Friday 1st June 2007

Lotus has wind

British firm investigates wind power

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Exige 265E a sign of green Lotus thinking

Lotus has hooked up with green energy specialist Ecotricity to investigate the potential of building a wind farm at their Hethel HQ.

According to ‘The Engineer’, Ecotricity has submitted a request to South Norfolk District Council to gain their views on the scheme. If successful, the three turbine wind park – set to be located in the middle of the company’s test track – could provide up to 100% of the energy requirements across the facility. Any surplus energy would be fed back into the national grid for local residents to use.

Lotus has apparently already carried out an assessment of its site to test the feasibility of such a scheme. It also contributes in a major way to the Tesla electric sportscar project and is currently showing off the Exige 265E – an ethanol/petrol - powered hardcore version of the production sports car. Green in more than just part of the badge then…

[designer]

Good move by Lotus - they do seem to be doing some positive stuff for the environment and the cars are still hugely fun!

[Boggy]

designer said:

Good move by Lotus - they do seem to be doing some positive stuff for the environment and the cars are still hugely fun!

Well done Lotus,

Let's get that cracking 265E Exige on the road

[Stevie P]

Bloody 'ell...I was half expecting an Elise with a sail

[MartinMGBGTSV8]

Good on you Lotus. Something real and positive (if it comes off), rather than the usual hot air you get from other manufacturers about hybrids and the like.

The Tesla thing is also a real step in the right direction. Guilt free motoring should be the result eventually and if powered by renewably generated electricity then the greenies will be forced to shut up about performance motoring once and for all.

[VladD]

I like the way they're getting ahead of the game. May get greenies to start buying sports cars yet.

As for guilt free motoring, I've got that already.

[thegman]

wind power is gay

[kevin ritson]

Light, fuel efficient cars will be in demand very shortly, hopefully Lotus will find the prevailing trend works to their advantage. As for wind power, Hethel's another WW2 airfield isn't it? I find there's more than enough of a breeze at Silverstone or Snetterton

[sprinter885]

Never mind Snett or the 'Stone -you should see the wind in my bedroom..........

[timmy33]

thegman said:

wind power is gay

Gay or not it only works about 25% of the time so doesn't make alot of sense in most places.

[Sarkmeister]

timmy33 said:

thegman said:

wind power is gay

Gay or not it only works about 25% of the time so doesn't make alot of sense in most places.

You mean it produces on average approximately 25% of its maximum capacity? It will be producing energy between 65% and 85% percent of the time (ish).

I think its a great idea, better than sitting back and doing nothing.

[Hedgerley]

I don't think Lotus are making enough noise publicly about this stuff to counter all the negative press we get. I know a lot of what they are doing is confidential, but what we are seeing is a niche manufacturer doing a lot more than the majors seem to be. The whole point of Tesla going to Lotus for their chassis was its very lightness, to get the best out of their power source - as has been pointed out this is becoming crucial to the success of these ventures and Lotus is perfectly placed. AS we all well know, Chapman was right all along.

BTW, Tesla will be showing off their car at the Goodwood festival of Speed in a couple of weeks. It should be fun seeing that scoot up the hill at a vast rate of knots in complete silence.

Also, check out the current 'Green' issue of Top Gear - they have an extensive write up on Tesla as well as one of the first real test drives.

[marandlau]

thegman said:

wind power is gay

Thank you for that well informed and unbiased argument.

Your comments have been documented and safely stored in the cylindrical filing cabinet under the desk.














Seriously though, not only are they working with tesla to put viable, performance cars on the road, but they are actually looking into using it to power the plant used to make them.

At the end of the day, even if they don't save a single penny on the bills, they are making the correct noises, and any 'eco-enthusiast' woul by hard pushed to argue the case against a future hethel-built electic elise!

[peter450]

Gone with the Wind, pretty much sums up the reality of windpower as a viable energy source.

I for one am getting rather tired of all these shallow were saving the planet gimmicks, that make sod all real differance, from david cameron's i cycle to work because i want to be green (complete with ministerial lexus, carrying the paperwork following 6 ft behind), to news that lotus want to stick 3 Wind Turbines in there back yard, there a car company there products are bad for the enviroment, stop feeling guilty about that an trying to placate people who would rather see you build nothing at all, an start looking after number 1 I'e your customers who've seen no real new cars for the past 10 years

[speedy_thrills]

Isn’t it a PH tradition to criticize wind farms?

Does this mean if the wind is fair Lotus can produce a greater volume of cars? Can you imagine trying to explain to a stock analyst that they where betting on the weather?

[PeteFf]

wind power is gay
Fox hunting is fun and goose liver pate and veal's my favourite food.

Who are you, Jeremy Clarkson's love child?

[sosidge]

Nissan already have some wind turbines up at the Sunderland plant. Maybe about 5 of them?

One burst into flames a little while ago - quite spectacular...



http://www.sunderlandtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?...

[kurtiejjj]

Bring it on as long as I don't have to drive an electric car without any noise it's fine by me!

Bio-fuel is for me the solution of going fater and being green at the same time!

[sprinter885]

kurtiejjj said:

Bring it on as long as I don't have to drive an electric car without any noise it's fine by me!

Bio-fuel is for me the solution of going fater and being green at the same time!

What do you do -eat it???

[TheOriginalGT40]

Well done to Lotus.

It's about time all the other sports car and super car manufacturers followed suite.

Just think what all the PC brigade will do then when all sports/super cars on the road are still as stunning to look at, fast and fun to drive and good for the environment, while they all drive around in the Diesel burners

Forget the short sighted views of some on this thread, we should be all proud of what Lotus are doing, and as one said - why the hell are they not shouting about this to the world...

That Exige looks stunning in those colours too. Who ever thought that it would be Lotus leading the way in modern automotive technology...

[Scuffers]

nothing more than a 'me too' PR gimmick to appease the green to55ers...

get real, wind power just does not add up, they cost more in £ to build than they will ever generate in electricity, and in environmental terms their construction cost more in CO2 then they will ever offset in their working life.

then consider that they actually produce sod all power (the big 1.8Mw ones only do this at 35+Mph, at the more average wind speeds they might just make 20% of that for a couple of hours a day..

they look god awfull, they are not exactly the paragon of reliable, they cost stpuid money, and yet we are told they are the way forward?

why are we not spending the time and money on bio-fuels/Hydrogen development/etc?

here's a statistic for you, the EU pays farmers to NOT grow stuff on ~25% of farmland, this is stupid, we should let them grow bio-fuel, not only is that usfull, but also keeps the countryside actually looking better than some un-kept wasteland, alsong with actually taking Co2 out of the air.