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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; 81683 views.
Staff
From: WALTER784
Apr-6
Electric Car Manufacturers Remove AM Radios Claiming Safety Concerns
ALANA MASTRANGELO
13 Mar 2023
Some electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers are scrapping the AM radio from their cars, claiming safety concerns. Although conservative talk radio dominates AM radio ratings, it is also considered a critical safety tool, as it is one of the primary ways that federal, state, and local officials communicate with the public during natural disasters and other emergencies.
Automakers such as Ford and Tesla have ditched the AM radio from their newer EV models, arguing that the motors on EVs interfere with AM frequencies, creating buzzing and signal fading, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
James Farley, president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co. Photographer: Emily Elconin/Bloomberg
But former emergency officials are warning that scrapping the AM radio would mean EV drivers could miss important safety alerts.
Seven former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrators said in a Sunday letter — obtained by WSJ — to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and several congressional committees that the government should seek assurances that automakers will keep the AM radio in their vehicles.
FEMA says that more than 75 radio stations are equipped with backup communications and generators that allow them to continue broadcasting information to the public amid an emergency.
“Should this continue, it will represent a grave threat to future local, state, and federal disaster response and relief efforts,” the letter read.
The former FEMA officials added that while drivers can use their smartphones to tune into certain radio stations, the signal that allows them to do so aren’t as reliable as AM radio during emergencies.
Last fall, Ford said it would be removing AM radio from newer 2023 model year F-150 Lightning electric trucks, citing AM radio frequencies.
“The frequencies involved in AM radio tend to be directly affected by the electromagnetic noise in EV propulsion systems,” Ford said.
Electric Car Manufacturers Remove AM Radios Claiming Safety Concerns (breitbart.com)
FWIW
Host
From: Showtalk
Apr-8
The real reason? Conservative talk radio is all in AM channels and is the #1 type of programming people listen to on AM bands.
Staff
From: WALTER784
Apr-8
In other words... another attempt at stifling/censoring freedom of speech... this time, on the airwaves!
FWIW
Staff
From: WALTER784
Apr-10
Electricity prices are soaring in leading wind-energy states
Exclusive: Steve Goreham explains why costs will rise even more as more renewable plants are built
By Steve Goreham
Published March 2, 2023 at 7:07pm
United States electricity prices are rising rapidly, up 18.1% over the last two years. Renewable-energy advocates claim that wind and solar installations produce cheaper electricity than traditional power plants, but power prices are rising as more wind and solar is added to the grid. In fact, electricity prices are soaring in leading wind-energy states.
Over a 12-year period, from 2008 to 2020, U.S. average electricity prices rose only 8%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This was much lower than the inflation rate of 20% over the same period. But power prices rose 5% from 2020 to 2021 and an additional 12.5% last year. Most of this rise was due to rising U.S. inflation, but the share of electricity generated from wind also rose, from 8.4% in 2020 to 10.2% in 2022.
Headlines announce that electricity generated from renewables is lower cost. Scientific American stated in 2017, "Wind Energy is One of the Cheapest Sources of Electricity, and It's Getting Cheaper." In October 2020, Bloomberg announced that "Wind and Solar Are the Cheapest Power Source in Most Places."
It is true that the cost of building U.S. wind and solar generating facilities has come down. Wind construction costs are down about 20% since 2013, and solar construction costs have fallen more than 50%, both approaching the costs for natural gas power plants. But construction costs are only part of the cost of electricity generation.
Electricity prices in states with the highest penetration of wind systems are rising faster than the national average. U.S. average electricity prices rose 27% from 2008 to 2022. But in eight of the top 12 wind states, power prices rose between 33 and 73% over the 14-year period. Prices rose in Iowa (36%), Kansas (54%), Illinois (33%), Colorado (37%), California (73%), Minnesota (53%), Nebraska (37%) and Washington (35%), which are the number 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 12 leading states in terms of electricity generated from wind, respectively. Price increases were lower than average in Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota and New Mexico, the other four leading wind states. The data shows that deployments of wind systems produce higher electricity prices.
In Europe, the nations with the most wind and solar capacity deployed, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Spain and Sweden, experience the highest residential electricity prices. Residents of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania, where few renewables are deployed, pay half as much per kilowatt-hour as the leading renewable countries. Denmark and Germany have deployed over 1,600 watts per person of wind and solar, the highest density in Europe. Electricity prices for Denmark (29 eurocents per kilowatt-hour) and Germany (32 eurocents/kW-hr) are the highest in Europe, and two-and-a-half times the prices in the U.S., where renewable penetration remains lower. In Europe, like the United States, wind (and solar) deployments raise electricity prices.
