Can the US go 100% solar energy?

Where is the EV1 now??
Pictures.... that breaks my heart to see them being crushed and stacked.
http://ev1-club.power.net/

BooBoo

the USA has VERY few oil fired stations they are mostly coal and gas with 15% nuke powered

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"Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not."
Thomas Jefferson

Thanks for the ton of information. 1500 still waiting? They would need a few more than that to make it viable to produce.

I do not remember the source but a couple months ago a complete cost analysis was done comparing an SUV to an electric car. This analysis compared the cradle to grave cost of each vehicle and it found the electric car used more energy resources than the SUV. If I can find the source I will post it.

http://ev1-club.power.net/archive/nimhtest/nimhtest.htm
Real driver reports,pretty awesome.And fast to boot (the performance of a PORSCHE!!!),120-160 mile ranges on a first generation NiMh EV1

I liked the styling too,very modern,in fact ahead of its time.

As pointed out on another thread,imagine that with a diesel genny on board,best of both worlds,elctric power,FAST car,and unlimited range with an on board charger.Think diesel electric trains(kind of,trains dont have batteries).

And the new electrics with 300 mile ranges(fast charge Lithiums),that would cover most drivers very well,sure would me.Add that genny,you got a winner!

Thank YOU for pointing me to the EV1 story to update.I never knew they had gone from lead acid to NiMh batteries

BooBoo

I don't think solar alone is practical at all. Consider when I fire up an arc welder and the consumption of it.

I think the country will need a combination of solar, wind, hydro, coal, and nuclear to make a real impact at cutting back on fossil fuel usage.

I also think new homes should be energy efficient and should be nearly zero energy units. Until people understand that a super insulated home is better than a mega sized kitchen with all stainless steel appliances that they never fully use we are spitting in the wind.

Until folks quit whining about wind generators spoiling the view we are spitting in the wind.

People need to get real about energy and that concessions have to be made.

Any of you have a home fuel cell yet? I really thought those would be the thing until the producers sold out to utility companies---so that they could charge mega bucks monthly to "maintain" them. Monthly fees for fuel cells or for normal grid energy? Same old bill, why bother?

My thought process doesn't included big business though. No matter which way you slice that pie, you'll always get screwed out of your piece. lol.

I think the key is home production, not huge facilities. All throughout the thread I'm seeing big numbers with lotsa land. Forget that. If every roof top in america had a solar array on it, your average joe wouldn't be getting cheated so bad and there would be no lack of land for huge facilities because they wouldn't be needed.

I feel if these large oil companies really want to help out like they say they do *cough*BS*cough*, then they would lower the price of their panels because the second americans started going solar, they bought up all the manufacturing companies.

I think it would be a fairly simple matter to manufacture solar roofing material and kill two birds with one stone. No new home would be without the ability to power itself and the cost would be down so those with existing homes could add them.

I honestly believe that if/when large companies go solar the price of power will not go down. It might not go up, but it wont go down either.

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Dahc.

My father in law knows a guy that buys small very light kit cars and puts a brand new diesil 2 cylinder tractor engine in it hooked up to a six speed tranny. He said they get 80 to 90 mpg and he sells them for 20 grand a piece.

I don't know anything about transmissions but couldn't somebody just make the sprocket size alot bigger or smaller on the top gear, 5th gear in a stick shift for example. So when your on the freeway doing 60 your at like 1000 rpm's instead of 3000. I would think that would make your mileage increase dramatically. That's just by changing a single part.

Solar is very inefficient in most areas of the country and very expensive and resource-intensive to produce the equipment. It is doubtful that we will ever see even 2% of the current US power requirements produced by solar. Even getting to 2% would take a huge expansion of the solar industry.

I don't have anything against solar - I have 1200 watts myself.

Now, 100 years from now, if there has not been a fusion breakthrough, we will have long since used up the cheap oil and most of the cheap coal. At that point our power usage will probably be a fraction of what it is today and we might be able to make up a significant percentage with solar. Assuming we still have the industry intact to produce the solar equipment.

Hey hey everything has it application, Solar pannels are great for personal use, but when there is nuclear power, why solar? Nuclear is a much better engergy, I see no problem with nuclear/coal that we got now, it's States like California that don't build a power plant in soo many years, that is the problem.

E85 isn't the answer, that electric sports car looks interesting,the Tesla's Roadster.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/07...-santa-monica/

As you can see when the "Big four" fail it is up to others to innovate.