Skip to content

LETTER: An engine that works without fuel?

Dear Editor,
18338471_web1_Letter-graphic-terrace-tst_1

Dear Editor,

How do you drive without refuelling for a year? You use a 45 ton dump truck with a payload of 65 ton, drive up a hill empty and drive down full, and with regenerative braking in your electric truck, you add power to your battery. At the end of your day and 20 such trips you have excess of power to the tune of 200kWh and love the year 77 megawatt hours. You save about 22.000 gallons of diesel fuel and the cost of the diesel and do not discharge 196 metric tons of carbon dioxide. At the same time you do not pollute the air with fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, black carbon and ozone. The same effect, regenerative braking, applies to trains as well, such as a fully loaded train in Norway that adds energy to the grid by going downhill with a full load. And you electric car and truck in the future will be able to add extra range every time you use “you brakes”. Additional benefits are reduced noise, another health benefit, reduced maintenance and lower cost of driving.

Martin Holzbauer

Thornhill, B.C.