Here is some HOPE...World Changing Device

Disruptive technology. What is it ?
Something that comes along and shakes up EVERYTHING.

Hydrogen fuel cells ? Nope. Incredibly problematic, expensive, inefficient. IMHO, they will never be mass produced for use in vehicles.
Hybrid cars? Nope. Not bad, but just a stop-gap.

How about obsoleting the internal combustion engine and replacing it with highly efficient, quiet, high-torque, in-wheel electric motors? Impossible, you say? Batteries are too expensive, toxic, heavy, have charge leakage, have high recharge times, etc. Well, pure electric vehicles are incredibly simple, IF you can solve the electrical storage problem. No cooling system, no fuel system, no emission controls, virtually no maintenance. I am NOT saying mass transit should not be pursued. This device is suited to that, too, as well as small electric bikes and scooters.

It has been obvious to me for quite a while that what is needed to solve our energy issue is PRACTICAL electrical energy storage...Electricity is the highest form of energy, that is, it is most directly and efficiently convertible to useful work. Electrical storage would solve the 'intermittent nature' of almost all renewable technologies like wind and solar. The infrastructure is already in place and easy to expand with existing technologies, unlike hydrogen 'distribution'.

It is all about 'efficiency'. Reducing the weight of vehicles, reducing aerodynamic and rolling drag and recapturing the energy lost in braking, could save incredible amounts of wasted energy. Do you realize that less than ONE PERCENT of the energy contained in gasoline goes to actually moving YOU in a car? This is due to inefficiencies of internal combustion engines, friction, and the weight of the car .vs the weight of the passenger.

Electric motors are in excess of 90% efficient in converting available energy to work. Electricity can be re-captured using regenerative braking. Electric vehicles are ZERO (local) emission vehicles. Electricity can be directly generated via wind, solar, tide, hydro, and wind. NO NEED to use hydrogen as an incredibly inefficient means of energy transfer, because that is all it is. It is not a fuel.

If a 1 cubic foot device could be invented that weighed 320 pounds, could store 52KW hours of electrical energy, was made from non-toxic materials, could be recharged indefinitely in 6 minutes, cost about $2K, and was mass-producible, it would change the world as we know it.

IF (and that is the 64 trillion dollar question) this device is REAL, then it solves a huge number of problems:
Practical electric vehicles, storage of intermittent and off-peak electric energy, elimination of toxic batteries, and on and on and on...

A startup company out of Cedar Hills, Tx, called EEStor, claims to have invented just such a device. It is a sort of 'hyper' capacitor, a charge storage device, not an electro-chemical battery.

Information is very limited right now, and production may be years away, if at all, however...these guys do have venture capital backing...

Here is an article on it.
http://dymaxionworld.blogspot.com/2006/01/silver-bullet.html

Here is a link to their patent...
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20040071944.pdf

IMHO, THIS or something like it is the next BIG thing.

Imagine electric vehicles with...
No cooling system
No fuel system
No combustion system
No emission control system
No tailpipe
No tune ups
Long lasting regerative brakes
200 mile range
6 minute recharge
No local emissions
No combustion noise (may need to add noise maker for safety)
Super light-weight
Super high torque may not even need a transmission

My son and I built a small, model electric car for one of his school projects and were amazed how the car simply consisted of a battery, a switch, four wheels, an electic motor with drive belt and a chassis.

I realize the power still needs to be generated somehow, but due to efficiencies achievable by using off-peak, lighter vehicles, etc....this is still world changing.

It is obvious to most informed people...we have NO choice in the matter.
Either we change our ways now or the earth is going to evict us.

Magical

Have to read the article, but I suspect that somewhere in here is a perpetual motion machine.

No perpetual motion.
Charge storage from the grid.
Read the patent.

I can patent my asshole in less than 2 days.

I want to see a study.

And I hold it. Do NOT mess with the law, buddy.

enjoy. :)

to the White House.

:toast:

The patent is a glorified materials summary. It's nice to know the breakdown voltages of various materials, but I want evidence that it can do what the patent holder says it can do.

That's the problem with patents. There are far too many of them approved with scant evidence that they are for real.

Do you think the electric car is an impossibility? And if so what do you think the future of transportation in America is?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

and i'm not quick to dis any new idea. This is what this country needs right now, we need people thinking of ways to fix our energy and transportation needs.

So i'm not going to pooh pooh any new idea, know one ask me for anything except to take a look at a new battery. And that's all i did, but i'll keep looking at new ideas because we need them.

Peace!

A/C and heat. Two things that most drivers want.

Both issues are probably solvable (and A/C really isn't necessary), but using the main battery and current heating/cooling tech will likely not work at all.

Have a drive in ATL or HOU when it is 100 degrees and 92% humidity and tell me you don't need A/C! :-) Especially when you are stuck on 400N on the blazing asphalt (which has a mean surface temp just slightly lower that the core of the SUN)...that is when A/C keeps you from dying.

sP

You're not going to die from sweat! :) I used to live in Kansas City (same weather as TX) and drove a few cars without A/C. Sure it was uncomfortable, but not life threatening.

let's just get rid of cars altogether...they really aren't NECESSARY. We can stop wasting power with laptops posting on the internet...that's not NECESSARY. You're not going to die not being able to post on DU :-) .

I think you get the point...maybe...

sP

Something is raising red flags in my baloney detector.

Do some Googling...

I took your advice and did a quick google search, here's what i found. This is only one link, and they have several dealing with this company and electric cars in general.

http://blog.wired.com/cars/index.blog?topic_id=1062271

Peace!

http://dailygrail.com/blog/6427?from=15

A few stories down...
Lots of doubters, but lots of reputable folks involved too.

Only time will tell if they really have something that can be produced as claimed.
I can understand the secrecy if they really have what they claim.

I shake it up,it lights up and stays lit for quite a while.
No battery replacements.

It needs no batteries.It has a coil in it and a magnet thing,you shake it up it generates enough volate to run the leds in it.

Tell me why couldn't this technology be adapted and used to power a car?If you can get something to do the equivalent of shaking the flashlight in the cars mechanism..it would be amazing.

You would need a store of energy to 'do the shaking'. In the case of an electric vehicle, the store would be a battery or this hyper capacitor.

That stored energy is then converted to useful work using electric motors to propel the vehicle.

Shaking the flashlight, in essence, operates like a generator, converting motion into electrical potential, by moving a magnet thru a coil of wire. A motor is the reverse, converting electrical potential into motion.

WE need a global, energy/transport solution that is scalable and will
transport 6-9 billion persons to their life destinations the next 50 years
time in a way that self regulates from public eonomic intervention. The
free market myth, and the invisible hand of bullshit, is handing us just that.

They're building more nuclear power, and increasing the prison wall thickness,
improving surveillance and tracking of prisoners. I feel so reassured that
they'll be able to transport and dispose of prisoners more simply, with less
energy wasted. What efficiency, gotta love kaptialism. ;-)