You are constantly printing out here that folks posting on this site are lying. Very stupid comments! imo
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If you wonder if China’s EV development will continue:
Sure. But you are insisting that there is no problem in need of a solution, and claiming anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
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The City with 16,000 Electric Buses & 22,000 Electric Taxis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P7fTPLSMeI
China has over 420,000 electric buses alone. They are way ahead of the US in EV vehicles.
It’s quite incredible how far ahead they are of US transportation networks. Every bus and taxi in the city is tracked on a big screen.
Upside is zero emission and no pollution, no noise, easier to drive than diesel buses, cheaper to refuel, cheaper on maintenance and requires less maintenance. Because of more reliability, they have better utilization rates than diesel buses. Charging a bus is about $46, less than diesel, and a lot cleaner and easier, no big storage tanks, and no shipments of fuel required. Most of the buses were built by BYD, the company Buffet invested in.
There are interviews with Chinese executives in the video, most of whom speak English better than many Americans.
That’s not entirely true though, and may lead one to make incorrect conclusions.
Top of the line for PV cell efficiency is now 47.1%, and based on the chart is likely to continue climbing.
Besides, I think the biggest improvement in solar is the big drop in its cost. Nobody really cares about efficiency, it’s not like we’re limited by space. There’s more than enough room on a roof to power the house, and there’s plenty of room in the desert for utility-scale projects.
In sunny places, solar is cheaper than what the utility charges – it pays for itself in 3-10 years (depends on size – the more energy you need, the faster it pays off), and then it’s free for the life of the panels (25+ years). AND it adds value to the property if you sell. Financially it doesn’t make sense to not install solar panels if your usage is high enough (I’d say > $80/mo).
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Here’s a serious question. Isnt there any concern about environmental impact of these “utlility scale” projects? I appologize for not using correct scientific terminology, but those power generators take energy out of the environment. Banks of solar panels leaves the surrounding soil a little cooler. Wind farms leave the wind blowing with a little less force. It is impossible to extract energy from anything without having some kind of impact on the surrounding environment. I know we are in an age where considering unintended consequences is a lost concept, but removing something can be as impactful to the environment as adding something.
Why do I wonder if in 40 years, today’s “green” energy will be viewed with the same controversy as fossile fuels today?
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What about the resources that have to be consumed to manufacture the solar cells? The materials that have to be mined and the environmental side effects of the mines? the energy required to mine them and to produce the materials and the finished product? The energy and materials and manpower required to install and maintain them?There’s also the manufacture and maintenance of the transmission lines to take the electric power generated over the huge areas and deliver it to the grid.
Solar and wind have limited lifetimes over which they produce energy. Can they be recycled economically? many components for example of windmills cannot be economically recycled so they just end up in landfills I have read. and how much energy will it take to recycle them compared to the energy that they produce?
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The point was that the large improvements have already been made. You’re not going to get a factor of 10 improvement in efficiency that will enable you to use smaller or fewer solar cells. if they are extracting 50% of the available energy the maximum you can get is a factor of two. This is solar and wind energy’s diffuseness problem. Its low power density, approximately 1 kW/ square meter, means that you need huge areas and a lot of solar cells and windmills to produce the power equivalent to a natural gas or nuclear power plant.
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Any economic numbers you give are highly unreliable because of subsidies either direct or indirect. For example, rebates. But also requiring utilities to buy electric power from home solar installations at a regulated price costs the utility money that the regulator says they must pay. They do that by raising the price of electricity to other customers.
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FYI, the price of solar panels has dropped 70% since 2014 and is predicted to drop another 50% by 2030. No such drops are envisioned for conventional sources.
There are also the likely technological advances over the years which are again something conventional sources can not compete with.
It’s similar with wind power.
Which means many or most EVs can be recharged with renewable power.
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/not-too-america-ready-solar-223353467.html
Yes. But to say they do not exist as of now does not make one a liar. Because as of now those advancements do not exist.
This is more of a lie than anything you’ve called a lie. There is potential that many or most EVs will be able to be recharged with renewable power at some point in the future. But that isn’t what you stated.
