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What's Wrong with Wind and Solar?   The Serious You: How Current Events Affect You

Started 2/22/21 by WALTER784; 52036 views.

So it's not like a diesel electric locomotive, but a drive train and transmission is present connecting to the engine as well.

I was thinking a true hybrid just had the engine tied to a generator, and then that split power to battery and a motor per wheel like a pure electric.

That's how the diesel electric locomotives are set up. The engine does not have a direct gear train connection to the wheels, but is connected to a generator. This cranks out several kilovolts and a few megawatts, somewhere around 3,300 horsepower, which then feeds the big motors that drive the wheels.

But they don't have a battery. They have a huge resistor bank in the top of the locomotive to dissipate braking, by reversing part of the motor windings to act as a generator, and that is then just turned into a lot of heat.

WALTER784
Staff

From: WALTER784

Jan-2

Ahhhh... yes... the light spectrum would make a big difference.

FWIW

In reply toRe: msg 486
WALTER784
Staff

From: WALTER784

Jan-4

Net Zero fanatics are willfully blind to the problem of energy storage

BY RHODA WILSON
DECEMBER 15, 2022

A new paper published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (“GWPF”) warns that renewable energy policies being pursued around the world are unrealistic.  That’s because renewables-only grids require large amounts of electricity storage to make them viable. However, the world currently lacks any power storage technology that is both affordable and scalable.
 
The paper aimed to shine a light on the critical aspects of the energy storage problem that governments have been wilfully ignoring.  Its author is Francis Menton who retired after 31 years as a partner of a major international law firm and is now President of the American Friends of the GWPF.
 
Using an analogy, the paper describes the recklessness of those enforcing Net Zero:
 
The push toward Net Zero without a fully demonstrated and costed solution to the energy storage conundrum is analogous to jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, and assuming that the parachute will be invented, delivered and strapped on in mid-air in time to save you before you hit the ground.
 
The Energy Storage Conundrum, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, November 2022, pg. v
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The paper’s opening statement reads: “Advanced economies – including most of Europe, much of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and others – have embarked upon a quest to ‘decarbonise’ their economies and achieve ‘Net Zero’ emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.”
 
The Net Zero plans turn almost entirely on building large numbers of wind turbines and solar panels to replace generation facilities that use fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) to produce electricity.
 
But wind and solar facilities provide only intermittent power, which must be fully backed up by something – fossil fuel generators, nuclear plants, batteries, or some other form of energy storage – so that customer demand can be matched at times of low wind and sun, thus keeping the grid from failing. The governments in question have then mostly or entirely ruled out fossil fuels and nuclear as the backup, leaving some form of storage as the main or only remaining option. They have then simply assumed that storage in some form will become available. Their consideration of how much storage will be needed, how it will work, and how much it will cost has been entirely inadequate.
 
Governments are simply setting forth blindly, without any real idea of how or whether the system they mandate might ultimately work or how much it will cost. The truth is that, barring some sort of miracle, there is no possibility that any suitable storage technology will be feasible, let alone at affordable cost, in any timeframe relevant to the announced plans of the politicians, if ever.
 
The Energy Storage Conundrum, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, November 2022, Introduction
 
In one of Menton’s estimates, the cost of providing lithium-ion batteries for a grid could be more than ten times Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”). Moreover, because the batteries wear out, the expenditure would need to be repeated every few years. Despite this, policymakers are ploughing ahead with the deployment of wind and solar, hoping that scientists will come up with something to save the day.
 
The paper consists of seven sections covering the problems, requirements, cost and two half-hearted attempts at Net Zero systems – both of which have been, and continue to be, abject failures.
 
Section 3 looks at the current plans for acquisition of energy storage in some of the countries that say they are on the path to Net Zero. In all cases, the capacity that will be delivered by the 2030s is trivial – typically from around 0.1% to at most 0.2% of the amount that is necessary if Net Zero is to be achieved.
 
