On top of what’s already been said there are a few other things to consider, There isn’t currently enough lithium on the planet to cope with making power cells for even 1% of the worlds vehicles. Until this is rectified (more discovered or alternative technology) we’re going to all be fighting for the resource. Who will own the battery? The French manufacturers and Toyota for instance, will sell you the car and lease you the battery – meaning that when the battery is at the end of its life they will replace it. BMW on the other hand will not. They will sell you the vehicle ( in this case the i3 and i8) outright and guarantee the battery for 8 years or 80K. They pledge but do not promise in writing that should a better battery be developed within 4 years they will replace free of charge (unless the battery has done more than 80K). They also will not commit to saying how much the cell will cost to replace if you are outside of this condition – so expect i8’s to be going for a few grand when they’re nothing more than a very well styled 1500cc car. Also they will not rate the performance above 70% -which is the norm for Tesla and all the others as well. The electric vehicle’s current Achilles heel is also the technological limit of the fuel cell size – batteries are still big and take up daft amounts of room to enable the car to get the 2-300 mile range. Hydrogen as Johnv said is pretty hard work to extract and if for example a city like London was 90% hydrogen vehicle powered you can imagine the relative humidity of the place at rush hour! And while we’re on this one, there was a lot of progress with lean burn vehicles and engines and also pollution inhibitors and recovery mechanisms in years gone past. It was the Hun who convinced the EEC directive writers that all vehicles needed cats, after all they had invested huge resource into research and manufacturing capability and weren’t about to see that flushing down the pan. Now as a result the once heavy lumps of soot that fell to the floor and not breathed, or those that were filtered a bit more efficiently by the body in are now ejected as carcinogenic micro particles that we can all coat our lungs with more efficiently. But in a nut shell electric vehicles have a long way to go until they come of age as a mainstream option – don’t look at the vehicle look to the battery.
Your son may be a great chemist but if he imagines it is possible to get more energy out of water than has been put into it, he is no physicist. Or economist.
did you delve further.? reported on the BBc possibly shouldn't be believed then. New technique fuels hopes for cleaner energy | Herald Scotland
The fundamental problem remains. The production of hydrogen requires energy and when you burn the hydrogen you can never get more energy out than you put in. So where do you get the energy in the first instance ? This is a fundamental physical law and cannot be broken. It is an impossibility. Even Dr Who would struggle on this one.
wind and tide and hydro, the problem with these is storing it when you dont need it possibly found the solution to that also
There is an elephant in the room that they singly fail to mention. Whilst Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe, it is always found as a compound with other elements. Ie its in fossil fuels. They cannot extract it from water without putting more energy into it, than it would produce. If they managed that then the Laws of Thermodynamics would have to be rewritten. These Laws are more solid and profound than any of the laws of nature. They are woven into everything. If there were a set of laws you should study and remember its these, but you probably already have a deep understanding of them even if you have never studied science. Thats because you intrinsically know that water doesn't flow up hill and that you cannot unstir a cup of tea. You can discount water as a source therefore. Besides, would you want the very thing humans need to survive even more hard pressed as a fuel? There is already water poverty. So they'd have to break it down from another source. Most likely organic or agriculture. So land previously used for food is set aside, rape seed etc. Less space for food production then etc. Its about time the world woke up to The 1st Law of Thermodynamics and just walked to work or to the shops. Switched off all the shit they don't need. That way there will be more fuel left for me. So fuck off the lot of yer. Its mine. There is no panacea that will make everything wonderful. All we can do is negate losses and improve efficiencies. Yes, there may be fusion in the future. Not sure I'd like that process happening between my legs, so its pretty much confined to a central power source. Then the B word crops up again - batteries. What the world really needs is rapid and sudden depopulation. Peoples linked together empathically and organised for the common good with a hunger for discovery. Doing things they want to do. For no other reason than to explore the universe. All in a peaceful and sociable manner. Whilst we fight to protect our own little corners of our lives, be it bikes, fox hunting, drugs, booze, sex, greed, money, breathing; we do it selfishly. Theres fracture, anger and fighting. Shouting and swearing. Whilst thats all very interesting, its not the formula for a coherent survival of a species. Basically were fucked. I can't help remembering Asimovs Foundation series of novels. But also Wells because Ive described the Morlocks and Eloi above. But I will be surprised if we make it to the 22nd Century. But as my time is short, my view is short term so I think fuck em. Maybe thats the real flaw in humanity. Were just not here long enough to care.
no shortage of water up here, if you can produce excess from renewable's store it and use it in mobile devices ie cars, phones and other sounds good to me. come on think big man. solutions not problems.
Renewables do not produce excess. Oil represents millions of years worth of stored sunshine. It used to be that in certain parts of the world all you had to do was poke a stick into the ground and it would come flowing out. Those days are over. The easy oil has been produced and turned back into carbon dioxide and water. We are facing an energy shortage.
The Foundation books were very uplifting. Wells too is an optimistic novelist in my view. You're statement - ' no shortage of water up here' just illustrates my point. I provided a solution. Sudden and rapid depopulation. I just need a device to kill you all. I'm working on a doomsday device as we speak. I'm hoping my laziness and inactivity can lower my energy far enough so that I become a superconductor. Then I can conduct the apocalypse without getting off my sofa.
i don't know how big is renewable's are down there but another advantage up here,but another thread for that. he population sparse an all. but f.k it lets not bother. i think boots you might actually be mad. i think you could go along way to saving the planet just by not speaking.. :Headphone:
You can break them. Just not in this universe. I guess you could pop to another universe, break the laws, and come back to this one. But is it really worth the hassle?
