What is Digg?Sponsored by Dragon Age: Origins
Can't get enough Dragon Age: Origins? Play the flash game. view!
DragonAgeJourneys.com - Play the free companion flash game to Dragon Age: Origins.
232 Comments
- inactive, on 07/23/2008, -1/+81I'm buying one. And a gas-powered electric generator to go with it.
- ohnoerino, on 07/23/2008, -2/+35I can see where this could be a legitimate concern...especially in concentrated urban areas.
- icexe, on 07/23/2008, -1/+30heh..I was just talking to someone about these very issues a couple days ago.
My guess is that public recharging stations would work in a similar fashion to parking meters. You park next to one and then purchase a certain amount of charge time. Of course, there are other issues to consider, such as some jackass coming along and unplugging your car, or stealing your charge time for his car, etc..so maybe some kind of plug locking system would have to be installed on each car.
I should start drawing up some plans for this idea, someone is going to be raking in a ton of money on charging stations soon, it might as well be me. - redwallhp, on 07/23/2008, -2/+28Wind, solar, geothermal, wave power...
- VigRoco, on 07/23/2008, -2/+24Nuclear power is clean.
- apeweek, on 07/23/2008, -1/+22Where will the electricity come from? Electric cars charge at night. There's plenty of off peak electricity available.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/06121 ...
Mileage From Megawatts: Study Finds Enough Electric Capacity To 'Fill Up' Plug-in Vehicles
"Science Daily — If all the cars and light trucks in the nation switched from oil to electrons, idle capacity in the existing electric power system could generate most of the electricity consumed by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. A new study for the Department of Energy finds that "off-peak" electricity production and transmission capacity could fuel 84 percent of the country's 220 million vehicles if they were plug-in hybrid electrics." - chililili, on 07/23/2008, -2/+20Yes it is, don't be so ignorant and do a little research.
- cyroxos, on 07/23/2008, -0/+16I hate this argument, because even if power plants burned 89octane gasoline, its going to be a LOT more efficient than a car would burn it.
Power companies devote billions of dollars to making themselves more efficient. Plus, as mentioned above me, if the USA would stop believing in lies and start building more nuclear power plants and put research money into fusion, then we would be set. - Falcorn, on 07/23/2008, -0/+15Excellent use of sarcasm
/sarcasm - treed, on 07/23/2008, -0/+13The advantage of cars being electric is that electricity is a storage medium for energy. Once the cars are electric, you can change the means of generating the energy much more simply.
What's more simple? Replace 100,000,000 cars when the next new technology comes out? Or replace 1,000 power plants? - redwallhp, on 07/23/2008, -0/+12Most of the cars being released (Tesla, Fisker, Lightning) will be able to be charged via an ordinary power outlet, or with a power station that can charge it quicker. So you could plug the car in where you work, at a hotel if you're traveling, anywhere with an available outlet. I imagine we'll start seeing public charging stations (perhaps in parking meters and telephone poles?) around when the cars start to gain popularity.
The state of California started building charging stations for the EV1 when it became available. I wonder what happened to them though... - whiteknives, on 07/23/2008, -0/+11I'm fairly certain that most drivers will be plugging their cars in at night.
- sockpuppets, on 07/23/2008, -0/+10To my neighbor's house.
- krnldmp, on 07/23/2008, -0/+10photovoltaics, on the roof of your house
- bryxal, on 07/23/2008, -0/+9that's what breakers are for, they'd jump if you tried to pull more than 15 amps. It could be done like an oven or dryer. on a dedicated ~30 amp circuit.
- inactive, on 07/23/2008, -6/+15Does anyone know how many amps an electric car pulls while it's charging? Most home outlets are rated @ 15amps I believe. It would suck to have fires and electrical problems due to all the plugged in cars if this really goes mainstream.
- kokoshka, on 07/24/2008, -0/+8Cost.
- soccaparker, on 07/23/2008, -0/+7thanks for the idea. peace!
- 10scott10, on 07/23/2008, -0/+7once the energy source is centralized it is much easier to make it cleaner. you can take a polluting power plant out of the loop and replace it with something cleaner.
its harder to make a million solar power cars, but with a single giaant plant, you can do it. - pedepy, on 07/23/2008, -3/+10how bout: wherever used to stand a gas station ??
