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28 Comments
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Meh.
I'd rather see solar grids on roofs that redistribute power to other nearby solar-equipped cars through resonant wireless power transmission. This way the sun could be powering a lot of our needs on the road, and we could still have gasoline hybrid engines for backup.
We have the tech, lets do it. Wireless-redistributed solar power is the way to fly. - lnxaddct, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I think a lot of people are missing the point here. The power company pays you for this selling back of power, and you'll likely make a couple hundred dollars per year from it (in some cases a bit more). Google has a whole bunch of cars here that plug in during the day, and we really like the results. This is simply the next step.
The idea is that a lot of energy is lost at night. At night the most wind blows, so wind farms are least effective during their most productive time (no one is using power at night, but the wind farms are at peak production then). Also, traditional power plants scale down at night and then have to ramp up again real quick when morning breaks. Most people would charge their cars over night though, so the lost wind power from night can be now be stored in cars and redistributed during the day while your car is sitting in a parking garage somewhere and you're working. Also, rather than power plants having to ramp up every day and down every night, they could keep things at moderate levels. The ramping wouldn't need to be as extreme because the cars would be handling the extra load.
The power companies like it because it allows them to operate more efficiently. They are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars (or much more if this ever scales up across the country), and you are making some extra cash as well.
Typical disclaimer: Even though I'm a Google engineer, this isn't official or anything. - lnxaddct, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Nudar,
In California, much of our power comes from natural resources (it is around 38% and growing). But even if it is energy coming from traditional power plants, the power plant uses fuel far more efficiently than an individual car. Either way, plugging in your car and charging it that way is cheaper, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly than just filling it with gas. - jerbaker, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3You forget that your hybrid generates its own electricity with a gas motor. The question is whether you can sell this at a profit, and whether the pollution from a kWh of gas-generated electricity is more or less than from the grid.
- epilonious, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4It's neat tech.... but the whole idea of storing power in hybrid batteries, and then pulling from them during high loads seems like it would just wear out the batteries a lot quicker (charge, discharge, charge, all while sitting in the parking lot)... couldn't the power companies just build a few mega-capacitors or something that behaved like electrical water towers and stick to charging the hybrid batteries overnight?
- UtahApocalyse, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4This is really a step in the right direction. It's really ashame that the big auto corporations are beholden to the oil industry. Interesting that a tech company such as google can help push new ideas in this area. Maybe someday we can have more efficient vehicles, power systems and a little but better world.
- webcure, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3This is a great sign for the future!
I digg it! - ninjatech123, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3What would be neat if they did, is line the hood, roof, and trunk with solar panels so when the car is sitting in a parking lot it can at least partially recharge its batteries with the solar panels, once the batteries are full, dump any extra energy those panels are making in to the power grid.
- epilonious, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3goodness, sounds like someone got his summer cooling bill and found it easier to bitch about the Goddamn Evil Power companies than to cut back on the A/C a little....
Speaking of summer A/C... this seems like it might be a stopgap to having to build tons of extra power plants (which would cost even more money) just to keep from having rolling brownouts during 4 months of the year (which is much more annoying than having power companies push some of their storage losses to willing customers)... a common problem in California where this technology is undergoing testing. - RaveX, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2It seems that the key to this working for the consumer would be variable-rate pricing. If the car followed a rule such that it charged anytime the cost of charging with electricity was less than the equivalent cost of filling up with gasoline AND off-peak rates were in effect, and it sold power back to the grid anytime the cost of running on electricity was higher than the equivalent cost of running off gas OR on-peak rates were in effect, it'd be a real winner for most consumers.
Doing this would require that the car receive information both about electricity rates and gas prices, however, but that's a fairly easy hurdle to overcome, I think. - spindrift, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3While we're at it, fit each car with a GPS and a camera, turning it into a Streets View vehicle. Within a few years, every major roadway would be mapped hundreds of times over, and you'd have highly accurate GPS data just from averaging all the people driving around.
- JAKN, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3@tomthewombat
your point seemed credible until you threw all of corporate America in one pot. If everyone in an office building was evil, where would the Digg community find jobs?
You're right that this is a sweet deal for the power companies - passing storage costs on to us. However, we already pay them for their own storage. It's nice that we get to divide this up on a more per-use basis. The price of electricity is cheaper than the cost of gas per unit energy, and doesn't have dirty shipping costs associated with it, not to mention international politics. - forumz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Not all the energy being transfered from the car to the grid and back will be channeled into the other, the efficiency would be less than 100%, 'cause some would be lost as thermal energy, etc.
- kenvsryu, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3My car sits idle more than I use it. It can make me money while I'm being a lazy ass.
- SkyFire360, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Now that I think about it, about the only companies large enough and influential enough to challenge the oil companies are Google and Microsoft... Something tells me that Google is going to do a paradigm shift in the near future and join the energy market
- epilonious, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1sooo... I let them pay me (how is that free?) for using my storage medium or I let them charge me to buy their own storage mediums and/or build more plants...
Hmmm, tough decision there... - sishgupta, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1aegis, those are pretty expensive...
Its a nice idea and all, but a lot of people can't afford something like that. - yonis, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Why does Google have *any* stake in this?
It seems *way* out of place, since you don't think "Google" when you think "automotive technology." - apeweek, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1All battery chemistries are recyclable. Newer EV battery chemistries, like LiFePO4 are also environmentally benign and have extremely long lifetimes (10 to 20 years or even more.)
- brada33928, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Google will own Microsoft in 10 years.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Um, can anyone say solar roof?
- clarient, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1A step forward, kind of.
But how much will the batteries cost? What about disposing of them - will they be environmentally safe to just throw away, or will there be special considerations to make sure they're not polluting groundwater somewhere? How about the equipment to set up, or the solar panel itself? What about manufacturing the equipment? And the manufacture of the vehicle?
I like the idea. Solar power is an incredible tool that could help enormously - but only if we can use it effectively without counteracting the beneficial effects with negative ones. - Nudar, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I hate how they say these cars will get 75 miles per gallon of gasoline. That sounds impressive until your realize that's because of the extra electricity you paid for to power up the battery so it should say 75 miles per gallon of gasoline plus the fossil fuel powering the electric plant that is charging up your battery. Of course that would be more cumbersome.
- JohnnyXmas, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that like a massive perpetual motion machine?
- Dracker, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Why would the car send power back?
Where did it get that power from in the first place? - jerbaker, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2"rolling brownouts during 4 months of the year ... a common problem in California"
Actually, if you lived here you'd know it's not common to have rolling brownouts. In fact, I don't think we've had any since we recovered from the mess called deregulation. - Topher06, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0Why are you digging him down? Google isn't doing this for the warm fuzzy feelings.
- f0dder, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1The car will be covered in google ads & people can find you on google map.
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