gizmag
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has claimed a world first by deploying electric buses on a commercial route. Previous electric bus operations have all been trials, or in the case of Expo 2010 in Shanghai, free public services. The buses went into service on December 21 after an 18 month development project with Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hankuk Fiber.
The electric coaches serving on the Mt. Namsan circular routes are 11.05 meters long and run up to 83km with a single charge. The lithium-ion battery pack can be fully charged in less than 30 minutes and the bus has a maximum speed of 100 km/h. There’s also a regenerative system that reuses energy from brakes when running downhill.
They introduced H-fuel-cell buses at Whistler during the Olympics. Technically, a fuel-cell bus is an electric bus – since it turns Hydrogen into electricity which runs the engine.
It is commercial and in regular use. The fare is the same as regular buses, and since it costs a fortune to run (as well as to pay for the Hydrogen to be trucked in from Quebec) it loses a pile of money. So, by environmentalist standards, it’s a huge success.
# 8 Somebody_Else said, on December 30th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Nuclear is extremely cheap one you have the plant set up. The real cost is in construction and fuel processing (mostly because demand is so low right now).
Where do you put all the spent Fuel Rods from Nuclear Power Plans? Do you realise they have a half-life of many thousands of years?
That being said, Nuclear is clearly NOT the answer.