On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 13:15:29 -0500, Greg Copeland
wrote:

On Sat, 03 Jun 2006 15:43:09 +0000, Aaron Coolidge wrote:

PS, in this widely spread out country purely electric cars are not useful
until they have the same performance as gasoline cars, particularly in
their recharge time. My gasoline car recharges in 10 minutes and goes
450 miles per charge. Each charge costs $55. It's really pretty cheap,
all things considered.

For what it's worth, they are making huge strides in battery
technology...at least in the lab. They are working on using nanotubes in
capacitors which vastly increase their surface area. The result is a
"battery" which can be charged like a capacitor (means fast charge) and
can survive hundreds of thousand charge cycles. Currently, making them are
painful and costly...but research and technology is heading in the right
direction.

They are also starting to create ICE which create steam from its heat
byproduct, which in turn, turn turbines attached to generators, which can
keep batteries fully charged. This means, in the short term, better
hybrid technology may help out until better battery technologies allow for
a pure (or nearly so) electric solution can be found.

But where will the electrical energy come from? We do not have the
electrical grid capacity to power more than a small fraction of the
cars. Solar will not be a viable option until the power grid can
undergo a great increase in its size. Solar is still expensive on
any but a small scale.

Nuclear would take a considerable time to bring on line.

And that means new power plants that will most likely be burning coal.
Coal can be burnt efficiently and cleanly with the proper technology
although that too is costly and results in lots of waste products.

Smaller cars that get good gas mileage be they hybrid or just small
would make a big difference. Just driving fewer miles could make a
good portion of this unnecessary, but as a whole drivers are not going
to make that sacrifice.

Just to add a side note, if we start using electricity at those rates
the electrical rates will become quite high. There is no painless way
to lower costs except to conserve and to many that is the most painful
price.

Watch the Discovery channel's show next month on global warming. If
most of what they have seen is true there may be a good many who read
this still around when realestate starts to get scarce.


Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com


Greg