Featured Hybrids offer fastest route to reduce CO2, says Emissions Analytics

Yeah, that's my current plan. But with all the preparations, installations, and equipment, even under the best scenario of PV production, our break-even time is more like 34 years, lol. Unlike in your local and situation, for many of us in our region, it makes absolutely no economic sense, just like driving EV.

 

Which is a point for hybrids, but many getting BEV aren't coming from a hybrid. They might not even consider a hybrid. The direct competitors in terms of segment for the Model 3 don't even have hybrid options.

Hybrids are only a solution if people buy them, and in the US, past trends say they don't.

How about wind power?
Home Wind Power: Yes, in My Backyard! | MOTHER EARTH NEWS
Installing and Maintaining a Small Wind Electric System | Department of Energy

 

Trends are an absolutely terrible measure of expectations.

The reason why is simple, they assume audience doesn't change.

Of course, dumping all types of hybrid into a single category invalidates the claim anyway.

 

Yeah, that's exactly why the push for the hybrid by Toyota, isn't it?

There is a house down street from us that has a small wind turbine tower on their front yard. I have no idea how much electricity it generates, but I can't imagine it provides much. Although we do have occasional windy days, I don't think we are in constant wind path. Still something to keep in mind for my after retirement plan to built totally off-grid small house. Thanks for the info.

 

$3000 more for a Corolla LE hybrid isn't exactly pushing.

The Rav4 hybrid is doing really well. I expect the same of the Escape hybrid when it arrives. Will percent of new car sales break 3% in 2019 and 2020. In the past, it took high gas prices. The real test is going to be the F150 hybrid that is due for 2020.

The plug in segment is growing faster than hybrids did though. This is during times of low fuel prices, and most plug ins aren't of the popular SUV segment.

Define small, seems rotor diameters under 30ft are considered small.

I saw a small one intended for powering 12v electric fences. Thought it would be neat to play around with for battery charging.

This seems to have decent advice. The Truth About Small Wind Turbines - Solacity Inc.

 

I saw one with a lamp underneath - from memory the turbine was only about 3-400mm diameter - it was beside the letterbox/front gate, about 2.5m in the air. I assume it was either sensor for movement - or came on after dark?

 

We used to have a Winco Wincharger for the beach house. It made plenty of useful power given strong coastal winds, but the high humidity and ocean salt made it a maintenance nightmare. We decommissioned it after ~15 years. I think I still have the actual dynamo somewhere.

 

I disagree that battery innovation is in its infancy. Batteries have been in use since 1800 when they were first invented. Fuel cells are in their infancy. Startups are hype.

 

Seen plenty of solar powered lights. That's the first I've heard of a wind one.

Sounds like wind power for the home isn't practical for most in terms of effectiveness versus cost. It is something to consider if solar isn't an option.

Quick look at the site, and many of those turbines are placed on roofs. One of the articles I linked states that roofs, with a short base for the turbine, are a bad spot because of the turbulence.

So have fuel cells.
Fuel Cell History - Fuel Cell Today
Though simple batteries were is use in ancient Egypt for metal plating.

NiMH was invented in the late '60s. BASF claims the chemistry has potential for improvement. Patent squatting suppressed R&D interest in the past. So we might see a plug in using it in the future. More likely, it will see more use hybrids as Li-ion production goes to plug ins. Of course, if we switch from cobalt to nickel for Li-ion electrodes, NiMH will continue to see less and less use in vehicles.

Lithium battery work started in labs during the '70s. The recent federal and state incentives has lead to a renaissance in the chemistry's development. Costs and performance have improved faster than predicted. Then there is work going on in other battery types.

The Electrovan FCEV concept was revealed in 1966. It had a PEM fuel cell. While benefitting from decades of improvement, this is the same fuel cell technology used by Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai. So fuel cell cars have been around longer than Li-ion ones.

If any of these technologies were truly in their infancy, they would still be in the lab.

 

Okay... I'll clarify it as battery use at scale is still in its infancy. As in massive amounts of batteries and the manufacturing challenge that represents is in its infancy. I agree that battery technology has been around for centuries and had the "Detroit Electric" prototype built in 1918 and driven from Seattle to Mt. Rainier in a demonstration of its ability not been shot down by the oil companies we would not be in our infancy of battery production at scale.

 

true ... unless readers interpret that he is not talking century-old Tech, but rather, moderately, all the new chemistry that scientists are trying to bring into production.

see - if one were a litoralis, they would say, " disagree that fuel cells are in their infancy. The Sun has been in use since before man." But that would be silly, because we understand what you are saying, and no one needs to disagree for the sake of disagreement.

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Yep, I can absolutely confirm that. However it's a beach house in a tight little clutch of other small beach houses, no open ground to put it on. If they weren't built that way they wouldn't survive the winter storms.

So it was already a given that it was going on a rooftop. That turbulence is a problem when you are trying to catch every last breath of wind on a calm day, less so when there's a steady 12kt+ breeze coming off the ocean.

Our neighbors have an Ampair turbine, which was designed to fit within the rigging of a sailboat. It has lower output but we have observed that it needs much less maintenance than our Wincharger. Marine design FTW.

 

The three largest producers of lithium are South American, China, and Australia. We'd have to truly botch foreign policy to be reduced to just domestic supply.
Trump says "Hold my beer and watch this!"

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

He's working on China and South America.

 

South American? That's a continent. Significant known reserves of lithium are in Chile and Argentina. Both with unstable governments.

 

Source: Salt Ponds of San Francisco Bay – Newark, California - Atlas Obscura

Bob Wilson

 

That almost looks like a Salvador Dali portrait

.

 

I thought he always drew nature:

Source: The Persistence of Memory - Wikipedia

Bob Wilson

 

One thing for sure is that there is a only a small known amount of lithium available domestically in the US. And, if I remember correctly, the US has virtually no available cobalt.

I don't think Trump drinks beer. He's a confessed teetotaler.

For the battery car market we need to keep in mind that the potential USA requirements for BEVs is small compared to the rest of the world based on population alone. Hybrids, in my opinion, are the best of both worlds, especially PHEVs with a 50-mile range. A 50-mile PHEV with a swappable traction battery would be ideal in the Southwest where direct solar power (non-grid) could be used to charge the extra unit at home during the day. A 12-gallon petrol tank kept 1/4 full would provide range extension for times the car would need to be used outside of the 50-mile electric range, and once full would extend the car's useful range to around 500 miles.

 

That's algae from seawater intrusion onto fields engineered and graded for flooded irrigation, not useful for anode/cathode creation.