Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Transportation Reducing It's Carbon Footprint...

In order to bring all the truck and train transportation capacity o'er to renewable energy operations one needs to use intermediate steps, because there is not, nor will there soon be, sufficient renewably generated electricity; nor will there soon be infrastructure to get that electricity from where it is generated to where it will be put to use.


The first, already available, solution is FSHEV technology. Everywhere there are FSHEVs (Full Series Hybrid Electric Vehicles) there is V2G (Vehicle to Grid) electricity generation capacity available! This would come in handy not just in a war zone, like Ukraine, it would help in areas where natural disaster, or terrorist(s), have recently disabled electricity provision.

FSHEV technology has been around for decades... A list of companies, and their vehicles, that have already demonstrated the feasibility of FSHEVs are in the next paragraph. The company efforts referred to are the work of industry insiders who've already invested billions in developing and building military, civilian and commercial vehicles. 

What's already been done, by and for: Nissan's Note E-Power; DARPA/ONR: General Dynamics Land Systems' RST-V (a.k.a., Shadow) and Georgia Tech Research Institute's Ultra AP; Lotus' Evora 414E; BAE's proposed upgrade to the Bradley Fighting Vehicle; etc...

This has created progress towards significantly increased fuel economy; less associated Green House Gas (GHG) emissions; obviate diesel fuel; less Lithium, because onboard electricity generation means smaller battery capacity is needed; fewer, to no, Rare Earth metals required by electromagnetic systems; etc...  The application of this technology is being stopped by hugely wealthy and powerful oil and gas industry players who care much more about increased profits than responsible behavior requisite to limiting global climate change.


Even more modest intermediate steps use older technology like: replacing the accessories belt with an electric motor/generator (EM/G), and batteries, to power electric accessories; moderated supercharging to allow the use of smaller displacement internal combustion engines (ICE); combining the aforementioned to require an even smaller ICE...


In short, holding current vehicle manufacturers and oil industry insiders' feet to the fire (by using existing, readily available, solutions) is the most important way to bring the world closer to taming the effects of transportation on Climate Change...


Also, reducing the need for oil and gas to be extracted to produce products for which demand has been significantly reduced.


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