Open Thread - Thurs 07 July 2022 - Energy?
Where Will We Get Energy?
I admit I'm very pessimistic about the future existence of many aspects of modern 'western' society and culture. There's lots of reasons, but one of the main ones for me is, where the heck are we going to get power?
Solar, Wind, Tide, Hydro-Electric, Fossil Fuels, Coal, Nuclear? All of them? How? How do we get our political and economic masters to support alternatives like solar and wind for us, the little people, and not only for them? How do we turn all of our cars over to these alternatives, quickly, efficiently? Even if our masters support doing this, and they don't really, how do we do it? How do we change every damned gas station into an EV port? Every huge transport ship into an electric powered ship (what the heck kind of batteries does that need?)? Every 18 wheeler into an EV 18 wheeler? Every airplane into an electric plane? And where do we get the electricity and batteries to do this? And how do we alleviate the 'mistakes' or accidents that happen (like the tidal waves that hit Fukushima)?
Apparently Fukushima fishermen are complaining about the planned release of the nuclear/radiation contaminated water from the Fukushima power plant. Children from the area are suing due to cancer they developed after the radiation leaks. I can't blame them, any of them. I'm not a big proponent of nuclear power, unlike say, Saagar Enjeti.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4kLv4gxLjE] I studied to be a nuclear engineer as an undergraduate. I can't say I've kept up with the science of it all, but I learned enough. Three Mile Island was scary, although I figured, as a teenager would, that *I* could make it so that such a thing would never happen once I learned all about nukes and nuclear power. Sure I could! Later on, Chernobyl in the former USSR put me right off, as did some of the old and newer accidents that I learned about at various times.
But nuclear power isn't the only energy source with bad repercussions if things go wrong. Nuclear is damned scary, but so are oil tanker accidents (such as Exxon Valdez), drill platforms failing like Deepwater Horizon, refineries going nuts (too many to find a notable example so here's some from a Duck Duck Go search), and so on. Coal has accidents too, of course, including mine explosions (Wallsend, for example), floods (Heaton Mine in England, or the Knox Mine Disaster in PA, and fires (Gateshead, England and more (see below). See here for a pretty good map and summary of the various coal mining accidents around Newcastle, in northern England, for example. And yes, 'bringing coals to Newcastle' refers to the Newcastle mentioned above.
The article linked above about the underground fire burning in an old coal seam near Gateshead in northern England reminded me of a place I discovered when I lived in Pennsylvania. I came across the former town while driving aimlessly around the lovely East Coast state, as young adults with nothing much to do on summer vacation will do. All the empty, seldom traveled roads in Pennsylvania and its environs appealed to me.
So, this one road went through the countryside and then dead ended. Kind of. You couldn't drive down it, there were gates and such across it, but it was a state road and... weird. Signs said it was closed. Why? Research being my thing, I went and found out. Centralia, PA: A town set above coal seams that caught fire in 1962. The entire town had to be abandoned, although some people refused to move for a long time. The fire is still burning.
Centralia, PA in 1981. This shows one of the vents from the coal mine, with steam, and smoke and possible poisonous emissions coming out. People are still living in the town, a few of them. Many had gone by 1981. Image is from the allthatsinteresting.com article linked above.
I don't know which is worse: mine fires, floods, dam bursts, nuclear power explosions, oil platform fires, tanker sinkings... I do know that no matter what fuel source(s) we use, there will be accidents and disasters. That is the way of human life. We can't ignore a fuel source because accidents happen, even though I'd like to in the case of nuclear power, can we? We have to do something, we have to change. We should have changed years ago, but now... I dunno. I just don't think we, as a country (not individually), can make the huge changes needed. What do you think?
So, thanks for reading and here's the open thread - and remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!
Comments
Morning!
No problems with internet or power supply here this week! Lots of boomies (fireworks) and the dog is very, very freaked about them. So she's supervised all the time when she's outside. But, that's ok. It's dying down until 1st of Jan!
