Renewable Energy – Battery Powered Bikes And Trikes.

A quick look today at Battery powered bikes and trikes. I do like battery power, and electrical power in general, because electricity is a truly renewable fuel. It’s all around us, and apart from the initial materials to be able to access it renewably, electricity is there for the taking in abundance, and the taking of which, compared to non renewable methods, has a minutely minimal, if any, detrimental effect on our environment.

As you can see from the YouTube video’s some of the designs, look pretty easy to put together on a DIY basis.

My favourite design for its quirkiness, is the rechargeable drill driven trike. Though this might turn out to be an expensive option, as it’s not really in the DIY field. Its range is only really limited by how many batteries you can carry, but on one battery, it’s ideal for a quick trip to the local shops, so long as they are not more than 2 miles away, or less, because if you’re doing the weekly shop, well, best to use the car, preferably an electric one. If you do use this trike for a shopping trip, remember to disconnect the drill, and take it with you, and make sure you have plenty of chain and padlocks, because with such a tempting item on display, the not so honest citizens, who seem to abound nowadays, would soon make it disappear.

I have to say though, that the last video does grab my attention, and is the best example I have seen yet of a DIY or otherwise, electric bike. It ticks all the boxes.

If you do actually want to buy a ready made battery powered bike or trike, as I’ve said above, it probably won’t come cheap, I’d love to own one, $3.500 is just a bit too steep, though doubtless there are cheaper options on the market. I think the DIY route would certainly be very much less expensive, and achieve the same ends, with a good deal of satisfaction to boot.

The everyday bike or trike looks to be a pretty easy conversion to battery power, and as an exercise in learning and understanding battery powered vehicles, and also as a precurser to more ambitious projects, bikes and trikes are a good place to start.

A bit of advice though, if you are thinking of building an electric trike, the 2 wheels at the front, 1 at the back configuration is the best, assuming that the drive is going to be at the back, because then you won’t have to worry about a differential in your drive train. Because remember, when you turn corners, the outside wheel always travels faster and further than the inside wheel., and if you have a solid axle, then you are going to have problems.

Magnetic car with a difference.

Now then, here’s a vid of a novel DIY energy car, and very cheap, might just be a problem with the stearing though, and the sat nav looks a bit random, and tends to follow the traffic. Looks like this vehicle is probably a prototype, so with a bit more research it might just be a winner, but don’t hold your breath.

RACV Energy Breakthrough 1923 (Snub Pollard)

Renewable Energy; The Conspiracy

You know, it’s so frustrating to think that the technology for renewable energy has been around for decades, and governments have been aware of the need for green energy for over a hundred years, and we’re still living in the energy dark ages. We’re at the mercy of the fossil fuel conglomerates, who pretty well dictate how we live, and bleed us, and our planets resources dry.
It still boils down to the fact, that if we are going to be energy self sufficient, and make a difference to our environment, we will have to do it ourselves.
The article below is rather long, but it does make interesting reading. We all know what is going on, and why we are still using non renewable energy in every aspect of our lives, but do enough of us care. I would hope, by the very fact that you have found your way to my blog, and are reading this, that you do care, and do want to make a difference.

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The Conspiracy Against Renewable Energy

By John F. Miglio
www.opednews.com

By John F. Miglio

I hate to use the “C” word, but there is no other way to say it. There is a national conspiracy to prevent renewable energy from becoming the primary energy source in the United States.
And who are the conspirators? The usual cast of characters: the fossil fuels industry, which continues to rake in exorbitant profits on oil and gas while it refuses to make any significant investment in renewable energy, even in the face of global warming; the members of the mainstream news media, too craven to cross their corporate masters by doing any serious coverage on the viability of renewable energy in today’s market; and the members of Congress, too addicted to the big bucks they receive from Big Oil and other traditional energy sources to create any sweeping renewable energy legislation for the good of the country.

The truth is, if it were not for this unholy trinity of greed, cowardice, and bribery, all of us would already be living in solar or wind powered homes and driving electric cars to and from work.

Here are the facts:

1) According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the amount of solar energy that hits the surface of the earth every hour is greater than the total amount of energy that the entire human population requires in a year. Another way of looking at it is that roughly 100 square miles of solar panels placed in the southwestern U.S. could power the entire country.