Section 7 discusses the truly shocking fact that politicians and governments have committed their people to Net Zero goals without any kind of demonstration project that shows that the goal can be achieved technologically, let alone at a reasonable cost.  Half-hearted efforts to build such demonstration projects have incurred unaffordable costs, without getting close to the Net Zero goal, leaving no reason to think that such a system can ever succeed.
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WALTER784
Staff

From: WALTER784

Jan-4

How many lives are being lost due to the senseless obsession with net zero?

BY RHODA WILSON
DECEMBER 13, 2022

Despite the climate narrative, almost everywhere cold temperatures are much more deadly than heat. Why is the cold more dangerous? Because it causes outer blood vessels to constrict to conserve core body heat, which drives up blood pressure, said Bjorn Lomborg. High blood pressure killed 10.8 million people in 2019  – 19% of total global deaths.
 
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Dr. Bjorn Lomborg is a researcher and frequent commentator in print and broadcast media. He has also authored several books including ‘False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet’.  Last month he published an article in The Times which challenged a Lancet report stating that rapidly rising temperatures have increased annual global heat deaths among older people by 68% in less than two decades. This is a figure that has been cited all over by corporate media, from the BBC and Time to the Washington Post and the Times of India as well as espoused by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. “The [Lancet] report commits an amateur statistical fallacy by blaming the increase in heat deaths on ‘rapidly increasing temperature’,” Lomborg wrote.
 
In a Twitter thread, Lomborg explained how the cold kills 9 times more than heat.  “When billions of people are exposed to colder than optimal temperatures for large parts of the year, millions die,” he said.  A study published in The Lancet in July 2021 found that for the ten years 2000-2019, 4.6 million people died from cold temperatures compared to 0.5 million from heat.
 
Although energy prices declined dramatically in the past; in this century, due to “climate change” policies, energy prices have increased.
 
Bjorn Lomborg on Twitter
 
The UK energy bill cost crisis is the result of failed policy decisions stretching back decades.  UK energy costs had more than doubled since 2000 – before the escalation in the Ukraine/Russia conflict began earlier this year – and have risen further by around 90% this year alone.  Yet, the government continues to blame the Ukraine/Russia conflict for high energy costs.
 
The current crisis is the result of several interwoven policy failures that have rendered the UK electricity system fragile and vulnerable to shock, with British energy policy since 2002 focused on the development of renewable energy, particularly wind and solar electricity, almost to the exclusion of all other concerns. And it is consumers who have to carry the considerable costs as a result of the deployment of renewables.
 
For years a renewable energy charge has been included in our metered charges, raising our bills. On top of that, the taxpayer has subsidised the cost of solar and wind construction, while the owners have made enormous profits based on the gas price.  The cost of installing energy storage – to keep the lights on when there is little sun or wind – is paid for by National Grid and hence by the consumer.
 
Bjorn Lomborg tweeted that higher energy costs will mean colder houses, killing between 79,000 and 185,000 more people in Europe this winter.
 
This pending health crisis also has long-term impacts. A Public Health England report found that cold homes and poor housing conditions have been linked with a range of health problems in children. And the British Medical Journal previously warned of the health risks to children:
 
Children growing up in cold, damp, and mouldy homes with inadequate ventilation have higher than average rates of respiratory infections and asthma, chronic ill health, and disability. They are also more likely to experience depression, anxiety, and slower physical growth and cognitive development.
 
High fuel prices can exacerbate the effect of low temperatures on heatlh and deaths by deterring people from using heat and raising their exposure to cold.  A 10% rise in electricity prices is associated with a 0.6% increase in deaths.
 
The government cannot wash its hands for penalising fossil fuels, before alternatives were available, and for ignoring the evolving shortfall in generating capacity.
 
The latest government report of total UK energy is for Q2, April – June 2022.  In it is a graph which shows e
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Showtalk
Host

From: Showtalk

Jan-5

They are ignorant.  Which is why it’s all going to fail unless they get some sense.

Showtalk
Host

From: Showtalk

Jan-5

It’s already to a point where people can’t afford or can’t get fossil fuels to heat their homes.

