[SGVLUG] Tangential topic: new battery tech

[Stan Slonkosky]

On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 1:56 PM, Emerson, Tom
(*IC)<Tom.Emerson at wbconsultant.com> wrote:

> [TE] note the comments at the end - someone pointed out that a roughly 50-pound battery would power a Tesla roadster for a year before needing a recharge...  (the current tesla pack is something on the order of 600 pounds - I don't know whether or not the commenter took into consideration that 550+ pounds of battery are no longer being carried around...)

That calculation was based on the assumption that 1 horsepower = 75
Watts. Since a horsepower is actually 746 Watts, the battery would
weigh around 500 lb.

Of course, if more than a tiny percentage of the population had
electric cars, we'd be experiencing blackouts again as the electric
generating capacity to support them just isn't there. Politicians in
Sacramento and DC seem opposed to building more nuclear reactors.
There was space for another one at San Onofre (although according to a
nuclear engineer I met who works there, it is currently being used for
storage). Diablo Canyon has space for two more reactors
(http://www.kgoradio.com/viewentry.asp?ID=365842&PT=PERSONALITIES).

-- 
Stan Slonkosky