KERS: Could it save the planet?

Some of you know I am an great fan of Motor Racing; Its been in the blood since the days of James Hunt, but most significantly due to my little brother Shawn, of Shawn Taylor Racing, who I've followed since his first motocross outing back in 1989/90.

This year the FIA introduced the option of the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) for the Formula 1 race cars. KERS is effectively a battery and electric motor system that gives the racing cars a boost of power (80bhp if you are interested), improving overtaking and charging up whilst breaking (reducing brake wear). It does however penalise the car by adding 30 kilos and weight is a premium in any racing car. It's very similar to the so call hybrid car now on the road today.

At present Ferrari, Renault and McLaren have chosen to use KERS on their cars this year but I get the impression the teams are not gaining the advantages the system was predicted to give, and like the Chinese GP Ferrari decided to ditch it for that race.

Looking at past we have seen many technologies given a huge development boost when the governing body allow access to the technology in events, like F1. The one technology that springs to mind is Active Suspension; in essence rather than the car "reacting" to the lumps, bumps and corners on the road, with the aid of computer control, the suspension became proactive, in essence preparing the suspension, by changing its stiffness, height or rebound (OK to techie for some, sorry), to allow the car to pass smoothly and stably over the road. The sad thing was it was removed not long after its introduction as it gave to much advantage to the cars that used it. But it didn't end there; now a multitude of vehicles come with active suspension as standard, mainly mid to high end vehicles, providing better road holding, more comfort and more importantly improved safety. Need more info, try this PAGE

With the present focus on the state of the economy, and more importantly to me the wasteful way we use energy, fuel, petrol, electricity etc. we are aware that we need to find more efficient ways to use the finite resources we have. I do feel we are missing a trick if we allow F1 to give up on a technology like Kers. Effectively it could provide a boost we need for battery technology, which is still has a very long way to go if Star Trek is to be believed?

Why am I bothered about battery technology, well I assume you know that the "the sun is the source of all our power" quoting Monty Python, utilising this free source of power we could not only heat our homes, water, etc. but we could make more use of the suns rays and store more of it as electric energy. Now if we have cheap, high capacity, low weight batteries, who knows what could do? I feel it could be quite a significant step in the way reduce the massive fossil fuel consumption our society has and facilitate cheaper energy, and wouldn't we all be happier with that?