Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Better Place
Hawaii Governor reports talks with Better Place
On a local radio show, Hawaii's Governor Linda Lingle said the state is in discussions with Project Better Place. The California-based startup, in partnership with Renault, has already announced its intention to bring electric cars to Israel and Denmark. A little over one week ago ABG reported on San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's interest entrepeneur Shai Agassi's project.Raising Islands, a Hawaiian blog on science and environment, reports the Governor saying "We are also in discussions with the same organization. It's to create a society where you don't need to use oil or gasoline." The Hawaiian islands would seem a logical location for electric cars, given the islands' natural limitation on long distance driving and potential for abundant wind and solar electricity. Thanks to Simon for the tip.
[Source:Raising Islands]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wildgoosechase73 11:41AM (5/22/2008)
I not a huge proponent of electric cars but Hawaii appears to be a perfect market for them.
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Throwback 11:42AM (5/22/2008)
Hawaii would be a natural for electric cars. Good roads, mild weather and ridiculous gas prices.
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Lad 12:28PM (5/22/2008)
@Wildgoosechase73:
I'm afraid I see an EV in your future and mine also! After all shakes out, cars that don't burn chemicals in the atmosphere are the only ones that make sense to exceed the smog and GHG requirements... and save fuel money.
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ron 12:29PM (5/22/2008)
is there any reason why Hawaii is not 100% geothermal energy by now?
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Charles S 12:45PM (5/22/2008)
I think Geothermal power has a lot more to do with the geological site than just simply having magma nearby.
I read somewhere that some geothermal plants in Europe had triggered significant seismic activities in the region. I think US can definitely benefit from geothermal technology, but it would need some serious vetting. Another reason why we may not have any significant investment into geothermal is because it was more profitable to burn cheap coal, while other nations that lack such resources (like Iceland) had to innovate.
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goehring 1:43PM (5/22/2008)
"is there any reason why Hawaii is not 100% geothermal energy by now?"
Apparently transferrring the power from the source (big island) to the users (mainly Oahu) would involve expensive undersea cables.
~20% of the electricity was geothermal in 2004.
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Peter 2:54PM (5/22/2008)
Why would you need battery swaps on Hawaii? The biggest island is only 100 miles across.
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meme 3:40PM (5/22/2008)
For conventional geothermal, you need either a natural source of hot water or steam (not just heat), or fractured strata that you can inject water into, have it flow through the hot rock, heat up, then leave as steam. With EGS (enhanced geothermal systems), you use the most advanced enhanced oil recovery techniques (this is one reason why I think we should focus more on trying to convert oil companies to "energy companies" than trying to kill them off) to basically make your own fractures. More precisely, you use solvents, proppants, pressure, and all sorts of other things to open up old fractures for water to flow. Once the reservoir layer is in good shape, you then inject water and start power production.
Anyways, yes, battery replacement seems silly for Hawaii. All they really need is ordinary power outlets -- not even fast charging ones.
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Lad 4:10PM (5/22/2008)
%Peter:
With 100 mile range cars available, swapping would only be needed for replacing wreaking batteries, etc.
Hawaii has a great opportunity to improve its energy security by switching over to solar and alternative non-fluid electric energy for the cars and buildings and bio fluids for the aircraft.
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Chris 4:57PM (5/22/2008)
Hawaii: DON'T DO IT!
Don't invest millions in a low current recharging grid and a cumbersome battery swapping scheme that will make electric motoring needlessly expensive! Until fast charging high density storage devices are available just go with plug-in hybrids like the Chevy Volt and avoid massive investments based on technology that will soon be outdated!
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David Wright 5:40PM (5/22/2008)
Chris - why hybrids? 100% battery power makes sense for Hawaii. No point carrying an onboard gas engine as well, and the gas stations to fuel them.
I know hybrids currently make greater sense across the US in general. But because of that, the imperative for developing battery cars with decent mileage range has been stunted. People seem to be happy if the car does 40 miles on batteries - knowing that they have the gas backup.
But in smaller european countries there has been greater emphasis on improving the mileage capabilities of battery-only cars. So far the greatest progress has been with commercial vehicles - small-to-medium (2ton to 12ton) vans in particular - many of which now offer a range of 100-150 miles on a single charge, and much further if given a lunchtime top-up.
Maybe some enterprising Hawaii dealership should come take a look.
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Richard 11:29PM (5/22/2008)
It doesn't make sense if your electricity comes from oil.
Couldn't help notice that the next story was about endangered birds who might suffer in the presence of large wind farms.
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Tim 10:39AM (5/23/2008)
Richard (#12)
I feel sorry for all the animals who get hit by cars. Let's all walk.
I feel sorry for all the bugs which get stepped on. Let's all crawl.
I feel sorry that we're making fun of the handicapped by crawling. Let's all shoot ourselves.
I'm worried about lead poisoning…
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J 8:07PM (5/23/2008)
Battery swapping makes even more sense for Hawaii because if the vast majority of trips are 10 to 15 mile round trips, then it makes good long term sense to be able to swap out 300 lbs of dead weight to complete daily errands/short commutes.
If charging is overnight and batteries were modular, battery reconfiguration is done at home, this could make a huge efficiency difference over the life of the vehicle.
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Chris M 10:36PM (5/23/2008)
Battery swapping makes even less sense for short drives, especially if the longest daily drive is less than 100 miles. Reducing the battery for short trips also reduces the power available, so there is a limit to how small the battery can be and still have adequate performance.
However, Project Better Place is also developing public charging facilities which should work fine even for "non-swappable" EVs.
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GM Volt Fan 5:28PM (7/01/2008)
Maybe Hawaii could go with 100% cellulosic ethanol filling stations too. They would only need to buy maybe 3 or 4 tanks of cellulosic ethanol a year if most of the people bought Chevy Volts. Hawaii could be the first state that goes 100% gasoline free by 2015 or something ... except for the trucks and heavy equipment that still have to run on diesel.
Cellulosic ethanol is much better for the environment you know. It could be a selling point for more tourism. Hawaii ... super green island paradise. :)
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