Alternative Energy Sources discussion

[Randy V]

The Ford hydrogen-powered car used a fuel cell powered by H2 to create electricity. Of course more EVs went up in flames compared ti H2 blow-ups. How many H2 powered cars were on the road- virtually none in comparison.

Well, Honda was trying hard to lead this technology…

Vehicle Electrification – Benefits and Technologies | Honda

Discover the advanced technologies and benefits of a Honda electrified vehicle. Compare the stylish and elegant electrified lineup from Honda and take our quiz to see what electrified vehicle is right for you.

automobiles.honda.com

 

[Jeff Young]

Now this is a good discussion. Good job fellows.

 

[Howard Jones]

An interesting event to consider. On another note, racetracks are banning electric cars from open track days because of the danger to track corner workers. It's the high voltage present in the battery pack in the event of a shunt and the battery gets shorted to the chassis.

MSN

 

[Howard Jones]

And....... then there is this................

MSN

 

[Howard Jones]

And this one......in China.

 

[Ady]

I purchased and owned a new 2007 Camry Hybrid for a few years. At 50k miles, the brakes in the car were still literally new. Regenerative braking was highly optimized in that car and on the whole - I was truly impressed by the engineering…. I cannot remember when, if at all, the car delivered less than 40Mpg. Generally it was 42 in combined city/highway driving.

Still running a 2010 Ford Focus diesel estate as a daily driver… ignoring lights, radio & a clock no electric anything and dash says 62.1mpg. An entertaining game of maximising mpg in traffic whilst not arriving any later than using a lead foot. Mpg stat not reset since I bought it. On balance I think the kindest thing for the planet is for me to keep running it, give it a wash and a polish once in a while and ignore the hype about current EVs.

 

[Chris Kouba]

Still running a 2010 Ford Focus diesel estate as a daily driver… ignoring lights, radio & a clock no electric anything and dash says 62.1mpg. An entertaining game of maximising mpg in traffic whilst not arriving any later than using a lead foot. Mpg stat not reset since I bought it. On balance I think the kindest thing for the planet is for me to keep running it, give it a wash and a polish once in a while and ignore the hype about current EVs.

Similar experience, 05 Golf TDi which got 48.5 MPG no matter how hard or gentle I rode it. Made it to 298k miles before something happened which I didn't want to deal with fixing (turbo bearing?).

I assume Randy's not bragging, but I don't really consider 40 MPG hybrids something for manufacturers to be exceptionally proud of when there are 50 MPG conventional powertrain vehicles out there without the battery, supply chain, and range issues. Not everything needs to be all gadgety and complicated whizz-bang tech.

All that said, I have the GT in the shed and daily drive an 08 STi now, so you can see where my head is.

 

[Ady]

We think alike… and not much to go wrong.
GT should be back with me soon. An ECU upgrade to sequential injection and maybe gain a few extra mpg there too?

 

[Randy V]

Similar experience, 05 Golf TDi which got 48.5 MPG no matter how hard or gentle I rode it. Made it to 298k miles before something happened which I didn't want to deal with fixing (turbo bearing?).

I assume Randy's not bragging, but I don't really consider 40 MPG hybrids something for manufacturers to be exceptionally proud of when there are 50 MPG conventional powertrain vehicles out there without the battery, supply chain, and range issues. Not everything needs to be all gadgety and complicated whizz-bang tech.

All that said, I have the GT in the shed and daily drive an 08 STi now, so you can see where my head is.

The 2007 Camry Hybrid was the first hybrid other than the Prius that Toyota had. It also sat 5 full grown men with helmets and pulled 130mph at the performance driving school I instructed at. Even with some pretty hard demonstration laps, it still topped 40mpg.
It was not a “beautiful“ car aerodynamically - but it was a very heavy, nice riding full size sedan.
Bragging? Not really - but we’re talking a 3700# car that was able to beat the EPA Rated economy on every tank..

 

[Chris Kouba]

The 2007 Camry Hybrid was the first hybrid other than the Prius that Toyota had. It also sat 5 full grown men with helmets and pulled 130mph at the performance driving school I instructed at. Even with some pretty hard demonstration laps, it still topped 40mpg.

Uh, in that context, I sit corrected. That is reasonably impressive.

 

[Stephen Ducker]

Two recent ones on this side of the pond.

