Electrify the Motorways !!

L1011

hi5 wrote: »

Of course they have, there's a lot of livelihoods depending of the value of oil staying high

Would have thought there'd be more cash being thrown at it from the tech industry than any amount of suppression money from the petro industry. Particularly as that oil is still needed for plastics.

AngryLips

The motorways of today will be the greenways of tomorrow once we run out of fossil fuel and when that day comes I'm sure the west will organise a campaign group to lobby Government to restore the motorways to their former glory.

Capt'n Midnight

darkmaster2 wrote: »

Cool huh ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/06/tunnel-solar-belgium-rail

some numbers - I think the 3.3MWh per year should be 3.3MW peak ?

A TGV uses up to 12,240 kW

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/infrabel-and-enfinity-put-solar-power-on-high-speed-rail-tunnel-rooftop-105437708.html

The roof's total surface area is 50,000 m2, roughly equivalent to 8 football fields. The installation should generate an estimated 3.3 MWh of electricity per year.

The installation commenced this summer on the tunnel's northern side. Project completion is scheduled for December 2010. The total investment budget is $20.1 million.
...

Commenting on the intricacies of the project, Patrick Decuyper, CEO of Enfinity Europe said, "In the months to come, a large technical team will install more than 16,000 monocrystalline solar panels (245 Wp per panel)

IIRC the US could get all it's electricity if the roads were covered with solar panels. And such things have been tested.

Capt'n Midnight

bk wrote: »

That isn't true, Lithium Poylmer atteries have proven a major success. Lithium Air batteries (x2 the performance of LiPo) are making their way to the market and then there are even bigger leaps in battery tech which are still currently a few more years from being commercialised but are coming.

Lithium is expensive.
And the batteries hold less charge over time. Even when you don't use them. If buying old stock batteries make sure you get a hefty discount.

And there is ~ 19 million tons of recoverable Lithium out there

For the conspiracy theorists
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/06/14/pentagon-says-afghanistan-might-have-worlds-largest-lithium-dep/


Sugar / Sodium is a lot cheaper
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/25/sodium_ion_batteries_sucrose_anode/

super capacitors would be cool as there is no chemistry and no moving parts, just need to lower the price and increase the capacity

bk

MYOB wrote: »

Lithium Polymer batteries have been withdrawn from use in a lot of consumer electronics due to their instability.

What?

100% of mobile phones, laptops, ipads use Lithium Polymer batteries.

Yes the concept of Lithium Air was first proposed in the 70's, but the materials technology (nano technology) to make it commercially viable is cutting edge.

What you have to understand is that industry only started to take an interest in battery technology again around 2005 when the electronics industry started needing new battery tech for smartphones, laptops, etc.

Capt'n Midnight I agree that there are other interesting battery techs too and super capacitors are very interesting.

maggy_thatcher

bk wrote: »

with the advantage you could also add street lights to the motorway network at the same time, increasing safety.

I reject the assumption that adding street lights to the motorway increases safety. I often drive down the M9 at night, and find it's much easier to see cars in front during the "dark" sections. The glare from the streetlights at the junctions cause shadows and can make cars harder to see. Also, the retroreflectors embedded in the road are much easier to see when its dark, making the lanes clearer.

Separately, adding yet more light pollution into the countryside is environmentally inconsiderate.

L1011

bk wrote: »

What?
100% of mobile phones, laptops, ipads use Lithium Polymer batteries.

Not the case, at all.

Generally anything not designed to be ridiculously small or oddly shaped still uses older lithium batteries due to the difficulties of keeping LiPo batteries safe (containment, charge difficulties, etc).

bk

MYOB wrote: »

Generally anything not designed to be ridiculously small or oddly shaped still uses older lithium batteries due to the difficulties of keeping LiPo batteries safe (containment, charge difficulties, etc).

Please point me to a single smart phone currently on sale that doesn't use LiPo?

Every iPhone, iPad, iPod, Samsung Galaxy 1 to 3, Nexus, HTC phone and tablet that I've checked uses LiPo.

Every Apple laptop uses LiPo, probably the majority of other manufactures too. Amazon Kindle also.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

L1011

bk wrote: »

Please point me to a single smart phone currently on sale that doesn't use LiPo?

Current trend for smartphones is ridiculously tiny. Also Apple laptops.

Most business laptops still use Li-ion as the compromises used for LiPo are absolutely not worth it; ditto much other electronics.