Metra and Pace came out with their contingency plans, in case they don't get the funding they need from Springfield. Read more about it here.
Now it's Metra and Pace's turn
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Mary Wisniewski
Mary Wisniewski is the transportation reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. She has been a reporter in Chicago for 20 years, and a CTA rider for even longer. Call her at (312) 321-2892 or e-mail her.
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Using Federal Energy grants, Federal Transportation monies, and getting Argonne Lab involved, couldn't we place a square mile or so of radio (microwave) antenna 20 feet below the surface of Michigan and beam microwave energy through a satellite from a solar power collection station on the moon?
Use the power to run the CTA trains. Use the power to directly convert lake water to hydrogen to fuel CTA and Pace buses. Use the excess to buy down the cost of electricity from CommEd.
There is nothing in the above plan that is missing today, other than the will and drive to do it. Off the shelf designs and components.
The only reason the above would not work is if NASA and other goverment agencies bloated the overhead costs. If implemented on a test basis for Chicago, and proved feasible, any place with space for a large microwave antenna could benefit. I chose Lake Michigan for the receiving antenna as the possible effects of spillover from the microwave transmission to the general population would be minimized, but any large cornfield would probably do.
And now MIT has shown that coupled coils can transmit energy over distance...
Just thinking out loud...