Cozy: MSNBC's Brewer Promotes Electric Car Charging Stations as Parent Company GE Sells Them
Displaying a clear conflict of interest during Friday's 12PM ET hour on MSNBC, anchor Contessa Brewer did a story promoting electric car charging stations but did not disclose to viewers that the channel's parent company, General Electric, was selling the very same product. GE commercials for the charging stations have frequently aired on MSNBC in recent weeks.
Brewer began the segment, a part of NBC-Universal's "Green is Progress" week, by declaring: "Houston, the city known for gas pumps and oil gushers, is getting the nation's largest network of electric car charging stations." The company providing the charging stations was not General Electric, but rather NRG Energy. Brewer interviewed the company's president and CEO, David Crane.
View video below
She asked Crane about the marketing strategy: "So is this sort of a chicken and the egg problem? That people aren't going to buy electric cars if there's no place in public to charge them, and if people don't have electric cars, then how do you support electric charging stations?" Later, she teed him up to make his sales pitch: "You're offering these new charging stations. What's special about that as opposed to just plugging your car in?"
The two touted the financial benefit of electric vehicles:
CRANE: So for approximately $80 a month, you know, fixed charge, you can drive as far as you can in your electric car. You've got the fast charger in your garage and you have access to this network around the city.
BREWER: 80 bucks a month, that's probably far less than what people are spending with any kind of real commute.
CRANE: The average person is spending about $120 a month, three fill-ups a month.
BREWER: On gas.
CRANE: And of course, in this case, there's also the convenience benefit. You never have to go in a service station. You never have to get an oil change.
Brewer then asked if Crane's company was getting any government assistance, he replied: "Contessa, shocking as this may seem in this current environment, this is an all private sector initiative at this point." She followed up: "So if you didn't need government incentive to do it, I mean, do you think there are other green initiatives that could proceed without the government saying, 'We've got to do this'?" Before Crane could answer, Brewer spoke of capitalism as if it were some alien concept: "And that's what the capitalists are arguing, 'This is a free market system, it'll happen on its own.'"
Crane quickly clarified that he would be all for government intervention, he even offered a policy suggestion: "I would tell you that one thing that the government can do, if anyone in Washington is listening to this show-" Brewer interjected: "Yeah, they are, I'm sure." Crane continued: "Turn HOV lanes into green leans and let people in plug-in vehicles drive. Because that's the ultimate convenience benefit and that's what HOV lanes were first made for....Was to reduce local tailpipe emissions and nothing reduces local tailpipe emissions like electric vehicles." Brewer agreed: "Absolutely....I think it's a great idea and I wish you the best of luck."
On Monday, Brewer called on the government to implement a 25 cent gas tax and force Americans to conform to an environmentalist agenda.
Brewer concluded the Friday segment by once again praising the charging stations: "...we'll see if by putting the charging stations around, if you can convince Houstonians then to go out and purchase the electric cars....I hope to see how that develops."
Here is a full transcript of the November 19 interview:
12:21PM ET
CONTESSA BREWER: Well, big oil meets big electric today in Houston, the city known for gas pumps and oil gushers is getting the nation's largest network of electric car charging stations. David Crane is the president and CEO of NRG Energy which is launching the new network. David, why Texas? I mean, everything is bigger in Texas, that's the way they like it. Their big oil is a big deal down there. Why electric cars?
DAVID CRANE: Well, I think Texas is – it may be counterintuitive, but it's a great market to do this, in Houston in particular, because it's a hub and spoke city. Quite frankly, there are a lot of garages, people park their cars in garages, unlike – personal garages – unlike here in New York City. And you have to keep in mind that the service station of the future, when you're talking about electric vehicles, is your garage. So that's a very important thing. And Texas considers itself to be the center of energy innovation, sort of the California of energy, you know, in that sense.
BREWER: Yeah. So is this sort of a chicken and the egg problem? That people aren't going to buy electric cars if there's no place in public to charge them, and if people don't have electric cars, then how do you support electric charging stations?
CRANE: Well, there's the question of what's – the electric car is a classic disruptive technology, and the technology hurdle that had to overcome was range initially. But now there's batteries, lithium ion batteries, that'll take a car more than 100 miles. And since Americans only drive their average car 40 miles a day, the range question – the technological question has been solved. So what we're solving with what we came out with yesterday was the new problem of range anxiety. Even though people have the range, they don't want to use if they're afraid that they're going to get caught on the other side of-
BREWER: You don't want to be stranded.
