Mooney_Driver wrote:
Ticket prices for CAT will explode and a lot of CAT simply will cease to exist.
Yes, I do realise. Just not sure it would be that bad… flights used to cost a tenfold or more of what they cost now. And see what happened, the world survived 
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Most airports customs wise are duty free areas. Consequently, the fuel bought there and exported is duty free, as it never enters the country.
The tax free rules apply whether the airport is a duty free area or not and also when an international flight is continued to a domestic destination.
The reason is rather that every time an aircraft leaves a country and enters another one all the fuel in the tanks is exported and imported. Dealing with tax and duties would create an administrative nightmare which would more or less strike all countries equally. This was realised very early on in the days of international aviation. With today’s IT systems it would be feasible to handle tax and duties but fuel is already tax and duty free by international agreements and those are not changing any day soon.
airways wrote:
Passenger tax of € 10 per passenger in Belgium. Applies to any A to B flight (ULM included) which is less than 500 km.Sorry if this wasn’t clear: ANY flight in an aircraft.
In Norway we get back taxes for mogas when used for aviation. It’s around € 0.5 per liter which is the road tax 
So when using, say 30 liters per hour, you get €15 per hour back on the pump price AVGAS has no road tax, but AVGAS is insanely expensive for some odd reason. It’s the same for boats, no road tax on fuel making it much cheaper.
LeSving wrote:
AVGAS is insanely expensive for some odd reason
AFAIU it’s because of the (relatively speaking) small volume which makes both production and distribution more expensive per litre.
New approach to fusion
I remember when the Scottish Hydroelectricity Dams were being built 70 years ago it was said electricity would eventually be so plentiful and cheap it wouldn’t be worth metering.
I remember the US “Atoms for Peace” booklets scattered in my school science room had a similar message in the mid 50s.
Has anyone done a calculation whether an electric car can be run off PV panels?
I make it that a 20m2 panel array could drive an EV for 14000 km – if you only drive at night. Is that real? I am working on 0.5kW/m2 incident solar power.
To work back from the above “4.2kW peak” example: to get 4.2kW peak, assuming 0.5kW/m2 incident solar power, and 20% efficiency, that is 42m2 of panel area. On one site, “One of the most common domestic sizes is a 4kW solar panel system, which costs around £6,400 and will cover around 29 square metres of your roof.” and 29 is in a similar ballpark to my 42m2, so they are perhaps working on the panels being pretty square-on to the sun.
The obvious problem is: who spends £6k/year on fuelling their car? A diesel is closer to 10% of that, unless you are a long distance commuter.
The other one is that the 6k has to be depreciated over the system life: panels and electronics. It’s a tight calculation because very little “technology” lasts much more than 10 years. Look at the technology you bought in your life. How much of it is still working? I bet most stuff you bought 10 years ago is now in a chinese landfill. But somehow the people selling PV generation are saying this no longer applies. My experience of the solar water heating business is applicable to the degradation of outdoor materials and 20 years is extremely optimistic!
First you need to define what a car is. According to this, it is more than doable:
The Dutchies seem quite good at this. I guess they have learned to make the most out of every ray of sun, scarce as they are up there
As a spin-off, one of the students took a nice plunge. This vehicle is being sold, quite expensive though. The idea is to scale things up and come up with an economical version.
There are economical cars in the making:
EDIT: I was responding to a post by Peter of the feasibility of solar cars, but can’t find it any longer..
EDIT 2: ah, it’s in the climate change thread. Peter, please move as you see fit
EDIT 3: misread your question Peter, might as well delete this post :) Maybe I need another siesta
The obvious problem is: who spends £6k/year on fuelling their car? A diesel is closer to 10% of that, unless you are a long distance commuter.
I’m currently spending the equivalent of about £3600 fueling my car annually, which would be a lot higher with European fuel taxes and is a lot more than 10% of your figure. My wife spends about half as much again. Our commutes are both on the order of 10 miles each way but I also go to the airport almost daily Regardless, I won’t buy a car purely for local use. It would cost a lot in depreciation, insurance etc. and clutter up the driveway at our house.
Look at the technology you bought in your life. How much of it is still working? I bet most stuff you bought 10 years ago is now in a chinese landfill.
I’ve bought a lot of technology over the last several decades and much of it is still running, often worth more than I paid for it. The secret is that the relative absence of electronics.
The other issue for people who use their car for commuting, is that it would be parked at their work place for most of the day and only connected to the panels at the evening/night when they aren’t producing much power.
