Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
"...While the promise of electrification is in part climate related and to address energy poverty, "
Of the two, our energy poverty is the most serious. Our entire economy is based on petroleum - a globally traded commodity over which we have little supply and little control. We are trusting the countries that do have the petroleum to play nice, and except for a blip in the early 70s they have so far, but the idea that the strength of our economy is ultimately in the hands of countries that don't necessarily like us should scare the crap out of us.
The oil companies aren't our friends. They pump oil out from under our feet and sell it to the highest bidder. We need to base our economy on an energy source that can't be put on ships and sent to the highest bidder. So far it looks like electricity. We need to stop farting around with wind and solar and ramp up our nuclear capacity.
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In the past 10 years, the United States has been energy self-sufficient. We are the most efficient in use of energy (lowest carbon footprint).
Wind and solar have their place, but nothing beats nuclear. The issue with nuclear has always been a focus on extremely large plants. We would be far better off with hundreds or thousands of smaller nuclear plants, say the size used for Nuclear Aircraft carriers. Basically, a civilian version of that nuclear reactor.
Or better yet, a Gen 4 gas cooled reactor, that can exceed 50% thermal efficiency. It would look similar to our Combined cycle gas turbine plants, just using nuclear heat instead of combustion gasses.
The other thing that we need is large scale reliable energy storage. That will help no matter the energy source.
Finally, back on topic, EV vs. Hybrid. When we were designing the solar energy systems for off-shore platforms and then for commercial/residential, a hybrid system was far cheaper than a solar only system. With solar only, you needed 3-5 days of batteries and an over sized solar panel system to allow it to ride through cloudy days and storms.
A hybrid system using 10% or so energy from a generator, reduced the battery size to 16 hours and the solar array to just produce a standard 24 hour day of energy. The cost for the hybrid system was about a third of the standalone solar.
For EVs, most of us could get by with 40-80 miles of range and then a small engine for the long trips. You would probably use the engine only about 10% of the time. It reduces cost and makes the car more efficient (lower weight). It just makes sense.