CRANE: Exactly.
BREWER: Okay, so let's go back to home where you think something like 80% to 90% of charging actually occurs. You're offering these new charging stations. What's special about that as opposed to just plugging your car in?
CRANE: Well, keep in mind, a lot of focus on what we now say was about one out of three elements that we're offering. First of all, we're going to put a fast charger in your garage and that is your main charging element. The second thing that was really focused on yesterday is we're going to put a series of convenience chargers around the greater Houston area. And that's going to handle your range.
BREWER: And what does that cost? Is that-
CRANE: It's all one package deal and it's billed through your home electricity bill. And the third element is all the electricity you can use to fuel your car. So for approximately $80 a month, you know, fixed charge, you can drive as far as you can in your electric car. You've got the fast charger in your garage and you have access to this network around the city.
BREWER: 80 bucks a month, that's probably far less than what people are spending with any kind of real commute.
CRANE: The average person is spending about $120 a month, three fill-ups a month.
BREWER: On gas.
CRANE: And of course, in this case, there's also the convenience benefit. You never have to go in a service station. You never have to get an oil change.
BREWER: Yeah. Let me ask you, are you getting any kind of government incentives for this? Stimulus dollars, tax breaks, that kind of thing?
CRANE: Contessa, shocking as this may seem in this current environment, this is an all private sector initiative at this point.
BREWER: So if you didn't need government incentive to do it, I mean, do you think there are other green initiatives that could proceed without the government saying, 'We've got to do this'?
CRANE: Well, I mean-
BREWER: And that's what the capitalists are arguing, 'This is a free market system, it'll happen on its own.'
CRANE: Well, you know, I believe there are actually a lot of these emerging technologies that actually need support to get over the hump because they have economies of scale and things like that. So I wouldn't be making that argument. I'm just saying in this case, this is a private sector approach, and I would tell you that one thing that the government can do, if anyone in Washington is listening to this show-
BREWER: Yeah, they are, I'm sure.
CRANE: Turn HOV lanes into green leans and let people in plug-in vehicles drive. Because that's the ultimate convenience benefit and that's what HOV lanes were first made for.
BREWER: Absolutely.
CRANE: Was to reduce local tailpipe emissions and nothing reduces local tailpipe emissions like electric vehicles.
BREWER: I think it's a great idea and I wish you the best of luck. And you know, we'll see if by putting the charging stations around, if you can convince Houstonians then to go out and purchase the electric cars. Because they're not – they're not cheap. They're going to invest, really, in their vehicles. I hope to see how that develops. Thanks-
CRANE: Yeah. The purchase of the car has to stop looking at just the sticker price and has to look at the life of the car, what's going to be the total cost. Because the up-front cost is going to be more but the operating costs are going to be so much less. And so – and yes, our strategy is a bit of a 'Field of Dreams' strategy, build the network-
BREWER: Build it.
CRANE: And they will come, they will buy.
BREWER: David, thank you so much for joining me. Appreciate seeing you here in New York.
CRANE: Thank you, Contessa.
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Comments
Oh yippee, where did most of that electricity come from?
Submitted by Red Jeep on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 7:49pm.
Probably from burning coal. Almost 50% of the electricity used in this country comes from burning coal
Why don't we skip the making electricity part and turn coal directly into gas?
Skyrocket
Submitted by miss911ninja on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 9:59pm.
What will happen when BHO bankrupts the coal industry, like he says he wants to do! Or when cap and trade makes electricity rates "necessarily skyrocket?"
Heehee, fortunately I think he will fail at both,
I Wonder
Submitted by Jimbo on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 12:22pm.
I wonder how much progress we could have made on battery and electrical technology by using the trillion dollars blown on the stimulus package?
I saw the GE commercial today
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 7:56pm.
I saw the commercial today from GE touting these charging stations. The commercial consists of young twenty-somethings pulling their electric car up to a charging station, (which are basically everywhere in public parking lots, and no more inocuous or intrusive then a parking meter), and then taking five seconds to plug their electric car into the station, before they go off on their merry way, skipping and dancing.
From watching these commercials, I'm guessing the plan is to have the electirc power coming from these stations to be free to the owners of the cars, but subsidized by the public at large through higher taxes and fees.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
Huge scam among scams
Submitted by jon_torlin on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:33pm.
I saw it a couple of weeks ago or so, and man, it was the goofiest stupidest mind-numbing thing to watch, has no basis in reality whatsoever!
