Green cars

Posted By: gabotech @ 01/21/2009 9:00:36 AMBut how can we produce the electricity required to supply a lot of electric cars?


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Posted By: dpct @ 01/18/2009 11:17:39 PMThere is no question that the electric car is the answer. 98% efficiency, zero emmisions etc. I'm preaching to the choir. BUt if we are going to re-thing our infrastructure, we should take the opportunity to think or revolutionarly solutions instead of evolutionaly ones.

The main draw back with the electric car is how to carry or create the electricity. Batteries and fuel cells are still in their infancy. They also represent evolutionay change. How do we make electicity behave like fossil fuel. What if it doesn't have to? The fact is, we solved this problem decades ago. It's called the electric train.

The TRAIN you say? Yes. As soon as you realize that the car doesn't need to carry the electricity, your options become nearly limitless. Here is a scenario for how this could look.

Trains run on tracks and get their electricity from either a third rail or Catenary wires overhead. Now that doesn't really work. Cars need to change lanes so third rails are out. They would also be a hazzard to people who need to walk on road. Catenary wires also don't work. A Kenworth truck and a Honda Civic vary greatly in heigh. But.. why have a connection at all. Technology already exists for electricity to be transmitted without contact. Does anyone have a cordless toothbruch? Here is how it works.

Into every interstate highway and State road, transimision coils are imbeded in the road surface. Cars have a duel power system. When you leave your home in the morning, you car runs on batteries, a small generator, a fuel cell. When you get to a main road the car would switch it's power source the "the grid". It's the exact opposite of a hybrid. You now have virtually unlimited range while on the major roads. When you pull off the main road to go to the mall or office, you switch back to internal power, which was paoosibly recharging the whole time you were on the grid.

It is a win/win for everyone. We can create jobs in order to build the infrastructure. Car companies will have a huge demand for new cars that can have some pretty radical designes. Consumers win since we get lower cost transportation. Since the roads will still be drivable by conventional cars, they don't have to upgrade until they are ready or able. The enviornment wins since the production of electricity at a plant can be controlled more readily than at a tail pipe With the availavility of WiFi technology and GPS, it would be simple enough for power companies to bill for electricity used no matter where you traveled.

We need a revolution in the way we travel not an evolution. This idea, while expensive, merges the best of public transportation with the freedom we have all come to expect from the car. John F Kennedy once challange us to send a man to the moon and return them safely to earth by the end of the decade. No one knew how. Why let that stop us now.