Electrically Powered Ultralight Aircraft

wrote:


Just too much hype and inconsistancy for me.



Has anyone done an analysis on the amount of energy required to
produce a vehicle like this vs what it will actually "save" during
its supposed lifetime? Some of these exotic battery materials and
manufacturing techiques take a lot of energy on the front end to
produce, and dispose of and/or recycle on the back end. You have
to factor that into the net energy gain or loss of actual use of
these vehicles.

"kontiki" wrote

Has anyone done an analysis on the amount of energy required to
produce a vehicle like this vs what it will actually "save" during
its supposed lifetime? Some of these exotic battery materials and
manufacturing techiques take a lot of energy on the front end to
produce, and dispose of and/or recycle on the back end. You have
to factor that into the net energy gain or loss of actual use of
these vehicles.


Since the ethanol discussion started, it seems we're starting to see more
and more "total industry ecosystem cost" analyses of this type. Anyway the
oil supply infrastructure does not come for free either. Even though initial
investments are already written off the infrastructure has to be maintained.
You might even want to count in the cost of the military power needed to
secure access to oil supplies, especially in the future.