Now Here Is A Niche
For electric cars and maybe wind power: Hawaii.
There are not many roads in Hawaii. Thirty miles is a long drive. A battery car could make sense here. You do not need a heater and on the Leeward side, not much of an air conditioner. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/te...i.html?_r=1&em Better to make the cars out of fiberglass. The salt air makes stuff rust like crazy in Hawaii. Also, Hawaii is in a trade wind zone. Twenty knot winds 355 days a year. Probably more at the ridgeline. OK. Hawaii is not much of a market and those conditions cannot be replicated in too many other places, but it is a valid niche. |
I've often wondered why Hawaii hasn't switched to alternatives sooner. They pay like ~20-40c/kWh because a lot of the electricity comes from fuel oil, and since they also pay more to have fuel shipped in EVs+renewables would probably be a win-win situation for them.
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Forget the wind power, just think of the frigging geothermal potential!
I think if you took not just Hawaii, but all similar-sized and smaller islands, it'd add up to a decent starter market for electric vehicles. |
I love this quote on a couple of levels:
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Oh wait, its twin already does live there. |
Interesting to see the cordless power tool model applied to EVs....
It'd be sweet to track individual batteries... So when you get a battery swap, something like an MFD would display the FE the last person got :) |
I'd recommend giving Forkenswift a good Ziebart job before going to Hawaii. Stuff corrodes like crazy in that warm salt air.
Corrosion and termites are active year round there. Even worse if you live on the Windward Side (Kaneohe, or Hilo). |
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But they're not sure. what if hawaii went in on it too? and my birthplace in the Philippines? how bout any place with magmatic activity? |
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Heheh... yea I mean ICELAND... So I screwed up one letter :p Yea, about that volcanic activity... I *technically* was in the Philippines when Mount Pinatubo erupted. My whole town got destroyed with ash. Maybe why I have asthma? :D What about Yellowstone? or near Mt. St. Helen's? I know there's probably lots of environmental buffs naysaying the Yellowstone thing, but we aren't necessarily dealing with oil spills with geothermal energy. |
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