- Mononuclear, on 07/23/2008, -0/+7exchangeable packs? I can't see this working. What if you get stuck with a pack that is dying? With use batteries wear out. Do you pay an extra service fee to help replace spent batteries plus the power to charge it?
- apeweek, on 07/23/2008, -1/+7The rolling blackouts were caused by the manipulation of the energy market by the likes of Enron - not due to real shortages.
Nevertheless, EVs will mainly charge at night - and there's plenty of off-peak electricity available, even in energy-stressed markets. - dampeal, on 07/23/2008, -3/+9Time to buy stock in extension cords!
- stubear, on 07/23/2008, -3/+9With everyone charging their cars at night it won't be off-peak anymore.
- AmyVernon, on 07/23/2008, -0/+6if they gave incentives to companies to set up chargers in work parking lots, that could work... at least partly..
- KJSatz, on 07/23/2008, -0/+6The efficiency of a coal power plant blows a gas engine out of the water, in terms of cost and environmental impact. Additionally, using electricity sets us up for the coal power plants to be replaced by W/S/G later with no change to the car.
- 360photo, on 07/23/2008, -1/+7In Ontario, Canada they have to plug their regular gas cars in overnight in Winter to allow the car to start in the morning. They have neat little posts everywhere for cars to plug into with a flip cover. Can't be a huge deal.
- Taiyoryu, on 07/23/2008, -1/+7The Volt has one built-in. It's a serial hybrid system, but why they went with a 3-cylinder ICE generator instead of a more efficient micro-turbine electric generator beats me. And a turbine generator isn't as picky about its fuel and has fewer moving parts.
- apeweek, on 07/23/2008, -0/+6Electricity is cleaner than gas - that's what matters. The dirtiest fuel on the grid - coal, is baseload power. Those plants are too hard to regulate or shut down, so they run all the time, EVs or no EVs. Adding electric cars increases coal pollution very little.
Also, EVs plus the power grid are far more efficient than a gasoline engine, which in typical driving is maybe 15-20% efficient. sending power by wire to cars (95% efficient), also beats trucking gasoline to thousands of service stations.
Finally, here's a study showing EVs + powerplants made just 3% the pollution a gas vehicle does:
http://www.electric-cars-are-for-girls.com/electri ...
actual study: http://www.energy.ca.gov/papers/CEC-999-1996-015.P ...
"...in a study conducted by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, EVs were significantly cleaner over the course of 100,000 miles than ICE cars. The electricity generation process produces less than 100 pounds of pollutants for EVs compared to 3000 pounds for ICE vehicles." - redwallhp, on 07/23/2008, -2/+7You use solar/wind/geothermal energy to get the electricity for your home. You plug the car in at home and charge it's batteries.
- EEPS, on 07/23/2008, -0/+5Electric cars do not use the same amount of energy, they are much more efficient. The Tesla claims to get 256 mpg equivalent due to regenerative braking as well as electric motors just being more efficient than gas. If you look at the energy content of all of the batteries in the Tesla, its just under that of one gallon of gas (thats why its range is about 220 miles). In the future, if nuclear makes a come back, solar becomes cheaper, batteries become better and our electrical infrastructure is improved, it will truly be a much cleaner and more efficient system than we have today.
- cheezintern, on 07/23/2008, -1/+6extension cord?
- rawtribe, on 07/23/2008, -0/+5It's been done:
http://www.coulombtech.com/ - apeweek, on 07/23/2008, -0/+5Good point, but that scenario is decades away. There will be time to get that problem solved. Personally, I will put a solar panel on my garage for charging (free fuel!)
- apeweek, on 07/23/2008, -0/+5No, EVs use less energy. An electric car can get 4 to 10 miles per kilowatt-hour, which works out to a penny or two per mile. Gasoline costs more like 14 to 30 cents/mile. The difference in cost is mainly due to efficiency. More miles on less energy means less pollution.
Charging at night (which most EVs do) will also make use of lots of wasted capacity during off-peak hours.
