The best alternative energy source

[Vindekarr]

/sigh

 

Im not pro oil Thor. Im actualy quite against it. Battery electric isnt the way though, it just isnt practical and a much better solution is available now with NO developement time for much less cost-either environmental or financial. Personaly I thinkl hydrogen is the way to go, either hydrogen combustion or fuel cell electric. Fuel cell cars have been around for nearly 5 years now and not only do everything petrol cars do, but they do what they do at the advantage of slightly better performance and greatly reduced running costs.

 

The only problem is that to split hydrogen atoms from other matter, eg water, you need a power station. The splitting is very simple, you can do it by placing a positive and negative metal paddle in fresh water, then loosing an electric shock through them. This splits hydrogen from oxygen in water and produces a large amount of hydrogen, which, once used, turns back into pure, drinkable water ready for re-splitting.

 

The only problem is the big jolt-this means electricity, electricity means we need to put aside our prejudice and hatred and accept nueclear fusion or fission breeder reactor technoly. Or come up with some other highly efficient way to produce power with destroying the environment upon which we will come to rely.

 

Im sorry if I seem so set in my beleifs-I was raised to stick by what I beleive in, and its served me well in life. but despite what may seem to be one sided extremism, I change my opinion freely when people can prove to me Im wrong or ignorant. But when I know Im right, and when Im waving the flag for something important, I'll be as set an extremist as was ever extremist or set.

[JimboUK]

Thats half the problem with eco cars.

 

Classical electrical cars like the Gee Whiz have no airbags, are made of plastic, and are little larger than beachballs. a Gee Whiz crash puts the occupant at the same level of risk as if they had been strapped to the front of the car,

 

 

Well the electric car is advancing leaps and bounds, you never know what to expect, The battery is improving and the higher demand for it since the oil spill in Florida has increased. I can see it being mainstream in under 8 to 10 years the way its advancing.

 

Here's one from Renault.

 

http://www.plugincars.com/renault-shows-dezir-electric-sports-car-concept-hints-new-design-philosophy-47500.html

 

I think its the best looking one in my Opinion :thumbsup:

 

They have come on a lot but there are still problems that will keep them from being a viable alternative. While battery technology has improved it is still nowhere near good enough and the batteries are still an environmental hazard. Electric cars still lack power, range and take way too long to recharge. They're not very "Green" either, as has been mentioned all they do is move from the pollution from the tailpipe to the power station. They would also need a huge investment in infrastructure, every car that isn't kept on a drive or in a garage will need a charging point.

[brokenergy]

Who has heard of the solar plane that took off in Switzerland?

 

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0708/breaking12.html?via=mr

 

Thought to bring it to your attention. That is all.

[Vindekarr]

Nice, and thanks for the link.

 

Cars dont translate well to solar power-planes are the exact opposite.

 

At the moment planes rely on having a large exposed surface area. The wing generate lift by splitting the air moving aound them into a top and bottom layer, which move at diferent speeds, creating lift, the bigger the wing area the bigger the lift and thus the more weight carrying capacity, the more passengers/amraments/cargo you can carry.

 

However using that large surface area for solar power is very clever indeed. the air transport industry, atleast where I come from, in australia, is struggling from massively rising fuel costs, and their aircraft, though efficient burn a large amount of fuel and create unhealthy clouds of by products.

 

Mass air travel, like personal vehicles, is something we can get rid of without really restructuring our life and global culture. Thats why we need advances like this and methane powered aircraft. If you can replace the very bulky fuel tanks with much lighter solar panels and the hefty jet engines with electric motors, while you will greatly increase flight time, for regional flights this would be a huge step forward-this is where australia's airlines are losing out most or so I hear.

 

I like this idea a lot, region aircraft dont need to be fast, so why waste a massive amount of fuel to make them fast? The next step would be some sort of hydrogen combustion jet type drive-prefferably of the scram/ram variety. As jet engines as we know it are very technologicaly primitive and have reached about the peak of what performance they can attain.

 

A jet works by sucking air through a tube using a large multibladed fan called a turbine, this hot high spreed airstream is then mixed with volatile fuel and ignited. But this is counterproductive because the turbine produces a huge amount of drag, slashing the top speed of any plane with this. SCRAM-jets work by simply using the air rushing around the plane and cleverly shaped engine tubes to get air flow-a turbine jet can propel a plane to about 4000 km/h but are almost unable to go beyond that, no matter what the engineers do. SCRAMjet engines have been clocked launching missile like robotic planes to speeds well in excess of 17,000 km/h.

[ub3rman123]

Yep, but if one goes down 'cuz it was slightly cloudier than they thought that day, it'd be the end of it, just like zeppelins and the Hindenburg.