Nice if true

[Insp. Clue!So?]

O/U it's just hype: 14/1

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070904/...more_batteries

>AUSTIN, Texas - Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S.

>patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy

>insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death
>knell for the internal combustion engine.
>
>An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for
>replacement of electrochemical batteries," meaning a motorist could
>plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between

>Dallas and Houston without gasoline.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
>An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for
>replacement of electrochemical batteries," meaning a motorist could
>plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between
>Dallas and Houston without gasoline.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just finding a source for some very rough estimates:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005...-powered_t.php

"This is where the incredible efficiency of the hybrid car must be taken into account. To drive a hybrid car about 1 km, takes about the same electricity as to light a 150 watt bulb for one hour!"

500 miles ~= 800km, to drive this distance requires 800 * 150 watt-hours = 120,000 watt-hours.

To provide 120,000 watt-hours to your vehicle at 220V for 5 minutes (1/12 of an hour) = 120000 / 220 * 12 = 6545 Amps. Typical homes are supplied with main wiring that can handle 100-200 Amps @ ~220V.

Clearly something is wrong with or missing from this claim.

[Borodog]

You've pinpointed the essential problem with all pure electric cars, which is power, and not energy. The rate at which you deliver energy to your car when you gas it up is an incredible 10 Megawatts. It would take an entire gigawatt nuclear power plant to charge up only of order 100 electric cars at the same rate.

Most people really have no concept of the energy density available in gasoline.

[Phil153]

[ QUOTE ]
It would take an entire gigawatt nuclear power plant to charge up only of order 100 electric cars at the same rate.

[/ QUOTE ]
So a 1 gigawatt coal power plant wouldn't cut it? [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

The words of the investment company and their talk of due diligence does sound promising. It sounds like they have a working model and merely have to prove mass production capabilities.

[Kimbell175113]

This brings up a point I've long been confused about. Is using a "fossil fuel" to create electricity/ethanol/whatever then using it to charge an electric car any better (with regards to net pollution and any other effects) than just putting it straight into a car?

(I mean, obviously most power plants don't use gasoline specifically, and let's ignore nuclear for the moment, but you know what I'm sayin-)

[ALawPoker]

[ QUOTE ]
Most people really have no concept of a lot of the things they use

[/ QUOTE ]

But they choose to depend on those things anyways.

Hence, regulation, and a vicious cycle. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Phil153]

Here's a more technical breakdown, with some interesting comments

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/18086/page2/

[superadvisor]

One word.. DANGEROUS

I've heard the capacitors in your average PC power supply can hold enough electricity to disintegrate a misplaced finger. Apparently this new technology is some sort of super capacitor, which I guess could unleash a world of pain if there was some kind of malfunction or car accident.