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By CookinFlat6
#422965
The reasons some people in the world are not very happy with biofuels is that, as well as the land grab, and higher food prices and no reduction in emission, it diverts brains, money and government subsidies from the implementation of solar. The only downside to solar is that the technology is not as convenient and together with higher price has allowed liquid fuels back in the driving seat whenever fuel prices drop - leading to the usual calls for biofuels to help reduce emissions as we continue to run our cheap fossil fuels ICEs

Things are changing very quickly thankfully

From Bloomberg

Solar will be the world’s biggest single source of electricity by 2050, according to a recent estimate by the International Energy Agency. Currently, it’s responsible for just a fraction of one percent.

The reason solar-power generation will increasingly dominate: it’s a technology, not a fuel. As such, efficiency increases and prices fall as time goes on. The price of Earth’s limited fossil fuels tends to go the other direction. Michael Park, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein, has a term for the staggering price relationship between solar and fossil fuels: the Terrordome. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but it doesn’t sound very forgiving.

The chart below shows the price of energy sources since the late 1940s. The extreme outlier, of course, is solar, which only recently became an expensive blip in the energy marketplace. It will soon undercut even the cheapest fossil fuels in many regions of the planet, including poorer nations where billion-dollar coal plants aren’t always practical.
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Every time fossil fuels get cheaper, people lose interest in solar deployment. That may be about to change.

After years of struggling against cheap natural gas prices and variable subsidies, solar electricity is on track to be as cheap or cheaper than average electricity-bill prices in 47 U.S. states -- in 2016, according to a Deutsche Bank report published this week. That’s assuming the U.S. maintains its 30 percent tax credit on system costs, which is set to expire that same year.

Even if the tax credit drops to 10 percent, solar will soon reach price parity with conventional electricity in well over half the nation: 36 states. Gone are the days when solar panels were an exotic plaything of Earth-loving rich people. Solar is becoming mainstream, and prices will continue to drop as the technology improves and financing becomes more affordable, according to the report.

Grid Parity to Reach 36 States in 2016

Solar has already reached grid parity in 10 states that are responsible for 90 percent of U.S. solar electricity production. In those states alone, installed capacity growth will increase as much as sixfold over the next three to four years, Deutsche Bank analyst Vishal Shaw wrote in the Oct. 26 report.

Its said by useless idiots that electric car sales are falling, heres the truth

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The drop is happening entirely in the category of plugless hybrid vehicles (shown above in darker blue). These are gasoline engines backed by fuel-saving battery drive systems. The batteries are primarily nickel-metal hydride like those found in the standard Toyota Prius --

Elon Musk wants to crush the market with high-efficiency lithium ion batteries that take a massive leap forward and the Tesla supercharge stations - 170 miles in 30 minutes - most cars are used for much less than 100 miles a day
Its starting to happen and would have happened quicker if not for the distractions for biofuels that will emit carbon from the exhaust even if useless idiots lie about it

here is the true story of pure electric sales
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and here is the true story of percentage of total sales
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Discuss, or not, read, dont read, read more if you want, but please only contribute to discuss electric, no moaners or b!tches :thumbup:
User avatar
By Jabberwocky
#422970
Personally the lack of range is what would put me off a purely electric car.

I also think a lot of kinetic energy is wasted every day, but the biggest problem is the expense of implementing the systems compared to the financial returns it would make installing (be it any green energy not limited to solar)

I.e a small hydro electric generator in the downpipe from the roof guttering.
By CookinFlat6
#422975
Thats the whole idea - its a technology so the range etc can be improved exponentially - as long as money and brains and investment go into it. Look at pcs, we all know the moon landings happened on the PC power from todays calculator. The trick is not to let convenience today stop us preparing the ground for WHEN, not if, all this will be even better than what we have now

everyone thinks of themselves and their own convenience today, and thats why we stay adicted to fosil fuels with some bio bollx thrown in as a token to emissions
Imagine no more power stations, you have a 2 sq meter panel on you roof that can capture and store enough electricity for your house for a year and transfere it to others, and charge your car etc etc

people need to think of the planet, then their convenience then their pockets, and the Governments should be throwing all the subsidiaries at it instead of stuff that emits carbon

If people knew what was really what about the environment they would be happy to have a car with 100 mile range instead of ICE

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Last week, Tesla released sketches of the future plant. It’s powered by renewable energy and shaped like a diamond. So why has Musk designed a gigafactory to produce batteries for half a million cars a year (twice the number that's been put on the road by all companies combined)? Because it's increasingly looking necessary.

Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache last month increased his estimate for sales of the Model S and Model X to 129,000 units in 2017, from a previously estimated 83,000. Tesla can reach its 500,000 annual run rate before the end of the decade, Lache said, in time to put the gigafactory to full use.

Tesla’s growth will be “much steeper, their mix will be much richer, and their costs will ultimately be much lower than we previously assumed,” Lache wrote in a report on Aug. 11.

