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Old 02-14-2018, 09:17 AM   #74
JamesNoBrakes


 
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Join Date: Oct 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by motorhead View Post
So where is all the electricity coming from to power even just the cars and trucks in the USA? The electrical grid is about at its breaking point now.
lol...it's constantly being upgraded and improved as we move forward. People are using EVs from "the grid" as we speak. It works for the current use, it will be upgraded as use continues. There will be business opportunities and work generated along the way. You are terrified by something new that you don't fully understand. Electricity is more efficient to beam to your house than trucking oil all over the globe with various vehicles to sit in tanks at gas-stations that themselves required oil to produce. The great thing about EVs is they don't care what the source is, geothermal, solar, hydroeletric, tidal, wind, fusion, fission, coal, gas-turbine, etc...Not only that, but gas-turbine has exceeded 50% carnot efficiency a number of years ago, a barrier once thought impossible, up around 65% now. Add to that how scale-able the installations are and how little infrastructure they require, it's no wonder they are becoming the power-generation method of choice for many cities/urban areas. Not sure if you are aware, but Nuke plants are horribly inefficient. It "seems" like "free energy!" on paper, but all the building, security, storage, and massive infrastructure does not come out "on top" as far as efficiency and cost, this is one big reason why it's fallen out of favor, it's just too expensive to keep running. That doesn't mean don't invest in research, but practically, it's not the sure-shot that it was once believed to be.

I've seen huge increases in battery life from what was in production 20 years ago, I run LED lights on Li Ion batteries at night for hours on end. Phones that last all day using various features, etc. Of course, we always seem to find new ways to drain them, but that doesn't mean the capacity is going up. Tiny little batteries the size of your fist turning over massive lycoming IO-540 engines.

I believe you are terrified of the future because it will be different. People felt the same way about the horseless carriage.
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