Sucks if you live in Cali.. RIP Internal Combustion

Most solar panels nowadays are 285w on the low end and 345w on the really high end. most will be in the 290-325 range. Te generate 1Mw of power takes about 1.5-2 acres of solar panels. Panels themselves are 55,450 sqft for a 325w panel. A 1MW system will get about 1,200-1,300 MWh per year in a northen state like Ohio and up to 1,400 further south. The truck is expected to get less than 2kWh per mile, at an even 2Kwh/mi and a 500mile range that's a nominal 1MWh battery.You're basically looking at 2 acres of panels to charge 1,200- 1,400 trucks once or any combo thereof. About 500 acres to charge 1,000 trucks through out the year.

With most warehouses and distribution centers around 200K sqft on the small side it's conceivable you could support your own fleet of 6-10 trucks at each hub that need a 100% charge by installing your own panels. probably more like 15-20 as you don't always use 100% every day. That's well within the size of most truck fleets for small companies and local hubs of the larger ones. What is retarded is the people that think solar is going to be popping up at every truck stop and they're going to charge hundreds of trucks a day with roof top solar. You need 2 acres to support 1,200 charges a year. Even if a truck stop only gets 100 trucks a day you'll need 36,500 charges a year or 28 acres or panels to support that, not every truck stop has 28 acres anywhere close by to support it. Now you need to produce power on the utility scale to transmit at 200K volts or more to reduce transmission loss, Tesla needs to have a hefty contract with local utilities or they are going to have to become their own utility and huge batteries to guarantee the 7cent rate they just advertised. Some of these tasks are just insane and I don't think even Tesla can pull it off. This is why I keep telling people the Telsa truck will work great for local routes where they can charge overnight, current super chargers will do 120kw and the truck has a charge port 3x that size so it will work, but it's a long way away from OTR trucking.

Also, to get 80% charge (800kWh) on a truck in 30 minutes you'll need to charge at a rate of 1.6Megawatts. I keep telling people on the Tesla forum, good luck with that.

 

I had not done that calculation but holy shit! Maybe Tesla plans on hiring Zeus on a retainer to just throw lightning bolts at their trucks. 1.6 Megawatts... Isn't the assumed rough energy usage number 1 MW per 1000 homes? How will that affect states like California that are already on the ragged edge for grid capacity?

 

The idea(promise) is that Tesla will deliver all of this power with solar, they do own Solar City, and battery storage. They are currently making the biggest battery installation down in Oz of 129Mwh. But as I stated above, local solar farm may not always have the room and the further away you go the bigger you need to go to hedge transmission losses. Also the biggest battery install in the world is 129Mwh unless I'm not converting something right the truck is supposed to be 1,000kWh or 1Megawatt, the the batteries would only charge 129 trucks @100% efficiency. Here's a picture of the size of that install This is only half, there's another row of 2 behind this. I can't see any way for Tesla to deliver on this promise of $.07/kWh, especially for over the road trucks unless they become a utility company. Local isn't all that hard as the trucks come back to the same place every day, and multiple companies have Electric trucks with 2-300 mile ranges coming to market which is perfect to over 70% of commercial truck needs. This over the road is what will kill Tesla's reputation if they fail to deliver.

 

In all fairness the current superchargers are at 120kw (300-400v) which would be a great overnight rate for these trucks, the charge port on the truck looks like it has 4 of those cables which would give it a nominal rate of 480kw, again a great rate between loads. But the cable size is 'double' getting you to close to a 1mw. I don't see how they're getting another 60% on top of that. I have a feeling Tesla has once again made a promise that doesn't exist right now, they've simply projected what they can develop by in the timeline and promise it now. They make great products, when they actually produce them, but their aspirations are what piss me off about them when they don't actually deliver.

 

Crashman, you may find some of this stuff interesting. It doesn't answer everything but it takes an interesting first look into the anti-electric stuff you've been preaching for years.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/a13858843/emissions-from-evs-report/

 

Voting Democrat is only natural as long as they promise you something in return for your vote. Since the majority of the Hispanic population is somewhat under-educated and therefore finding it tougher to become wealthier, they will vote Democrat. It's not complicated and I'm not blaming them for it.
We've discussed this subject many times before and nothing has changed concerning it. A large portion of today's immigrants (mostly illegal) are not coming here to be "American" but rather they're coming here for only the benefits that the US offers. It hurts to see people marching and waving the Mexican flag on the streets of the US. Why aren't they waving the US flag? I want to see them improve their own country so that they don't want to come here. They can do it but it takes more effort that many of them are apparently willing to expend.
And yes, I was born and raised in Central Texas and thus have been living, and working, with Mexicans all my life so yes again, I kind of think I have them figured out pretty well. You are not a complicated people.

 

Yeah, I'm talking out of my ass. Actually, I'm up to my ass in people that do not seem to understand the human animal. I'm not sure where you live but I'm guessing it's likely California. Right? If you prefer to live in a country, or even in a state, where foreigners are calling the shots then you're in the correct place. Of course, all this arguing is of no value and moot to anyone living today that's over the age of 40 or 50. We'll be gone before California, and maybe even my home state of Texas, becomes overrun with foreigners. We presently live in the land of milk and honey but apparently others want to come feast with us rather than make something out of their own home country.

