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Yep. Here's a pic.
IMAG0036.jpg
Renewable, sustainable, environmentally benign and fiscally responsible energy is a bit of a passion for me. Solar has to be the most expensive energy on the planet. Germany spent about 120 billion dollars on solar, and generated as much energy as a 3 GW reactor facility. That's 40 billion dollars per gigawatt, or about four times the cost of the most expensive nuclear plant.
Here's the calculation from my mathematician friend:
When you look at the current year, total capacity factor was 31GW BUT, total generation was only 25 TWh. What does this mean? Well, 25TWh is 25000GWh. Divide by hours per year (8766) and you get 2.9GW capacity factor actually realized. This means capacity factor is meaningless, as actual output is less than 10% capacity factor. This means you payed hundreds of billions (120 billion or thereabouts) on 2.9 GW, about the typical 2 reactor nuclear generator facility...and they cost around 11 billion on the worst case. So it isn't a left wing conspiracy, it is just a terrible waste of money...currently.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany
Personally, I'm on board with nuclear energy. It's very cost effective, and safe when cared for properly. But clean it is not. Every energy source has it's down side. For solar it's cost. For nuclear it's waste.
But this thread isn't about what's cost effective. And as I ALREADY stated, people who employ such technologies often do not care about the cost - they have other goals in mind. If it's not your thing, that's cool. There are other threads.
So...
Can we please stop bashing solar power for being expensive and get back to topic at hand: Electric drive for the 818.
Thanks!
I read A story in kit car mag some time back where a school built a car using the k1 attack as a platform. From what I remember they used a VW TDI to power the rear wheels and an electric motor for the front wheels. They claimed sub 4sec. 0-60 and 50 mpg.
Boy has this thread gone off topic! :-) I have no problem with you choosing to go solar... BUT let's be real here, you have a nice house and don't need others to pay for your electricity. $100 out of pocket and you get that array on your roof! We obviously have a socio/political problem. Should we subsiding a relatively affluent individual? If you work the numbers for that system with you paying for all of it, it may break even over the 25 life of the system... Here in Maine my payback is about 23 years...Originally Posted by Xusia
Now saying that I have a super insulated passive solar home that my wife and I designed and built in 1985 and I designed and built my own plug in electric reverse trike "just for fun"
+1. Waste may not even be an issue if TerraPower's reactor works as advertised.
There is so much off base in this post I don't know where to start. Thank you for the compliment about my house. That said, you are making a great many incorrect assumptions, and have stated opinions seemingly based solely on first-hand, but casual, observation only. I am insulted by the assertion about others paying for my electricity (NOT the case, for the record). You really should get the facts - which I would have been happy to provide if asked - before making such an overtly scathing post.
MSR's are the way to go. They're low pressure (safer,) simpler (cheaper) than PWR's and without liquid sodium for coolant (much, much safer.)
A chloride reactor (one version of a fast spectrum MSR) can burn nuclear waste or U-238 and produce electricity at the same time, making it inert in about 300 years. TerraPower's reactor (also low pressure) is a fast spectrum solid fuel reactor which breeds U-238 into Pu-239. Fast spectrum reactors are very tricky to control, and use liquid sodium for coolant. The amount of fuel needed for criticality is 10-20x that of a MSR. In addition, the fuel rods will need reprocessing and disposal at the end of core life. I have lived 100 yards from an operating reactor, but I would never live within 100 miles of a fast spectrum reactor.
Check out FLiBe's design. It breeds Th-232 into U-233 at low pressure in the thermal spectrum, and burns ~100% of the thorium. The fuel is better than free (the waste is more valuable than the raw materials,) never needs enrichment, no fuel rods to manufacture, continuous refueling and reprocessing, and there's enough thorium to power the planet for over a million years.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/15726934/TH...TR_TOP_TEN.pdf
Last edited by bromikl; 12-25-2012 at 09:24 AM.
The idea of electric driveline is a great idea I worked at Delphi in electric power steering and the guys building the rejenitive breaking concepts. Loved their ideas of chareing the batteries as you go down hill or when you break. I was amazed at the system and it used a small battery that fit at that time into a caviler. I would suggest looking at a crashed chevy volt and harvet the drive line. It may take some fabercation but it could work. If anyone needs help let me know I still have contacts at GM where I used to work at the proving grounds, feel free to PM me I check emails here regularly.
This whole set has been reduced to a PRICE OF £2500, AFTER THIS THEY WILL RETURN TO THE PRICE OF £4000
Wow, that is cheap!
ebay Item number: 261141303324
Last edited by Jodie; 03-13-2013 at 10:31 PM. Reason: forgot link
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