Wind systems increase electricity prices in three ways. First, wind intermittency raises power prices. Wind system electricity output can vary between full-rated output to near zero within a period of only a few hours. Wind systems typically produce between 25% and 40% of rated output. In 2020, U.S. power plant utilization levels were nuclear (92.5%), natural gas (56.6%), hydroelectric (41.5%), coal (40.2%), wind (35.4%) and solar photovoltaic (24.9%).
The intermittency of wind and solar means that, if always-on electricity is to be supplied, reliable coal, natural gas and nuclear generators must be maintained as wind and solar systems are added to the power grid. Power system operators know that up to 90% of the capacity of traditional generators must remain operational to prevent system blackouts. Therefore, addition of renewables boosts both the capacity and the number of needed systems, raising the cost of electricity.
Second, backup coal and natural gas systems must be run at lower utilization rates as operators push for higher percentages of renewable output. The low utilization levels for coal and natural gas systems in 2020 mentioned above are because these systems are scaled back in favor of wind and solar output. Backup systems are not able to operate profitably at low utilization levels, raising system costs and electricity prices.
Third, wind (and solar) systems require more and longer transmission power lines than traditional power plants. Coal, gas and nuclear plants are located near population centers and tend to be large-capacity plants. These plants can be connected to the grid with relatively short, high-capacity transmission lines. Wind systems tend to be located in remote areas, such as on ridge lines, often far from cities. Wind and solar are spread out over wide areas
...[Message truncated]
Staff
From: WALTER784
Apr-15
Automakers slashing EV prices after government subsidies fail to prop up the industry
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
by: Lance D Johnson
(Natural News) Automakers are currently slashing the prices of their electric vehicles (EVs) – but it’s not because the vehicles are getting cheaper to produce and it’s definitely not because of growing consumer demand. In fact, global EV sales took a dramatic nosedive in January of 2023, from China to various countries in Europe to the US.
Falling demand has forced automakers to slash prices and recoup losses. The auto industry can afford to take losses for now because they have enjoyed copious government subsidies over the past year. How far will government go to ram expensive batteries down our throats?
No serious demand for electric vehicles, even with government subsidies pushing them onto the global population
Rystad Energy research shows that only 672,000 units were sold in January, which is about half of the total EVs sold in December of 2022. The EV market share for all passenger cars fell from 23% in December 2022 to 14% in January. In the US, only 80,000 units were sold.
Governments are expected to meet net-zero emissions goals, in accordance with United Nation’s agreements on combating “climate change” through the complete elimination of fossil fuels. Governments around the world – from Europe to the US to China – have tried to prop up the EV industry using massive taxpayer funded subsidies. However, as some of these subsidies and tax credits are rolled back around the world, consumers have decided not to venture into the expensive EV market.
The United States government is continuing to incentivize EV purchases through tax credits offered in the “Inflation Reduction Act.” This obscure spending package incentivized automakers to produce more EVs, and this has led to an increase in both EV sales and market share, year on year. But the increases, year on year for the US EV market are only 3 percent, and American’s contribution to the global total is still relatively minimal. If it wasn’t for the Democrat’s market interference in 2022, which includes the huge subsidies in the “Inflation Reduction Act,” then the free market would have left EVs behind and the entire industry would have fallen flat in the US already.
Brighteon.TV
EV market share cut in half around the globe
The Chinese Association of Automotive Manufacturers reported a 50 percent cut in EV sales from December to January. Consumers have shifted toward cheaper, domestic-made models, as subsidies end in China. The Association predicts a low first quarter, but projects another 8 million EV sales later in the year. The Association says this will be possible because they announced a price cut in battery cells for automotive offtakers.
In Europe, marginal year on year growth for EV sales did not meet expectations, even with the massive subsidies offered. Now that these EV subsidies are coming to an end, consumer demand is falling off rapidly. Tesla is already offering massive discounts in the first quarter of 2023 to offset the losses.
In Germany, sales dropped by one third from December to January. There were only 27,000 EV sales in January, and the market share for EVs fell drastically – from 55 percent of all car sales in December 2022 to just 15 percent in January. The trend was similar in the UK, with EVs accounting for 40 percent of the market share in December, before falling to 20 percent of the market share in January. In the Netherlands, EV market share fell from 50 percent to 24 percent in a month, right after the government’s subsidies ended.
It is quite evident that taxpayer-funded programs have artificially propped up the EV industry, and sales of EVs cannot hold up without market interference and socialism. But how far will nations go to force everyone to own an EV?
FWIW
Staff
From: WALTER784
Apr-17
This videoclip was posted 3 years ago... but the problems still exist with wind turbines today...
The Glaring Engineering Mistake That Made Wind Turbines Inefficient | Massive Engineering Mistakes
FWIW
Host
From: Showtalk
Apr-17
How does England generate so much of their power from wind when we can’t? There are no foolproof materials they can use to make the blades. That was a very good video, very informative.
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