Transcript Each Generation’s Challenges

Can Podcars be Driven by Solar Energy?
The Podcar City, Uppsala, Sweden
Ron Swenson
October 2, 2007
www.solarquest.com/workshops
Our Generation’s Challenges
The 21st century’s twin challenges are:
• Global Warming (known and manifest)
• Peak Oil (little known but imminent).
Global Warming
Fires in Congo & Angola
Peak Oil
Two Ways to Respond…
• Germany, Japan, Sweden
– Solar Energy
– Hybrid Vehicles
– Quit use of oil by 2020
• USA
– Attack Iraq
– Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR oil)
– 25 x ‘25 … the rape of Soil and Ancient Water
cloaked with environmental rhetoric
Which way will prevail?
• “The American way of life is not
negotiable.” [G H W Bush, 1992]
– Check with the people of New Orleans for
more details ….
• Can we change course in time to avoid
catastrophe?
Swenson’s Law
To avoid deprivation
resulting from the
exhaustion of nonrenewable resources,
humanity must employ
conservation and
renewable resource
substitutes sufficient to
match depletion.
www.OilCrisis.com/Swenson
Beating oil addiction with fraud
• New Generation Vehicle (Clinton)
• Hydrogen Highway (Schwarzenegger)
• Cellulosic Ethanol (G W Bush)
Clean Coal?
Pathological
Disconnect
So what about Corn Cars & Bean Buses?
Net Production of Biomass in the USA
www.oilcrisis.com/Patzek
Compare PV to Biofuels
So what about Hydrogen?
Am I missing
something?!
Energy Return on Energy Invested < ½
What do the “experts” say?
“Active solar power ... works,
though not nearly as well as
fossil fuel…
“Alternative energy sources ... are
… implausible … without the
subsidy of oil. The only
remaining alternative is nuclear
energy.”
James Howard Kunstler
www.HubbertPeak.com/nuclear
Global Solar Energy Balance
Solar Energy Input
Reflected to Space Immediately
(TeraWatts) 178,000
53,000
Absorbed and Then Reflected as Heat
Used to Evaporate Water (Weather)
Captured by Plant Photosynthesis
82,000
40,000
100
Total Energy Used by Human Society
13
Total Energy Used by US Society
2.5
Total Human Food Energy
0.6
www.hubbertPeak.com/debate/oilcalcs.htm
TotalArea
Area
Required
a PV Power
Plant
Total
Required
for afor
Photovoltaic
Power
Plant to
the the
Total
U.S. Annual
Electrical
Demand
toProduce
Produce
Total
US Electrical
Demand
Nevada
www.ecotopia.com/Apollo2
P109-G1055201
Internal Combustion …
• Take 26.5 Quads of oil
• Turn 21.2 into smoke
• Use 5.3 to run things
… How incredibly wasteful!?
So what are we going to do?
Basky
The All-New DonCar!
www.OilCrisis.com/Transport
Sustainable Transportation
• Not cars
• Not airplanes
• Walking, Horses, Bikes, Sailboats …
and Podcars
Freeway at Capacity
Vehicles Removed
PRT Passengers
PRT System
So what about EVs or Electric Rail?
Parasitic Mass
Transportation Energy for 100 People
Battery Electric
PRT
Vehicles
100
20
Total weight (tons)
200
5
Battery weight (tons)
25
1
Recycle batteries
?%
99%
Embodied energy ratio
50
1
Battery losses
15%
<1%
Rolling Resistance (at 60 mph)
5000 watt
500 watt
Aerodynamic Drag (at 60 mph)
7000 watt (cd=0.2)
750 watt (cd=0.1)
Parasitic energy Consumption
275
6
Energy use (watt-hr/mile)
~150
~50 (skytran)
Safety
≈ two 747s/week die
Very safe
Quality of life
1 hr per day lost
Quality time in
transit
A Little Personal History…
Tonatiuh
www.Ecotopia.com/Tonatiuh
Solar on Rail
www.SolarEvolution.com/SkyTran
SkyTran Solar
Solar SkyTran, with
aesthetics emphasis and
added power at stations
SolarEvolution
Solar on Rail
www.SolarEvolution.com/PRT
ElectroRoof
Similar Solar Systems Exist
Calculate Solar size, cost per Mile
30
mph, operating speed
x2
sec (vehicle interval)
= 88
ft between vehicles
= 60
vehicles/mi, separated by interval specified
x2
= 120
10
÷4
= 2.5
120 x 2.5 = 300
x $6.00
$1,800,000
16
3.5
kw @ operating speed
kw needed in a mile stretch
hrs at peak operation equivalent
hrs of peak sun equivalent (Coast = 4, Desert = 6)
solar factor
kW/mile
/watt
/mi
watts / sq ft, SunPower, most efficient on market
ft wide solar panel to meet requirement
Compare Solar to Gasoline at $2.50/gallon
25
27,000
mpg, average fleet mileage
passengers per day to match
2.0 people/vehicle
13,500
vehicles/day
x $2.50
/gallon fuel price
= $33,750
Cost to travel fleet mileage daily
$ 12,318,750 Annual cost to travel fleet mileage
$ 45,000,000
= 3.7
Cost of solar to cover fleet mileage
years payback for solar system to offset gasoline
www.SolarEvolution.com/PRT
Traffic Nearly Matches Solar Generation
Thermodynamics of PV
• EROI: 5 years
• Life: 50 years
120,000 TW of solar energy received by the Earth
www.ecotopia.com/Apollo2
Miles of PRT/Miles of Solar
URBAN
Miles of Road
% converted
Lane-Miles of PRT
Interstate
13,491
600%
80,946
Other Freeways and Expressways
9,175
200%
18,350
Other Principal Arterial (115-130ft)
53,447
200%
106,894
Minor Arterial (80-106 ft)
89,911
200%
179,822
Collector (60-90 ft)
88,604
120%
106,325
Local Road (little thru traffic)
598,514
100%
598,514
URBAN SUBTOTAL
853,142
1,090,851
RURAL
Interstate
33,067
200%
66,134
Other Principal Arterial
98,952
100%
98,952
Minor Arterial (80-106 ft)
137,751
50%
68,876
Major Collector (60-90 ft)
433,754
10%
43,375
Minor Collector (limited thru traffic)
272,360
0
0
Local Road (no thru trafffic)
2,102,977
0
0
RURAL SUBTOTAL
3,078,870
9%
277,337
TOTAL miles
3,932,012
35%
1,368,188
www.jpods.com/HomeSolar.html
Exajoules of Solar PRT
Expected Network to replace highly repetitive travel
1,368,188
miles of PRT
5,280
feet per mile
0.0000000000000000010
3600
5
365
Exajoules/joule
joules/watt-hour
hrs of effective sunshine
days
10^18 joules/Exajoule
Displacement System Energy Per Year from 75% solar automation
watts/square foot
10
16
Exajoules
2.8
5.7
4.5
6.0
Width of Collectors
6.0 ft wide
12.0 ft wide
6.0 ft wide
8.0
ft wide
www.Solarevolution.com