Riding on Sunshine » future of energy

Preparing for the Future – Electric Vehicle Charging Stations – VIDEO

Admin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:12:09 +0000

Electric vehicles; although they are not being produced in significant numbers yet, Obama wants to add a million EV cars to the roads by 2015 and some places are preparing. Raleigh, NC is just one of the three US cities involved in “Project Get Ready,” a program to install a number of electric vehicle charging stations throughout the city.

Partnering with Progress Energy and Advanced Energy, Raleigh is paying for the cost of the installation on city property while Progress Energy is paying for the 8 charing stations themselves, the majority of the initial stations which will be located in the city’s parking garages downtown and near N.C. State University at a cost of $1000-$4000 each.

The stations are meant to prepare Raleigh for a time when electric plug-in and hybrid-electric cars are being driven by a significant percentage of drivers. Drivers will be able to use their credit card to access the stations and pay about 2.5 cents per mile to recharge their vehicle, [Mayor Charles] Meeker said. (NewsObserver)

GMs New Powerbase – China – VIDEO

Admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:54:29 +0000

Part of GM’s post-bankruptcy restructuring that few people have yet to notice, is a sweeping move to China. While it’s Canadian and Mexican operations still report through North American, the rest of the world’s operation report through Asia.

“It should signal to everybody that certainly North America is going to be important to righting the ship, but basically the bread is going to be buttered out of Asia,” said Michael Robinet, vice president of global vehicle forecasts at CSM Worldwide. “GM fully understands that, and that’s the reason why they put more decision-making capability out of Asia for their future fortunes.”

GM sales in the US this year are down 37.7% to 1.1 million while sales in China are skyrocketing.

GM’s July sales in China through its joint ventures increased 77.7% to 144,593, which the company says makes it the best July ever in its books. For the first seven months of the year, GM’s China sales were up 42.8% to 959,035, according to GM.

In early August, GM celebrated the sale of its 1 millionth vehicle in China this year — a man named Ye Banjun purchased a silver Buick LaCrosse — with a giant cake.

“Asia is the shining jewel that they have,” George Magliano, an industry expert at IHS Global Insight, said of GM.

“If you look at GM going forward, they are a smaller company, they are more refocused. If they turn themselves around and they have resources … to put behind things, it’s going to be China and Asia.” (Freep.com)

“So far, China’s growth has exceeded anything anybody thought possible,” Mike DiGiovanni, GM’s executive director of global market and industry analysis, said in July.

Generating electrical power in the future: how will we do it?

Admin — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:33:12 +0000

Presently most of the world uses three non-renewable fossil fuel sources in addition to nuclear energy to generate electricity: coal, natural gas and petroleum. Also used in significant quantity is hydroelectric power generation. In limited quantity we see some geo-thermal production and limited quantities of wind turbines.

Since fossil fuels are essentially finite in total availability over the long haul, new sources of creating electricity will have to be found or existing alternative methods made profitable.

For instance, present photo-voltaic methods cost some US$0.023 to US$0.32 per kilo-watt hour which is current KWH prices in the USA range from USS$0.058 to US$0.l67.

Geothermal sources provide less than 1/2% of electricity in the USA and their cost effectiveness presently is limited to areas where geothermal activity is relatively close to the surface of the earth.

Wind turbines generate less than 1/2% of electricity in the USA. In most places the cost of this wind power is not yet fully price competitive but the efficiency of wind turbines is improving and capacity has grown to well over US$4 billion annually in the USA but still less than 1/2% of all electricity produced.

Innovation in most industries comes from small companies that develop a breakthrough technology.

In the foreseeable future (10 to 15 or 20 years out), what do you see as the source(s) to replace fossil fuels for the production of electricity that most of us do not presently have in our viewfinders?

posted 10 months ago in Commodity Markets | Closed | Flag question as…

Fred Beisser

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