Electric and Hybrid Car Buzzzz

What noise does an electric car make anyway? Is it a buzzing noise or is it a humming noise? Anyway, the last maker of the stage coach probably made the best built carriage there ever was. They most likely had the best suspension, ultimate comfort, and ease of access for passengers and drivers. It would be fair to say that General Motors is not going to follow in the footsteps of the last Stage Coach manufacturer with the launching of its new Electric Motor plant in Maryland. But the competition already has a leg up in the market...

GM to build electric motors in Maryland
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Betting that hybrid and electric vehicles will play a growing role on American highways, General Motors is expected to announce Tuesday a $246 million investment to add production of electric motors at its White Marsh, Md., manufacturing plant.

The decision reflects confidence at GM and other automakers that the "electrification" of the U.S. fleet is not far away, with GM officials likening the importance of electric-motor technology to that of engines in gasoline cars.

The electric-motor project is expected to create about 200 jobs and will be funded in part by a $105 million grant from the Department of Energy, the automaker said. - Washington Post

Electric car technology is taking off in the auto industry and rightfully so given the price of gas and oil over the last few years. Speculations on where the prices for oil and gas will go is anyone’s guess but one thing is certain, fleets of electric cars, hybrid cars and hybrid trucks will not be pulling up to any gas pump anytime in the future. Good news for consumers and the environment but bad news for OPEC.

Just doing a quick Google search I came across some interesting news on new Hybrid and EV cars. According to All Cars Electric, Mitsubishi is dropping prices and moving up its production of I-MiEV based on demand to 30,000 cars per year in 2013 which is 10,000 more than previous projections. Toyota is boosting production in 2011 of its new hybrid cars to one million units based on the growing demand that they are seeing from customers for their product line of cars. Acura is entering the hybrid market with its TSX model with great expectations for success.

Ford is gearing up to bring to market its Focus EV model with the conversion of one of its SUV plants in Michigan. Ford is also promising three additional EV’s by 2012. Last but not least is Volvo pulling up the rear with its C30 EV which has been delayed in part by Volvo as they look to beef up the car and make it one of the safest electric cars on the road.

Take that and blow it out your oil well OPEC!

Papamoka

Oil Price Tank Threatens Green Energy

One of the biggest factors for many industries and people to go with green energy was the high cost of oil. They went solar, they went with wind power, hydro, bio-fuels, hydrogen fleets, electric cars, and the green energy movement was born again. What happens now to that green energy drive when oil is once more affordable? Should it be abandoned or pursued more feverishly?

In my little corner of the world it was great to see one small Catholic high school put up a wind turbine on its campus from their pristine location on a high hill in our city. Seeing that turbine whip around and feed the school all of its electric energy needs is just amazing to behold. I would love to see the seven hills of Worcester, MA look like the Gray Goose about to take off. That would be a Howard Hughes reference to an aircraft that he proposed and the government prosecuted him over that it could never fly. It did fly and so will the green energy mentality.

America has been burned over the last few years with the speculation on oil and we frankly are late on getting on the green energy bandwagon. We never learned from the oil embargo of the 1970’s but we sure as hell will never forget the oil desecration of our financial system once the oil bubble burst.

Over at the Guardian and from Chris Goodall they have this amazing piece on "The Ten Big Energy Myths". I loved it! This is a must read article and you might find yourself amazed at the myths and what the truth actually is…

Myth 1: solar power is too expensive to be of much use
Myth 2: wind power is too unreliable
Myth 3: marine energy is a dead-end
Myth 4: nuclear power is cheaper than other low-carbon sources of electricity
Myth 5: electric cars are slow and ugly
Myth 6: biofuels are always destructive to the environment
Myth 7: climate change means we need more organic agriculture
Myth 8: zero carbon homes are the best way of dealing with greenhouse gas emissions from buildings
Myth 9: the most efficient power stations are big
Myth 10: all proposed solutions to climate change need to be hi-tech

Guardian.co.uk

I’m hoping that we in America will continue the fight for energy independence. We can not prosper as a people when any foreign entity controls our power needs. If we can not supply our nation with the energy we need to continue the fight that is right for human rights then we are dead in the water. If we as a people espouse to be the conscience of the world then we had better be able to feed the energy needs of that mind set. Otherwise, we need to start kissing the butt’s of some of the same folks that reaped the largest financial gains in history from the American people.

Keep up the fight for clean energy and chuck the bird at the people that told us we can not survive as a nation without the product they have to sell us. Thus dragging us collectively as a people into their political wars that have not made any sense for centuries.

Papamoka

Renewable Energy and the Military

When it comes to our United States military and their “needs” there is what some would call a demand for results in technology when it comes right down to it. Anyone that has worked with the military in the private sector knows that the contracts go to the people with the best idea for what they “need”. There is no better source of expedience when it comes to the private sector than facing a military contract to supply X at date Y and if they like it then contract Z is awarded. The competition for military contracts in the private sector is intense, extremely intense, and a life or death existence for many companies all across America. Make no mistake about it, the people with the best plan can charge the value they think it is worth.

