, steel, carbon and others to build vast 3 dimensional cities with "freeway" ramps to all of tens or hundreds of levels. Almost a quarter trillion (yes trillion) people could be supported on this planet alone (all with "yards" and views)! All powered by placing mirrors and heat reservoirs on just about 40% of the worlds deserts! Of course, there are the real limiting factors, environmentalists, lawyers, politicians and monopoly.

I know this sounds quite a bit far out but so does the thought that humanity has to go backwards from this point on!

I like the author's mention of "personal" rapid transit though as that concept will be needed to connect the huge 3 dimensional cities... (which in this case are simple round buildings with spiraling access ramps within). Infact, the "e-pods" (or whatever) should be capable of climbing straight up buildings (on proper cable routs) as well as "traditional" cable transport and of course, on wheels for direct access to the front door.

Lithium-Ion Batteries for Hybrid Vehicles?

I bought two small sla (5 Ah for solar lights). I let one drain down to 6 volts and it never worked again despite the fact it was brand new. The other one works great (being that I keep an eye on it).

As for the NiMH, I use 3 sets of 3 (for 3.6 and 6.9Ah) for a 5.5 volt 600Ma solar panel with Cree led. It charges to about 4.1 volts and discharges to about 3.3 every day for almost a year now. It seems (from this unscientific experiment) that they could be made not to deplete past 1.1 volts per cell. I also purposely drain em (other smaller solar leds) down just to see and they do still charge.

How Low Can the Dollar Go?

I didn't mean to post twice... first post didn't show up (until now, hope it doesn't happen again!)
Anyways what do you guys think about the possibility of hyperinflation since it appears that we will not "do" the industrial thing again to make up for it (the trillions of thin air money).

How Low Can the Dollar Go?

I,m learning more down here... ie, about how we import more from up north and the state of this nation. Now, I know practically nothing about bets (oh I mean stocks) but I see you guys know that America's in deep. Is it because money means nothing compared to power? I mean, if government really wanted money, they would promote industrialism here, perhaps a few thousand square miles of solar collectors would do the trick (with Germany's fine automation), for the extra taxes. Wouldn't that be more than any silly little oil bribe? The way I see it is that they don't care about American issues and want to see America suffer the collapse of our own (already ancient) infrastructure.

Will then the dollar be low?

Roman artifacts will outlast ours because they did NOT use steel reinforcing... lol

Lithium-Ion Batteries for Hybrid Vehicles?

Uhh, you sent me to a broken link...
Just how "limited" is the different kinds of battery techs? I assume NiMH has no production problems in an all electric world. Can Bolivia (and other countries) supply to that amount?

Why GM Is Ready for a Rebound

I bought a used (and beat up) F350 four door pickup. It just keeps on running despite few problems. All I do is change the oil and replace battery and alternator. I think I need to repack the bearings... My main issue with it is the door handles and such are breaking (after 15 years), that's it.

GM would be cool if it could build electric cars and small trucks based upon the NiMH battery in volume! Lithium ion is too expensive and don't last as long.

Priming the Pump for $20/Gal. Gas: Interview with Chris Steiner

$20 bucks will only be ~10 in a few years, thanks to the bankers (inflation b4 anarchy), so that may not be so bad if gradual. The equivalent $20 gas will never come because renewables (and electric cars will) actually cost less than that. The bell curve of peak oil will be sharper than its mirror image, but not by so much that the whole of civilization must collapse. Solarfied deserts (without need for bulldozing) will contribute a major fraction of electric needs (and millions of jobs). In the end, people will finally wake up to thorium based closed cycle fission (if the need should arise since it, too, is unlimited).

Statements like "It would take a hundred years to replace the fleet with electric cars" are quite erroneous. Sure, it might take ten years (or more) just for the first million, but as exponentiation continues, robotic PV factories, oh I mean e-car factories, would be able to spit out hundreds of times that every year (considering planetary markets and production capability!).

