Towards oil independence or more trouble.

Thanks to an agreement an alternative-energy automobile company "Better Place" plans to bring the same electric car system already in the works for Israel and Denmark to Australia.

Along with Australia the US governor for California Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced plans to introduce a car hire system using a fleet of battery-powered vehicles. The Better Place project, created by Shai Agassi, is already running in Israel, Denmark

Apparently "Better Place" intend to provide recharge station or battery swaps for the longer trips, I guess similar to your common BBQ gas bottle. I don't know about you but I imagine when you do a battery swap there will be some kind of crane to do the swap and will it be self serve - I think not but I could be wrong what do you think? Better Place say they "can help each market identify and develop its own “virtual oil fields” of renewable energy. Same with Australia which possesses wind farms throughout the country. So too does California."

Look I don't want to knock this I really think we (when I say we I mean anyone who is reliant on middle east oil) need to give alternatives a fair go. But can anyone see holes in this? Well for me the battery problem is one, instead of tankers filled with oil, we'll have batteries probably from China who will inturn pollute even more than now. Also I reckon most people will recharge at night rather than "on the go" so instead of clean energy they will recharge from coal fired power stations. I suppose if at home you subscribe to a clean energy provider for household electricity that would be okay but right now I'm not so sure that even working.


Heres a link to the Australian article don't forget at the bottom of the page is a link to the company web-site. Their site explains how it works and even their business model.

Better place electric cars

I still think we need to find more of our own oil in the short term. Wind farms are great but what an eye sore even on a small scale imagine how many we need to take over. What about other alternatives.

Anyone interested in oil independence.
You are going to see these guy around soon.