More on Electric Carmakers' Problems

From the Wall Stret Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122849893450683261.html

US electric and hybrid carmakers have found that their big problems are 1. getting capital when oil prices have fallen sharply and 2. the fact that batteries are mostly manufactured in Japan, South Korea and "elsewhere in Asia." Well, with Lithium available in huge quantities in Bolivia and elsewhere in Latin America, perhaps, the USA needs to look at developing these countries as a manufacturing base for batteries and help itself as well as the economies of these countries by setting up manufacturing plants there. I know this is not going to be easy in a recession, but this is something that the USA could make work. It has more experience dealing with the Western Hemisphere than any other country in the world with the possible exception of the erstwhile colonial powers of Spain and Portugal.

43% of Spanish electricity Demand Met by Wind

I have to admit that with each passing day, my addiction to Treehugger becomes stronger. How else could it be when I am a renewable energy nut and the guys there keep collecting and putting out some incredible information with a dedication that can only come from the truly committed? Well, here's a part of the reason why - what would warm someone's heart more than the knowledge that an advanced European nation has managed to generate a little less than half of its electricity demand from wind energy: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/spainish-wind-power-record-43-percent-electric-demand.php

Now that Spain's Iberdrola are active in planning projects in the USA, I hope they would use this information to convince the many skeptics who are out there about wind energy and what it could do. Granted that the USA's power needs per capita may be higher than Spain's, there is still no reason why wind energy should not support vastly more homes and businesses than it already does.

Thanks, Treehugger for showing that this is being done. And thanks, Spain, for leading by example!