Castanet

maryjane48 wrote:the future of transportation is on verge of as big a change as gas did to horses . you cant stop progress . but it is amusing to observe time to time

On the face of it, the companies seem to pair pretty naturally. Tesla last year released a set of batteries, built on the same technology that powers its vehicles, meant to store excess energy produced by solar panels or wind turbines. Dubbed the Powerwall, the units began selling this year to homeowners and utility companies that use the devices to store power produced when the sun is out or wind is blowing for later use.

In Sweden, a small stretch of "electric highway" has opened for business. Co-developed by truck-maker Scania and German engineering firm Siemens, the system is said to cut energy consumption by half and can use potentially zero fossil fuels.

The so-called eHighway consists of trucks equipped with a pantograph, which employs a pair of overhead wires much like some cities' electric streetcars or buses. However, this new system, reports Gas2, uses advanced sensors that can connect and disconnect the wires at up to 55 mph. The advantage is that the trucks have the flexibility to use non-pantograph roads when they need to.

The eHighway currently runs just two kilometers (1.2 miles) long, so the trucks will operate with a diesel-hybrid system when outside of the zone. Jalopnik reports that Sweden hopes to extend that distance to 110 kilometers (68 miles) eventually. The program is still very much in an experimental phase. The researchers intend to gather data for two years before adapting it for more widespread commercial use.

The project is part of Sweden's goal of a transportation system that's free of fossil fuels by 2030. Gas2 also mentions that Siemens has a similar program

maryjane48 wrote:wow thats great idea . things are changing at faster rate then we can keep up . the best thing is these new modes of transportation will create longterm jobs

alfred2 wrote:do you have one of the telsa cars?

Musk has proved so adept at landing incentives that states now compete to give him money, said Ashlee Vance, author of "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future," a recently published biography.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-h ... story.html

alfred2 wrote:do you have one of the telsa cars?

maryjane48 wrote:i wish . if i could buy one i would . a friend in states has one for daily driver and she loves it

d0nb wrote:Thanks to the virtual world of the amazing Elon Musk, we can fuel cars with government subsidies instead of petroleum.


Ya gotta love it.

d0nb wrote:Thanks to the virtual world of the amazing Elon Musk, we can fuel cars with government subsidies instead of petroleum.

Ya gotta love it.