So far I haven't seen a windmill in Los Angeles yet... Is there one?

Autopartswarehouse

Yes, wind produced only 30.9% of it's rated capacity and Nuclear 89.6%.

Unfortunately it does matter since the article I meant to post (see below)and everything I read states wind figures in megawatts (MW) capacity while the more important kilawatt-hours (KWh) production doesn't get mentioned in the news in a way we can relate to other energy sources.

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com...story?id=51180

Notice capacity is in the title not production.

A person thinking that 2000 MW of wind capacity is the same as 2000 MW of nuclear or coal isn't comparing apples-to-apples. Not that you ever said that, just adding a twist that many people miss.

The newest ones are huge. 125ft radius ( 250 foot diameter ) and would not fit well in a city setting. They are out in the countryside of California. Look in high desert areas and near mountain passes.
You get pretty constant wind in areas with elevation changes... but coastlines are good areas too. Theres always a breeze at the coast. Just all the coasts of Southern California are very populated.

Great Britan ( and maybe Ireland also ) are putting windmills offshore... actually out in the water.

That's actually really quite good.
The car you just purchased only produces 20% of its rated capacity (kW or horsepower ) on average.

Here's a photo of a smaller windmill ( small in size, not number of them ).
Going by size... these look like 900kW machines. So they can average 300kW.

The big boys have blades that would nearly touch the ground on the same size post.... and are 3MW machines, and average 1MW.

Back to the thread topic... PHEV's are not costly to your pocket, nor the environment if you charge them with Wind for example.

In Minnesota... the wind power costs you $0.009 per kWh compared to coal. In Colorado, it costs $0.02 more per kWh.

Looks like the Netherlands.

;-)

I agree that costs of the larger battery would offset any savings with electric. Would rather see the option to get one of these (available in 2010):


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_liter_car

or something similar. A narrow car that is only 1 seat wide uses far less energy than a 2-seat wide car.

There are two generations of coal miners in my family and I know PA is big time coal country. There is no such thing as clean burning coal and there's not a lot a power plant can do to minimize the mercury emmissions that come out of one. The EPA regulates it sure but that does not mean its emmisions are clean enough to warrant using it as a power plant fuel source.

For that matter Natural gas burns more cleanly than coal does, but gas is more expensive, coal is cheap. Cheap power plant fuel keeps electricty cost down which may seem like a great deal for charging your electric car but its not a sustainable means.

Sustainable living is a big topic right now. When you use a resource you should be asking yourself how sustainable is that choice. Using electricity generated from coal just transfers the greenhouse emmissions from one source to another. In this case the second source is worse than the firts one.\

Now, if your electricity comes from solar, wind, hydroelectric or nuclear then that's clean sources of electricity and I say "charger up" instead of "filler up"

Yep, sign me up for that solar charged electric car. evnut.com.

Darelldd my hero.

Once we all realize that electricity makes our gasoline (double the pollution sources...coal in many cases and burning gasoline), then we just may see that having that gasoline step is not good...in so many ways.

And I realize the power in gas (BTUs per unit) is higher than a battery (production, large-scale, available today from a car mfg). but the days of gasoline are being numbered. I say, let's embrace this new era, instead of dragging our feet over the oil cliff.

'04 Seaside Pearl #7. Fumoto oil drain, mudflaps, rear bumper scuff protector & rear warn system, compass mirror, EV mode button, 8" subwoofer in right rear cubby & 6" subs under seats, power lumbar in the front seats, Coastaletech hitch w/ Aspen bike/snowboard rack. iPod2car, 2 amps, Alpine component speakers, and DVD video, solid 47 MPG @ 70000 miles.