I kept wondering how many kids will swallow this bilge water.
This is not economically or physically or even environmentally feasible! And it never will!
-Jon
Correct. And an $80 fixed
Submitted by kg on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:39pm.
Correct. And an $80 fixed rate at home tells me it costs much more than $80 a month. I am guessing we will not be afforded $80 month fixed rate for our electric consumption.
"DumbAssity of Dope"
5 Minutes to Charge?
Submitted by libBuster on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 9:27pm.
Sounds like the plan the plan is to defy the laws of physics. Or perhaps GE is using the "flux capacitor" from the movie "Back to the Future"?
Utter nonsense.
Oh yea, no one mentions how
Submitted by GregE on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 9:35pm.
Oh yea, no one mentions how it will be paid for. Bend over, that's how.
I assume the plug can be locked. Otherwise, how long would it take for someone to walk around and simply unplug 50 cars, leaving the owners stranded?
(In other MSNBC news, Scarborough has been suspended for campaign contributions just like boy Olbermann was.)
Overnight
Submitted by miss911ninja on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 10:00pm.
But don't you have to charge it overnight, to make it go in the morning?
I said this before.
Submitted by NeoKong on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:04pm.
There is a reason that MSNBC does not care about ratings. They are just the public relations wing of the parent company. Who cares if you made millions or not when compared against the (B)illions that GE wants to make from going green and Obamacare....? Digitizing patient records ? Electric charging staitons ? Buying thousands of Chevy Volts....? It's all for the big payoff in the end.
P.S. Who was paying for that electricity....?
The purchase of the car has
Submitted by ricklail on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:11pm.
The purchase of the car has to stop looking at just the sticker price and has to look at the life of the car, what's going to be the total cost.
Costs? How much will the car cost? How much will a new battery cost? How much will it cost to get rid of the bad battery. How much to have the motor rewound when it shorts out? I bet if you run a heater, listen to the radio, plug in your cell phone to charge and run your GPS the battery life is a lot less than 100 miles.
I believe the Chevy Volt sells for $41,000 after . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 3:36pm.
. . . the Federal government rebate (about $7,000).
What I love about the MSMers and their promotion of electric cars is their seeming unwareness of where the electricity comes from. I guess they just figure it exists in walls, to be tapped via an outlet, and paid for when some power company sends you a bill.
At the same time, they will run stories about the hazards of nuclear power plants, and the threat to endangered species posed by hydro-electric dam construction.
They don't seem to be capable of connecting the two.
Hapless?
Submitted by BBallleaper on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:28pm.
Do you mean the 'Hapless' Contessa Brewer? Say did I spell that right?
Contessa. So hot. And so
Submitted by Van Halen on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 11:28pm.
Contessa.
So hot.
And so very dumb.
A question -- it's not a setup, I just don't know
Submitted by KC Mulville on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:36pm.
Yesterday, for business reasons, I had to drive from my home north of Baltimore to Springfield, Virginia, which means that I had to navigate the Baltimore and DC beltways. The worst part was that I had to do it in the afternoon, which everyone knows is a horror. On my way south, I had to get on 495, which is at least three lanes wide, and often four or five lanes wide. At that time of day, though, it was a slowly-moving parking lot from the Cabin John exit all the way down to my exit for I-95 south. Thousands and thousands of cars, moving stop-and-start at best at 15 miles and hour.
That massive traffic jam is a daily event in DC. Anyone who has sat on a beltway for an extra hour knows the toll it must be taking on the car, the driver, and the gasoline reserves. Think of all that gasoline being wasted on nothing, just running an engine for no useful purpose. And that's just DC. Ever get caught in a New York traffic jam? I have. Schuylkill Expressway in Philly? Many a time. Boston? Many a time. I've never driven on a California freeway, but they tell me it's worse than five east coast cities combined.
You'd save much more gas if we could re-design worktimes (I usually work from home, but some travel is inevitable) so that we're not all crammed into the same route at the same time. But that has enormous difficulties, so it isn't going to happen soon.
However, the sight of thousands of cars wasting gasoline in a traffic jam makes me wonder whether electric cars would, at least, not be wasting energy. If they only draw energy when they're moving, then they're not wasting it while they're sitting still.
[Apology] Having utterly wasted about two hours of traffic time yesterday, this was the question that popped into my mind. As for MSNBC's failure to identify their obvious commercial connection to the electricity-pumping stations, that was inexcusable. But back to my question ...
