With fears that our oil dollars are simply funding our enemies and making us poorer, there are widespread calls for “hybrid” gas and electric cars.
The question remains… if everybody got one, is there enough power generation capacity in the US to power them?
This study reports that there is.
It assumes several things…that you commute the “average” distance to work and back. That’s just a 33 mile round trip.
Did they include all those runs to the grocery store? ball games? and other extra curricular activities? That’s not readily apparent.
I wonder also what the electric bill will look like after charging up a hybrid car every night?
I’ll bet that the simplest solution is still adapting current vehicles to run on E85 gasohol mixtures. Those adaptations don’t cost an extra $6,000 to $10,000 per vehicle.
Total dependence on the power grid for daytime transportation too has national security and environmental implications.
For one, the power grid is a prime terror target. Damage that alone would be bad enough, but keeping people from travelling on top of it would be even worse.
The next question is what kind of energy charges up all these cars? What will be the environmental impact? In some large cities in Mainland China, pollution concerns keep people inside rather than breath the pollutant filled air that is directly related to electrical production from coal fired power generation plants.
Just thinking out loud.
How do you see this playing out?
No comments yet.