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Mark Blinch / Reuters file
Plug-in electric cars like the Chevy Volt are among the frontrunners to replace traditional automobiles, but other energy technologies are also in the race.
Will electric cars take over America's roads? How about natural gas, or biofuels? Or will gasoline still be the automotive fuel of choice, despite concerns about imported oil and greenhouse-gas emissions? The nation's long-term energy future is still up for grabs, but a spate of recent reports suggest that big changes are on the way.
The first mass-market, highway-ready plug-in electric vehicles are already making their way to drivers' garages, although the production pipeline for Chevrolet Volts and Nissan Leafs may not be moving as fast as would-be buyers hoped. Toyota's plug-in Prius, the Ford Focus Electric and other electric entrants are due to join the Volt and the Leaf by the end of the year. But it's not yet clear whether electric vehicles, or EVs, will win out in the marketplace.
The big issue is batteries. As long as the cost of onboard electric power is high, compared to the cost of gasoline, buying an EV will never make sense based on fuel savings alone. A couple of years ago, the National Research Council estimated that providing enough battery power for 10 miles of electric driving would cost $3,300, and a 40-mile all-battery range (such as the Volt's) would add $14,000 to the cost of a car. Today, the battery pack for 200 miles of driving would add $20,000, says Kristin Persson, a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Scientists are focusing on making batteries work "longer, safer, cheaper," Persson said at last weekend's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington. But she doesn't expect the revolution to come anytime soon: Lithium-ion will be the battery technology of choice for the next 10 to 15 years, she said.
Battery evolution, not revolution
Actually, battery technology is in the midst of evolution rather than revolution. For example, during the AAAS meeting, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported on the use of chemical-laden microspheres that give worn-out batteries the chance to "heal" themselves — extending their lifetime and cutting down on the risk of battery fires.
Another research group has developed an advanced lithium-ion battery that can store more power and operate efficiently over a wider range of temperatures. "To our knowledge, a lithium-ion battery having this unique electrode combination has so far never been reported," the researchers said this month in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. "On the basis of the performance demonstrated here, this battery is a top candidate for powering sustainable vehicles."
Better batteries are the biggest challenge for electric vehicles, but a retooling of America's energy distribution infrastructure is another, as was pointed out last year at an MIT symposium. If the auto industry meets the Obama administration's optimistic target of putting a million advanced-technology cars on the road by 2015, that could put more of a drain on the nation's electrical grid and accelerate the rise of smart-grid technology. (In the wake of last month's State of the Union Address, the administration rolled out a fresh set of initiatives aimed at meeting that 2015 goal.)
At the AAAS meeting, the U.S. Department of Energy's Imre Gyuk pointed out that hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on technologies that can help even out the load on the grid — ranging from frequency regulation and ramping to the use of flywheels, compressed air and pumped hydro to store the energy generated by intermittent power sources such as solar and wind.
'Fracking' for energy freedom?
But even with all this effort, will electric vehicles prevail? After all, the biggest winner in last year's $10 million Automotive X Prize competition was not an electric car, but Edison 2's ethanol-powered Very Light Car — which scored 102 mpg in large part because it was made from ultra-light materials, with an ultra-efficient aerodynamic design. And in the current issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, John Deutch, a former CIA director who is now a professor at MIT, claims that the global energy landscape could well be transformed by the rapid rise of shale gas as a domestic energy source.
Vehicles powered by compressed natural gas could become more prevalent, as could gas-fired electric plants. Shale gas production comes with its own problems, of course — ranging from the environmental impact of "fracking," to the issues associated with continued greenhouse-gas emissions, to the infrastructure shifts that would be required to let drivers fuel up with natural gas instead of gasoline. But the "good news about gas" demonstrates that electric isn't the only energy technology generating buzz.
What do you think? Will your next car be a plug-in, or will you be waiting to see whether another technology wins the race to replace gasoline? Feel free to register your opinion as a comment below.
