How will this affect RVing. Very interesting video.

John & Angela wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:

burlmart wrote:
i got interested in solar energy in late 70's. so many naysayers convinced me that the sunshine was too diffuse, undependable, and too hard to store.

even if only some of the video speaker's ideas of future advances come true, it'll be big. for example, if car-on-demand replaces car ownership such that parking lots are empty, the acerage freed-up could be converted to solar energy collection.

And forty years after you first developed an interest in Solar it now accounts for approximately .6 Percent of the US energy production. If that percentage increases at a linear rate, in the year 6017 solar will finally produce over half the energy consumed in the America.
The fact is those issues that the naysayers pointed out are still the major issues today. Solar's small footprint is very much limited to the areas with high solar gain on a daily basis. Storage is still very much an insurmountable hurdle. Add to the hurdles the fact that the best storage systems use large amounts of rare earth metals (rare being the operative word) and solar isn't going to be a significant source of power anytime in the near future.

Well, solar output has been doubling every 2 years and has been for some time. So its a given that in a decade it will be a considerable part of the grid makeup. Storage is doubling a little slower but still not too far behind. I am guessing you didn't watch the video that addresses your point. .

Rare earth metals, you are probably referring to neodymium. Some manufacturers choose to use them but some don't. Tesla uses no rare earth metals in their vehicles,

"Doubling every two years" is a very misleading statement. Not much different than saying your savings doubled from a year ago. Without a basis of reference, it is meaningless. If you had a dime in savings last year and doubled that to twenty cents, you really haven't made an impact on your financial situation and the doubling of solar contribution to our energy grid is almost equally as meaningless. Until large scale impacts are made in the amount of energy solar actually supplies to our electrical grids and electrical consumption, any geometric measurement will be misleading. The fact remains that much less than 1 percent of our country's electrical needs are met by solar. That is an insignificant contribution when considering our electrical needs. And that doesn't even begin to address the costs associated with that .6 percent compared to the costs of the other 99.4.

pnichols wrote:
I wonder how long it will be before filling up your EV's electrical energy tank will cost only a little less than what it costs now for $2-$3/gallon gas?

I doubt we're ever going to be able to both - 1) buy an EV for the same approximate prices as today's vehicles, and 2) also gas them up for "way less" than what it costs today. The Powers That Be will always get their pound of flesh.

Good afternoon. I tend to agree with your analysis of cost of energy per mile. At least in the long run. There will still be significant cost savings on maintenance though. No filters, no oil changes, few lubricants, no belts, no hoses. Our total cost for maintenance has been a jug of washer fluid and it is still half full.

I think price parity will be there within a couple years though. I will use our leaf as an example as I don't know the competition really well. It is as well appointed as most other low other 20 ish thousand compacts but comes with considerably better performance, much quieter and a more refined drive. Of course for some people the apx 200 km range is not enough. But for many of us that is more than adequate. Nissan has indicated the 'leaf 2" will have in access of 300 km and have the 150 KW charger vice the 50 KW that is on ours. For us neither would be a draw but for many that will cross the line where the EV will work for them.

Just some thoughts from an EV driver.

I wonder how long it will be before filling up your EV's electrical energy tank will cost only a little less than what it costs now for $2-$3/gallon gas?

I doubt we're ever going to be able to both - 1) buy an EV for the same approximate prices as today's vehicles, and 2) also refuel them for "way less" than what it costs today. The Powers That Be will always get their pound of flesh.

As the technology roles forward of course laws and taxes will have to also change. About half a dozen states and provinces are already on this path and at the city and county level there have also been some interesting developments. Massachusetts is presently looking at this in the final stages. I believe BC is in the process as well. It will be interesting to see how the revenue problems get resolved. I believe it may be washngton (not sure) that is looking at a annual miles driven instead of gas tax. It will be interesting


https://legiscan.com/MA/text/S2505/id/1435463/Massachusetts-2015-S2505-Introduced.pdf

The gest of the bill on the governors desk is

Allows cities and towns to fine and tow for ICEing.
Will make station payments interoperable, no memberships needed, but allowed and with two tiered pricing.
Will allow a revamp of building codes to include EVSEs.
Ramps up state vehicle EV requirements to 25%.
HOV lane access study.
Gas tax replacement study.to see how that is applied although.

