fireofenergy

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

I didn't have time to read all of the good and bad, however, does anyone know if the raw materials for the

LiFePo4 battery

is availabe on the terrawatt scale? If so, it is the miracle battery (if it could be made cheaply in mass quantity).

Not only should they be used to store (and smooth) electricity, they should be used for a complete conversion to plug in cars... We don't need people like the author dismissing EV's as "a sabotage" because I doubt that he did his research on the lifepo4 battery!

However, I understand his position about the hiped up Volt (and batteries that cost tooooo much and don't last) and thus, maybe he did this article just to make people more informed as to "how they would want a better" EV.

As for sabotaging America's energy independence, absolut hogwash. Last I checked, our juice still comes from this country!

Auto Batteries: Short Term Revenue Growth Favors Lead-Acid by 6 to 1

I came across this article from searching lithium and NiMH.

Thanks for noting the costs of gas increases before electric cars are "in".

Anyways, I think that Nimh is much better since it offers more charges than anything else and is cheaper and is better in cold. I know that it's about 2-3 times the energy density of lead acid, but only about half of lithium ion.

Wouldn't the electric car battery (problem) be solved if the Nimh battery was made in large factories in a large amp hour format (and with many competitors)?

Will the Audacious Bailouts for Alternative Energy Happen?

Since governments are willing to go green, it DOES make since to spend billions for battery research. Just as with solar PV, the industry is growing despite of past supply issues.

In ten years, oil will be WAY over $100 a barrel (if even available to the increased masses), thus it would be wise to invest in battery mass manufacturing AFTER an initial advanced cost and development plan is completed. In other words, DON'T give that money to failed banks unless they invest in this tech also!

Eventually, carbon laws will also add to the costs of this fossil economy. The way out of that is concentrated solar thermal energy which use lots of mirrors in the deserts to reflect light and heat a reservoir for night time power generation (needed for the charging of e cars).

Alternative Energy Storage: Lithium, Lead or Both?

At first i was skeptical (about advanced sla), but I didn't resaerch. I believe that lugging around a few extra pounds is a good thing if it helps the cause of generating renewable electricity by being far cheaper. Speaking of which, solar thermal storage is better than building lakes on top of high hills, or filling our dried up oil wells with air (that gets hot under pressure and subsequently "self discharges").

Perhaps we should put (overseas) excess cheap oil back into those dried up wells instead??? Since it is not really in excess! (I know, that sounds rather nationalistic...)

Solar thermal storage has a much lower self discharge through heat dissapation but would need a much larger (than required) mirror field in order to maintain baseload. And, of course, it is virtually unlimited in nature if just part of the world's deserts were to be mirrored by ambitious mirror mass production companies. Most countries are large enough to absorb intermittancy from bad weather.

And guess what the other side of the world will export when oil does indeed get too expensive for the masses... synfuels made by solar thermal energy and coal. Yuk! Or even worse yet, become our own desert CSP sources!