While Other Nations Talk Green, Portugal Is Going Green
For most people, when they think of Portugal the first thing that usually comes to mind is vacation. Although I agree, that in the middle of winter I would like nothing more than to take a long Portugal Vacations. But When I heard that Portugal was going green we were very impressed. It’s definitely a very cool thing.
While the world debates about the benefits of the electric car, but stop short in showing any progress to implementing and plan, Portugal has decided to do it.
In collaboration with Japan’s Nissan and France’s Renault as well as the combined efforts of local Portuguese companies, Portugal will implement one of the world’s first full scale network of charging stations, located around the two major cities of Porto and Lisbon which should be online by 2010. We think this really Cool stuff, and a sign that there are countries out there that take environmental issues seriously with the use of alternative energy.
These really cool charging stations will be able to fully charge a battery in about 20-minutes. The vehicles will also be fully compatible with at-home charging through the national grid, and take about 6 hours to fully charge. Very cool.
The key component at this time is keeping the price of the vehicles down, hopefully through government sponsored tax breaks on Electric vehicle purchases.
In Portugal, where the price of petrol is incredibly expensive, commuters who choose to go green will see a reduction in the cost of transportation, and this is seen as the stimulant needed to make this project work, long term. In addition to other green initiatives, including solar energy , the dependence on petrol will be drastically reduced, making the country one of the greenest on the planet, and that is very Cool Stuff.
Portugal hopes to kick-start this venture by converting many of its publicly owned transportation to battery power, insuring that the charging stations are kept busy. Along with a recent commitment to construct some of World’s largest Solar Powered Farms, wind power Farms, Wave Farms, and new Hydro Electric projects, Portugal is well on its way to reaching a goal of becoming the world’s greenest nation. This is possibly the most promising, cool news that we’ve heard in a long time and we tip our hats to Portugal. Cool Stuff.
The fuel used to create electricity is enormous. Just because we don’t SEE the destructive impact on the environment doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.
Using electricity is neither green nor cool, it is much less efficient than petrol. Why use polluting fossil fuels to generate electricity, then feed that electricity to cars which will then run less efficiently than if using the same amount of fossil fuels to run the car directly.
Hydro or solar power would be options, NOT electricity.