WALTER784
Staff

From: WALTER784

Jan-8

Electric vehicles lose efficiency in cold weather, motor club warns drivers

WBBM NEWS RADIO 780 AM & 105.9 FM
December 22, 2022 10:44 am

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- With a winter storm bearing down on the Midwest, Triple A has some advice for motorists, including drivers of electric vehicles.
 
It’s common sense to a lot of drivers in the Chicago area, but it bears repeating: If you must venture out during a winter storm, keep an emergency kit in your car. It should include items like your cell phone, jumper cables, food, water, blankets, hats and kitty litter or sand in case you get stuck in snow and need traction.
 
And for owners of electric vehicles, says Molly Hart, spokesperson for AAA, the auto club group, be advised that cold weather decreases your driving range almost by half.
 
“When it dips to 20 degrees and the HVAC system is being used to heat the inside of the vehicle, the average driving range is decreased by 41 percent,” Hart says.
 
That means instead of getting 100 miles of combined urban and highway driving, the range at 20 degrees would be reduced to 59 miles.

Electric vehicles lose efficiency in cold weather: AAA (audacy.com)

FWIW

In reply toRe: msg 491
WALTER784
Staff

From: WALTER784

Jan-17

U.S. Official Airs Safety Concerns over Heavy Electric Vehicles

FILE - A truck drives down a rural road near a water tower marking the location of the Memphis Regional Megasite on Sept. 24, 2021, in Stanton, Tenn. Ford Motor Co. and a South Korean company would have to create more than 5,000 full-time jobs at a planned electric pickup …AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File

SIMON KENT
12 Jan 2023

The safety risks posed by heavy electric vehicles in any collision with lighter vehicles has pushed the head of the National Transportation Safety Board to issue a general warning to all road users.
 
The official, Jennifer Homendy, raised the issue in a speech in Washington to the Transportation Research Board. AP reports she pointed, by way as an example, to an electric GMC Hummer that weighs about 9,000 pounds with a battery pack that alone is 2,900 pounds  — roughly the entire weight of a typical Honda Civic.
 
“I’m concerned about the increased risk of severe injury and death for all road users from heavier curb weights and increasing size, power, and performance of vehicles on our roads, including electric vehicles,” Homendy said in remarks prepared for the group.
 
File/Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board speaks during a news conference, Oct. 3, 2019, in Windsor Locks, Conn. On Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, Homendy raised concerns about the risk heavy electric vehicles pose if they collide with lighter vehicles. (AP Photo/Chris Ehrmann, File)
 
The extra weight EVs typically carry stems from the outsize mass of their batteries. To achieve 300 or more miles of range per charge from an EV, batteries have to weigh thousands of pounds, the AP report sets out.
 
Homendy said her worries about safety risks stem from a steady proliferation of EVs on roads ands highways.
 
“We have to be careful that we aren’t also creating unintended consequences: More death on our roads,” she said. “Safety, especially when it comes to new transportation policies and new technologies, cannot be overlooked.”
 
The official noted Ford’s F-150 Lightning EV pickup is 2,000 to 3,000 pounds heavier than the same model’s combustion version. The Mustang Mach E electric SUV and the Volvo XC40 EV, she said, are roughly 33 percent heavier than their gasoline counterparts.
 
“That has a significant impact on safety for all road users,” Homendy added.
 
Reuters reports acting NHTSA Administrator Ann Carlson told reporters Monday the agency was studying the impact of vehicle size on roadway safety.
 
Carlson said the agency was “very concerned” about the “degree to which heavier vehicles contribute to greater fatality rates,” further noting some subscribe to the “mantra that bigger is safer” but that did not necessarily take into account other factors.
 
“Bigger is safer if you don’t look at the communities surrounding you and you don’t look at the other vehicles on the road,” Carlson said. “It actually turns out to be a very complex interaction.”

U.S. Official Airs Safety Concerns over Heavy Electric Vehicles (breitbart.com)

FWIW

In reply toRe: msg 492
WALTER784
Staff

From: WALTER784

Jan-18

2022 Toyota Mirai Review – Is Hydrogen really the fuel of the future ?

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In reply toRe: msg 493
WALTER784
Staff

From: WALTER784

Jan-18

I drove 1800 miles in a Hydrogen Car

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