There is an electric car that gets 215 miles on a full charge and I really, really want one. The problem is its price tag, about 30k USD. Thats a fair price for a luxory sedan or towncar, and if I pulled a median wage salary that would be no problem, but I don't have that kind of income. The real magic is going to happen when the price of fuel savings exceeds the increased price of maintenance, and that isn't going to happen until the fracking boom ends.
Of course, the problem with a "trendy" brand like green energy is the high retail markup. Cars depreciate about 50% in value after a mere 2 years after their initial release date, and "green" tech has at least a 20% markup (usually applied AFTER increased production costs) and can be as high as 50-100% more than their competitors.
I basically won't be able to afford an electric car until the after market has a solid foundation, once "used" alternative energy vehicles start circulating throughout the market and facilities that can maintain and repair them become more widespread. By then, I'll be able to do away with the twenty thousand dollar largess and be able to afford a used alternate fuel vehicle while still being covered by at least a 2 year warranty.
I can almost guarantee they will raise the prices on these vehicles once oil prices start going back up, but by then there will be so many used vehicles on the road that you should be able to purchase one used at fair market value.
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Economics of Green Energy
Wed, 2016-04-27 09:02
#1
ringringlingling
Economics of Green Energy
Wed, 2016-04-27 09:45
#2
ringringlingling
Coal Concession
There is, on earth, a LOT of coal. It is far more abundant than oil and could probably last us another 1000 years. So why then, do we not use coal as fuel?
Well, the first problem is portability. You obviously cannot shovel coal into a car engine and expect it to run. It required several tons of coal to operate a steam locomotive for any appreciable length of time, and the more coal you are forced to carry with you, the less efficient locomotion you get from burning coal. It is therefore impractical to use for our transportation infrastructure.
The second, is efficiency. Coal is far less efficient than the kinds of hydrocarbons we generally use for fuel in our vehicles. While there is an awful lot of it, it just doesn't pack as much energy in its mass as does, say, gasoline. While there are methods of turning coal into more efficient hydrocarbons, this requires even more energy to manufacture. Even if we were able to do this, there is no way we could mine enough coal and transform it into fuel fast enough to meet our current transportation needs, even though we have plenty of coal to work with.
The third is that coal is very "dirty". Before industrial regulations were put into place, coal was responsible for millions of deaths in during the industrial revolution. It would give people a condition known as "black lung", and cause acid rain which could strip the paint off of buildings. Modern coal plants often use expensive equipment like platinum mesh to reduce pollution, which factors into the operating cost of coal plants. (Platinum is also very rare)
I live next to a coal plant, and while I'm thankful I have electricity, not a day goes by where some of the lingering after effects of its pollution are not evident, and I live in a state with some of the strictest environmental standards today. While I would prefer our city use an oil or natural gas plant, I am grateful for the energy it provides, but I think people are often a bit too enthusiastic regarding coal, as it is not quite the energy solution it is purported to be.
I would very much like to see a low cost replacement for platinum as a catalyst in both our motor vehicles and our coal plants. While it may seem like a negligible expense for a power plant, platinum is quite rare, and it has many other applications to which it might be put to better use.