I'm not sure electric trucks that run off of batteries is a practical solution. Given the size and weight of trucks and cargo they require 10-15 times larger battery to provide noticeably smaller range. Throw in refueling time and it's really not the best solution for CO2 reduction. I'd prefer to see hydrogen-powered trucks. Use all that extra energy to produce hydrogen.
Naturally this is relevant only for current battery tech and capacity.
Actually for most trucking batteries are already practical. Most trucks travel only one or two hundred miles a day, like doing deliveries or going from a port to a warehouse, or a warehouse to a location like a factory or store. And even long-range trucking is mostly with loads that are volume constrained, not weight, so the additional weight of batteries is not a big problem. The big advantage of batteries is lower cost per mile
Not surprising at all - photovoltaics yield about 50 W/m2 on average at mid-ish latitudes. Last time I checked (see below) biofuels are around 100x less efficient per acre (and in the case of algae-based biofuel, have a lot of post-processing that make them even less attractive.)
1 acre of corn ~ 500 gallons of ethanol (~6kWh/Liter for ethanol)
so 50046e3 = 12 MWh/4046 m^2 ~ 3000 Wh/m^2 for corn. If there is one growing season per year, then that energy is spread over 24*365 hours. So about 0.3 W/m2 on average.
Of course, the ethanol can be stored, and has a pretty awesome energy density. So it isn't completely stupid (e.g. aircraft are a thing), although it is pretty stupid.
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[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 17.5 ms ] threadNaturally this is relevant only for current battery tech and capacity.
1 acre of corn ~ 500 gallons of ethanol (~6kWh/Liter for ethanol) so 50046e3 = 12 MWh/4046 m^2 ~ 3000 Wh/m^2 for corn. If there is one growing season per year, then that energy is spread over 24*365 hours. So about 0.3 W/m2 on average.
Of course, the ethanol can be stored, and has a pretty awesome energy density. So it isn't completely stupid (e.g. aircraft are a thing), although it is pretty stupid.