We Need EV Conversion Kits with Roof Solar (A Climate Discussion)

[video:https://youtu.be/f3FRgE4mvQw]

I don't have a whole lot to say about conversion kits personally, lacking the technical expertise, but hope this short essay generates conversation and information.

If I had the capabilities, I would be working on this now. Got to thinking about conversion kits again after watching this video.

[video:https://youtu.be/NpsO-nY94Xk]

I like Paul Beckwith. He is an excellent source of information on updated Climate Science. He's a bit goofy - also does videos of his cats - but is spot on with current data. In this video he is talking about how we need to do everything to mitigate climate change now. He even advocates shooting sulfur into the stratosphere.

As I see it, there is not enough time to throw away all of the gas engine cars, and then make everyone buy EV cars. It doesn't seem like converting a car from gas to electric is that hard. There are gobs of YouTube videos demonstrating how to do it, like the one posted at the top. This conversion kit needs to include rooftop solar for charging (Elon Musk is already doing it), and this new cool battery technology - https://news.utexas.edu/2017/02/28/goodenough-introduces-new-battery-tec...

I couldn't find it, but pretty sure that gjohnsit wrote an essay about how more greenhouse gases are emitted while building cars, than are emitted while driving cars. Did I get that right?

Affordable car conversion kits, and a government program that pays for it for low income folks is what we need.

Yeah yeah yeah . . . I know . . . President Trump will never do it . . . blah blah blah . . .

Don't worry. Mother Nature is getting ready to kick him in the ass. In the above video Paul Beckwith says the El Nino is on it's way back.

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mhagle's picture

Hope this becomes a discussion of solutions. Smile

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

mhagle's picture

is rapidly changing!

On October 24, 2015, we had 16 inches of rain. 4 more the next day. It wiped out 2/3 of the gravel roads in my county and some blacktops as well. Schools were closed on Monday. By Tuesday, the road repair crews had been out in force and made many repairs. It looked like they had fixed the roads by our house.

On Friday we got 6 more inches of rain and it washed them all out again. For a while, it was a cycle of fix the road/get washed out.

Then someone somewhere wised up. They changed their methods, now using bigger gravel. This past year and still ongoing, the road crews are building up our roads and seemingly preparing for more large rainfall.

This is extremely expensive. We paid $600 for one load of gravel to dump on our driveway. The road crews are using millions of loads of gravel.

I wonder who it is in Texas government who understands climate change?

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

divineorder's picture

@mhagle feed the construction oligarchs more than they need to support, say, education.

Thanks for the essay. Really glad to see this. We have rooftop solar grid tie on our old shack in the TX Hill Country and eventually would like to get it for our Santa Fe tiny condo. Hope eventually to get an EV when our current car dies. Some problems with the condo association to work through.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

CB's picture

as many EV's every year as the rest of the world combined. BTW, I doubt one could retrofit an EV package for the price of a new Chinese EV car. They are estimated to sell for well under $20,000 when they come to the US in the coming years. Some currently sell for $7,500 (government subsidized pricing) in China and get prioritized registration in Chinese cities. The 30% subsidies are to be phased out by 2020. The US could do the same.


China Electric Car Sales Demolish US & European Electric Car Sales

40% Price Drop On Chinese EV Batteries Spells Trouble For Tesla

Solar panel pricing disrupted by Chinese billions – and more to come

China Will Replace All 67,000 Fossil-Fueled Taxis In Beijing With Electric Cars

The US looks to be following this trend:

US Cities Plan Electric Auto Shopping Spree (F, GM)

Solar spill.jpg

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mhagle's picture

@CB

Thanks for the info and the links!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

divineorder's picture

@mhagle and the other info.

Meanwhile, we have to fight the rolling back our air quality to be as bad as theirs.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

CB's picture

It’s Alive! US Energy Department Promotes Solar, Wind, Storage News
March 21st, 2017 by Tina Casey

All of those folks who were cautiously optimistic about former Texas Governor Rick Perry as head of the US Department of Energy might be feeling a little more cautiously optimistic now. In the past several days, the agency has pushed out some news and social media messages hinting that the agency will continue to follow through with support for renewables.

That’s subject to where the new Republican budget axe falls, but in the meantime, let’s celebrate with a look at the latest from DOE.

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mhagle's picture

@CB

Texas produces lots of wind. Maybe Rick knew someone who was hard hit by last year's storms.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

mhagle's picture

. . . that we need to shoot sulfur into the stratosphere above the poles.

