Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
petrol - though then, lithium batteries were never considered an alterna-
tive to convenient and cheap petrol. Repeated refinements by the consum-
er electronics industry have given lithium-ion (sometimes abbreviated to
li-ion) batteries greater range and power. So far these batteries are made
almost entirely in Asia (China and Japan), but part of the Obama admin-
istration's green-energy plan is dedicated to jump-starting li-ion battery
manufacturing in the US. (Similar geographical diversification would
also be desirable in another commodity - rare earth elements, which are
much used in electrical equipment. China dominates world mining of
rare earth elements, which are used to make permanent magnets, among
other things, and it is increasingly using more of its own output of these
elements and therefore reducing exports.)
Road range
The electric-car driver has a natural fear of running out of juice. Range is
an issue, although surveys in the US, for instance, show that eight out of
ten people commute fewer than forty miles a day. To deal with the range
issue, there are three alternatives.
Supplement the electric battery with an internal combustion engine
A lithium-ion battery pack composed of 6831 individual cells powers the Tesla
Roadster, an all-electric sports car which has a 220-mile driving range and uses
rooftop solar collectors to provide some of the energy to charge the car.