Also, huge amounts of electricity are currently used to refine gasoline. Freeing that up to charge EVs will obviously be a much more efficient use for that electricity. - inbyronwetrust, on 07/23/2008, -2/+7I live in Portland OR, there is a sign outside the parking garage by my work that indicates car recharging stations inside.
- inactive, on 07/23/2008, -2/+7I love raisins.
- apeweek, on 07/24/2008, -0/+4Fuel-cell cars are electric cars, too. In fact, hydrogen is usually extracted with electricity - with less efficiency than that provided by battery powered vehicles. Sorry, no change in energy source here.
- inactive, on 07/24/2008, -2/+6These comments are a joke. Offpeak power is cheap, thanks apeweek. In France most power is nuclear. As you cannot turn off a nuclear power station at night the electricity is pretty cheap during these hours, ideal for charging up the car. I thought everyone knew the Californian brown-outs were politics based (ie a scam). 15A not enough for charging up a battery without causing fires? wtf??? cheezintern makes a joke "extension cord" but I work with building companies that do works over several months and they will without problem run a cable for power drills etc for quite long distances, even from the (marginally compensated) neighbours if necessary. Our place in the UK has a several MW solar array and will be able to run an electric car for free for life. I'm sure if a neighbour had an electric car we wouldn't mind them using the excess electricity charge for free. Affording the car in the first place is the only obstacle... the running of it is the least of your worries!
Phillip. - altgeeky1, on 07/24/2008, -0/+4Wow, I can't believe 2 people buried your comment. Do that many people HATE the concept of a energy liberated America?
- dagamer34, on 07/24/2008, -0/+4While the environmental problems need to eventually be addressed, electricity generated at a coal or nuclear power plant is FAR more efficient than the internal combustion engine in a typical car.
- altgeeky1, on 07/24/2008, -0/+4>The big issue with electric cars is that the electricity must still come from somewhere
You raise an important fact - the energy DOES come from somewhere - however the point is overblown, big time.
I don't know the CO2 tonnage math, but even the WORST coal power plant is cleaner than the average American car. Get a bunch of these cars off the road, and the energy comes from a single central power plant that can be inspected and maintained.
I can't count the number of smoking cars I drive behind in the city. They just skew the pollution numbers for ALL cars, on average.
Last point: most of the cars will charge AT NIGHT, when the demands on the power grid are lowest. Take a look at the power grid output per hour.. it's not a flat line. - RoboRay, on 07/24/2008, -0/+4Today's nuclear waste is tomorrow's fuel.
- inactive, on 07/23/2008, -3/+7That's a neat idea.
- KJSatz, on 07/23/2008, -0/+4Not really. Most car charging will happen at night during non-peak hours, and (for example) a coal plant is way more efficient than your 2L gas engine. Plus using electricity allows us to move to alternatives like W/S/G on the power production side without affecting the car.
- inactive, on 07/24/2008, -1/+5It never ceases to amaze me how many people think solar energy is actually a practical approach for energy. What we need is more nuclear power plants to not just charge up these cars, but to lower the need for coal and fossil fuels.
- MikeFallopian, on 07/23/2008, -0/+4Compare the efficiencies of coal power plants to the efficiencies of gasoline ICEs. Even when you factor in power transmission losses and electric drive losses, less energy goes into an electric car to get the same energy output. And, there's no reason to believe that coal will still predominantly fuel our electrical grid in 30-50 years.
- inyearstocome, on 07/23/2008, -0/+3You still need an electric car (battery based) to use Solar. Solar is very slow, there's no way it could power a motor on demand.
Now, a solar based charging unit would be a great idea in rural areas--but again, wouldnt work well in populated urban areas where people share the roof of their building. - inactive, on 07/24/2008, -0/+3This is were you fail to grasp the concept. These are electric vehicles that have on-board generators that serve as range extenders. It doesn't matter if these generators are gas, diesel, propane, or even fuel cells.
- EricAnderton, on 07/24/2008, -0/+3Use a locking retaining ring or hatch that keeps the business end of the recharging plug captive so it can't be yanked out.
The city would have a key for the lock on the other end of the cable, in case they have to tow your car. -
Show 51 - 100 of 234 discussions
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is