2) The Department of Energy also states that all U.S. electrical energy needs could be met by the wind in Texas and the Dakotas alone.

3) In 1977, the Office of Technology Assessment published a nonpartisan report that concluded that if the federal government offered substantial tax credits and incentives to speed up the mass production of renewable energy technologies, these technologies “could be made competitive in markets representing over 40% of U.S. energy demand by the mid-1980s.” At that rate, they would be competitive in almost all markets today.

4) The technology to produce photovoltaic panels and modern wind turbines has been around for decades, and thousands of Americans already have installed these renewable technologies on their homes and businesses, cutting their energy bills by significant margins. Recently, a New Jersey resident named Mike Mercurio installed both an array of solar panels on his roof and a wind turbine in his back yard and cut his energy bill from over $300 per month to about $10 per month.

This immediately begs the question: If we have the renewable technology at hand and we know it works, why don’t we use it in place of heavily polluting energy sources like oil, gas or coal? And why have so few people installed solar panels or windmills on their homes and in their backyards?

The primary reason is because the cost of renewable energy is still relatively high compared to fossil fuels, although the gap is closing as the cost of natural gas and oil continues to climb. For example, the price to install an array of photovoltaic panels on the average home– notwithstanding some modest tax incentives and rebates from the government– is anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000. At this price, only those who are well off can afford to have solar panels installed on their homes.

Of course, anyone with half a brain knows that once a product is mass produced, its price per unit plummets. But in order to facilitate this process and make it happen over a period of years and not decades, the federal government (with help from the states) needs to institute a massive, full-scale national renewable energy program, something equivalent to the Marshall Plan, something that would transform our entire society within a decade.

It can begin this process with a four-point plan: 1) Mandate tight pollution standards on the fossil fuels industry and stiff penalties for not abiding by them. This will get the carbon-based boys to start thinking about divesting some of their money into renewable energy. 2) Impose high CAFE standards on auto manufacturers and stiff penalties if they don’t implement them post haste. This will get the bright boys at GM to start thinking about electric cars in a big way. 3) Implement a windfall profits tax on oil companies and remove tax incentives to the entire fossil fuels industry. This will create billions of dollars that can be used to promote renewable energy. 4) Offer generous tax credits and incentives to the renewable energy industry to facilitate mass production of its technology and equally generous tax credits and incentives for homeowners to buy it.
If Congress made this four-point plan a reality, it would literally reverse the brain-dead energy policy that has been in effect for the past 27 years, ever since Ronald Reagan, Big Oil’s Bad Boy, strutted into office, decimated Jimmy Carter’s renewable energy program, and created energy bills and tax policies that favored the fossil fuels industry at the expense of renewable technology.

But how much money would it actually cost to institute a full-scale national renewable energy program in the United States? Hundreds of billions, no doubt, which is a lot of money, but not that much when you consider that over the past seven years, the Bush regime has already blown a half trillion dollars on Iraq and another trillion on tax cuts for the rich.

If that $1.5 trillion had been used to fund renewable energy instead, photovoltaic panels and wind turbines would already be in mass production at affordable prices for most homeowners, and the electric car industry would have been able to stage a major comeback.

For the last couple of decades, the electric car industry has languished due to the introduction of the hybrid car, the “compromise car,” as I call it. Instead of going from gas-powered cars straight to all-electric vehicles, which was the original plan, auto manufacturers decided to take an in-between step in deference to the fossil fuels industry and create the hybrid. (See the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? for more information on how auto manufacturers deliberately sabotaged their own electric vehicles.)

As a result, three misperceptions about electric cars have persisted to this day: 1) They’re too slow. 2) Their batteries won’t go far enough on a single charge. 3) Their batteries take too long to recharge. This was partially true 20 years ago, but no longer. Recently, the Japanese built an electric car called the Ellica that can out perform a gas-powered Porsche from zero to 100 by almost two seconds! So much for being slow.

And as far as batteries being a problem, the technology has come a long way in recent years, and if the money is there for more research and development, the battery technology will be perfected, and the electric car will become the ultimate driving machine, i.e., a vehicle that is affordable, fast, pollution-free, economical, and stylish– all in one package. And the best part of all, American drivers will never have to pay $3 a gallon for gas again. At the end of the day, they will simply plug their electric vehicles into their solar and wind-powered homes and recharge their batteries for nothing!