This doesn’t mean you should rush out and buy Tesla stock. Just 11 out of 20 analysts tracked by Bloomberg give the company a “buy” rating, and the stock price is 261 times estimated earnings, compared with a 12.5 estimated P/E for Ford Motor Co. Even Musk admitted last week that the stock price is “kind of high” right now.

Still, it’s easy to get caught up in Musk’s vision for the future of cars. Defying skeptics, Musk has established the biggest U.S. solar company by market value, built a private space company that’s making deliveries to the International Space Station, and has conjured a $35 billion car company out of thin air.
User avatar
By Jabberwocky
#422977
I am not disagreeing with you. However I would imagine that for most people the range of 100 miles a day/between charges is more than acceptable.

As for the cost of things. Sadly in today's economy and a lot of UK families living below the poverty line if they had to choose between spending £100 on hydro electric toilet flush energy retrieval system, or having £100 to feed their family, that is not a hard decision to make.
User avatar
By racechick
#422979
Government need to provide subsidies. That's where they should put the green money . Grants for solar panels were good initially and the buy back rate of produced electricity was good, but it's not so good now. I would have had them if the rates had remained how they started out. As it is, at the moment I've just got wet solar. But that's generally enough to heat all the water, gas just kicks in if a boost is needed.
By CookinFlat6
#422981
Tottaly agree RC, thats where the governement comes in. Most of the cost on cars in uk goes on taxes, if they threw as much as they could at electric and power points etc earlier instead of wasting it on the idiot stuff we could have afforded it. The payback from cutting emissions (theres not just carbon in cars) peoples respiratory ilness goes down, save a bit on health, less accidents cos people are more careful with their mileage (I think)

Lets not beat about the bush, we have all been screwed over on this, the clue is how everyone is now rushing to make up for it, they wasted the last 6 years or so on biobollx. Could have the whole transport system on zero emissions by now, easy. wind farms give a decent percent to the grid, so solar could be doing the same now
User avatar
By Jabberwocky
#423007
Most of the city busses around here now have Williams flywheel kers installed.

Bus roof would be ideal for solar panels
By CookinFlat6
#423010
My idea would be all the streets and all the car tops and all the roofs. The streets are all connected already like a grid, so distribution and networking is built in to the systems. The cars would collect the power by either dropping a wire receptor to drag along the ground, or there could even be contact less transfer -(that tech exists as well - could be improved)
Using the roads as a surface to collect energy doesnt sound intuitive but when you think about the logistics it makes sense - at least to me
By What's Burning?
#423100
I like this thread very very much. It would be a real shame if anything were to happen to it. Let's play nice and keep the discussion exactly the way it's been.
By What's Burning?
#423101
Oh, did I tell you guys that the other day at an autocross a guy showed up with a BMW i3. It is BMW's fastest car from 0 to 35 Mph. Quite impressive. Not so impressive after 35 Mph though. :hehe:

Interesting tid bit.... it has dual stage brake lights. One set of brake lights comes on when the throttle is lifted as it begins to harvest. The other set comes on when the brakes are depressed. I spoke to the owner and he didn't know it did that until I told him.
User avatar
By Jabberwocky
#423104
Have you seen some of the stats on newer cars amazing really
By Hammer278
#423109
Oh, did I tell you guys that the other day at an autocross a guy showed up with a BMW i3. It is BMW's fastest car from 0 to 35 Mph. Quite impressive. Not so impressive after 35 Mph though. :hehe:

Interesting tid bit.... it has dual stage brake lights. One set of brake lights comes on when the throttle is lifted as it begins to harvest. The other set comes on when the brakes are depressed. I spoke to the owner and he didn't know it did that until I told him.


Have you seen the i8 and the specs of the i8, that thing is a freaking spaceship on wheels. I saw it in the flesh when I was in Switzerland at the motor show and just sitting in it sort of blows your hair back.
User avatar
By stonemonkey
#423132
Personally the lack of range is what would put me off a purely electric car.


Yep, things like having the car loaded up for a holiday will reduce that range too and depending on the time of year you could be using the AC or the heaters which reduce it further.

If you do run out, its not like you can just get a lift to pick up a can of electrons.

Battery/supercapacitor tech will improve but until it does there will be circumstances where its not convenient.

Oh, and i live in a top floor tenement so a bit difficult for me to plug in at home.
User avatar
By Jabberwocky
#423134
Plus how many people would splice a feed off it before it hits the floor lol
User avatar
By stonemonkey
#423135
Plus how many people would splice a feed off it before it hits the floor lol


Yep, or if it takes off they'll be plugging in their own EVs

Just round the corner from here i once saw 3 or 4 extension leads connected together hanging out a top floor flat. It was pouring with rain and there were plastic bags tied around the connections. It was someone charging up a nissan leaf.

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