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That’s great. I mean that.
I almost bought an electric car for commuting because it made financial sense. Just not quite there yet at current used prices. But I may be soon. However, so many other people will have them soon enough that the two free charging spaces in the parking garage at my office will probably be occupied too often for it to make sense then. We’ll see.
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By “sunny”, do you mean the desert? 
And by “pay for itself”, do you mean with subsidies and/or tax credits?
I really wanted to get soiar, but couldn’t make it economically comfortable for me. Not many things would make me happier than pulling away from Duke Energy’s greedy clutches.
I got a quote last year from two of the frequent door knocker solar sales companies. I gave them our annual usage, and they provided cash (non-financed) quotes. I told one of them upfront that I needed to see a payout in 7 years for me to consider purchase. They were able to get to 10.5 years. I suspect they quoted low end equipment, but with that price, I didn’t need to investigate. The other company was 40% more.
BTW, the roof sections where they could put the panels were south and west. I do not recall the exact number, but I’m pretty sure the life of the panel was a lot less than 25 years … or maybe that was the length of time that they guaranteed the efficiency of the panels.
The prices quoted made a couple of my checklist items moot, but has anyone checked on what the panels do to your homeowner’s insurance? Obviously, if you put 20k of product in/on your home, the value to be insured goes up, but is that all? Anyone have experience with this?
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You deleted your post so I wont quote it. But the overall point, in the context of this thread, is that the winning investments in electric vehicles do not exist yet. With what’s available right now, there’s a pretty limited cap on their potential. No one is saying that EVs cant become prominant in the future, we’re saying that it’s not going to happen with existing technology.
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There is. Birds get disoriented and fried up in-flight at solar concentrators. There’s also some problem with endangered tortoises and the like. A freeway cutting through the desert does that too. I think there are ways to mitigate a lot of these problems, and there are people more knowledgeable than us who are responsible for assessing the impact. Clearly it’s not perfect, but to the best of my knowledge it’s better than the alternatives.
From all the studies I’ve heard of, this has been calculated to be significantly less damaging than the alternatives. And the transmission lines already exist, though they may need to be modernized.
Sim City taught me that coal and nuclear power plants also have limited lifetimes. You’re right about windmills – the props are wrapped with carbon fiber and can’t be recycled, but someone is working on it. I think there already exists a version made of recyclable or reusable parts.
You are asking reasonable questions, but I suspect that the companies INVESTING THE MONEY have already figured it out. They probably wouldn’t be doing it if it did not make sense financially.
Good thing we have plenty of space on existing structures to install solar panels.
The number I use only includes the current federal subsidy (26%?) for installing rooftop solar, so you could add a few years to the pay-off to compensate for this subsidy. The power company would require me to switch to time-of-use billing, so no, other customers would NOT be subsidizing my energy costs. The energy is most expensive when demand is highest. Around here that’s when everyone turns on their A/C. But that means the sun is shining. So I’d be supplying energy when demand is high in the afternoon and consuming when demand is lower at night. So I don’t think what you wrote is true, at least not here.
It’d take ~30% longer without THE subsidy (tax credit).
I suspect you’ll never get a reasonable price from anyone who came to you unsolicited.
25-30 years is considered a typical lifetime, but they don’t just stop working. They should be at about 80% after 25 years.
I haven’t looked into homeowner’s insurance, and I doubt it’d be affected. I suspect it might already be included in the base coverage as “personal property” or “other structures” or what have you.
I’m thinking more about things like how massive wind farms can affect weather patterns. When you remove energy from the wind, the wind isnt going to blow the same way. Taking some force out of the wind in Arizona could result in it snowing in Texas instead of Chicago, since what was steering the storm north now lets it creep south (just as a completely random hypothetical example).
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Riiiiight. And it’ll slow down the rotation of the earth, just a little bit.
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My memory must have really deteriorated while away - I don’t recall how much optimism radiates from your posts. It’s a great thing!
You’re missing the positive aspect of this scenario. It could then be further i̶m̶a̶g̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ scientifically unquestionable proof of global warming/cooling/what-have-you.