Electric vehicles - general thoughts / comments / advances

[Jim]

From Paul's "drop in" electric "V-8 lookalike" conversion thread I commented upon range and "refill" to full range downtime.

This video showed up today and one of the items was a sub ten minute swap/refill for full range. Who knows if it'll take hold - though interesting to see.


Energy Storage Breakthrough - Solid Hydrogen Explained
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7CCq4oBgw4


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7CCq4oBgw4
.

[Java]

When the range gets to around 250-300 miles and there's either a factory or aftermarket solar roof charging option that really works I want one of these. I'm sure they'll be AWD or 4WD by then too.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lTLVjbkC7I

[speedkills]

Would solar charging ever be realistic? Even if tomorrow someone came out with 100% efficient solar cells, that's what, 4x what you can get today? Doesn't seem like enough to me. Or are you thinking some origami type thing that folds out to a much larger area than the actual roof?

[Jim]

Power has to come from somewhere...


Kremmerer WY (Southwest Wyoming)

Bill Gates’ nuclear power company selects a site for its first reactor

First-of-its-kind reactor to be built in Wyoming with heavy Dept. of Energy backing.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/11/bill-gates-nuclear-power-company-selects-a-site-for-its-first-reactor/


It'll be curious how the project comes along.

[Java]

Would solar charging ever be realistic? Even if tomorrow someone came out with 100% efficient solar cells, that's what, 4x what you can get today? Doesn't seem like enough to me. Or are you thinking some origami type thing that folds out to a much larger area than the actual roof?

I don't really know enough about the tech to answer that, but I'd like to be able to drive a couple of hundred miles on a charge, and if I parked at a campsite or trailhead or anywhere really for the day I'd like to add some charge, maybe 20-30 miles. That's just what I'd like, I don't know how realistic it is. I'd guess that as the vehicles evolve over the next few years range and solar charging will improve. If there is a big leap in battery tech and vehicles can store 400 or more miles on a charge then solar wouldn't be so important. It's interesting to see it happen.

[Jim]

The horizontal surfaces of an automobile (not van) can hold two, maybe three, 100 watt solar panels (https://cleanenergysummit.org/best-solar-panels-for-van/). Let's way two. At MAX conversion, with current technology, one could get 200 watts of power. Max sunlight, for a non-sun-tracking panel (high noon) is only a couple hours (?) before tapering off, quickly I hear.

Let's guess.

High Noon (two hour time duration) = 400 watts
An hour at each side of High Noon let's say 1/2 power = 200 watts
Much of the rest of the sunlit day, let's say 100 watts

Those guestimate numbers give us 700 watts of charge per full sun day.

from...

https://www.nissanusa.com/interactivebrochures/electric-hybrid-cars/leaf/leaf-charging/index.html

62 kWh Battery: EPA range up to 226 miles on Nissan LEAF S PLUS[2]
Approx. 11.5 hours = full charge

62 kWh battery gives 226 miles and we're going to add 0.7kW (700 watts) into the pack. How many miles might that give us?
62,000 watts / 226 miles = 274.3 watts per mile. Our 700 watts / day will give us 2.6 miles / day - with current technology and some off the cuff numbers.

If I recall hearing, current cell tech runs with approx 25% conversion efficiency. If we double that efficiency we'll get 5 miles per day.

Now, a side effect of having solar panels on the vehicle - weight. Would the weight of the panels negate the max charge benefit? I don't know though I am curious.

EDIT: I seem to recall the local youtube channel (TFL???) that evaluated the all electric ?jeep? - their takeaway was that offroad range was significantly less than highway range (I hoped it would have been close to highway range). 0.02

[speedkills]

Those are around the numbers I was thinking of as well, thanks for writing them down Jim. I think battery technology will increase density but the sun just doesn't put out enough power for solar to do much besides maybe run the fan to keep your car cool in the sun. Most realistic option I can see happening in the next decade for recharging while camping would be some sort of fuel cell tech but nothing I know of at this point is anywhere near practical for that yet. But still, 3-400 mile range and I'd be happy for most stuff. I rarely have only one vehicle so I'm not too worried about the edge cases, I'd just take a different rig for those times.

[Java]

Carbon body 1000hp McLaren vs. stock Tesla Plaid. First race @ 9:25, second @ 10:45, third @ 12.25.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loUsRGW9z-I

[Java]

Nothing happens in a vacuum.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzIeDTzU7Ko

[Jim]

I'd like to see an earnest / true / calculated / not biased or off the cuff analysis of the earth resources used for the creation of an electric vehicle vs. a typical gasoline vehicle. Lifespan of the vehicle would need to be taken into account as well. Perhaps end of life recycling too.

[Tom]

I'd like to see an earnest / true / calculated / not biased or off the cuff analysis of the earth resources used for the creation of an electric vehicle vs. a typical gasoline vehicle. Lifespan of the vehicle would need to be taken into account as well. Perhaps end of life recycling too.
Ditto

[Jim]

First post in the thread is the meaning:
https://gab.com/ElwoodBlues/posts/107414862595668405

While this directly talks to EV's, it completely hits home with any function that is Internet based and tied to a central point of control (or failure).

