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posted by LaminatorX on Thursday July 02 2015, @01:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the lightning-fast dept.

Electric racing cars are in vogue right now. The first Formula E championship just concluded in London (sadly the Ars-sponsored car did not win), and this side of the pond saw an electric vehicle win the prestigious Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, setting a new record in the process. Rhys Millen took his Drive eO PP03 to the top of the mountain in 9:07.022, beating rival Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima by more than 20 seconds. The consequences of getting a corner wrong and going over the side don't bear thinking about.

The annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado is the second-oldest race in the US. It first took place in 1916, and it's a unique challenge for man and machine. Starting at Mile 7 on Pikes Peak Highway, cars race one at a time up the side of Pikes Peak, completing 156 turns in 12.4 miles (20km). It may be familiar to you from Gran Turismo 2, featuring prominently in that game, and indeed Polyphony Digital sponsored this year's race, making us wonder if the iconic event will reappear in GT7, whenever that happens to arrive.
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Electric vehicles (EVs) in particular have done well since the resurfacing. From the starting line at 9,390 feet (2,862m) above sea level, the cars climb another 4,720 feet (1,440m) to the summit, causing even forced induction engines to lose power as oxygen molecules become fewer and farther between. But electric motors don't have the same altitude problem, making just as much power and torque in a vacuum as they do at sea level. Consequently, it's become a place for people to test out new EV technology.


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  • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday July 03 2015, @11:08PM

    by vux984 (5045) on Friday July 03 2015, @11:08PM (#204874)

    Germany has been going gangbusters with PV.

    If by gangbusters you mean they do less with solar than they do from anything else except for hydro. Yes, they've been ramping up though. But doubling almost nothing a few times over is still not much. They do more with wind, and bio fuels.

    Their latitude is higher than the lower 48 and their insolation is possibly worse than Seattle's.

    Possibly? Let's find out...

    http://www.solarpanelsplus.com/industry-professionals/insolation-charts/ [solarpanelsplus.com]

    The take away... Germany gets about as much sun as the USA east of the Mississippi. A lot more than Seattle.

    The efficiency of solar panels keeps climbing and the price keeps dropping.

    No argument there. The value proposition keeps getting better. That's one of the issues right now... waiting another year to buy-in may make more sense than buying in now.

    Barclays recently downgraded electric utility bond ratings in America because of the increasing challenges of solar and home energy storage. They can see the writing on the wall and so should we all.

    At best I think there is limited truth to it. There is no question that anything I can do with PV on my roof* -- they can do better, benefiting from economies of industrial scale. I fully expect the electric company to be able to build a solar farm, optimize panel placement, maximize energy capture, maintain it, and deliver me electricity cheaper than I can "do it myself" and they'll still turn a healthy profit at it.

    At worst they go from invincible monopoly to being a little more competitive. Reason enough to downgrade them; but a far cry from your suggestion that personal panels are going to be their undoing.

    * - which in my case is nothing, as I live in a condo strata can't modify my roof, but that's beside the point.

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