How's everything with you all? And tell us your ideas about energy, about anything really!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning...
It would be wise for us to conserve more energy, but I don't see that happening. It would take a change of lifestyle for most...living local with minimum travel, producing food locally, adapting structures to be more energy efficient, and so on.
Chris Explains Why Economic Collapse is Inevitable (15 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehHibdfvSqM&t=2m]
Hope you all have a good day. Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Video was very good...
and sobering. So was the chart. I just don't see any way out. If we ignore climate change, we are still going to run out of fossil fuels. I suppose it doesn't actually matter in some ways, collapse happens, sometimes big, horrible and very destructive collapse.
So, enough sobering stuff. Hope you had/continue to have a great day!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning Sima
The idea of a 60 year old human caused coal fire still smoldering is as scary as the permanent
nuclear fall-out of failed reactors. Sure, accidents will happen in dangerous circumstances.
Unfortunately, the greed of the extraction industry encourages safety shortcuts. And the lack
of aggressive industry oversight by regulatory bodies allows many of these accidents to
continue. Much to the peril of the environment and living organisms.
My best guess as to the solution is to encourage development and implementation of a basket of
renewables: solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, hydro-electric, co-generation, hydrogen and other clean sources that can be developed. De-centralizing generation sources would help with transmission losses.
R & D investments into emerging technologies such as fusion, bio-mass, bio-gas, bio-ethanol,
bio-diesel and bio-hydrogen could become more feasible if the trillions of dollars now spent on
wars could be re-purposed to a sustainable energy future.
https://planetarycitizens.net/future-energy-sources/
thanks for the OT!
I think all the ways you mentioned are good...
All the ways to help offset what is going to happen are great. And, as you said, every one should be used, a whole basket of possible energy sources is needed. But, we've got to make the changes, and they have to start now. Some of us make or have made the first steps, to be sure. How do we get the government, the companies, society as a whole, to make those changes? It's so hard, and seems almost impossible. I too want to repurpose the money spent on wars towards R&D and putting current alternative energy sources to work. We'll need good luck to get the powers that be to agree to taking money away from war!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
an electron whirlpool
understanding how to harness electrons may be a key to future energy production
https://news.mit.edu/2022/electron-whirlpools-physics-0706
Research like this is very important!
Research should be part of the destination of the repurposed military funds. So should public transport building, redoing power sources and more. More solar, more wind, more nuclear, water, tide... all have to be built and set up so the little people can use them!. The electric companies should be going door to door, offering to put solar panels on people's roofs...
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Headlines of note today
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns as Tory leader
Nearly 90% of Americans unhappy with the nation’s direction – poll
85 years ago, on July 7, 1937, Japan attacked China
「千の涙」
シャドウファクス
アルバム「ちかい -ウエディング・コレクション-」（日本限定発売盤）から
Wow, Boris resigned?
Awesome. Thanks for telling us that!
Edited to add: I'm not surprised by the poll of Americans. It seems like hope for a good future (in many aspects) is disappearing fast.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning Sima. Two things that need to change
are human nature and our economic model, and both will be very difficult to change.
I once knew a guy who had, for a while, inspected nukes under construction, The stuff he found was a terrifying indictment of our processes. It was obvious that the goal, at all stages, was to get approval for the project and not to make it safe. Example a flange supposed to be bolted to the floor had one bolt hole and corresponding required bolt that couldn't be installed easily, readily, quickly and cheaply enough. Solution was to put appropriate nut on appropriate bolt, with proper amount protruding, cut it off of the main body of the bolt and weld it to the flange so that it looked like it was properly installed. Unsafe horizontal piping runs that couldn't stand shaking (in California, heh) were approved anyway (one wonders how and what that cost). PG&E's disasters are legendary etc.
Power/energy supply must be decoupled from profits at all stages. Salaries and bonuses have to be based solely upon safety and production efficiency from a non-economic perspective. The drive to cut corners at all levels of a profit based enterprise cannot be eliminated because of human nature. Ditto where performance awards, bonuses and salaries are based on essentially profit based metrics. You do not site reactors on fault lines nor close to oceans and large lakes regardless of the cost to pump coolant water to and from safe locations.
Furthermore, fines and penalties for malfeasance must be imposed on not merely the company, but also on its officers. In addition, they must be substantial. When a cost benefit analysis favors violating safety or environmental rules, as is the case today, then they will be violated, it is as simple as that.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Morning, that story about the nuke inspections is scary!
The private control of resources that are essential for life (they are coming for water now, aren't they?) really, really enrages me. My local electrical company is owned by a company in Australia! What the heck? I agree that there is no way that the private ownership of public resources economic model can change fast enough for the good. It will die with the rest of the system.
Human nature changing is going to be hard too. I think the economic change will be easier, actually. Sad to say!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Continue to
develop better solar and wind technologies.
And asap 1) encourage investment in Deep Geothermal, public funds helping to subsidize private investment. Four different kinds of geothermal approaches, best (imo non-expert opinion) least destructive and disruptive is Advanced Geothermal Systems AGS. Geothermal is limitless energy, constantly renewing, pollution-less, and overall low-cost relative to nearly all alternatives. With some tweaking in current technology, there should be access to enough energy to supply the world. https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/10/21/21515461/renewable...
2) additionally, get to the root of the problem by implementing worldwide Population Control measures, bringing down over time our wildly overpopulated planet, 8-9b and counting, to a more reasonable figure consonant with what the planet can support given current and near-future climate problems causing water shortages and desertification. All nations would need to be on board.
The key to population control is socio-economic.
Education, especially among women cuts birth rates. Also economic well being. Funny how that works. Unfortunately, predatory/parasitic capitalist models thrive on and try to maintain a large underclass of minimally educated and essentially impoverished and/or needy people as an exploitable workforce combined with subsistence agriculture to further make the model go.
be well and have a good one
edit, changed made to make
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I agree.
Education can work, and it does. But, we can't force population control for others, and not even for ourselves. I mean, we don't even have abortion rights in this country now. And so many religions want their followers to have tons of children. Heck, my parents were going to do that, because of their religious sect (Mormonism) and then they had my sister. Their third kid. She is severely mentally disturbed. Severely autistic and more. And so my parents stopped with the kids thing. Their sisters and brothers, however, had up to 8 kids each! Religion. Yeesh.
So how do we get our society to take that 'right' away from the religions. How do we get other countries to stop the poor from 'over' procreating because so many of their children die from hunger and disease? Education can really help, as can economic changes. I hope humans can make the change.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Geothermal is a good thing to develop..
As is more solar and wind. I completely agree. I don't think it can be done in time to stop the rise in temperatures due to climate change, but maybe it can be done to ameliorate those rises when they really, really start to take effect. (I know, they have already...)
Population control measures would be good too but they really have to be divorced from social, economic, racial and political norms and controls. Ohh, and religious ones too.
Thanks for the mention of geothermal. I hadn't thought of that, and it's a good way to go.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
My family has to make a change ASAP
Thanks for the OT! This topic is hot on our minds too. Our rates doubled the past two months. The electric bill was $550 in May and $710 in June. We are having 100 degree temps this summer, but that is still twice what we would have paid last year.
$500 - $700 electric bills are not in our budget. My cousin in Seattle put solar on his house last year and told me his electric bill was -$34 last month. So we contacted local solar people and one of their representatives came to our house yesterday.
Ah . . . well that was eye-opening. This program was advertised as a zero-down thing. However, that is dependent on getting a $32,000 tax credit. Tax credits are for the rich. You have to pay that much in taxes in order to get it back. So we don't qualify. Plus they are already price gauging. $375/month to cover 70% of your bill while you still pay 30% ($200) to the electric company. They are basing this on the June bill of $710, not the $350/month I have paid for years.
I just filled out a form to get a quote from https://www.gogreensolar.com/ This is a place where you buy the pieces and put it together yourself and can also be off-grid. The outfit we spoke to yesterday was tied to the grid and if the grid was down so were you. I don't like that scenario. Last year during the winter storm we were fortunate to have rolling blackouts. Many did not and were without electricity for days. We would have lost livestock without power. My husband is following up with them and already can see the cost is much less.
Did any of you have your electric bill go up in May and June? I pay the farm electric bill and in Iowa it did not go up.
The quest continues!
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Our bill hasn't gone up materially, but we went solar
long ago. We are grid tied and went through periods of power outages due to PG&E playing CYA with respect to possibly starting fires with its equipment and lines. Luckily we have a small generator we used to take trailer camping and it was sufficient to keep the fridge and freezer happy by running 1 hr per day for each. Grid tie plus back-up genset could be an option depending upon your needs.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
One of the reasons i want to go solar
Is to have a backup battery, even if I do tie into the grid for most of the time. Years ago, we lost power for a couple of days. It was the usual around here, huge storm, and parts for the electric network could only be found overseas, because our network was so damned old. Anyway, we didn't have any water because the well couldn't pump water. That isn't a big deal in some ways, but... we couldn't give water to our animals! We ended up driving the truck to a friends place and filling up barrels of water twice a day. We had ditch water to give them, but it's polluted by vehicle/road mess and really nasty, so we didn't do that. After that happened, I got rain barrels and we collect water off the barn roofs into the barrels to use as needed. Yea, that's probably 'illegal' now, but heck!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
I've been through some of the same stuff with solar
I'm sorry, but not surprised, to hear you are going through this as well.
I've wanted to get solar on the farm for years. But, the great deal a person can get is the tax credit, and I have never, EVER, paid that much in taxes. Yes, I can get it spread out over a few years, but I still don't qualify. It's hard to make very much growing CSA vegetables for 100 people max :P, although it's a great life in many ways.
There are two kinds of solar power storage that I know of, batteries, and feeding it into the grid to have it 'paid back' by the energy company when you use power after dark, or in the deep dark winter. The second kind of storage (energy company) means you lose power when the grid goes down. On the other hand, it also means you don't have to buy and find a place to store the batteries needed to hold the solar generated power for your use.
Places like Hawaii are going for putting solar power on everyone's roofs and using that to generate enough excess power to supply all the people AND the businesses that need that energy. This requires massive batteries to store the power, but it's doable and a good way to get everyone solar power. I think we should all be doing this, with the state/feds paying for setting it up for people, who may pay it back over time on their much lower electric bill. And if the bill is much lower, then people would be more eager to do EV vehicles (I know I would).
Anyway, I know how it feels to be in the spot you are in, I'm more or less there too. Decided to start doing solar in smaller steps.. so all our electric farm fencing, for goats, etc, is powered by one little solar panel and a golf cart sized battery which stores the power to use at night. It works great, and powers several miles of fencing (in the form of goat netting) without any problem. I want to get our well pump house on solar too, it can be DC. And then I want to start switching the house over. I might even put solar panels in the fields, since they are just grass and the goats won't care. BUT... the expense is nuts.
As for electric bills, mine didn't go up in May or June. In fact, it usually goes down in those months (because we turn off the greenhouse heating mats then) and it did. But, overall, the price of electricity is higher here (PacNW near Seattle) than it used to be, for sure.
I hope you can get it sorted out, and get solar going. It's one of the best choices for regular people, I think.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Grid tie and other options
Very timely OT today Sima. I also am in Texas and expecting 100+ temps for the rest of the week. Our town owns its own utilities and this may make my expenses less, I am not sure. We added solar panels to our roof and were tied into the grid. In the beginning of this new experience, when our solar was running at max, it made our electric meter run backwards! The people that read the meter had a hard time understanding this and the city got new meters for the entire town and can be read without going to each house. Unfortunately for the meter readers, they were out of a job.
