Category Archives: Batteries

Heavy-duty hydrogen fuel cell trucks a waste of energy and money

Posted on September 3, 2016 by

[ Fuel cells are seen as an alternative to batteries, because batteries may always be too heavy to move trucks: Battery electric trucks (BEV) may never work out. Even if 5 to 10 times as much battery energy density (Wh/kg) … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Electric Trucks, Hydrogen | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Utility scale energy storage batteries: only enough material exists on earth for Sodium sulfur (NaS)

Posted on August 14, 2016 by

[ Natural gas is finite, but aside from hydropower, gas is the main way wind and solar are balanced now. Therefore, a tremendous amount of energy storage will be needed in the future as natural gas declines, hydropower (remains stagnant … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy Resources, Batteries, Energy Storage | 2 Comments

Diesel is finite. Trucks are the bedrock of civilization. So where are the battery electric trucks?

Posted on July 1, 2016 by

[ Related articles Just 16,000 catenary trucks would use 1% of California’s electricity generation, all vehicles 2.5 times more power than available Hybrid electric trucks are very different from HEV cars Electric truck range is less in cold weather All … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Electric Trucks | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Hybrid electric trucks are very different from HEV cars

Posted on June 7, 2016 by

[ This document explains why it is hard to transfer auto hybrid technology to trucks.  They are entirely different animals — medium-duty trucks weigh up to 10 times more, have up to 10 times the horsepower, and a far longer … Continue reading →

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Electric truck range is less in cold weather

Posted on June 4, 2016 by

[ What follows are excerpts from Calstart’s study of the effects cold weather had on lithium and Sodium Nickel Chloride e-truck batteries Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer and … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Electric Trucks | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Posted on March 22, 2016 by

[ Who cares about electric CARS?  Civilization ends when trucks stop running, and trucks can’t run on batteries because they’re too heavy (93% of the cargo weight, 25% of the cargo space), and an all-electric truck fleet would require thousands … Continue reading →

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Would Tesla, li-ion batteries, SolarCity or SpaceX exist without $4.9 billion in government subsidies?

Posted on June 5, 2015 by

[ Tesla made no new battery breakthroughs — batteries aren’t much better today than they were 200 years ago.  All they did was build a better battery management system (BMS) by stringing teeny-tiny batteries together — thousands of them, and … Continue reading →

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Bloomberg News: Tesla’s new battery doesn’t work that well with solar

Posted on May 8, 2015 by

Randal, T.  May 6, 2015. Tesla’s new battery doesn’t work that well with solar. Bloomberg. Even Elon Musk’s SolarCity, the biggest supplier in the U.S., isn’t ready to install Tesla’s home battery for daily users. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk … Continue reading →

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Electric vehicle overview

Posted on April 28, 2015 by

[ Most, but not all of what follows comes from the NPC paper below. I’ve reworded or interjected some comments as well. As you can see in Figure 1 below, light cars and trucks are the main guzzlers of petroleum.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Batteries, Electric Cars, Electrification | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Making the most energy dense battery from the palette of the periodic table

Posted on April 15, 2015 by

There hasn’t been much progress in batteries the past 200 years, not enough for affordable cars, let alone far more essential freight vehicles. The very heavy, 4,647 pound Tesla Model S gets most of its mileage from aerodynamics, reduced rolling … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Cars, Lithium-ion | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments