thinfourth
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eLuSiVeMiTe
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As I've said twice already. Yes some figures are skewed but the bottom line stands
Society needs to change. Renewables alone won't do the job.
Sticking plaster
thinfourth
pleb
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As always Tom Scott has a short and reasonably accurate video
Been there! He's right about a lack of inertia being a problem, not sure I agree with him about battery cars being the answer, time will tell. Nuclear and steam and big spinning things will be part of it too, maybe one in each corner and one in the middle of the country?
julianf
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If you have an off grid wind turbine, and your battery bank is full, you can just dump the potential difference into the ground.
I realise a thermo nuclear powered turbine generator is larger, but I can't see why the physics would not be identical.
Sounds to me like anti renewables scare mongering.
I realise a thermo nuclear powered turbine generator is larger, but I can't see why the physics would not be identical.
Sounds to me like anti renewables scare mongering.
Dump the potential differnce into the ground? How then?
And I assure you this thread was started because my boss has had to come up with a plan to ensure our industry can still operate this weekend, and I'm definately not anti renewables.
And I assure you this thread was started because my boss has had to come up with a plan to ensure our industry can still operate this weekend, and I'm definately not anti renewables.
julianf
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I feel like I'm missing somthing obvious here.
If I have a load of charge and I give it a pathway to ground*, is there some unforseen consequence?
*like lightening clouds or, umm, earth spikes.
As I say, I'm pretty damn sure that is how off grid systems deal with over generation, but, again, your query makes me feel like I'm missing somthing obvious.
If I have a load of charge and I give it a pathway to ground*, is there some unforseen consequence?
*like lightening clouds or, umm, earth spikes.
As I say, I'm pretty damn sure that is how off grid systems deal with over generation, but, again, your query makes me feel like I'm missing somthing obvious.
julianf
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Well, you can. There's earth spikes driven into the ground all over.
It's fair if you're saying that there is no provision for this on the magnitude required, but that's nowhere even close to saying it's not possible. It's perfectly possible, should it have been planned for.
Low Tech Magazine
Excellent ideas about how to re-use ideas about energy generation and transfer from the past, with modern knowledge. Back when it wasn't so easy to plug something in, there were some really clever and simple ways of powering our lives. Really we should be working to the environment, not the other way around. Historically if you had a windmill you milled when it was windy and didn't when it wasn't. The trouble with a National Grid is losing the benefits of local generation and consumption. The water mills down the valley here are all (very large) houses. They could so easily be light industrial units AND housing with all tools powered from direct-drive belts (1:1 power transfer) or water-driven compressors or hydraulic accumulators. Local employment, no network to go down and mechanics that could be repaired in-house.
I think that kind of approach, being so direct, means consumption would decrease. Batteries generating their electricity from a chemical reaction can only do so much. What about rotary motion? Most electricity is used to turn something, so the losses in turning the turbine to make the electricity, transmission losses and then using it to turn something again all add up. What if there were rotary connectors in your house that could be used to run the coffee grinder, washing machine etc. from some kind of local mechanical micro-generation? More feasible in industry, where it was of course the great power source. Some excellent Low Tech Magazine articles about power generation feature rope-driven factories.
The idea of electric vehicles is farcical. If they are to be of any use, they will have to be milk-floats. Going fast is not commensurate with longevity or usefulness. The cars on sale today are heavy, and packed with draining technology. They will become obsolete because of software upgrades and complexity and the materials used are not re-useable. The systems have to be made in a clean room factory, with huge pollution from the rare-earth-metals mined around the world. The energy that goes into manufacturing all the components is enormous. Embodied energy does not go away, and is rarely acknowledged or calculated. Black-box systems abound, making repair almost impossible for the DIY mechanic. Skills are removed from the users.
