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October 2008 Posts
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Go to slide 8 (below) to see some of the solar technologies.
http://www.solaroadtechnologies.com/products/products_jul08.swf
Interesting that in today's show, Mr. Retti talks about his 53 KW (not KWH) battery. Then in the news, Congress is giving tax breaks for >4 KWH (not KW) and >16 KWH (not KW) batteries.
I guess Mr. Retti will need to add some "H" (hours) to his battery before it can get a tax break.
While I don't think we can drill our way out of this problem, we should realize there is a valuable resource that we might as well utilize. Using Rick's number of 1.78 billion barrels of oil, worth $100 per barrel, we have 1.78 Trilliion dollars worth of oil. That is a lot of money that US companies can make and tax payers can take advantage of (Drilling rights don't cha know). I just love that people scoff at something worth a meager 1.78 Trillion dollars. It is really not worth bothering with.
17.8E+9 barrels of oil$100 per barrel $1,780,000,000,000 value of reserve $1,780 Billion, value of reserves
quote comment
http://www.nrel.gov/ - I beleive there a 3 primary government labs for solar energy in the US, NREL, Sandia, and Argonne.
Bo says, "My people will call your People." admit it you work for GM.
17.8 biilion, however if you add up all in the United States oil I estimate 200 billion barrels. If the federal government did the right thing and tax all oil as it come out of the ground at 50%. At $100 a barrel, it would be $10 trillion. The Saudis are doing the same thing, they hire US contractors to do all the drilling, but they own the oil and get a good price for it. It only costs them $1 a barrel to extract it from the ground.
Solaroad and Kahrl Retti - his electrofuel battery is very light and powerful, and his car will have photovoltaic paint. Thermionic element with photovoltaic paint has 70% efficiency??? The Electorfuel battery weighs about 10 pounds and this 10 pound battery has 53KW?? Extreme claims and rants. Lithium Iron 4 battery that yields 10 amps per square inch per 15 grams, and is 12 inches long and 3 inches diameter. Patents can be seen online. But no working prototype yet- this is telling. On his site, he also mentions an onboard hydrogen generator as a backup on the car. Both this and Thermionics are posible, but HUGELY expensive. It sounds like he has solved the battery problem, the PV problem, the hydrogen problem, and the thermionics problem. Hmmm...
Wake up, get out of bed, drag a comb across your head.
Go down stairs and get in your electric car.
Drive to the nearest gas station to pick up some electrafuel, that was charged by solar paint on the outside of the vending machine
During your drive to work, your car is inductively charged by the the solar paint on the road and also by the solar paint on the car itself.
Get to work and enter your cubicle which is charged by the CubeTube solar/thermal voltaic system which uses energy from the waste heat of your computer and lights from your office.
Go home at night, and the way will be lit by street lights charged by SolarTubes attached to each light pole.
A Day in the Life. by Mr Retti
(creative development effort for this post by my daughter Priscilla Briggs. She was able to capture Mr. Retti's vision in a clear way.)
Datasheets for standard Panasonic Li-Ion batteries (18650) show that at 500 cycles, there is a permanent loss of capacity of about 20%. So I don't know if it is right to say that Li-Ion batteries have a 500 cycle life, but they are definitely degraded at 500 cycles. I also don't know what this means for the battery pack in the Tesla. They use these batteries.
I wonder how long it takes to do these tests. If they discharge at a 0.5C rate, this will take 2 hours, then probably want to let the battery sit for 1 hour to cool down, then maybe charge at 0.1C rate, which takes 10 hours to charge, so we have 13 hours per cycle. So it probably takes nearly one year to test the battery. The improved Toshiba Batteries (SCiB) with 5000 to 6000 cycle life, I would guess this is an estimate. I doubt they ran them for 5000 - 6000 cycles. This doesn't seem practical. However if the battery chemistry allows it. they could have subjected the batteries to very agressive charge/discharge cycles.
Maybe his primary business objective is to attract investors.
Fred from the Green Capitol of the Sierra Foothills, El Dorado CA
Bo:
Isn't it fun to hook a scammer... and reel him in. Now maybe that assessment is a little harsh. So call Mr. Retti back and try to pin him down on the KWH of his battery. Your listeners will enjoy hearing him twist and shout.
Fred from the Greeen Capitol of Gold Country.
I would not be so quick to call him a scammer. His claims, although unbeleiveable, are possible. It seemes like nobody has even given him the chance to let them prove him wrong. We are working on getting more info.
There are many entrepreneurs that have ideas that they truly believe in. Sometimes they are mistaken or prone to a little bit of believing they have something more important than it is. That doesn't mean that they are "scammers".
At my last company, we were about to release a product and it was delayed due to some technical problems. My boss (an entrepreneur) was disgusted by the delay saying
"This is an important product for the (ABC) company, no, it is an important product for our customers, no, IT IS AN IMPORTANT PRODUCT FOR THE WORLD."
You would think the guy had discovered a cure for cancer, not the niche measurement instrument that it really was. Entrepreneurs are a special breed.
John:
True re: entrepreneurs. I am basing my comments on you technical Piesquared type folks. Nevertheless, any of us who have participated in the ebay craze can attest to the alarming crowd of opportunistic shisters that exists.
If Retti is not successful with his amazing technological advancement...he could sell a training course on how to make money from your ideas!!! Assuming his investors don't have him....
Fred from the ... and / capitol of the Placerville Diamond Springs Triangle.
Rod, Well, we will wait and see what type of noun best fits Mr. Retti. Thanks,John C. Briggs
Well guys- I guess we can always apply the Cold War maxim to companies like this- "Trust, but verify!"
Go to this guy's web page. There is no mention of his amazing battery technology.