When I have read about this possible solution before, it was always loaded with caution. Because we really don't know what sorts of other problems it may create.

But I think we are out of time. His point is that we need to reverse melting at the poles. Then he says this will buy us time to move to renewables, etc.

The interesting thing is that we have all of the technology and materials to do this tomorrow.

It actually gives me hope.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

CB's picture

@mhagle
Sulfur dioxide prevents solar radiation hitting the ground because it reflects infrared energy back out into space. This phenomena was what confused scientists back in the 50's and 60's because, despite the increasing amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere, the earths surface was actually getting cooler. When industry started to clean up its act, they stopped spewing SO2 and particulates (these were the main components of the lethal smogs which were enveloping major cities in the 40's and 50's), the earth's surface began to warm as was predicted.

The problems with adding SO2 to the atmosphere is it produces acid rain which acidifies lakes and soils. This can be fatal to forests and many animals such as birds and fish. Power plants must now limit how much SO2 is produced or they will get shut down. We have spent decades reducing SO2 emmisions due to damage to the environment.

Acid Rain
This dangerous precipitation can have serious consequences for the ecosystem.

Causes

Acid rain describes any form of precipitation with high levels of nitric and sulfuric acids. It can also occur in the form of snow, fog, and tiny bits of dry material that settle to Earth.

Rotting vegetation and erupting volcanoes release some chemicals that can cause acid rain, but most acid rain falls because of human activities. The biggest culprit is the burning of fossil fuels by coal-burning power plants, factories, and automobiles.

When humans burn fossil fuels, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are released into the atmosphere. These chemical gases react with water, oxygen, and other substances to form mild solutions of sulfuric and nitric acid. Winds may spread these acidic solutions across the atmosphere and over hundreds of miles. When acid rain reaches Earth, it flows across the surface in runoff water, enters water systems, and sinks into the soil.
...


After Decades of Acid Rain Damage, Northeastern Forests Are Finally Making a Comeback

Good news on the environment front, folks: the effects of acid rain on forests in the northeastern US and eastern Canada are finally starting to reverse, nearly forty years after the United States began passing environmental legislation to control the problem.

That’s according to a new, USGS-led study, which examined soil acidity and toxin levels at 27 sites in the northeastern US and eastern Canada, all of which have experienced declining levels of acid rain over the past 8 to 24 years. The study, published today in Environmental Science and Technology, finds that aluminum concentrations (a telltale sign of acid rain damage) have declined while pH has increased in the upper soil layers across nearly all sites.

In other words, forests are finally starting to recover from an environmental problem we identified decades ago and took legislative action to fix.

Large volcanic eruptions will cool the earth due to SO2 and particulate injection into the atmosphere but there are downsides that can be catastrophic for our environment.
Paul Beckwith seems to be some sort of kook.

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Lily O Lady's picture

@CB

This reminds me of the last episode of "Dinosaurs" where tinkering with the environment dooms all dinosaur kind.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

mhagle's picture

@CB

So ... What is the answer? I don't think he is a kook. Only quirky. The current projection is an ice free arctic maybe this year. WTF?...

Not that I disagree with you. What if it stops the polar melting ... Acid rain or polar melting. Which is worse?

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

earthling1's picture

@mhagle that there was an enormous population inhabiting (up to 40 million) the Amazon basin pre columbian times complete with large gleaming cities. Upon their demise as the result of smallpox stupidly introduced by the Spanish, the jungle returned and overgrew those cities so quickly, that it has been attributed as to have caused the "little ice age" of the late 1500s. All that greenery spiked the oxygen content of the atmosphere, all done within 100 years.
Imagine what we could do if we actually tried to build forests and jungles.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

CB's picture

@mhagle
over the poles and expect it to remain there, especial with today's climate changes.

Brace Yourself, the Polar Vortex Is Shifting

I did some checking and it appears that 50 megatons of SO2 will cool the earth approx 0.02 deg. if injected into the stratosphere. It will remain from 1 to 2 years dependent upon how high it is placed. Volcanoes inject SO2 much higher than planes can fly, so this will be problematic. When SO2 hits the lower troposphere (where all the clouds and weather take place) it only lasts a week or so. I also found that there will be a concurrent decrease in ozone production due to less sunlight to break the O2 molecule. A decrease in ozone will result in an increase of cancer and deleterious effects on many ecosystems such as plankton.