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The Chevy Volt is the right transition technology. On a full charge it provides enough range for the daily commute. The next step is to develop lighter, cheaper, fast charging batteries with long range (say 500 miles) followed by replacement of gas stations with charging stations. The conversion to an all electric system will then be complete, with the pollution being shifted to the power plant. Finally with power plants using renewable, no-fossil based fuels we will have an all electric, green economy.
It does appear that more people are more pragmatic about energy. Thankfully. Gas has more energy in it per volume than most anything mentioned on this page, cept of course nuc. We are no where near peak oil, and five dollar gas is part of the biggest lie scince cocaine in the eighties....If we all plugged in cars tomorrow life would really suck, and steam cars have a real problem in mass, turns out water vapor is a real greenhouse gas compared to, cough, co2....the ic engine is here for a while, but I would love an electric car that got it's power from my own solar collector. There remains a lot of hurdles, storage is only one. Diversify, yes. To a point. We must look at the problem from all angles, perhaps helium is the real answer, a george jetson car is what we all want, but I would settle for luke skywalkers runabout!!...bet the mexicans get their first by running into their local wall mart, picking up a couple of party ballon tanks and an inflateable matters and some polyurethane spray cans....that oughta trip dhs trigger as they hoist each other over a baxxillion dollar wall with a hand ful of pesos and inginuity.....we need inginuity to lick this proplem, not get rich quick schemes.....be vigilant, not blind.
A self charging electric vehicle would be the ideal solution. New high efficency solar panel covered roofs for instance. An actual power generator would be ideal but no one has managed to make one that doesn't consume another form of energy that creates polution.
It is to bad we cant run a car on stupidity, then we would have forty+ years of Democrat and Republican stupid engergy policy to run our cars on.
But if you want to know the real party at fault? look in the mirror....
It's not our fault! The other party refused to co-operate with our wonderful plans!
The USA has 500+years of 'Hydrated Methane' located in the US Continental Shelf. The US Gov and major Oil Companies are investing BILLIONS of USD to SAFELY remove these resources.
The USA now has the LARGEST reserves of NG in the World. The NG Industry is expecting to start EXPORTING this NG within a decade.
The WORLD is converting their Mass-Transit systems to NG and have been for decades... Qatar is flying passenger jets using fuel derived from NG.. Thailand has been doing this conversion for almost a decade and most of their mass-transit sysytems are converted and now with filling stations across the country, theheavy trucks and passenger vehicles are converting. Even Cambodia has roadside LNG/CNG filling stations...
While the USA is placing their bets on batteries and EV that use 'rare earths'. Which China produced/processed 97% of the world supplies during the last 8+years. China has placed restrictions on EXPORTING 'rare earths' and by 1014, are expecting to STOP - ALL EXPORTS. The USA currently has ZERO production & processing facilities of 'rare earths'.
Every LI-ion battery uses 2+lb of 'rare earths' per kwatt/hr of bettery storage capacity. The Prius uses almost 41+lb per vehicle and is currently the Worlds LARGEST consumer of 'rare earths. Every 3Megawatt 'wind turbine' uses 2+tonnes of 'rare earths'.
The USA is currently the World leader in 'wind turbine' generating capacity @ 5.5% of total electrical capacity. The US by-passed Germany last year.
Currently 44.8% of the US electrical power is generated using COAL and the USA has 100+years of coal reserves... Why is Obama supporting the INCREASED - EXPORTING of COAL to China???
My bet for the passenger vehicle needs of the USA is CNG/LNG. They are cheap to buy/convert and the average mechanic can work on them with little extra training or special tools. NG pollutes 25% less than gasoline & diesel. The infrastructure is already spread throughout the USA, and installing larger distribution networks can be easily accomplished... The major vehicle manufactures are already building these vehicles...
I'm glad to see more emphasis being put on developing practical ways of powering our vehicles using renewable sources of energy sources that are cleaner and less expensive than gas and oil.
This is why Nuclear is not a VIABLE 'long term' solution.
Currently the USA has only a 10+year supply of U3O8@$50+pound or 23+year supply of U3O8@$100+pound. The average service life of a US Nuclear power reactor is 50+years and the average age of the US Nuclear power reactors are ALL OVER 30+years.