[Schmitty]

https://undark.org/2021/01/21/electric-car-looming-recyclability-problem/

[Jim]

check-out-fort-collins-nifty-new-electric-street-sweeper

https://power1029noco.com/check-out-fort-collins-nifty-new-electric-street-sweeper/

"Fleet use" is one area I find quite suitable for testing / evaluating / or simply a "nice fit" for emerging vehicle propulsion methods. Propane and compressed natural gas are a couple others that can fit nicely in fleet use. I believe Fort Collins has a compressed natural gas bus (tanks on the top of the bus). A neighbor, who worked for a welding gasses supply company, had a large ?propane? tank on his pickup (commuted at least 100 miles round trip, daily, for YEARS). He commented that the internals of the engine were CLEAN. Spark plugs were clean and lasted a long time. Engine oil - clean. There are some lawn companies in FoCo that use bottle gas for their mowers.

[Schmitty]

RTD and garbage trucks (Longmont/Boulder) have been on natural gas for years. It makes sense to have Gov/Fleet stuff on EV.

How we power those is another story. We need to make Nuclear not a scary N-word anymore.

[Jim]

We need to make Nuclear not a scary N-word anymore.

Ditto. I'm interested in safer nuke options though - auto-shut down things. What's up with Thorium reactors these days?

Source energy needs to come from somewhere.

[Jim]

First post in the thread is the meaning:
https://gab.com/ElwoodBlues/posts/107414862595668405

The two are likely related:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/amazon-explains-the-cause-behind-tuesday-s-massive-aws-outage/

[Java]

Houses that generate more power than they use are possible, if the surplus was enough to charge a car or two that would do it. https://www.familyhandyman.com/list/houses-that-produce-more-energy-than-they-consume/

[Bob]

I agree fleets are a great application for EVs in cities and dense suburbs, especially for delivery with a lot of idling time, since an EV uses almost no power unless under way.

Amazon has a contract with Rivian for 100,000 EV delivery vans, but I haven’t heard lately if it’s on schedule (Amazon is a major investor in Rivian).

[Jim]

On the topic of nuke plants, these two items crossed my plate recently. I wasn't going to post the YouTube vid but today I saw the WND article that talked about nuke waste being reduced by the use of higher temp nuke reactors - the two seem fitting so I'll kick up the links.

Reactors of the Future (Generation IV)

9 minute vid. General idea is that by using higher temps we get higher efficiencies. The move away from water with a "low" boiling temp of 100C.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mJ3S-VQuHY


How the nuclear waste myth is facing disposal

https://www.wnd.com/2021/12/nuclear-waste-myth-facing-disposal/

[Java]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FdlQdi9_L0


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Tu7Kc3suQ

[Jim]

Interesting battery improvements.

The 1,000 mile range could take out the issue of recharge time. For me, driving 1000 miles in a day is about my max and then I want eight hours of down-time to recharge me - where the car could also be charging.

[Jim]

I'd think news like this might be a trend...

france-to-build-up-to-14-new-nuclear-reactors-by-2050-says-macron

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/10/france-to-build-up-to-14-new-nuclear-reactors-by-2050-says-macron

[Schmitty]

I sure hope so.

[speedkills]

I hope it is. I’d like to see more nuclear power.

[Jim]

I hope it is. I’d like to see more nuclear power.

An interesting bit of history...

We had a nuke plant in our back yard - about mid-way between Longmont and Greeley. It's called the Fort St. Vrain Generating Station (Google Map (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fort+St.+Vrain+Generating+Station/@40.2644048,-104.9943012,36510m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x876c03659b27b587:0xd17aa ec98a07e2c8!8m2!3d40.2453581!4d-104.8738275)) and now provides power via natural gas. The nuke reactor was removed years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_St._Vrain_Generating_Station

.

[Schmitty]

The nuke reactor was removed years ago.

given the infrastructure required for a reactor I'm willing to bet most of it is still there.

Careful, Urbex vids are addicting...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONEm1ph3MP4

[Java]

We tried nuclear fracking in Colorado, believe it or not...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Wro77YL3k


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQhfZanPtE

[Tom]

We tried nuclear fracking in Colorado, believe it or not...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Wro77YL3k


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQhfZanPtE
I remember those days.

[Java]

I'm slowly working towards this, hoping to put panels on my garage in the spring. I drive my Leaf less than the average on the graph, and that's based on a Tesla, so I might not even need 5 panels. There is a DIY link on the right, seems you can save roughly 2/3 of the cost of installation by DIYing it and it should pay for itself in a couple of years and then I'm driving for free. Doesn't look that hard, I think the toughest part will be getting the panels up on the roof. I've found that even with many fast chargers available near me for free I still end up charging in the garage all the time for the convenience.

https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/how-much-solar-do-i-need-to-charge-my-electric-car