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Reduced Energy Consumption compared to the cost of generating it The average yield of a 2.0 mWh windmill is estimated at 1 MW x 24 hour = 24 mWh per day and with only 200 operational days 4.800 mWh per year. The fuel savings of 14.9 e-Traction® powered buses, with an incremental cost of just €20,000 each, operated for 90,000 KM per year, would yield the same energy generated by a 2 MWh windmill costing in excess of € 3 million each at just 10% of the cost.
Each solar panel cost roughly € 500, covers roughly 1 m2 and, in the Netherlands, effectively produces an estimated 90 W peak/m2 x 3 hours = 270 W per day, which equals 270 W x 180 days = 48 kW per year. To produce the fuel savings of one e-Traction® powered bus, with an incremental cost of just €20,000, operated for 90,000 KM per year would require 6,719 solar panels costing € 3.36 million and covering 6,719 m2.
The relative cost per megaJoule (MJ) generated by a windmill is 10.1 times higher than the cost of producing the 66.7% fuel savings that can be obtained with an e-Traction® powered bus with an incremental cost of €20,000. A solar panel is 168 times as expensive.
A conventional bus that uses roughly 45,000 liter per year, while an e-Traction® powered bus uses only a third of that, or 15,000 liter. With the annual fuel savings of one bus alone at least 30 cars can be operated for an entire year, when each uses on average 1,000 liters per year. In a typical Dutch transit setting, our system would yield annual savings of 30,000 liters (7,925 US gallons) of diesel per bus. The much touted Toyota Prius saves on average 70.5 US gallons when used on average for 10,000 miles per year. The owner is invariably enticed to purchase it with some kind of government incentive, such as a tax rebate, to encourage its purchase. One city bus equipped with our system produces the same CO2 reduction of more than 112.5 such Priuses. This is not to say that the Prius should not be preferred over conventional cars, because it is definitely better for the environment; the government would, however, be much wiser in tackling its own fuel guzzling mass transit system instead of subsidizing private vehicles that are used relatively little. The investment yield, in terms of energy saved, of the incremental cost of an e-Traction® powered bus is is 36.6 times higher than the yield of the energy produced by a Toyota Prius.
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