The Answer, My Friend, Is Blowin' In The Wind
EVs are also called “Yes but cars.” As in “Yes, but the power needs to come from somewhere. Usually from a dirty plant with a huge smokestack..” Several companies don’t want to hear that anymore and develop a smart grid that powers houses and cars entirely from renewable energy sources. At least that’s the plan.
According to The Nikkei [sub], Toyota, Panasonic and Japan Wind Development have each built two energy-saving smart homes in the Japanese village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture. These houses are not for sale: Engineers will live in these homes, watch the recharging of cars and batteries, and look for areas for improvement. Once the engineers don’t experience extended power outages and can drive their cars whenever they feel like it, the system should be ready for prime time.
Toyota will test a system where plug-in hybrid vehicles double as storage batteries for the homes. They will install solar panels and small wind turbines on the houses to find out whether multiple energy sources can be mated easily with battery chargers.
Hitachi will install smart meters that will transmit data on power generation and energy consumption to a control center via a communications network.
The pilot smart grid will use power generated at existing Japan Wind Development wind farms in the village as well as a 100kw solar power plant constructed by Hitachi. The firms hope to control the power supply by making use of storage batteries at the power plants, in the homes and in the cars.
General Electric, IBM and Siemens are working on similar projects.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I don't care if the rest of the world wants to power it's cars with clubbed seals as long as gasoline stays below $3.
Wind isn't the answer now, though with advances in the technology it may become more cost effective. Right now the best source of clean energy is Nuclear power. We should be on a building spree for Nuclear power plants, but boneheaded people too easily influenced by exaggerated risks and flip-flop politicians too eager to court votes from the uneducated keep that from becoming a reality. We should implement a system where you need a high school diploma to vote, a bachelor's degree gets you two votes, a master's three, and a doctorate four, then we might actually have some forward thinking progress in this country. Nuclear does produce some waste, sure, but we have places to store it, and eventually we will figure out controllable fusion and have limitless clean energy (and plenty of helium).
NulloModo: +1 on nuclear power. One of the few instances in which France should be a model. -1 on voting. I have a bachelor's degree from a top-tier private university; I should have more votes than the schmuck who got his BA from Cal State Bakersfield! ;)
So what do we do about the "honorary doctorates" that schools love to give out to anyone with enough media pull or money?