I have been looking around the Yahoo answers site for a while now and tis question has always been played around wth in my head, I'm sure there is an easy response that I'm too dumb to work out but I thought it would make a good first question to ask here.
2007-11-11 13:03:07 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Environment ➔ Other - Environment
Almost everything can be powered with batteries, you are correct.
Simplified details: Batteries store energy in the form of electricity. The energy must come from somewhere. It usually comes from electrical generators, which are powered by fossil fuels, nuclear power, wind, gravity (hydroelectric generation), geothermal generation, even open water wave action and other methods. In the U.S., most of it today comes from fossil fuel generation. "Emission-free" battery power merely means that the emissions were located somewhere else.
Wind power is great but limited (the Electric Institute is full of wind, but that's another topic). Solar power is great, but at $100 a barrel oil is still much too cheap to make it competitive. And, the wind mills and the solar power panels are all manufactured using other forms of energy. Hydroelectric power has significant limitations - the falling water needs to be reasonably close to where the power is going to be used, otherwise it loses a great deal when it is sent either via lines or via batteries to where the power will be used. Most of the untapped potential for hydropower is located far from populations or industry. We can build dams to create new hydroelectric plants, all we have to do is flood the area behind where the dam will be built. Since people have tended to live in flat plains near rivers for the past 10,000 plus years, we just need to move all the people first then we can dam any river we want.
Batteries are wonderful ways to make energy portable, they just require several times their output to manufacture and charge. So, we could run everything on batteries - except the generating plants, so if we just quintuple our number of coal-fired plants and get back to building nuclear power plants - one on every other street corner would be a nice start - then we can run everything on batteries!
2007-11-11 13:28:20 · answer #1 · answered by byhisello99 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It sounds very silly to say why can't everything be battery powered. Due to transfer of energy rules there is always a loss of power when charging batteries, so it takes more power to put the power in than it does to take the power out!
The problem with carbon emissions/global warming is that everyone thinks it's everyone else's fault.
In researching this page I came across one site which actually surprised me....if all people/businesses had the same attitude the world would be a better place!
2007-11-11 13:24:21 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
well the fact is that not everything can be battery powered i drive a class a tractor trailer for a living battery powered motors do not have enough power to do what i have to do every day and if for some reason there is a short I'm stranded for a while
but solar power can be utilized on business and some homes but not every one can afford this in California if you can get the proper permits and a company to install a total package that you run your house on solar/batteries then your looking at about 10-20 thousands dollars for a package that in a few 10 years you will have to replace but your thinking on a different page which is good but what we need is a different kind of fuel that makes the enviroment people shut up and so there is not a huge impact on the rest of us
2007-11-11 14:25:55 · answer #3 · answered by john M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A flashlight uses up two batteries in just a few hours to make that one dim little light. Just imagine how many batteries you would need each year to run all the lights in your house! And air conditioning takes about 10 times as much power as lighting does in a typical house. How many batteries are needed to make a car go 200 miles? More than you can carry in the car easily, and after 200 miles you have to throw them all away and buy fresh ones. And how to you make a battery powered airplane? Train? Ship? Steel mill? There is no way in the world to make THAT many batteries.
Or if you use rechargeable batteries you have to use regular carbon dioxide emitting power plants to generate the electricity to recharge them.
2007-11-11 14:14:57 · answer #4 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It may not be obvious, but batteries are extremely inefficient energy storage devices considering the space they take up and the amount of energy they can store.
Consider the following experiment as an illustration:
Fill up your car with gas, then park it and shut the engine off, but leave the headlights on. How long will those batteries keep the lights illuminated at a useful intensity? Just as few hours, if the batteries aren't getting old. Then restart the car and see how long you can keep the headlights on with the engine running at idle on just that 20-25 gallon tank of gas
2007-11-11 15:29:35 · answer #5 · answered by Bill S 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
battries per se' are toxic... acid and contaminated lead...
battery production is DAMN expensive, esp longlife deep cycle units.. which cost arms and legs.. and need replacing about every two years, dependent on use... but you have to use them, as not using them is just as bad...
electric motors (To do the work) are HUGE... small motors burn out very quickly... and the more pwerful the motor requirement, the MUCH bigger th ebattery capacity has to be.
BUT.. not if you replace the whole engine and drivetrain, and put the electric motors on the wheels, and used a controller...
or better still, use the electric motor to drive a hydraulic motor... like a forklift does... you dont need lifitn capacity, regear the drive and youve got a 50mph car... running of a few batteries and a backup suitcase generator just in case...
2007-11-11 13:16:41 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Batteries also create battery acid, not to mention other environmentally dangerous things. We then have to create some way to dispose of that in a ecologically friendly way.
When it comes to rechargable batteries, they need to be recharged with electricity, which is created with coal and gas.
2007-11-11 13:13:31 · answer #7 · answered by Lauren P 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The good news is that everything can be battery powered.
Batttery technology is improving rapidly. Soon all automobiles will be battery powered.
The electricity will be provided by wind power. We have a huge excess of wind power in the United States.
We have far more than enough wind power for all of our electrical needs.
Wind power is also cheap to produce. The average cost of production for electricity produced by wind is ony four cents per kilowatt hour.
An electric car will travel approximately 1 mile per kilowatt hour of charge. That is only 4 cents per mile for fuel!!!
That is much less than the cost of gasoline, or diesel or biodiesel!!!!!
2007-11-11 13:15:18 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
You need to charge batteries up, which means using electricity, which means that the power stations have to use more coal/gas to create more electricity - vicious circle.
What we need is an alternative - like hydrogen cells
2007-11-11 13:09:41 · answer #9 · answered by spiegy2000 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Have you seen those little bunny rabbits falling down?
Now imagine cars, planes, trains and buses running out of power!
And imagine the mountains of "dud" batteries.
lol
2007-11-11 13:12:11 · answer #10 · answered by tattie_herbert 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