[Tfug] OT: Battery Powered Transportation: Converting Thermal to Electrical Energy

[Bexley Hall]

--- On Fri, 8/14/09, Angus Scott-Fleming <angussf at geoapps.com> wrote:

> > >  pretty cool:
> > > 
> > >  http://www.chevrolet.com/pages/open/default/fuel/electric.do
> > 
> > This seems like yet another case of Detroit missing the boat.
> > The car (allegedly) gets 230MPG -- but only if you make
> > short trips and keep recharging it (I think the range is
> > just 40 miles on a charge)
> 
> Also, many of the alleged eco-benefits for these silly
> things are based on the assumption that there are zero 
> energy and emission costs for plugging in to the 
> wall.

And what about the side-effects of manufacturing?
Are those batteries produced "cleanly"?  What
happens to them when they wear out?

I had a (filler, unrelated to my course of study) course
in Materials Engineering.  I *vaguely* recall the professor
touting the alleged benefits of PV technology -- in *one*
breath; and, in the *next*, describing all of the byproducts
of their manufacture and how messy it was for the environment...

(no idea what the details were back then and no idea how the
technology has changed in the past 30 years...)

My point (and yours, Angus) is that you can't look at just one
part of a "solution" and base your decision on that in a
vacuum without considering all of the other consequences.

The real problem is figuring out how to *value* the other
consequences (without knowing what will be important in
the future)