Sebastien Loeb's Lancia Delta EV Racer Destroyed in Paddock Fire During Charging

A final investigation is underway, but video evidence reportedly shows that the fire started in one car's battery as it was charging.

www.roadandtrack.com

One killed in cargo ship fire in Netherlands - with electric car suspected as the cause

The ship had around 3,000 cars on board, according to Dutch broadcaster NOS, and the fire is suspected to have started in one of the 25 electric cars on board, the news service added, citing a spokesperson for the coast guard.

news.sky.com

I'm not keen to own one, especially as my garage is attached to my house !

 

[Andy R]

Alternate Energy Sources discussion.
So lets put the nut bar on the counter, current Congress hearings into suppressed technology.
Zero Point - Quantum Vacuum energy, over unity generators that have been supposedly suppressed for the past 100 years.
Imagine Infinite free energy for all
Maybe a real wireless Tesla car powered from the Aether as Nikola Tesla intended, not the BEV Musks.

 

[Neil]

Alternate Energy Sources discussion.
So lets put the nut bar on the counter, current Congress hearings into suppressed technology.
Zero Point - Quantum Vacuum energy, over unity generators that have been supposedly suppressed for the past 100 years.
Imagine Infinite free energy for all
Maybe a real wireless Tesla car powered from the Aether as Nikola Tesla intended, not the BEV Musks.

P T Barnum was right.

 

[Randy V]

Alternate Energy Sources discussion.
So lets put the nut bar on the counter, current Congress hearings into suppressed technology.
Zero Point - Quantum Vacuum energy, over unity generators that have been supposedly suppressed for the past 100 years.
Imagine Infinite free energy for all
Maybe a real wireless Tesla car powered from the Aether as Nikola Tesla intended, not the BEV Musks.

I know you meant much of this as tongue in cheek - but not to totally dismiss it as pointless, I did a little searching and sure enough, there have been advances in wireless transmission of electrical energy fairly recently - and it’s about time for an update on their research so stay tuned —
link :: https://phys.org/news/2015-03-japan-space-scientists-wireless-energy.html

 

[Howard Jones]

Absolute fact. You cannot transmit EMF, RF, or microwaves (same thing just higher in frequency) over ANY distance in any medium without SOME attenuation. Period. It is MUCH more efficient to transfer electrical power through wires. So the barrier to building a big microwave transmitter in orbit, for example, and beaming down to the surface the energy beam, capturing the microwave energy, converting it to usable electrical power, and then distributing it to end users, is the extreme cost of lift to orbit of the microwave generation systems. Even if the original energy is free (solar) converting it to electrical energy would be so expensive as to be laughable.

There is no possible way to generate electrical power for free and there never will be. What will work is to lower generation costs first and then spend a portion of the profits to make it environmentally "clean". This is a self-generating resource loop. Not the other way around which is spend public money first to build what is believed to be "clean" power systems only to find out later that on balance it isn't or it has prohibitive unintended consequences. (self-depleting limited resource system) That list is too long for this post.

And ya I know it was a joke.....................because it is.

 

[Brian]

If they were able to keep transmitted energy focused enough to have anything usable at the far end, imagine accidentally flying through that column.

 

[Howard Jones]

"keep transmitted energy focused enough to have anything usable at the far end" Dispersion is the problem. Even with light energy, Lazers, this is the biggest problem to overcome when trying to focus power on a single point at a distance. With EMF energy dispersion is an even bigger problem.

 

[Neil]

"keep transmitted energy focused enough to have anything usable at the far end" Dispersion is the problem. Even with light energy, Lazers, this is the biggest problem to overcome when trying to focus power on a single point at a distance. With EMF energy dispersion is an even bigger problem.

Unfortunately, that concept is the old Flash Gordon "Death Ray". Consider the power density necessary to transmit appreciable power over a distance- anything encountering that energy beam will be vaporized..

 

[Brian]

And that concept is the only viable one. For the energy to be recaptured, it must be in a confined area rather than spread out everywhere.

 

[JP Verweij]

ITER is hoped to be the first power producing fusion reactor...

Had a chat today with my father in law about it (who worked on the project till he retired but still in contact with his co workers).
ITER project will take at least another 30 years to see what it does and if it works. They need so much Tritium to cool it there's not enough Lithium to create it.
ITER is a project to see whats possible and to see if it suitable to make energy.

When my father in law started on the project they told him it would take 50 years to get it working... those 50 years are already gone bye.