There are currently only 4 Countries that are processing 'spent fuel rods'. The USA is not one of them. They do not process radioactive waste or parts of old nuclear facilities.
France has the ONLY OPERATING 'Breader Reactor', though there are several countries that are working on prototypes. It does not use nuclear waste as a fuel source.
France has dozens of decommissioned nuclear power plants, waiting to be dismantled. The former USSR has dozens of nuclear ships/subs awaiting disposal. Germany is going to decommission almost ALL of their nuclear power plants in the next 15+years. With no-where to place the radioactive materials.. Russia is still sinking some of their ships in the Worlds Oceans.
Currently there are ZERO - Long term storage facilities for nuclear waste in the World. The German facility (salt mine) has been CLOSED due to its COLLAPSING, because of water leaks and the effects of radiation on the salt structure.
Harry Reid (DEMOCRAT) CLOSED the US - Yucca Mountain storage facility after the USA had spent Trillions of USD to ensure the facility was safe...
IMO - No sane person builds something that is KNOWN to pollute the enviroment for thousands or years. Without a VIABLE method of disposing the waste, SAFELY...
Rickshaws are the answer, lets have 10,000,000 on the road by 2012. It will give the unemployed jobs, lower the obesity rate and reduce our dependence on technology...
a new study published in Nature magazine suggests E. coli can not just turn stomachs, but could potentially turn the wheels of your car, since a genetically engineered strain of the bacteria has produced clean, road-ready biodiesel.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/29/tech/main6155011.shtml
Natural Gas will allow us to find the "Golden Fleece of Alternatives" our environmentalists so desire.
It is readily available, cleaner than oil and already being used by trucking firms in local areas. After converting to CNG, it will take a minimum of 50 years and Trillions of dollars to find our golden fleece "Alternative", if, by then we survive the overpopulation of our planet.
www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-hydrogen-storage-technology.html
Check this link - H2 use in IC engines. New for 2011 boys and girls. The article above refers to tech news that is old. While all avenues of research have merit, when we narrow it down to personal/military/mass transport there is a solution and its coming. Also, there was a breakthrough in batteries recently as well, but I cant find the article. Unfortunately, 10 years for tech delivery is probably optimistic.
no way.people are 2 stupid.they like giving money to the rich for free. thks 2012
The ideal solution is for humans to understand genetic manipulation and design organisms that produce octane, hexane, and pentane from photosynthesis. Enzymes are marvelous things...and they are the solution to just about every problem and I hear about very little research going into it aside from 'protein folding' being worked out by supercomputers. You know the most elite peice of nano-technology existent on the planet...the CELL.
I just have one point to make. Around two years ago there was a scientist out of Japan that created batteries that could charge up in a matter of seconds. Imagine plugging in a compl;etely dead cell phone and watch it charge for 2-3 sec to a complete charge. He said that his technique would allow a fully electric car to charge up from a dead battery to fully charged in a matter of 3-5 min. Eventually we will be able to store and distribute electricity however it is needed. So take a journey with me and think about storing and using every Lighting strike that hits the face of the earth. Every wind turbine or solar panel (Keep in mind soon we will be able to spray paint our roofs with the stuff, instead of costly panel) will be able to store that energy and use it when or wherever we need it. Giant Battery houses will be developed inorder to accomplish this but it will be totally worth it. That is the only way that we will ever get off of oil for energy, completely. Yea we might actually have to run out of oil before that happens!!!
We have options to using sheet head oil and it is not drilling for more oil. The issue is our government is behind big oil and you take a nut case like Obama who has no idea the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and pukes away billions on his crony companies that then go broke.
Case in point: Atlanta, Ga. had trolly rail service to some of the burbs and a grid of electric mass transit. So Goodyear comes in and wants to sell tires. Everything ripped up and ripped out. Now that was a very long time ago and technology has moved forward. This was a case of greed pure greed.
We need to middle finger the sheet heads and let them kill each other. Let them have their damn oil. Charge them million dollars a ton for food.