Tesla And Iter Will Change The World

Tesla and ITER Will Change the World

For more than 200 years, mankind's careless burning of fossil-fuels, like coal and oil, raised and will continue to raise the concentrations of "greenhouse gases" in our atmosphere. Greenhouse gases allow life to be possible on our planet, trapping heat in a similar way to the glass panes of a greenhouse, keeping our planet's surface warm enough to sustain life(9). However, if these levels are aloud to increase at their current rate there could be dramatic consequences. NASA scientists recorded that 2005 was the hottest year in over a century (10), a MIT study showed that there has been a 100% increase in intensity and duration of hurricanes, causing over $100 billion dollars of damage to the U.S. coast in 2005 alone (11), and U.S. Geological Survey predictions state that by 2030 Glacier National Park will have no glaciers left (12). Something has to be done, and fast or this lovely planet we call home will not be so lovely.

There has been a huge movement, especially here in California, toward finding more energy efficient power sources. So far, no fossil-fuel alternative has been effective enough. Most people don't realize what it would take to replace petroleum-based and other fuel sources currently in use. It would take finding an alternative for cars and power plants that was cheaper, cleaner, and more efficient, while keeping current expectations of comfort provided by today's technologies. Achieving such goals is a huge and currently impossible task. So just how long will it be before a viable replacement can be put into use? Because of two amazing technological advancements, nuclear fusion power plants and the world's first practical electric vehicle. In the very near future, neither our cars nor our power plants will produce any harmful emissions whatsoever.

A small California based company by the name of Tesla Motors has designed an electric car that not only features speed rivaling that of a high end sports car, efficiency that blows any hybrid out of the water, but also a range comparable to that of an average gasoline powered car. Replacing every gasoline powered car for an electric counterpart will unfortunately remedy only part of the problem, especially with the added demand for electricity this would require. An international group formed a joint research and development project, called ITER designed to make fusion power plants a real possibility, and soon at that. With clean power plants and clean cars we can easily put all issues concerning global warming to rest, all while saving us a sizeable amount of money.

The average American drives their car approximately 12000 miles per year (1). This equates to about 900 gallons of gas per year or 3000 of your hard earned dollars burned up and sent skywards to pollute the air we breathe. Tesla Motors has provided a viable solution to this dire problem; The Tesla Roadster. The Tesla Roadster is the car of the future, saving the environment, saving you money, all while being as rich with luxury features as the finest cars on the road. The amount of pollution this car is responsible for is miniscule. Your average passenger car produces about 80 pounds of hydrocarbons per year, about 575 pounds of carbon monoxide, about 40 pounds of oxides of nitrogen, and about 11,500 pounds of carbon dioxide for a total of over 6 tons of pollutants a year per car (1). When we take into consideration that we have over 125 million cars on the road here in the U.S., that's pushing close to a billion tons of pollutants we spew into the atmosphere every year and that's not including trucks, SUVs, sports cars, construction vehicles, and semi trucks. The Tesla itself produces zero emissions and is responsible for only a minor part of power plant emissions created while producing the electricity for this car. What if all the cars in the U.S. were Tesla Roadsters, or a car using similar technology, producing zero emissions? Just imagine the huge difference it would make. You might be wondering, what about hybrids like the Toyota Prius, self proclaimed most efficient car in America, for example? The Prius gets an impressive 55mpg, but the Roadster gets the equivalent to 135mpg (7).

The car does have an unfortunately high price of $100,000 (this is a brand new technology after all), but the amount of money you will save operating it is drastic. This vehicle is Eligible for energy efficient pricing incentives from PG&E and tax credits from the IRS (12). PGE offers incentive electric pricing for owning such an energy efficient vehicle, essentially cutting your electric rate in half. The Tesla roadster also qualifies for income tax credits of up to 4000 dollars for owning an Alternately Fueled Vehicle (14). The Roadster will also save you thousands per year on gasoline, after the incentive electricity pricing, operating this car comes to about 1 cent per mile (12). If you drive the country's average of 12,000 per year, it'll cost you only 120 dollars, that's almost 2900 dollars saved in just one year's time. The amount of money you can save on maintenance is also substantial. Just imagine you're on your way to work and your car's fuel pump, just one of the hundreds of working parts, fails. Now you're stuck, and it is likely that it will be a week or more before you get your car back from the shop. With the Tesla, there is no fuel pump; in fact there isn't much of anything. Instead of hundreds of moving parts it has 4 main systems, the batteries, wiring and power converters, electric motor (the heart of the beast), and a transmission (15). Jay Leno, an avid student, restorer, and collector of cars and motorcycles, said in his article with TimesOnline, an online news source, "There is nothing much to break or wear out in the engine department" (6).

Despite the Tesla's almost nonexistent environmental impact and money saving potential, the Tesla or any vehicle like it, could never be a success if they left your comfort unattended to, so, they didn't. The Tesla is one of the fastest, most luxurious, and most convenient cars on the road. It is capable of doing 0-60 in less than 4 seconds (5). The 2007 Mustang GT does 0-60 in about 5 seconds while getting the equivalent to about 130 less miles per gallon. The Tesla's features are just as impressive. In an article from www.howstuffworks.com Ed Grabianowski said: "When you climb into the seat of a high-performance car that costs six figures, you expect certain things: acceleration that pushes you back into the seat, top-end stereo equipment, road-hugging handling, the throaty roar of a powerful engine and a big budget for the high-octane gas needed to fuel it. Well, the Tesla Roadster has almost all of those aspects covered.

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