I don’t claim to be psychic but just yesterday I was wondering why deep mines are not used for producing some type of geothermal energy and then today an article arrives describing how University of Purdue scientists are looking at abandoned Indiana coal mines to produce geothermal power. The article does not go into great detail about the process that will be used, and there are a lot of hurdles they will need to overcome, but it is interesting that they might put old mines to good use.
And since I started out with an alternative energy story, I might as well continue.
In the electric car market there is news about the Think City mini-electric. The model that will soon be built at a factory in Indiana will charge up to 80 percent of battery capacity in just 15 minutes. That is a nice improvement. The car can travel at speeds up to 70 mph and can drive up to 100 miles without needing to be recharged. It sounds like a good car for the urban market. As you could have guessed, the only drawback is the price – estimated to be $30,000. That is a lot of money for such a small car. Think expects the price will drop to the low $20,000s as volume ramps up in coming years. Unfortunately, even the low 20s is too expensive for me. So far, the only car in my price range is the Tata Nano. I guess I’ll have to buy used if and when I need a car (at least for the next couple of years).
If you want a “vehicle” with more cool factor for $30,000, maybe you should look at the new double-motor Roehr electric racing superbike. Not sure if it is street legal.
Despite the high cost of hybrids and electrics, at least one study predicts that nearly 20% of the car market will be cars with cords by 2030. I think it will be a little higher than that, as I expect the price of oil to keep climbing while the price of batteries declines. The low maintenance cost of low pollution of electric cars are also great selling points. The price is the main drawback and the batteries are the most expensive part. With regards to the price of batteries, Boston Consulting Group claims the price of batteries will not be coming down anytime soon unless there is a major technological breakthrough. Thus they say, electric cars will not become more than a tiny niche market. I agree that there have not been any major breakthroughs in batteries recently, but if you read the blog you know that I have covered many incremental improvements. GM says they are going to build their own batteries and motors. GM engineers do not expect to improve the efficiency of the motors, only the size and power density. They claim they can make a smaller electric motor with the same power and this will give them more design flexibility in the electric cars they produce. I am not so sure that building everything “in house” is the best way to go – seems like that was a good strategy a few decades ago. Nowadays most companies outsource and are more profitable that way (and outsourcing goes both ways across the oceans nowadays, so it isn’t all bad for workers).
Of course Project Better Place has a different idea of dealing with batteries. They plan to install battery changing stations around the country. Instead of charging the battery in your car, you would just swap in a new one at the “gas” station. Here is an update on their efforts. They were able to raise 350 million in new financing. Their proposal is not without criticism though. Many people wonder how their battery swap stations will be able to handle all the different types of batteries and car models.
In any case the dream of having a car that runs completely off of solar panels still seems a long way off, in fact it seems more likely that successful mass transit will be built in the U.S. before solar panel driven cars (although not all mass transit is created equal, some of it is not as “green” as the lowly gasoline car). Still, similar to battery technology, solar panels continue on an incremental path to improved efficiency and lower cost. Using micro solar “flakes”‘ could cut the cost of solar cells dramatically while maintaining similar efficiency as traditional solar cells. The quality and price of anti-reflective coatings continues to improve as well.
I have a lot of other news to get to but I am running out of time. I am heading to a local school this morning to hand out $300 in our Tools-for-Schools” program. Check in on the morning show Tuesday February 2nd to find out who won.
Have a nice Thursday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.