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EARTHFUTURE.COM by Guy Dauncey
This is a story about a car. Not the Toyota Prius hybrid, or the Mercedes SmartCar diesel that’s now on the streets, cool looking though it is. A normal car with four wheels, two seats and an engine. But why should it merit space in Common Ground?
How about Vancouver to Calgary on 10 litres? Are we impressed yet? That’s 1 litre per 100 kilometres or 285 miles per gallon. We’ll have to retrain the “zoom zoom” boy to say “sip-sip.”
The car in question is not in the showrooms. It is a prototype that Volkswagen built in 2002 to show that it could be done. VW created the Lupo in 1999, which uses 3 litres per 100 km, and it wanted to go one better.
Before I go into the details, think of this as a parable about engineers seeking greater efficiency, which could be applied to every area of life where we use energy. We’re going to hit oil’s downward supply curve very soon (maybe yesterday), so this is all very relevant.
The car is a two-seater, designed like a sports car, or a bobsled (see www.volkswagen.co.uk/new_devs/one_litre). It is 3.65 metres long, 1.25 metres wide and just over a metre high. Average speed 75 km/h, top speed 120 km/h. Single cylinder direct injection diesel engine, so it could also run on biodiesel.
Now diesel exhaust is a known carcinogen, due to the emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nPAH). Exposure to diesel exhaust accounts for more than 70 percent of the cancer risk from toxic air contaminants in California, and is a major contributor to ozone pollution, that may lead to shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing and coughing and is a particular threat to children.
However, biodiesel carries less of these sins. It reduces most PAH compounds by 80 percent and nPAH compounds by 90 percent, while providing up to a 90 percent reduction in lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions, a 67 percent reduction in unburned hydrocarbons, a 48 percent reduction in carbon monoxide emissions, a 47 percent reduction in particulate matter emissions, and a 100 percent reduction in sulphur emissions.
Everything has been done to reduce the car’s weight down to 290 kg. The body is made from composite carbon-fibre reinforced material, with a reinforced plastic outer skin concealing a frame made from magnesium. Most of the parts are aluminum; the gears and shafts are hollow; the bolts are made of titanium.
In “overrun” mode, the engine switches off and the car glides. Press the accelerator, and it starts up again. The wheels have regenerative braking, similar to the Prius, feeding energy to the alternator. For safety, it’s got anti-lock brakes, an electronic stability program, a driver’s airbag, and the same impact and overturn protection standards as a GT racing car. Work to develop the car entailed close cooperation with numerous suppliers, who developed new concepts and redesigned their parts, making them lighter.
Now forget dirty diesel, or even biodiesel, and think electric. If a small electric car used the VW breakthroughs, it would need less power to move it. In 1996, General Motors released the EV1, a four-seater electric vehicle that weighed 1,325 kg, 4.5 times more than the VW. It has since been withdrawn, because GM has recalled and scrapped all its electric vehicles, believing the future is in hydrogen and hybrids. I think GM is deeply mistaken, but that’s another story.
Cruising at 72 km/h, the EV1 used 115 watt/hours of electricity per mile. That’s little more than a 100 watt light bulb, burning for an hour. At 96 km/h, it used 164 watt/hours per mile. If a small two-seater VW EV weighed 4.5 times less, it would need three times less electricity, with two passengers and luggage, reducing the power needed to say 50 watt/hours per mile. The new lithium ion batteries last nearly 320 kilometres between charges, so range is not really an issue, especially if you belong to a car share coop and can choose a vehicle to meet your need.
For 16,000 kilometres a year, the car would draw 500 kWh a year. At 6 cents a kWh, with electricity from the wind or hydro, that would cost you just $2.50 a month.
If you wanted to install a solar panel on your roof to deliver 500 kWh a year in Vancouver, with 2,000 hours of sunshine a year, a 275 watt system would be sufficient and last for 25 years. That would cost $5,342 Canadian from www.energyalternatives.ca, plus $1,400 for installation (could be d-i-y) and the net metering and electrical permit expenses. Call it $6,750. With a 6.5 percent 25 year mortgage, no down payment, your monthly payment would be $45. As the world demand for solar electric panels rises and production increases, the cost could fall by half. With the panel connected to the grid, the lack of winter sunshine would not be a problem since you would treat the grid like a bank, paying in or drawing out energy as you needed it.
A wind-electric car for $2.50 a month. A solar-electric car for $45 a month. Who needs oil?
For contrast, a car that uses 9 litres per 100 km (25 mpg) will use 1,818 litres of fuel per year and cost you $151 a month. When the price of gasoline doubles, that’ll be $300 a month, or 10 times more than the wind-electric car.
Guy Dauncey is president of the BC Sustainable Energy Association www.bcsea.org, which has chapters in Vancouver, Kamloops and Victoria. His personal website is www.earthfuture.com. |
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