Good point KC. Living in the
Submitted by Radical1979 on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:51pm.
Good point KC. Living in the North East the weather is a consideration also. Valentine's Day 2007 saw an ice storm that closed I78 and left people stranded on the highway for up to 24 hours. I wonder how these cars would hold up in those kind of conditions. Cold has an adverse affect on batteries so it's likely they'd need more charging during cold weather.
I haven't seen these cars, are they as funny looking as the smart cars?
KC, I know that, in the
Submitted by Chris Norman on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 11:48pm.
KC,
I know that, in the past, one of the problems with electric cars was that they would lose their charge much more quickly if the route driven was hilly, involving a lot of climbing. I'm curious if this problem was surmounted.
Curiosity
Submitted by KC Mulville on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 12:48am.
I'm with you. Frankly, I know almost nothing about them. And I won't bother going to an electric-car website, because they're not going to tell you the bad stuff. Hills, traffic jams, cold ... how will they actually perform? I don't know.
Hey, I'll be glad to buy them if they actually work. I think environmentalists pushing them turns me off, but I'll forget all that if it saves a couple bucks. That, after all, is capitalism.
And we know that if people
Submitted by Chris Norman on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 12:54am.
And we know that if people buy them, it'll happen because, at some point, they make economic sense - based on the market - not on Contessa Brewer and Barak Obama.
Do these electric cars have heat?
Submitted by Red Jeep on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:54pm.
Defrost? Air conditioning? Room for 2 plus groceries? CD player? Radio?
I was at the Texas State Fair
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 10:18pm.
I was at the Texas State Fair and I noticed some charging stations being built around the DFW area. I asked about the funding and the girl said it was a grant, I asked about cost and she said it was free for now. She was really short on information and long on how the government needs to fund this and how green is going to save the world.
There were like 5 or 6 stations for the metroplex which has maybe 3 million or more and tehy were very sparse.
Contessa Brewer is fine as long as . . .
Submitted by neutron on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 10:37pm.
Contessa Brewer is fine as long as she didn't make any contributions to a political party. Donations in kind are fine; so, donations to the political party, I mean the parent company, that owns MSNBC are jusr fine.
Nothing to see here. . . move along.
Next up in our MSNBC news, an extremist right-wing homophobic Republican Senator stepped on a sidewalk crack, breaking his own mother's back, in an extreme case of Elder Abuse in an attempt to cut the Social Security, Medicare and Medicade enrollments.
Apparently the libs either
Submitted by big.league.slider on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 11:31pm.
Apparently the libs either fail, or choose not to remember the $2 billion in taxpayer subsidies given to GM for the last electric car they tried to market, the EV-1. It was an absolute failure, and they all ended up being bought back by GM (at a loss) and crushed.
The whole corrupt, incestuous relationship between the Obama administration, the DNC, and GE is mind boggling. The entire GE-owned NBC network is simply a propaganda ministry for the Dems. In return for their loyalty, Obama has given GE billions in taxpayer subsidies and loan guarantees. GE then takes those taxpayer billions and buys overpriced Chevy Volts to bailout Obama's GM Corp. and the UAW union. In return, the UAW then pumps $millions taken from its member's paychecks back into political donations to the DNC. And then Obama issues the UAW exemptions to Obamacare.
Bring on Issa's investigations.
I just watch Brewer with the sound off
Submitted by bohratom on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 11:58pm.
Everytime I scan channels and see Brewer on I turn the sound off (as I know some liberal spew will be said) and instead just lay back and fantasize.....
If I was going to listen to a
Submitted by Chris Norman on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 1:11am.
If I was going to listen to a sleazy hawker peddling suspect technology, I would listen to an Oil Can Harry used car salesman before I would listen to Contessa Brewer and her smarmy cohorts standing in front of the MSNBC GE dealer showroom.
Here Contessa*
Submitted by cajun2 on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 11:05am.
This is a simple report on the new electric cars and their impact on the environment and the consumer costs. And this from an Eco friendly based group. Ms Brewer needs to do her homework.
http://www.ehow.com/about_6507967_environmental-batteries-used-electric-cars.html
Thanks, but no thanks.
Submitted by tampamom25 on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 1:27pm.
Replacement batteries are expected to cost $8,000 not including whatever the charge will be for disposal of the old battery? Factoring that in, plus the original cost of the car, plus whatever they will end up charging for recharging facilities and I think this is a budget ruining nightmare.
http://www.ehow.com/about_6507967_environmental-batteries-used-electric-...