Now, without adequate amounts of power, we'll succumb to (apparently) self fulfilling gloom doom. Now is the time to support whatever research is needed to make batteries cheaper (or such that they can last the lifetime of any project). Now is the time to push for at least 10,000 square miles of solarfied deserts (without paving them over) in America alone. Now is the time to figure out how to produce RE capital as humanity has already done with conventional robotic assembly items.
Btw, thorium based spits out 100 times less wastes AND its wastes halflife down to handleable levels in only 300 (not tens of thousands) of years as proven many decades ago at ORNL.

Without unlimited clean energy, Freedom will be lost!

Follow Smart Money into Clean Energy

Well how much does solar produce? 1,000 watts max per sq meter at 100% efficiency. At PV industry standard, 150, at concentrated in labs, about 350 to 400, and at commercially viable concentrated thermal using mirrors and molten salts, about 200, much more if used just for the heat. Where in the h--- does Billp37 get his info!

He may be against solar for ulterior reasons, I'm just against the bulldozing of thousands of sq miles. No problem, the desert can easily withstand post erected mirrors, or what have you without the need to pave over the desert

~Without unlimited clean energy~
~Freedom is lost~

Toyota Far Surpasses GM When It Comes to EV

After some casual googling, I have come to the conclusion that lithium ion is far superior in the way of charging and discharging efficiencies (given circuit protection), however (and this is a big "but"), they really are not as long lived, do not tolerate extremes and are more expensive. NiMH is still twice as light as lead acid and in my own experiments have actually been drained to 0 volts (Try that with other types). I connected the solar panel backwards on purpose and the battery pack still works (after modest charge) almost as if noth'n wrong happened that day!

Since lithium is so much more efficient (needed for renewable energy storage), we need them to become longer lasting and much cheaper than NiMH. This is supposedly what the national energy dude is up to!

Clean Energy: The Materials Play

Play with what materials?
At say, 300 MW capacity per sq mi, that's 10 watts per sq foot. Panels cost more like $50 a sq ft, so unless a massive undertaking to develop automated PV factories is enacted, this whole solar thing is out. Because of the low capacity rate (.22 or so), these things would have to be made for less than $5 per sq ft!. That's asking for the glass, the frame, and the connectors (and the supporting infrastructure) to basically be free!

Therefore I give up on PV in favor of trying to learn about a much more non-diffuse source, that is, energy from thorium which relies upon nuclear reactions (multiple fissions) but should be about a thousand times safer, with only 1% of the wastes that take about 1,000 x less time to "halflife", meaning that if the "casings" were to crumble in 300 years, the contents would be less radioactive than natural uranium itself!
If anybody here wants to research energy, try "LFTR" or liquid fluoride thorium reactor. I've asked the people on that site dedicated to LFTR for any negatives and they came up with what I already know (and a whole lot more!), that the conventional (uranium) nuclear supported the need (at that time) to build weapons, and thus took precedence in all the following political and design decisions. The liquid salt reactor wasn't needed and wasn't even fully built (I don't think). The science is proven as it was a project of ORNL.

Cap and trade is just a farce designed to rob us of what little money we have left and to starve developing nations to death. I would rather go against every (little) energy thing that I believed in if those things required this sinister tax just to compete (I have heard that it is not working elsewhere)! Global warming is real. We are not going to fix it with fantasy solutions because we will become to broke to fix it.
I'm telling you, there is no excuse not to have unlimited thorium power as the solution. The problem is too many people have been scared (to our collective death).
I don't want to see more conventional nuclear as it produces 100 times the waste which takes 1,000 times as long to "decompose" per amount of base load energy! It's time to tell congress to shine the diffuse renewables in favor of the nuclear renewables. Yes, the fission process can even "burn" those wastes (with a differently designed reactor).

We, at least, have to prove the LFTR concept untrue before "going back" to wind and solar thermal. We are given many solutions in reality but only a few from those that try to impose their realities...

Will We See More Lawsuits Against the Investment Banks?

Oh, and don't let them ban ammunitions and guns!!!