In a climate of economic austerity in which European car sales have declined over the past few years, the renewable and other emerging technologies on display during the recent 2012 Paris Motor Show offered a glimmer of hope.
The two-week event that ended on October 14 featured the latest in electric vehicle and hybrid technology. Automakers, like BMW, that have been slow to enter the hybrid and EV markets, showed off concept vehicles while others demonstrated the latest technologies for squeezing more miles and kilometers out of each gallon or liter of gas.
Click on the image below to see some of the cars on display at the show.
The BMW i8 Concept can run on electric power alone. The energy supplied by the application-designed battery (installed between the front and rear axles) to the electric motor at the front axle gives the BMW i8 Concept an all-electric driving range of about 20 miles. The battery can be fully recharged in two hours in a standard power socket.
Jerry, we're in agreement regarding your comment about the need for lower cost, lower tech, lighter EVs. If the cost is low enough, it would enable consumers to buy pure electric vehicles as second cars. Then we wouldn't have to worry about squeezing 300 miles out of the battery.
I just tested the rolling chassis of my new 2wh EV Streamliner which I was worried about as the CG was 60% lower than a normal MC but it handled excellently so I'm a go to complete it and it's body.
As it's light, lighter than the Kaw 750 suspension donor, and will me far more aero than any real road vehile I know of. Because of this it only needs a small battery pack and as weight equals costs it's not expensive to do and put into production.
I'll have it at Daytona Bike Week in March with another EcoMobile production aero cabin MC powered by a new BMW motor and suspension. for anyone there we will be hard to miss.
I'm afraid you are wrong again. Geothermal produces more radioactive polution than nukes or coal plants due to the leaching of radon and other radioactive materials from the earth. Coal always has thorium and uranium isotopes that are released into the atmosphere. Wind and hydro are the only "clean" alternatives at the moment. Nuclear isn't the monster you make it out to be. Most of the rad dose you get is from natural sources, only a small fraction is from human activities.
I'm affraid you are quite mistaken. A closed-loop or binary cycle geothermal system can be used to generate power. There is no venting of anything to the atmosphere with this type of system. As far as nuclear power is concerned, I'm only reporting the facts as reported by people who have actually been there and know what is happening. People who claim that nuclear power is clean are refusing to acknowledge the rather significant problems and only see what they want to see. Nuclear power is cheap and clean up to a point. Unfortunately, beyond that point it is neither. Dealing with the waste is expensive. Cleaning up leaks and spills is expensive and many times can never be totally cleaned up.
Nuclear power and the waste generated are not likely to go away any time soon, though. More than 70% of the spent nuclear fuel SNF and radioactive high-level waste R-HLW are produced by the US Navy and DOE. We expect to have around 104,000 tons of SNF in the US by 2035.
NiteOwl_OvO doesn't really speak about the other really big problem with nuclear: We can't figure out what to do with the radioactive waste, so we bury in giant caverns in the earth where it will remain lethal for a millenia. With a large number of nuclear plants we would be sequestering large amounts of radioactive waste underground. You want that stuff in your backyard? Or even in your country? There are far better and cleaner ways to get energy.
Ann--Great slide presentation. I certainly wish I could have been there to witness the event in person. Looks as though just about all manufacturers have an entry in the show. I do feel alternative solutions are needed for the "post-petroleum" era. It may be 200 or 300 years off but it's coming. Again--great post.
Tesla Motors plans to roll out a “compelling, affordable electric car” that will sell for about half the price of its high-profile Model S by the end of 2016, company chairman Elon Musk said last week.
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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