Renewable Energy gechargingstation

Published on October 18th, 2010 | by Chris Keenan

6

Parking Spot Charges Electric Car

The auto industry is hoping green eco cars will help pull them out of the recession blues. Among them is Chevy with its Volt, looking to do for electric vehicles what the Toyota Prius did for hybrids. However, unlike hybrids, electric vehicles face a fundamental fact that will make it harder to become popular. They need to be plugged in.

The basic idea behind an electric vehicle is that you plug it in at night and then it is charged and ready for use the next day. But what happens when you run out of charge? Car manufacturers built in back up gasoline engines to get us home when we run out of charge, but the ultimate solution is going to be the ability to “recharge” on the go. Fortunately, companies like GE and others are already hard at work solving this.

The GE WattStation will start appearing in cities in 2011, and can recharge an electric vehicle completely in 4 to 8 hours. You can effectively recharge your car while you are at work, running errands, out on lunch, or doing anything else you do while your car is parked.

While devices like the WattStation are still in early production stages, the possibilities for these devices are endless. To begin with, small efficient solar panels could eventually be utilized to provide power to the charging station, making for a truly off the grid automobile. What a difference this future image of “refueling” is compared to our current day greasy and noisy gas stations.

Technologies like the WattStation and the Volt help us reduce pollution and our dependence on oil. GE, founded by inventor and early clean energy activist Thomas Edison, estimates that for every 10,000 drivers that switch to an electric vehicle,  CO2 emissions would be cut by 33,000 metric tons per year.What a difference that could make!

As a Thomas Edison quote goes, “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

A hundred years after Edison said that we still aren’t free of our oil and coal addiction, but with products like the Volt and WattStation we are certainly getting there. One day we may find solar powering everything, from our cars and appliances to the Internet and websites for photographers.

Photo credit: GE

http://www.ge.com/innovation/electric_vehicles/index.html

CONAN: Michael?

Prof. GREEN: Yes, there are several Chinese restaurants, markets in that part of town, and East Charleston’s one of the older sections, building up in especially the ’40s. And Fong’s Garden, I believe, was Wing Fong, who went on to be involved in banking. His wife, Lilly, was a university regent. And it–the Chinese community here traditionally was small, but some of the members of the community have been very influential in our development. site college of southern nevada

CONAN: Even reading back on some of the history of Las Vegas in preparation for this program, Chinese families were amongst the earliest here after 1905, Japanese as well, as well as African-Americans, of course. this web site college of southern nevada

Prof. GREEN: Yes. This was a mostly white town at the outset, but from the beginning there is an ethnic mix. It’s not exactly a melting pot, but it’s close, and sadly there was a lot of segregation, not just of African-Americans, but of other groups. They tended to be shunted to one side of the town site, trying to keep them out the way. But you find early on Las Vegas, Chinese restaurants, Mexican restaurants, some markets. There’s a small ethnic community here from the beginning.

CONAN: Hmm.

BETH: And, Neal?

CONAN: Yes, Beth.

BETH: Can I make one more comment? Actually my family moved to Las Vegas originally because my father worked for the test site, so kind of segueing into the atomic issue you were going to talk about, he was a scientist with the Department of Energy for many years.

CONAN: Did you ever consider becoming a radio producer, Beth?

(Soundbite of laughter)

CONAN: Thanks very much for the phone call. We appreciate it.

BETH: Thank you.




MAKE SOLAR WORK FOR YOU!





Next, use your Solar Report to get the best quote!

Tags: , , ,


About the Author

is a green and general blog writer. He also maintains a personal cooking blog. Find Chris on Google


Related Posts



  • http://Web steve

    I am completely behind the conversion to EV’s. However, I do wonder what will keep juvenile delinquents, vandals and ex spouses from unplugging the vehicles while they are being charged in public areas? Will there be some type of lock? It seems like the one drawback that WILL happen.

  • Pingback: Parking Spot Charges Electric Car – Green Building Elements | Welcome2Green()

  • Pingback: Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Coming to a City Near You? – CleanTechnica()

  • http://amanation-review.blogspot.com/ amanation

    The Civic Hybrid is a combination of petrol-electric drivetrain enables it to achieve excellent fuel economy. road tax for the Civic Hybrid will be zero.Electric powered cars is energy efficient and environmental friendly.the companys which are manufacturing electric cars have great potential in the future and Electric power costs cheaper than any other fuel like petrol,diesel.In these scenario saving in fuel consumption is a key to save money and wealth creation.

  • http://garagedoorrepairwestchesterpa.com/ Garage Door West Chester, pa

    Cool staff, but how will it take your car to be fully charge?

  • http://www.nj-garage-door-etc.com/ Sales

    This is insane. My opinion is that they are already invented alternative source of energy but keep using gas to make money of people!

Back to Top ↑

© 2014   Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc.



Back to Top ↑