We had to go to the electric company and city hall to push for rates for our solar being sent back to the city. There was another person in town that had a wind generator and she had more trouble because neighbors were afraid her tower would fall.
Today, more people are investing in solar in this community. Will see what my June bill will be but my rate for April 29-May 29 was $17.70. I was gone for part of this time so not totally accurate but I only cool part of house with window units.
Think EL has the best option, solar grid tie and generator. Not sure since the solar industry has changed a lot since installed ours.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
That's wonderful that you got solar panels and so on!
It just makes tons of sense. I understand about the meter readers. We don't have any that come to the farm anymore, they 'read' the meter from the road via bluetooth or something. And yes, you should get money for selling the solar generated power back to the city. That's why bills are negative around here in the summer. In the winter, the grid has to help out because the area doesn't get enough sun, so the bills go positive then, but there's an amount the company owes you, so the bills aren't very high. I so wish I could do that!
Wind power? That's something I've thought about too. We get wind here almost all the time, being surrounded by seawater on three sides...
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
I got a quote of $52,000
to install off-grid solar power system. At my age, I couldn't see getting at a break even point before I made it to the boneyard.
I am shopping for a generator. Thus far, my electric bills are not much higher than normal.
I do not anticipate my co-operative to have rolling blackouts. But, I have been wrong before.
This week, we are headed into a heat wave for about 5 or 6 days. The water bill will go up. We have to water the landscaping. Even my trees are struggling this summer.
Mass transit is a good idea for cities and suburbs, but is totally impractical for rural areas.
I am no fan of nuclear power. We just do not have in place the safety protocols for inevitable malfunctions. I think electric cars sounds great in theory, but in practice, it will take tons of infrastructure to support it, and a war/regime change in Bolivia, so we can "rightfully" claim their lithium.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
That's about the same quote I got.
Mine was a bit higher. Of course, we are in totally different areas, but I guess the prices for the panels and installation are similar?
Our electric bills have gone up overall but not by very much. Much of the electricity is hydro-electric generated, and wind generated, up here in the PacNW. And so, it's not going up like coal or gas generated power.
I agree about electric cars. We've got to get the raw materials to make them. And as for nuclear power, I worry about where to put the waste, as well as all the other things like malfunctions and so on.
When I lived in the big city, in Philly, and overseas, in Newcastle, I used mass transit all the time. It was wonderful. Walking to a bus stop, then taking a train, or a metro, was just wonderful. My car got maybe 50 miles a month on it, on average. I could take the metro/train out of the city to the suburbs, go shopping, carry the goods I bought back in a backpack. I loved it. But rurally? Not here in the States at least. In the UK and in Europe rural mass transit works(ed). Get a bus from the small town to a local rail station (they are all over the place there) and off you go!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Our country could try and adapt
to the many challenges ahead. That would take money, an investment in innovative infrastructure, support for research and development, an openness to new ideas, and an investment in our communities as opposed to military spending abroad.
But so far, those holding the purse strings, do not want to spend money for the well-being of our citizens. If our public health system's management of the Covid crisis is an indication of how well those in positions of authority take care of our citizens, then the future here does look grim.
An essayist in Counterpunch asks... " what does it say when the US, one of the richest nations in the world, spending over $1 trillion a year on its “national security” budget, could not muster the means to deal with Covid-19 and ended up with more deaths than any other nation on earth?"
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/07/05/covid-deaths-in-the-us-over-1-mi...
We could reallocate that $1 trillion to programs that would address our problems. We would have to be as strict at preventing corruption as FDR was during the New Deal programs. A major snafu though, is that we would need a whole new set of (incorruptible) administrators. A sticky problem that.
Thanks Sima for your OT.
I wish our country could do that..
I hope it does. We've all probably learned, at one point or another, about the pure mess the country was in before FDR managed to take hold. Maybe we are in that state now, and someone(s) can change it. I dunno. We have the ability, do we have the guts and fortitude as a country to change again? Will our leaders lead on this, will the rich people accept giving up part of their immense wealth to fund it? I hope so.
