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| Science & Technology |
| Car Prototype Generates Electricity, And Cash |
| 2007-12-10 |
| The price of oil nearly reached $100 a barrel recently, but a new University of Delaware prototype vehicle demonstrates how the cost of the black stuff could become a concern of the past. A team of UD faculty has created a system that enables vehicles to not only run on electricity alone, but also to generate revenue by storing and providing electricity for utilities. The technology--known as V2G, for vehicle-to-grid--lets electricity flow from the carÂ’s battery to power lines and back. ...The Car: Manufactured by vehicle technology company AC Propulsion; formerly a Toyota Scion, which was chosen because it is light yet provides plenty of passenger room Emissions: The car itself produces no carbon dioxide emissions Acceleration: 0 to 60 miles per hour in 7 seconds Top Speed: 95 miles per hour Range: 120 highway, 150 city Battery Life: 5 years or about 50,000 miles (being tested and verified) Recharge: 2 hours using 240-volt plug or overnight using 110-volt plug Maintenance: No oil changes; brakes last three times longer because the car has regenerative braking, a mechanism that slows the car and returns power to the battery Not an expert, but sounds too good to be true |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #14 Cars USE energy... If you want to buy electricity during off-peak and drop it on the grid during peak why should you buy a car around your battery pack? Never mind the car just buy the batteries & the charging system. Cuts down on the overhead but will probably still lose money. |
| Posted by: Throger Thains8048 2007-12-10 22:24 |
| #13 How much more grant money do they need to prove this one? Collaborators=Miscreants=algores? Let's see W(P)=IxE, so 1MegWatt(P)=~4KAmpsx240V, or is that 2KAmps per hour using 240volts. Hmmm. No problem there. Bigger fuses are cheap. Particularly the Maroon ones. |
| Posted by: Phinater Thraviger 2007-12-10 20:42 |
| #12 It's call Vehicle to Grid (V2G) where an electric vehicle stores cheap off peak electricity and sells it back to the electric grid at peak times (and rates). The catch is that battery technology is not mature and has a limited lifetime. The best batteries are guaranteed for 2000 cycles. At $1200/kWh (my guess), that gives a cost of $.60 + the cost of electricity for each kiloWatt hour stored. That makes it not cost effective and a waste of precious battery capacity. V2G will have to wait until batteries are guaranteed for at least 20,000 cycles and lithium ion battery costs fall (mass production not likely ever to be less than $400/kWh). At better alternative would be to have large insulated pools of water in our cities, chilled with off peak electricity in summer, heated in winter and then circulate it among the office buildings during the day. But this also requires new infrastructure build. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-12-10 20:35 |
| #11 Braking while returning energy to the battery is similar to braking by putting the engine into low gear and letting the wheels drive the engine; you can use that to drive a motor and generate electricity for that battery. This is efficient at high speeds. But at low speeds, to come to a full stop, you still need regular friction brakes. |
| Posted by: Skunky Angeack7024 2007-12-10 20:33 |
| #10 1 megawatt = 1,341 horsepower |
| Posted by: Darrell 2007-12-10 20:07 |
| #9 "But PJM requires at least 300 megawatts to purchase power. That means the UD team and its collaborators must get 300 cars up and running." No way that's right. Not 1 megawatt per car. No way. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2007-12-10 20:04 |
| #8 Since braking involves some application of friction by definition (regardless of clever dynamo-braking schemes) the idea that you could get energy *out* of an electric car (as opposed to using it more efficiently than an electric car without said clever dynamo-braking schemes) is flatly ludicrous. I had a car salesman tell me today that some new "soft-hybrid" trucks make really nifty portable generators for camping and the like. Still requires gasoline in the tank to keep the laws of thermodynamics at bay, though. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2007-12-10 20:00 |
| #7 It sounds like a lovely little running about town car. Not good for distances, though. But 7 seconds to get to 60 mph? Isn't that rather a lot? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-12-10 19:55 |
| #6 CrazyFool, the car uses regenerative braking to convert movement back into store energy. The 2nd law of thermodynamics is safe. ;-) |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-12-10 19:49 |
| #5 It's not too good to be true. It already exists. I test drove a Phoenixmotor all electric SUV. But go ahead and poo poo it. I know you guys would rather be slaves to OPEC. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2007-12-10 19:32 |
| #4 Yuh never mind the energy cost going into PRODUCING the car... |
| Posted by: Valentine 2007-12-10 19:02 |
| #3 The Second law of thermodynamics could not be reached for comment. But someone mentioned that the car would have to be a net generator of electricity. Maybe if you only drive it downhill.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2007-12-10 18:34 |
| #2 Sounds like great news, however I think it will be some time before powerlines will be ready to receive power. |
| Posted by: Helmuth, Speaking for Cromong3228 2007-12-10 17:25 |
| #1 That last question gets Kempton, who also is involved in College of Marine and Earth Studies research on offshore wind farms, the most excited. He explained that even if the electricity used to charge the car is produced by a coal-fired power plant, the car itself produces no carbon dioxide emissions. If a wind farm fuels the electricity from the power plant, he explained, the car and its power source would be emissions free. Mass-production of electric cars will require a lot of nuclear power plants. |
| Posted by: mrp 2007-12-10 16:31 |