 

That sounds so much like the guy I photographed today, Jose Hernandez, he picked vegetables with his parents as a kid, later he became an astronaut. Nice family, spent Thanksgiving with them one year after he returned from space. Or the girl that was brought here illegally with her parents as a small child, first person in her family to finish high school, parents worked the fields. Got a full ride to Johns Hopkins and is now a pediatrician. I'm sure you have "them" figured out. Unless you're native american, you're a foreigner too.

 

Bullshit, I'm an American.
You're welcome to feel like a foreigner in your own country if you like, but don't expect the rest of us to because it's nonsense.

And now I'm amazed that, considering the number of illegals who are here, we aren't awash in Mexican astronauts and doctors.
And to think I used to be satisfied if I could get the Mexican dishwasher to come in at least not so high I couldn't send him out to bus tables.
Nobody ever wrote a newspaper article about him, so far as I know, although he probably made the police log a time or two.

 

Thanks. I am not really against the technology per se and I do think it is likely the future. I just wish that it was presented in a more unbiased fashion with the acknowledgement that it is a developing tech and not really ready for the big leagues. Hopefully it does not take over until after I am dead and gone though. Even the new gas powered vehicles with electronically controlled errythang are not my cup of tea. If the computer controls everything like in most of the new cars the part that generates the power becomes less important. In my world if you are claiming a car has 700HP I better have that on tap at all times, not just in a perfect world situation where the computer decides I should have it. But I am also the guy that followed a 2 stroke 25o Honda and a 500 Suzuki around COTA at 80% pace yesterday because it smelled so yummy. One was running VP U4 with Motul 800 (very distinctive smell) and the other was running race gas I could not identify with bean oil and I thought that it smelled like pure sex so obviously I am not terribly bright...
What i find interesting is the negative image that nuclear has in the US when it is one of the least polluting and makes the e-cars look significantly better. There are ways to deal with spent fuel and the Gen 4 reactors are much more efficient, far safer and generate way less waste. That is another study I would like to see. Pollution caused by a reactor failure vs. pollution caused by the manufacturing of "green" energy solutions.

 

^^^ Beat me to it. The greenies who love the EV ought to be all in for nuclear power. It's the only solution with the "energy density" to effectively power the transportation system.

 

First, just about everybody on the face of the Earth is a foreigner whose ancestors came from somewhere else. I'm also proud of Jose Hernandez. He sure as hell did better than I, and most other individuals, did. Having picked cotton, and harvested grain crops right beside Mexicans and Black people until I was 16 or so I actually do understand how, and what, they did to survive in an attempt to prosper for their families. I have "them" figured out as to what they did to provide for their families as well as anyone and better than most.

Let's not get me wrong here. Since Mexico is right next door most of the immigration attention is pointed at them when it comes to the source of the problems that we face here in the US. Personally, I have no problem with Hispanics and what they're trying to do. In fact, I greatly admire them for their perseverance in attempting to better themselves. I have found most of them honest, hard working, people that I've enjoyed working with for most of my life.
That however, does not solve the problem with the clash of racial differences between the way of life that their used to in their country and what we're used to here. Eventually we'll work out those problems but currently we're facing a culture clash being brought on by the sheer number of illegals coming in. We're being force fed culture change faster than we can digest it. We must control it better.

To add finally; I don't really like getting into semi-heated discussions on this subject because it's mostly useless to do so. No one is going to change their mind because everyone has formed their opinion based on the way they look at life in general. You, Cortez, I, and most of the rest of us on this board have it "figured out" and that's it. I like all of you guys and hold no animosity toward any of you.

I sure am in a neutral mood this morning. What the fucks wrong with me?

 

LOL, and just a couple of days ago I read an article about the Japanese finally building a remote controlled robot that could live long enough to locate the melted fuel rods that occurred in their fiasco. They said that they could now begin to figure out how to contain it. Doing so will take an estimated 3 or 4 four more decades. Nuclear is great except when there's an "incident." Then it's a reeeaaallllllly bad incident. Of course, you are probably right. Even having to deal with a nuclear mistake is most likely better for the planet than continuing to burn fossil fuels for another hundred years.

 

I think there has been some progress in reactor tech and safety. Fukushima, 3 mile Island and Chernobyl were all built based on 1960's technology. Chernobyl was a shitty design and human error, 3 Mile Island was a cooling failure and human error, and Fukushima sounds like was just old tech and poor reactor placement coupled with the natural disaster. IMO, looking back with the amazing clarity of 20/20 hindsight all 3 could have been prevented.

What cracks me up is the majority of the general public lose their shit when they hear "radiation" not realizing how much exposure they get from xrays and flying in airplanes. Like the "elevated levels" that are "cooking" the west coast. The radiation levels are low enough that I could not detect changes with any of the radiation monitoring equipment I have access to and naturally occurring background radiation in many parts of the world is significantly higher than the "elevated" levels they are seeing...

 

I'm reading this thinking "that totally explains why he is so retarded," then I get to the final five words and I'm like "oh, he knows."

 

Too much Cialis.

 

Unlike some here I am very aware of my mental limitations...

 

While people worry about nuclear plants, the US government has amassed lots of nuclear waste which is waiting for a safe repository.

 

I'm not sure if you guys have posted this. I don't really read this thread other than to post an occasional link and get you guys to go in circles again.

 

I don't think claiming to be the pivotman at a circle jerk is a good thing.