How about a $12,000 towing bill?
Submitted by upcountrywater on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 12:59pm.
Someone years ago mentioned that HAZMAT gets called whenever there is a car wreck involving an electric car leaking battery juices.
You Didn't Build That.
One qustion...
Submitted by CobraMan on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 3:48pm.
I have one question: What's the CO2 footprint of those charging stations? You know, the "footprint" for building and operating them. No one ever seems to want to discuss that on the news.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
As of today there are 3 levels of charging stations.
Submitted by upcountrywater on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 4:10pm.
Level 1= 120 V AC; 16 A (= 1.92 kW)
AC energy to the vehicle's on-board charger; from the most common U.S. grounded household receptacle, commonly referred to as a 120 volt outlet.
This is the amount of power that runs an electric skillet, the charge time is 30 hours! Or 60 lbs of fried chicken
Level 2 = 208-240 V AC; 12 A to 80 A (= 2.5 to 19.2 kW)
AC energy to the vehicle's on-board charger;208-240 volt, single phase. The maximum current specified is 32 amps (continuous) with a branch circuit breaker rated at 40 amps. Maximum continuous input power is specified as 7.68 kW (= 240V x 32A*).
This is the same power(19.2kW) that 4 electric water heaters use. With the water running...for 5 hours....fill the basement with warm water.
If your home has 200 amp service, and you shut off everything, the remaining power that can be supplied is up to 48kW.
Level 3 = very high voltages (300-600 V DC); very high currents (100s of Amperes)
DC energy from an off-board charger; there is no minimum energy requirement but the maximum current specified is 400 amps and 240 kW continuous power supplied.
This requires a huge nuclear power plant (1.6 GW) for every 6,600 electric charging stations.
Still get to hang out for 30 minutes, and watch the electrons flow.
You Didn't Build That.
Incredible!
Submitted by CobraMan on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 4:58pm.
So, the minimum energy required to charge a singe electric car just once is equivalent to running 192 100-watt light bulbs for 30 hours? This is equivolant to running almost 200 100-watt lightbulbs 24/hours a day, every day, in your home for YEARS (since you'll need to recharge you car evey damn day!)? So much for saving the environment! I don't think forcing all of America to switch to CFL's will help.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
This is not a hose, it's a wire...
Submitted by upcountrywater on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 5:29pm.
level 3 "outlet"
Do you think 500V dc at several hundred amps may be a bit dangerous?
A fast charge 'service station' designed to simultaneously fast charge multiple vehicles in the way current gasoline or diesel stations simultaneously refuel multiple vehicles might require a peak power service on the order of several megawatts.
Looks like GE can do it...need one of these for every 500 stations, and all the transmission lines too :-).
You Didn't Build That.
Dangerous?
Submitted by mandrake on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 5:53pm.
500 volts? Nah Just don't stick you tougue in it...for the same reason you don't stick your tougue in a gas hose.
Where is Nikola Tesla when you need him?
That's a lighting bolt.
Submitted by CobraMan on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 12:13pm.
Not dangerous? Several HUNDRED amps can kill several hundred people in a single discharge (the danger has always been amperage, not voltage). One faulty coupling, a single strand of wire in the wrong place, can kill the operator so quickly he or she wouldn't even feel it. With amperage this high, it's a fricken lighting bolt.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Saving the environment is a joke
Submitted by jon_torlin on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 9:57pm.
That's why environmentalists are such ridiculous jokes. They do one of a few things, the most common one is that they never think things through, they just have "good intentions." But another thing is that there are those who do think things through and push this, those are more dangerous because the people who believe in the enviro-nonsense will believe anything as long as the words used are "protect/save the planet" or "help the earth."
Then there are the dictator types who will push these things through no matter what because they think they are in absolute control to do it. This is where our Chairman fit in and is trying to push it, but we have heard other dictators basically repeat the talking points of the enviro-wackos too.
Battery operated cars will NEVER EVER be the way to go, except on golf courses and warehouses and movie studio lots.
-Jon
Battery cars may be the wave
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 11:04pm.
Battery cars may be the wave of the future but there is a lot of development needed. Just in the last 15 years battery tech and prices have dramatically evolved. I believe that we will go to a different battery technology like a fuel cell. You are right at this time electric cars are more of a curiosity tan a viable option.
For short trips and limited use electric vehicles are fine.
What's right and not
Submitted by jon_torlin on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 12:26am.
