On 25/04/2014 12:03 AM, Russell Coker wrote:
On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 18:21:40 Andrew McGlashan wrote: But really the best option is an electric car running on solar/wind generated electricity. Electric cars have a range of 400Km+ which compares well with petrol powered cars. The Tesla model S has a range of up to 500Km depending on the test cycle used - my personal record for driving a car without refuelling is 500Km.
I've done better than 500km, but it's all relative to a point -- you might have a smaller tank.
A Tesla S running on coal generated electricity is still going to produce less emissions than most cars, the big turbines at power plants are more efficient than the light weight engines in cars.
Don't forget the inefficiencies of transmitting power over power lines for ... there is plenty lost there too. If it wasn't for this problem, there wouldn't be AC power, it would all be DC. But even AC will see losses from transmission. Think about the Bloom box [1] -- if the cost ever gets down as low as expected, then solar will be a very expensive alternative or a similar example [2] that was /invented/ in Victoria, but was exported overseas because of lack of government support (unless I am mistaken). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_Energy_Server [2] http://www.bluegen.info/BlueGen_Technology/ A.