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From: phil@brahms.amd.com (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: ba.transportation,ca.environment,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Electric Dreams
Message-ID: <1990Sep21.015825.9264@amd.com>
Date: 21 Sep 90 01:58:25 GMT
References: <38772@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1990Sep20.231021.5512@amd.com> <38776@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
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Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc; Sunnyvale, CA
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In article <38776@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> cameron@janus.Berkeley.EDU
|solar, the single most expensive component is the cells.  If we can find
|ways to bring their cost down, solar generation becomes competetive.  And

IF we can. Right now, they are not economical.

|By the way, a number of major car manufacturers already have electric
|cars built which cost about the same as their gasoline counterparts
|(ABC News, PrimeTime Live), but the reason they aren't mass-producing
|them is because they say they aren't marketable enough yet.  It's a
|mild sort of catch-22.

I find it hard to believe the electrics cost about the same as IC.

|>have you ever investigated the efficiency of storage cells?
|
|Why yes, I have!  Although I don't have figures on efficiencies for you,

But I do. It's around 40%. Horrible.

|I can tell you that this is the second hurdle for solar cars, and one of
|the first for electric cars.  However, just as with so many things in
|modern technology, improvements and cost reductions are continuously being
|made, and higher efficiency batteries may well be within reach sooner
|than was once thought.

Maybe, but battery technology is not exactly a new field.

|>PG&E is probably no better than 50% if you consider their power plant
|>and transmission losses.
|
|I don't know, perhaps you're right, but I had heard a figure more like
|25% (surprisingly low).  Regardless of electric power efficiency, I've
|considered that the energy efficiency of gas autos is generally worse.

Does anyone have any numbers for IC efficiency?

|But a more serious argument for electric is happenning right
|now in the Middle East.  As a friend of mine once put it, "No one ever
|died for solar power."

That's a valid point.
--
Phil Ngai, phil@amd.com		{uunet,decwrl,ucbvax}!amdcad!phil
Freedom is dead, long live privacy!