Maybe it would be a good idea for the Pentagon to put out a call to arms for all of the garage inventors in America to hasten the effort to expand renewable energy sources that could be used in the business end of protecting America? One thing is certain with this article from Reuters is that the end result will be something that will eventually pay it forward in your home down the road…

Military wants to lead U.S. into the green

By Bernie Woodall

FORT IRWIN, California (Reuters) - The U.S. military has a history of fostering change, from racial integration to development of the Internet. Now, Pentagon officials say their green energy efforts will help America fight global warming.

By size alone, the Defense Department can make waves. It accounts for 1.5 percent of U.S. energy consumption.

The military has set a goal that 25 percent of its energy should come from renewable sources by 2025 and aims to create machines and methods to help Main Street America reach similar targets, said Alan Shaffer, a retired Air Force officer who leads the Pentagon's research and engineering arm.

Snip and “Atten Hut!”

Renewable energy is not new to the military. Wind turbines supply much of the power used at the isolated U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and the geothermal power plant at the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in California has been in operation for two decades.

But urgency to ramp up the program increased in 2006 after Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer said bringing solar and wind power to the battlefront would cut down on casualties.

"Cost matters. Lives matter more," said Shaffer. "Every time we have to send a convoy out to refuel tanks or deploy forward locations, it puts people's lives at risk." -Reuters

Make no mistake about this article from Reuters, the Pentagon is hurting from the price of oil and that money has to come from somewhere else to pay for our troops movements. If the money for energy use comes from somewhere else then programs the military really cares about have to be canceled. This policy of our military will change the imprint that our military and their use of energy has and will funnel down to the bases all over the world and thus onto the economy of America. What I find interesting about this military intervention is the fact that they are not embracing renewable energy because they like the idea but the simple fact that they have no choice in the matter. Something all of us in the private sector have faced for two years now and it is looking like we will all have to adjust our energy use for a long time to come.

In the long run, what the military invests in today for renewable energy will be in our homes in five to ten years at the latest. Be it solar, wind, or even pulling energy out of the air in a Tesla type experiment, the end result is the expenses in research and developed applications of our military today will be in our homes in the not so distant future. I would not be surprised to see solar energy conversion go from 30% to 80% in less than five years. Battery technology breaking new barriers and charges that last for days or weeks. Electric powered cars that can run for a week on just one charge. The possibilities are extreme and it will take the power of the U.S. military budget dollars to make the change in our energy sources and usage possible. They alone have the purchasing power to move renewable energy beyond what it is today as a science.

Papamoka

*****Reuters has picked up this post!!! Thank you!

Electric Cars

Make no mistake about it, we in America are behind the eight ball when it comes to our love of cars and getting from point A to Z. We as a people love the zero to sixty in seconds because we are power addicts in our cars. More power, more horsepower, and then we do that Tim Alan thing with the grunt as we pass a school bus with our mini van on a double lane road. Then we get to the gas pump and wonder why out loud with many expletives under our breath why it cost sixty, seventy or even a hundred dollars to fill our gas tank.

One of the things that is going to happen in America over the next decade is the extreme change to our choice of motor vehicles. It isn’t by our choice rather than our need as a people to move from one point to the other freely and the rising cost of gasoline will be the ultimate reason behind the engineering changes. You can blame OPEC, Wall Street, or the money grabbing oil companies with billions of profit per quarter or you could just look in the mirror. No matter how you look at the cause of blame, the car market is going to have to move to new forms of transportation or go the way of the stage coach. Just as the horse and buggy was replaced with the combustion engine, the same is going to happen to the combustion engine form of transportation.

Europe has been paying grotesque prices for gasoline for decades and in doing so has been the front runner on new technology to save money on the family budget. Over at Reuters they have this video on the latest car show featuring electric cars…

Wind power and Solar power is growing in America like a virus out of control and for a good reason. Our nation is in trouble when it comes to our energy needs and changing the source of that need is the only way out of it. All across America wind farms are going up like a wild weed overcoming the oil giant garden and this weed is not easily wiped out by insecticides or political lobbyist. What is amazing is that many people in the private sector are taking the initiative and installing their own wind turbines.

When you think about it, every single wind turbine is stealing away from the harmful alternatives that we use for electric generation every single day. Every single megawatt turbine is that less energy from coal powered power plants. Every single megawatt turbine is that much less energy needed from a natural gas fired power plant.

As for the solar power market and people embracing that new and improved energy source, the industry can not grow fast enough. Here in New England, Governor Deval Patrick has endorsed and put his money where his mouth is on green energy, and the solar power industry can not keep up with demand for the product that just sucks up energy from the sun.

Would it not be nice to throw up a solar panel on your roof and a small wind turbine to generate enough energy for not just your car to get from A to Z but also power the toaster, the fridge, the television and of course your computer to read posts like this one?

Anywho, electric cars are coming to America. They need to work on making them look more conventional and macho. Real men, macho hairy men, will be the worst enemy of the electric car industry. Little two seater’s that look like a sardine can will never wash. Get past that hurdle and it will sell like the next coming of Christ. Put the technology of electric cars in a midsized Ford or Chevy model and America will embrace it in a heartbeat.

Papamoka

*****Reuters has picked up this post... Thank You!

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