The Slow Death of the Internal Combustion Engine

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Solar probably does make sense in places that are sunny, with expensive and unreliable electricity.

Portland is overcast, has among the cheapest electricity, and it's very reliable.

Regarding cell phones; US land area is huge and population density is relatively low. It's relatively easy to cover a place like South Korea with a robust cellular network.

True about Portland. Even then the solar I had quoted showed payback in about 8 years (going from memory here). Think about Eastern Oregon 2 miles from the closest power lines.

For phones I was thinking more of China than the Korea.

Also my experience in Europe shows much faster and cheaper mobile internet. (Europe is 33% larger than the US lower 48) The difference is that we sold the airwaves to private companies that built out 4+ incompatible networks. (That is slowly changing with LTE) The EU used GSM everywhere and requires networks to sell access to other networks.

[oil pan 4]

Yeah but what they don't tell you is you will likely replace the inverter at some point during that 8 years.
Which further extends out the payback time.

[redpoint5]

I wonder if it would have been better for the US to define fewer frequencies for cell phones and allow a monopoly with oversight similar to utilities.

I was just in Sunriver over the weekend and thought I'd probably go off-grid solar if I lived on that side of the mountains.

[freebeard]

It is everywhere in high amounts. 1 million tons of lunar dust could make 70 tons of helium-3. A 7 percent yield sounds amazing to me.

It's not everywhere. It's a scarce isotope of Helium in the solar wind. Anyplace with a magnetosphere repels it. That's why they will have to go to the Moon.

The problem isn't getting the gold or whatever out of seawater, it's getting the water out of everything else. Start with sea salt (and boundless energy) and do a thermal fractionation.

[redpoint5]

What about drilling close to the mantle and extracting geothermal energy?

[Phoenix'97]

There is still too much convenience and ease to be had with ICE vehicles, most notably in below zero winter conditions. Not everyone has a garage to park an EV in and charge up during the winter time nor does everyone have the ability and want to run a long extension cord out to their EV to charge up, especially in the heart of winter! Watching a video on youtube about how to operate a Tesla car during winter time convinced me that ICE vehicles will still have a place in our future. Furthermore, if a concerted effort goes into developing carbon-capture technology and a successful miniaturized device can be applied to any year ICE vehicle and serviced with reasonable ease then ICE vehicles will most certainly have a future alongside EV in the distant future! Add to this, the transition to Bio-fuels! Likely Iso-Butanol to replace gasoline and a special blend of Bio-Diesel. Per some research they actually tested Bio-Diesel blended with up to 30% Iso-Butanol for better emissions but it would require Cetane additive to help it combust as well as regular petroleum based Diesel. They even tested 30% Normal N-Butanol and Ethanol. Certainly is interesting!

[oil pan 4]

You are not supposed to plug the evse into an extension cord.
Putting the car in a garage doesn't seem to help the range that much during the winter.

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

You are not supposed to plug the evse into an extension cord.
Putting the car in a garage doesn't seem to help the range that much during the winter.

Allow me to better rephrase what I previously said to be more technically accurate! An extended cord proper to the vehicle attached to the recommended charging unit!

The purpose of putting the car in the garage, assuming it is attached to the house, is better convenience for recharge when compared to charging outside and assuming the worst case scenario, you have a winter storm and need to dig out the extended cord so as not to run over it with the snow blower!

Again, convenience and being practical about the real life aspects of this.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Yeah but what they don't tell you is you will likely replace the inverter at some point during that 8 years.
Which further extends out the payback time.

I quoted emphase microinverters with a 20 year warranty. It was about a $1000 upgrade.

[Phoenix'97]

Originally Posted by JSH

I quoted emphase microinverters with a 20 year warranty. It was about a $1000 upgrade.

To some that may mean something worthwhile. To others, like myself, ICE vehicles are just more simple and convenient to drive! Need I say more?