On 05/01/16 10:45, Timothy Murphy wrote:
Chris Hogg wrote:

The problem is made worse if one wants to convert a significant amount
of road vehicles to electric power. The UK presently uses on average,
840GWh of electrical energy per day. You can nearly double that if a
large proportion of road vehicles are to be powered by electricity.

I would have thought this problem, at least, would be easily solved,
by charging spare batteries during the day.
I believe an Israeli company is developing a system
where batteries from electric vehicles are exchanged at stopping points
rather than charged.

Incidentally, I don't think it would be that difficult
to store sufficient energy to keep a house going during the night.
A tank of hot water would give sufficient heat,
and LED lights could easily be charged from batteries.


Well yes, you can and indeed I looked into it.

around £5000 of car batteries with an expected life of 10 years would do
it with an inverter. Of course woe betide you if you want a cup of
midnight cocoa, or to heat up a tin of beans.

And of course £500 a year is about what most people pay for proper
electricity.

But the problem is - and if you look at Gridwatch and compare sunny days
to dull days you will instantly see it - is that the amount of
electricity produced by a solar panel on a dull wet cold winter day is
negligible.


I'm not saying this is to be recommended -
I'm just saying that it is perfectly possible.
I actually suspect that nuclear energy will prove the most feasible
in the medium term.
But the energy (more precisely, the negentropy) from the sun
will probably be the solution in the long run.

It won't. There is not enough of it.

At the sorts of efficiencies that are theoretically possible.

And its not storable in practical terms.

Easier to use local fusion reactors.

Rather than kill all the plant life by shading it with solar panels.





--
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's
too dark to read.

Groucho Marx