The only solution is to stop burning hydrocarbons and cutting down trees and try to limit the damage but I fear it is already too late. The US is the worst abuser of the environment, by far.

Use It and Lose It: The Outsize Effect of U.S. Consumption on the Environment

It is well known that Americans consume far more natural resources and live much less sustainably than people from any other large country of the world. “A child born in the United States will create thirteen times as much ecological damage over the course of his or her lifetime than a child born in Brazil,” reports the Sierra Club’s Dave Tilford, adding that the average American will drain as many resources as 35 natives of India and consume 53 times more goods and services than someone from China.

Tilford cites a litany of sobering statistics showing just how profligate Americans have been in using and abusing natural resources. For example, between 1900 and 1989 U.S. population tripled while its use of raw materials grew by a factor of 17. “With less than 5 percent of world population, the U.S. uses one-third of the world’s paper, a quarter of the world’s oil, 23 percent of the coal, 27 percent of the aluminum, and 19 percent of the copper,” he reports. “Our per capita use of energy, metals, minerals, forest products, fish, grains, meat, and even fresh water dwarfs that of people living in the developing world.”

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mhagle's picture

@CB

Thank you so much for contributing to this discussion CB and offering your insight.

Another side of this coin, is that some crazy person might finally realize that the climate crisis is a serious threat and will just go and do it. Like you-know-who.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

fyi
GeoengineeringWatch.org is a website devoted to discussion of materials being put into the atmosphere for various purposes and intents.

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bygorry

mhagle's picture

@bygorry

I bookmarked the site and have been reading. Smile

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

CB's picture

@bygorry

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fuelfreedom.org
is a group addressing various possible vehicle fuels

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bygorry

mhagle's picture

@bygorry

This is an interesting concept too . . . I don't know if there is time for middle ground though. I don't know.

Thanks!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

CB's picture

@bygorry
then they will continue to exacerbate CO2 buildup in the atmosphere. The only way they would be net neutral if these fuels were based on plant material.

There can be a moralistic problem if food crops like corn, sugar cane and sugar beet are used to make the alternate fuel. The loss of land use for food crops as well as the cost/impacts of fertilizer and pesticides make the entire program a net loss to our society as a whole.

That site wants to keep the internal combustion engine viable by making fuel inexpensive. This is the problem, not the cure. You can currently buy gasoline cheaper than bottled water at the service station. This is fucking obscene.

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earthling1's picture

I purchased this vehicle after waiting for 6 years for something better to come along. Specifically some thing with more range, as the first Nissan Leafs only had a range of 87 miles. I waited and waited and only Tesla could advance that range, but at a large price.
The congressional Act that authorized the $7500 tax credit was set to expire in 2016 so to take full advantage I needed to commit before the end of the year.
I went to my nearest Nissan dealer and test drove a 2016 model and was pleasantly surprised they had upped the range to 124 miles and offered $6000 dollars incentive. In addition, Washington state exempted the $3000 sales tax, the dealer through in a charge card worth up to $2000 over 2 years, and I still got my $7500 tax credit.
After all of that, the vehicle cost me about $17,500.
Since last October, I've been to a gas station once, to fill up my '99 Vette.
We hav3 4400 miles on it now, and not a problem in the world. The "range anxiety" issue is way overblown. It's like having a Toyota Camry with an 8 gallon gas tank, you just have to stop more often.
Bottom line. I'm very happy with it.
Hope this helps the discussion.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Now, could someone do a EV conversion on a Ford F150 or something that folks in my neighborhood seem to like to drive? Now *that* could change things. It's a hard problem, but these folks would really respond to higher torque and speed I think. Couple that with the libertarian self-sufficiency that green energy can provide and adoption might be faster. Maybe not as fast as we need, but any model that has more mass adoption seems to me to be crucial.
Me, I've got my bicycles. I'm lucky enough to not need anything else.

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mhagle's picture

@peachcreek

That's a cool idea. Now . . . to get someone to invent it and build it . . . like maybe Harley Davidson. Smile

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

earthling1's picture

@mhagle There are a number of other electric motorcycles being sold today.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

earthling1's picture

@peachcreek As for torque and speed, my Leaf rips off the line. It's pure torque.
Only larger motocycles are quicker. Love stop light grand prixing with this thing. It does eat more battery power though. But what fun looking at the surprised faces in my rear view.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.