I kinda like the idea as both an EV driver and tax payer. We drive between 10,000 and 15,000 kilometers a year but pay no gas tax as we both drive EV's and never buy fuel. Well, diesel for the motorhome when we travel.

hawkeye-08 wrote:
I took the time to watch the video, almost a year old, things are moving that direction..

He talks about solar on rooftop taking over, what about apartments, etc? I also question his numbers saying asset utilization goes up as high as he says, when a big usage is commuting to work and back (all at the same time, so you have to have enough capacity for peak, then off peak those assets are partially idled.

I agree with him in general and am seeing it in business.

I agree. I think another industry that will see more players is the covered parking solar stations at work places. There is a San Diego based company seeing year over year and a half doubling of these kind of installations. I would be interested in seeing where the investment mix comes from for these installations. All corporate, partial public, partial revenue stream based, eg, is it a parking lot operator that is building to attract customers driving EV's. Probably a mix of all. I can see large shopping district investors going this way in contrast to the individual charge stations. Who wouldn't want to park in shaded or sheltered parking while there car charges and pre cools or pre heats for their departure.

I took the time to watch the video, almost a year old, things are moving that direction..

He talks about solar on rooftop taking over, what about apartments, etc? I also question his numbers saying asset utilization goes up as high as he says, when a big usage is commuting to work and back (all at the same time, so you have to have enough capacity for peak, then off peak those assets are partially idled.

I agree with him in general and am seeing it in business.

pnichols wrote:
s .... look how that little wire affected the lives of so many ...
The complexity in some high-end RV's even would give me pause in buying one - even if I had the $$$ to buy them.

Point taken

Complexity is compounded when the user fails to learn the technology.

I've heard many times how people can 'barely turn on' a computer. Technology does create an environment of constant change and learning, and quite frankly, a lot of old folks aren't so good or accepting of that. Maybe in 10 years I won't be either.

IoT (internet of things) is here and is expanding at a rapid rate. We are in the early ramp of industrial IoT and it will explode. High end analytics is going to be used to scrub the data and determine what is useful. I don't know how fast it will change but I do know that change is accelerating. Think of how Uber has changed the taxi business with technology (it was not overnight and the normal taxi business ignored them as a fad).

We will also see a rapid increase in hacking of all this technology.

2oldman wrote:
That crash was largely human error. The switch to revert to the correctly operating gyro was different from his training, so he inadvertently selected the malfunctioning gyro.

Well .... it was human error on not switching in the right backup gyro configuration so as to get an operating one.

However my deeper point was .... look how that little wire affected the lives of so many .... and maybe on a grand scale it isn't wise to have so many "wires" (AKA complex systems) determining our individual fates.

The complexity in some high-end RV's even would give me pause in buying one - even if I had the $$$ to buy them.

westernrvparkowner wrote:

burlmart wrote:
i got interested in solar energy in late 70's. so many naysayers convinced me that the sunshine was too diffuse, undependable, and too hard to store.

even if only some of the video speaker's ideas of future advances come true, it'll be big. for example, if car-on-demand replaces car ownership such that parking lots are empty, the acerage freed-up could be converted to solar energy collection.

And forty years after you first developed an interest in Solar it now accounts for approximately .6 Percent of the US energy production. If that percentage increases at a linear rate, in the year 6017 solar will finally produce over half the energy consumed in the America.
The fact is those issues that the naysayers pointed out are still the major issues today. Solar's small footprint is very much limited to the areas with high solar gain on a daily basis. Storage is still very much an insurmountable hurdle. Add to the hurdles the fact that the best storage systems use large amounts of rare earth metals (rare being the operative word) and solar isn't going to be a significant source of power anytime in the near future.

Well, solar output has been doubling every 2 years and has been for some time. So its a given that in a decade it will be a considerable part of the grid makeup. Storage is doubling a little slower but still not too far behind. I am guessing you didn't watch the video that addresses your point. .

Rare earth metals, you are probably referring to neodymium. Some manufacturers choose to use them but some don't. Tesla uses no rare earth metals in their vehicles,