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Impact Of World Events
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bowers baldwin
Elio Addict
- Joined
- May 2, 2014
- Messages
- 1,890
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- 4,667
I am sure the turmoil in the middle east is only temporary. ( I may have gone too far with this joke )
Zipper
Elio Addict
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2014
- Messages
- 233
- Reaction score
- 425
Yeah, me too. Temporary in geological terms.
bowers baldwin
Elio Addict
- Joined
- May 2, 2014
- Messages
- 1,890
- Reaction score
- 4,667
When you factor in the age of the universe.........in cosmic terms it should be over soon.
zelio
Elio Addict
I believe Paul Elio's personal commitment will have more of an effect than any world turmoil. He started this project because of high oil prices and he is convinced the Elio is needed to protect us from the vagaries of international turmoil. I agree with him. Having a high mpg vehicle that is safe and, in my opinion, great looking, is the best kind of protection we can have. Selling it at a reasonable price definitely helps people like me who need an inexpensive vehicle that saves money while using. The Elio promises that. Go Elio, Paul Elio and the Elio Team. :-) Z
Lil4X
Elio Addict
While we always seem to see a spike in the price of crude whenever there's another "crisis" in the Middle East, market forces eventually prevail to bring them back down again as our worst fears aren't realized. Add to that the increase in domestic production and our edge toward "energy independence" that would ordinarily keep our costs low.
But it's not as simple as that. With oil being traded on the world market, it will always go to the highest bidder - so we're not just playing a "home" game but a global one. I don't expect a return to the gas lines of the 70's, we've hedged our bets against that eventuality; but we could see a considerable run-up in price over the next six to eight months. Not a dramatic one, but still significant.
Of course increasing production and refining will help alleviate that sort of eventuality as petroleum becomes a strategic commodity. Here's where Elio and other developers of practical "green" technology are going to play a role. The math is pretty simple, cut demand and prices fall back to a sustainable level. Motor gasoline isn't ever going to be cheap, but its impact on family budgets can be made more manageable. On the consumer's side of the ball, short term focus on developing existing technology to produce more fuel-efficient transportation is step one. It's more immediately useful than electric or CNG cars because we have the infrastructure in place right now to support it.
Elio, because of its packaging and simple design, can take advantage of these newer technologies as they become practical. PRACTICAL being the operative word here.
Next we can begin to look at alternative fuels. Solar and wind power are promising, but construction of large "power farms", though gaining, aren't going to be the whole answer. When the sun goes down at night, you're stuck with trying to live off battery power or some other means of energy storage that cuts into efficiency. That doesn't mean we shouldn't stop research, but we need to be realistic with our expectations. Meanwhile, by looking toward making our homes and offices more efficient users of energy, we can eventually take energy out of the realm of geopolitics.
But it's not as simple as that. With oil being traded on the world market, it will always go to the highest bidder - so we're not just playing a "home" game but a global one. I don't expect a return to the gas lines of the 70's, we've hedged our bets against that eventuality; but we could see a considerable run-up in price over the next six to eight months. Not a dramatic one, but still significant.
Of course increasing production and refining will help alleviate that sort of eventuality as petroleum becomes a strategic commodity. Here's where Elio and other developers of practical "green" technology are going to play a role. The math is pretty simple, cut demand and prices fall back to a sustainable level. Motor gasoline isn't ever going to be cheap, but its impact on family budgets can be made more manageable. On the consumer's side of the ball, short term focus on developing existing technology to produce more fuel-efficient transportation is step one. It's more immediately useful than electric or CNG cars because we have the infrastructure in place right now to support it.
Elio, because of its packaging and simple design, can take advantage of these newer technologies as they become practical. PRACTICAL being the operative word here.
Next we can begin to look at alternative fuels. Solar and wind power are promising, but construction of large "power farms", though gaining, aren't going to be the whole answer. When the sun goes down at night, you're stuck with trying to live off battery power or some other means of energy storage that cuts into efficiency. That doesn't mean we shouldn't stop research, but we need to be realistic with our expectations. Meanwhile, by looking toward making our homes and offices more efficient users of energy, we can eventually take energy out of the realm of geopolitics.
rmcelroy
Elio Addict
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2014
- Messages
- 119
- Reaction score
- 228
Listen to this TED talk about liquid metal batteries. I have a TED talks app and love it.
http://www.ted.com/talks/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_renewable_energy
There is hope for the future, take the intermediate steps now.
http://www.ted.com/talks/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_renewable_energy
There is hope for the future, take the intermediate steps now.
Ekh
Elio Addict
That was very interesting … but I don't think his audience was as excited as, say, we Elio fans are about our pet technology. Maybe it was the periodic table that cooled things down. But by the end, they got it.
The concept is important, and the technology not that hard to do … if you're an MIT prof with a crew of post-docs and grad students helping out!
There isn't going to be "one solution" for our energy woes, but the high-temperature, dirt-cheap liquid metal battery could really help.
What it would do is take advantage of solar and wind power by storing their energy for use when it's calm and cloudy or night time, in quantities that really do keep the whole system operating.
This in turn will lead to more reliance on electricity, less on hydrocarbons -- but it won't happen overnight, and in the meantime Elio could do its bit to be fun, green, and affordable. IF Elio can get funded and launch. Here's hoping.
Ty
Elio Addict
The thing I don't get is there are lower temperature liquid metal batteries out already. His uses Antimony (?) which is found almost exclusively in one mine in China and is quite limited (well, if you consider an estimated 400 million tons a limit). I just don't get what makes his.idea better than the ones already being used. But still, he is right that we need a better way to store electricity to even out the uneven flow from renewable sources.