Some of you know I hate the Hybrids and I do, I hate the way they are constructed with a lot of poisonous materials and expensive to boot. Having said that, they did get something right which was also right in a regular car. Not sure what the equivalent is called, but in a regular car, the best thing about it is the alternator. It keeps the battery charged when the vehicle is running, otherwise without it, it just runs down like any other battery even with the vehicle running. They have something similar in the hybrids.
It seems like it would make sense to put something like that in an electric vehicle, so owing to my ignorance, do they have such a thing? My guess is probably not.
You are right about batteries, but as devices get more advanced, the more power they need, even in smart phones like iPhones or the droid phones. At work, I see people constantly plugging in their iPhones to charge them or keep them charged all the time and those batteries are twice the size or more of my last phone which was a Motorola Razr V3.
-Jon
Dan, Which is older a fuel cell or the internal combustion
Submitted by upcountrywater on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 12:40pm.
engine?
The use of an internal combustion engine will always be a better and more efficient form of transportation, than wiring up the world for electric car use.
In 2002, typical fuel cell systems cost US$1000 per kilowatt of electric power output.
The fuel cell was invented in 1838...
You Didn't Build That.
Hmmm, you are going down an
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 1:02pm.
Hmmm, you are going down an unsustainable pathway. The use of an internal combustion engine will always be a better and more efficient form of transportation, than wiring up the world for electric car use. The statement is a bit reaching don't you think, especially in light of the improvements in the last 20 years in electric technology.
Technology is ever changing and I would never say anything is always going to be better or more efficient. Sometimes it depends on teh application and the cost of the technology. I would say an electric scooter is better than a gas scooter for in town work. And I have an electric lawn mower I love. It have outperformed, outlasted and costs less in maintenance than a gas one.
Even though the fuel cell was invented in 1838 it has not been developed due to other methods being more cost effective. It has been developed for space though. Computers were made smaller and more reliable for space work and now what used to be a warehouse and millions of dollars in cost is now the Apple IPhone.
Dan, Some technologies are developing some are done.
Submitted by upcountrywater on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 2:40pm.
The fastest aircraft, the fastest humans, all happened about 40 years ago. Why because engine materials were pushed to the physical limits, that's it... done. We are stuck with the melting point, and strength of metals here in our spot in this universe.
Combustion engineering has basically stopped advancing. There are no viable new plans anywhere that increases efficiencies to the point of replacing current technologies.
For example A modern coal fired power plant, and a Nuclear power plant, many things remain the same, the steam pressure, size of boiler power output, the same, peaking at about 1.8 GW output, efficiency about 33%
Batteries will never ever get close to the power densities (watts/pound) of gasoline, 45.7 MJ/kg.
There have been no new revolutionary battery technology that has popped up in the last 20 years, other than science lab oddities...
Maybe could be the new thing??
You are right Computers (and bio technologies) are advancing at an incredible rate.
I have an electric weed eater, love it too, however there is a cord that is plugged into the power grid.
I use electric motors, however for transportation forget it.
The only unsustainable pathway is what the government is doing to us, USA will cease to be a nation long before oil runs out.
You Didn't Build That.
Batteries will never ever get
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 11:55pm.
Batteries will never ever get close to the power densities (watts/pound) of gasoline, 45.7 MJ/kg.It is not only the battery but the motors and such connected to it. Never say never. I still have computer magazines that say all the Ram anyone will ever need is 64K of Ram. I point to an unusual hybrid, the diesel locomotive powered by electric motors. I grant you the combustion engine is the king at the moment.
One thing I do refute is the combustion engine has stopped advancing. A modern Corvette engine putting out 500 very usable horsepower, very tame and practical with air conditioning. I remember when 400 HP was a great thing and it was a beast of an engine.
Upcountry...good numbers. I
Submitted by celator on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 12:38pm.
Upcountry...good numbers. I was listening to an engineer on a talk show yesterday, and he noted that if only 5 percent of car owners in the country switched to all-electric cars, the power lines would melt from the electrical load. We just don't have the electrical infrastructure to take the load from recharging those batteries, particularly in the summer with air conditioners at full blast.
Nothing's wrong in promoting
Submitted by mkall on Sat, 07/30/2011 - 10:18am.
Nothing's wrong in promoting electric car charging stations especially if you have a financial interest on it, I don't see the problem. I would get an electric car myself tomorrow if I knew I can afford it but at this point the used cars Ft Lauderdale are the closest I can get to financially.