[corrected! And results are 10 times better!]
Remember this solar investment is the upfront cost. From then on, it has
paid for free transportation energy for emissions free EV's forever...
Lets try this
$1.7T divided by $3.30/Watt cost of solar = 500 BWatts of capacity.
In Maryland each kW of solar capacity delivers about 1200 kWh of energy
per year.
So the result is $1.7M generates 600 B kWh per year forever.
An average EV drives say 10k mi/yr at 3miles per kWh or 3,000 kWh per car
(corrected)
But remember this investment buys continuous FREE power from the sun
FOREVER (25-to-50 yrs anyway)
So the $1.7T investment would power 200 million EV's FOREVER and, we'd be
70% transportation emission free by now.
BUT we didn’t. BUT, we ALSO spend over $1B per DAY for foreign oil, that
is another 40 million EVs PER YEAR that can be added to the list of
continuously powered
(forever) emission free transportation from the sun.
If we just started NOW investing the $1B per day we spend on foreign oil and
spent it on solar for EV's we'd get to the same drive-forever on solar for
70% of our transportation in 5 y ears.
Why aren't we doing this?
Bob, WB4APR
-Original Message-
From: EV [mailto:ev-boun...@lists.evdl.org]
On Behalf Of Peter Eckhoff via
EV
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2014 7:32 AM
To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List
Subject: [EVDL] $1.7 Trillion reinvested
The purported cost of the Iraqi War so far has been $1.7 trillion (1.7 x
10^12).Whether this is war was worth it is **not** up for discussion here.
This is strictly an exercise in examining what effect those funds would
have had if applied differently. I would appreciate your vetting the
thoughts and numbers below.
The question is: What if those funds had been used for installing solar
panels for recharging a fleet of electric vehicles? What does a “back of
the envelope” set of calculations indicate as to whether such an investment
would be viable and possibly pursued further?
Assume for discussion purposes:
1)Each panel is rated at 250 watts. (Ref:
http://www.suncityenergy.com/solarpanelratings/) This is in a common size
(+/- a few watts).The rating assumes a standard irradiance of 1,000 whr
/m^2.
2)Each panel costs $1250 installed which is $5/watt for a commercially
installed panel. Some will self install and some will have a higher
commercially installed array.
3)Each panel receives an average of 2 kwhr/m^2/day.This is doable in
almost all parts of the lower 48 States and Hawaii in December, the worse
month for solar over all.The Puget Sound - Portland (OR) and Alaska areas
are the two exceptions.Most areas referenced below are well above 2
kwhr/m^2/day; some with a factor of 3 or greater.
(Ref: http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/1961-1990/redbook/atlas)
4)How far will an electric vehicle go using 1 kwhr of electricity.?
·Pickups can travel roughly 2 to 3 miles.
·Sedans can travel roughly 3 to 5 miles.
·A Tesla Model S with an EPA rated range of 265 miles with a 85 kwhr pack
onboard produces a calculated average about 3 miles per kwhr.
·A range of 3 miles per kwhr was used below as an average
To derive the amount of mileage that can be driven in a day electrically,
the above panels and factors were multiplied together like
so:
_$1.7 x 10^12 _* _250w panel_ * _1 kw _* 1 hr * _2 kwhr sol m^2/day_ *
_3 mi_
$1250 panel10^3w 1 kwhr std m^2/daykwhr
This produces a result of 2.04 billion miles.
How does this equate to miles driven per day using an equivalent gasoline
powered sedan?
Assume for discussion purposes:
1)The USA uses 20 million Barrels of Oil Per Day (BOPD).In recent years,
this figure has decreased to about 18 million BOPD.
2)Each barrel of oil can be refined to produce 18 gallons of gasoline.This
is close to the actual production figure.
To derive the amount of average car miles that can be driven in a day
using gasoline, the above factors were multiplied together like
so:
20 million BOPD * 18 gallons of gasoline/BOPD * 20 Miles/Gallon = 7.2
billion miles/day
We drive roughly 7.200 billion miles per day.
21 million BOPD over 7.2 billion miles driven per day produces a rough
factor of 3 (x10^-3).If we multiply 2.04 billion electric only miles driven
times this factor, we would equate this to using about 6 million BOPD.This
is roughly the amount of our oil imports.
While a $1.7 trillion dollar investment in solar panels will not be a
substitute for all the oil we use, it would likely reduce our energy
consumption by 6 million BOPD; enough for us to be ‘energy independent’
with maybe a little conservation added.
How long would it take to pay this investment off?
If electricity, through net metering, is $1.00 per 10 kwhr and gasoline is
$4 per gallon, and a vehicle can be driven the same amount of miles on
either 10 kwhr of electricity or 1 gallon of gasoline, the difference is
$3.00 which would
