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216 comments on A Vicious Circle

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Termoil on March 13, 2008 - 2:06am

Bill,

I object to your assertion that PRT is censored on TOD. I don't know too much about it other than the closed loop systems around airports and the like. Perhaps you could do a post on PRT to get the discussion going.

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BillJames on March 13, 2008 - 7:21am

I can understand why censorship is objectionable. It seems silly to me to excluded ideas. Ask Leanan why my posts on PRT keep getting censored. Currently urban transport is about 4% efficient. PRT can increase efficiency to about 70%.

I would post more about PRT but the post keep getting cut. Ask for an open discussion on this subject.

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Squalish on March 13, 2008 - 8:24am

Cut?

Elaborate.

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BillJames on March 13, 2008 - 2:20pm

PRT is not a panacea. It has a niche benefits. But in that niche it can provide efficiency improvement from 4% to 70%. How big that niche will become will be clear over time.

Our approach is pretty simple, it costs less to move less. In highly repetitive travel, why are we moving a ton to move a person? Every stop start requires applying power to re-build kinetic energy.

I amended this Livermore Labs graphic to illustrate the vast percent of waste in power generation and transportation.

The "Potential Profit" is dumpster diving, the harvesting of waste into profit. It is hard work. It requires many niche solutions.

If we allow innovative solutions to attack waste, we will not have an energy problem. My education is in nuke engineering. I have no trouble with nukes, but distributed generation from solar is likely our best long term option.

If we use power where it is generated, you can substantially decrease transmission loses in power generation. Transmission loses are about 30%. That is what Germany's Feed-In Tariffs are accomplishing.

If we appropriately apply PRT, we can achieve rail efficiencies in urban transport. In our effort, we integrate distributed power generation to power a distributed need for power in transportation.

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