Your points are spot on. Thank you!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
It’s about time to break out the purloined lab notes
of Nicola Tesla. His ideas of harvesting “free” electricity from the electromagnetic field of the earth and transmitting it wirelessly would be a boon to the world. After his death these records ‘disappeared’ and have yet to turn up.
Clearly, we have an unsustainable lifestyle given the relatively large number of human inhabitants and the dwindling availability natural resources. Matters are further compounded by the ongoing extinctions of many species and declines in still extant flora and fauna, the so called “web of life” upon which the resilience of our entire ecosystem depends.
We can’t keep living like this, but sadly that seems to be the best plan we have been able to come up with.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
AC vs. DC early battles
Despite his best efforts, Edison failed to discredit alternating current. In 1892, Westinghouse and Edison’s new company General Electric, competed head-to-head for the contract to supply electricity to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. When Westinghouse ultimately won the contract, the fair served as a dazzling public display of Tesla’s AC system.
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”
― Nikola Tesla
I hadn't thought about Tesla's ideas...
But why not? He was visionary in other aspects as well. Of course, we'd have to find the purloined notes. Wonder if Musk has them?
'We can't keep living like this'. Great point and you are right; it's all we have been able to come up with.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Even early on in the electrification of the USA
there was a huge amount of money at stake placing their bets behind two titans, Edison and Westinghouse. Tesla had been in the employ of George Westinghouse as the AC-DC battle raged, complete with a grisly AC powered public execution, that was designed to demonstrate the mortal danger of alternating current. This event was supported by the Edison DC crowd but did not go as hoped. The unfortunate subject on the ‘electric chair’ suffered through repeated jolts of AC current, his head charred and smoking as he convulsed. He did not die quickly in a flash. His brain was cooked.
Rather than demonstrating the extreme danger of AC, it ended up demonstrating how difficult it was to kill with AC power, which to this day spans the world through a vast network of wires and transformers with DC current being the better choice for batteries.
Today our committed path with electric power includes all the fuels used to generate. The total investment in our global electric grid is massive. If Tesla was ‘on to something’ that might actually threaten such a huge ongoing infrastructure investment, there would be ample reason to bury his work in the deepest memory hole, assuming it was not immediately destroyed.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
Thermal storage
Big issue with renewables is storage, as generation and use are often out of synch.
Lots of research into battery tech, but for large scale that's not required to be mobile or
especially compact, there may be a fairly straightforward solution that doesn't require mining half the planet to implement: thermal storage - heating, insulating and drawing energy from a large mass of something.
Like sand.
Finnish project using heated (500 degrees plus Centigrade) sand has just gone online.
US and Italian researchers have previously come up with something similar.
https://polarnightenergy.fi/technology
Also, for institutional or microgrid size storage there
are solutions like salt water batteries - huge, non portable, but use no scarce or exotic materials. There is one example in aussieville, uses shipping container size batteries, I forget almost all the other details.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Salt Water Batteries
I forgot about those! Thanks so much for bringing them to my attention. Like the thermal batteries, I'm going to do some research on them.
Have a great day!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Thermal Storage
is a really good idea. Thank you for posting about this, I'm gonna dive into it. It's one possibility of many, I think the world will have to use all possibilities.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
German energy giant seeks government bailout
Hmmm. This is the doing of the German sanction game, primarily. Think their 'weakening Russia' plan
is working? Doesn't appear so. Time for these clowns to re-assess their strategies.
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https://www.rt.com/business/558649-german-energy-giant-seeks-bailout/
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From what I hear, Germany is pleading with Ottawa to return the turbine to Germany, although it belongs to Russia. This is slow-motion disaster self induced.
Clowns...
They sure are. And yes, they should reassess their strategies. They're all so stupid, so stupid. I know I'm stupid in some ways too, but my stupidity doesn't affect the whole world.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so