The earliest vehicles, before the ICE, were electric and had ranges comparable to those of today, on rallies over very rough terrain rather than on rollers in labs. The difference is that they were basically go-carts so weren't carrying the excess weight or mod-cons. I see no way we can retain individual vehicular transport without oil, and certainly not all whirring around exactly as we do now but with batteries as the fuel source.
There will have to be massive social upheaval and a great emphasis on local employment, energy, public transport and a lot less vehicle use if we're to get anywhere near a sustainable lifestyle in the West.
Excellent ideas about how to re-use ideas about energy generation and transfer from the past, with modern knowledge. Back when it wasn't so easy to plug something in, there were some really clever and simple ways of powering our lives. Really we should be working to the environment, not the other way around. Historically if you had a windmill you milled when it was windy and didn't when it wasn't. The trouble with a National Grid is losing the benefits of local generation and consumption. The water mills down the valley here are all (very large) houses. They could so easily be light industrial units AND housing with all tools powered from direct-drive belts (1:1 power transfer) or water-driven compressors or hydraulic accumulators. Local employment, no network to go down and mechanics that could be repaired in-house.
I think that kind of approach, being so direct, means consumption would decrease. Batteries generating their electricity from a chemical reaction can only do so much. What about rotary motion? Most electricity is used to turn something, so the losses in turning the turbine to make the electricity, transmission losses and then using it to turn something again all add up. What if there were rotary connectors in your house that could be used to run the coffee grinder, washing machine etc. from some kind of local mechanical micro-generation? More feasible in industry, where it was of course the great power source. Some excellent Low Tech Magazine articles about power generation feature rope-driven factories.
The idea of electric vehicles is farcical. If they are to be of any use, they will have to be milk-floats. Going fast is not commensurate with longevity or usefulness. The cars on sale today are heavy, and packed with draining technology. They will become obsolete because of software upgrades and complexity and the materials used are not re-useable. The systems have to be made in a clean room factory, with huge pollution from the rare-earth-metals mined around the world. The energy that goes into manufacturing all the components is enormous. Embodied energy does not go away, and is rarely acknowledged or calculated. Black-box systems abound, making repair almost impossible for the DIY mechanic. Skills are removed from the users.
The earliest vehicles, before the ICE, were electric and had ranges comparable to those of today, on rallies over very rough terrain rather than on rollers in labs. The difference is that they were basically go-carts so weren't carrying the excess weight or mod-cons. I see no way we can retain individual vehicular transport without oil, and certainly not all whirring around exactly as we do now but with batteries as the fuel source.
There will have to be massive social upheaval and a great emphasis on local employment, energy, public transport and a lot less vehicle use if we're to get anywhere near a sustainable lifestyle in the West.
slim_boy_fat
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I've always maintained we should remove drivers' [not passengers'!] seat belts and have a sharp, stainless steel spike in the centre of the steering wheel.
That'd get their attention - remove the feeling of cossetted invulnerability we tend to feel with all the 'driver aids' built into vehicles now......
Why stainless? Well, easily cleaned/sterilised and you have to consider resale values after a bump...
That'd get their attention - remove the feeling of cossetted invulnerability we tend to feel with all the 'driver aids' built into vehicles now......
Why stainless? Well, easily cleaned/sterilised and you have to consider resale values after a bump...
slim_boy_fat
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Parm
Respect The Sound System
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@Parm won't like this but let's get rid of HSE
They are doing it in India, a very good job too
I seem to remember reading there were 1 million RTA fatals in 2013
thinfourth
pleb
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Good luck with that!
yep
you need this lot
https://octopus.energy/blog/social-distancing-renewable-energy-negative-pricing/
They occasionally have negative pricing
Quite popular with EV drivers
brightspark
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slim_boy_fat
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its gods will apparently if it happens to u
In India? Isn't that a different belief system?
.
Parm
Respect The Sound System
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In India? Isn't that a different belief system?
Health and safety in anything is all about doing the right prayer at the right time.
If it goes tits up then you didn’t do the right prayer. Obviously
slim_boy_fat
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