This has always been the dream of environmentalists: a non-polluting energy source for their homes and a zero-emission vehicle for travel at a cost that would be reasonable for everyone. Of course one person’s dream is another person’s nightmare, and this green scenario is anathema to the fossil fuels industry. It means they would lose their economic and political stranglehold on not just America, but the entire world. Which is why they’ve been bullying mainstream news organizations for decades and paying off politicians at the beginning of each election cycle.

Naturally, there are plenty of cynics around who say it will take 50 years for renewable energy to make a real difference in our energy consumption, and we’ll still need good old gas, oil, and coal as our primary sources of energy in the meantime. Of course, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy if we just sit back and do nothing, but if we change our energy policy dramatically, we can transform our entire society in a relatively short period of time.

As proof, consider this: In 1997, the Danish government began an experimental project on the island of Samso to see if it was practical to use various forms of renewable energy for all the island’s energy needs. Their goal was to accomplish this in ten years.
Remarkably, they finished ahead of schedule, and today 100% of the island’s electricity is generated by 11 one-megawatt wind turbines, while the rest of the island’s energy needs are met by using solar panels and other forms of renewable energy. True, it is easier to convert a small island to renewable energy than a large country. But the point is, the technology is available, and with the proper financial incentives and a full-scale commitment from the federal and state governments, the United States could break free from fossil fuels and be well on its way to becoming a land where solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars would become the norm in ten years.
The only thing it takes is the political will to stand up to the fossil fuels industry. I know that’s asking a lot. But in view of the perpetual wars for oil in the Middle East, the increased awareness of global climate change, and the high cost of gasoline at the pump, maybe, just maybe, enough Americans will get fed up living under the greasy, smelly, polluted armpit of the fossil fuels industry and look to the sun and the wind to guide them to a cleaner, safer, brighter future.

www.onlinereviewofbooks.com

John F. Miglio is the editor of the Online Review of Books & Current Affairs and author of Sunshine Assassins, a futuristic political thriller.

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A Nice Selection Of You Tube Electric Car Stuff.

Here’s a cross section of elctric cars courtesy of our wonderful friend You Tube. Looks like the Electric Smart is available now, though I’ve seen no advertising of it. The last video is interesting, I wonder if anyone in the UK is doing plug in conversions for Hybrids. That will be worth Googling, so will the smart.

In my last article, I was giving my thoughts on the viability of HHO as a DIY fuel. As a supplementary fuel, it seems that HHO may work, though there are two Questions uppermost that need some investigating.
The first question is, that when HHO is burnt, the by product is water, so, will this water harm the engine? One of the by products of burning petrol, is that water is formed and gets blown out of the exhaust with all the other stuff. This water will not normally harm the engine, so long as the engine reaches normal running temperature, whereupon the water will boil off, and exit the exhaust as steam. This is why cars that are used for short runs, say for the school run, or local shopping, usually suffer from emulsification of the oil. That is, the water produced during combustion doesn’t boil off, because the engine never reaches running temperature at all, or doesn’t reach it for long enough to boil off the water, allowing the water to mix with the oil, which over time will have a detrimental effect on the internal parts of the engine. This is why generally, the engine of a low mileage short journey car, will be in worse condition than the engine of a car of the same age, that has a higher mileage, and has been used for longer journeys. So, the answer, I would think, to the question of whether the water formed in the combustion of HHO will harm the engine, is probably, no, it won’t, so long as the car is driven on journeys long enough to get the engine to operating temperature for long enough to boil the water off. Basically the same rules as for any car.
Now the other question is more difficult, and I would assume would be addressed in the HHO kits, or in the DIY instructions; and that is how does the engine management system cope with the extra power, and combustion property’s. This is something I can’t answer at the moment, but in the next couple of weeks, I will be purchasing a set of DIY instructions, and I will give a breakdown of the information it provides.
In the meantime, here are some more video’s for you to peruse.

Create your own water car hybrid for under $50 /Free Energy

run your car cheaply and safely on water


SUPER COOL 3 CELL HYDROGEN CELLS

Bio Diesel Facts.

Hre’s a video with some very interesting facts about Bio Deisel. perhaps we should consider alternative cmbustive fuels for our transport, while we are waiting for the Electric revolution.