Sub's Alternative Energy Thread

[SubGod22]

Here's a pretty cool development that can apparently be used nearly anywhere for clean and reliable energy. Sounds similar to previous topic about using abandoned mine shafts to generate electricity.

New Google Geothermal Electricity Project Could Be a Milestone for Clean Energy

An advanced geothermal project funded and developed by Google has begun pumping carbon-free electricity onto the Nevada grid to power the company’s data centers there.

Geothermal energy was once confined in theory to areas of geothermal activity, but if one drills deep enough, there’s extreme heat from the planet’s core essentially everywhere to be harnessed to make steam and drive turbines to create carbon-free electricity 24 hours a day when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.

For this reason, Google made an early bet on this enhanced geothermal technology, and partnered with the Utah-based Fervo Energy, which uses drilling techniques from the oil and gas industry to create a first-of-its-kind power plant in Nevada.

GNN reported that initial tests in July showed that the technology was working, in which the hypothesized 3.5 megawatts were indeed being delivered.

A borehole was made 8,000 feet into the desert plains before being extended horizontally 3,000 feet. A second, shallower tunnel was drilled above it. As cold water is pumped into the lower shaft, heat causes it to rise through cracks in the rock created by fracking into the upper shaft, a process which heats it well above supercritical temperatures of 200°F.

Once topside, the superheated fluid boils another well of water to create steam to drive a turbine and power Google’s Henderson City data center with a combination of storage and solar power.

[SubGod22]

Japan Powers Up World's Largest Experimental Nuclear Reactor and Generates First Plasma

The largest operational nuclear fusion reactor on Earth just produced its first plasma when it came online over the weekend in Japan.

A tokamak-style nuclear fusion reactor, the JT-60SA used superconducting magnets to heat and contain a gas to 200 million Celsius, turning it into a form of matter called plasma.

Nuclear fusion is billed as the Holy Grail of renewable energy, the solution to Earth’s energy needs, and even the last revolution in energy. It mimics the process that powers our Sun, but in a way that produces no emissions, and no radiation.

Originally developed in the Soviet Union in 1958, the tokamak, which is a Russian acronym for “toroidal chamber with magnetic coils,” is a doughnut-shaped reactor made of magnetic coils that can generate the pressure needed to contain the plasma within. When heavy hydrogen isotopes tritium and deuterium are injected into the chamber, their nuclei are fused, which creates energy in the opposite way to nuclear fission, in which an atom is split.

The JT-60SA measures 13.7 meters across and 15.4 meters high, and was assembled by a team representing more than 70 contracted companies and 500 scientists and engineers from Europe and Japan

Work on the device began in 2007 as part of an agreement between the European Union and Japan which aimed to build the JT-60SA as a smaller version of an even larger fusion reactor called ITER which is currently being assembled in France.

EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said the JT-60SA was “the most advanced tokamak in the world” and called the start of operations “a milestone for fusion history”.

A pretty nice step in the right direction.

[SubGod22]

Another interesting step for cleaner fuel and limiting waste.

Virgin Atlantic Flight from London Makes History as First Transatlantic Jet Using 100% Sustainable Fuel

It’s one thing to power green aviation in Europe where flights take 30 minutes to 3 hours; it’s another thing to send a jetliner across the Atlantic.

But that’s exactly what Virgin Atlantic was able to do for the first time in history, when a Boeing 787 flew from London’s Heathrow to JFK using sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) manufactured from cooking oil, waste crops, and waste food.

This kind of fuel is reckoned as emitting 50% to 70% fewer emissions than jet fuel, and since the whole of world aviation accounts for just 2.8% of global emissions, a 50% to 70% theoretical reduction would eliminate it as a priority in the fight against climate change.

Virgin’s 787 was filled up with 50 tonnes of SAF. Two types were used, with 88% derived from waste fats and the rest from waste products of corn farming in the US.

UK Transport Secretary Mark Harper was one of those on board the flight, and upon landing, declared, “history has been made.” The flight was not open to the paying public, but there were passengers.

Sir Richard Branson, the company’s founder, said he knew it was just a first step.

“But you have to start somewhere,” he told the BBC. “And if we didn’t prove it can be done, you would never, ever get sustainable aviation fuel.”

It will be interesting to see how this progresses over time.

[SubGod22]

I've seen articles on this from Europe, but this is a first for the US.

Detroit's Newest Road Can Now Charge Electric Cars as They Drive on it

Detroit, Michigan celebrated a major milestone in the future of vehicle electrification, as crews finished installing the nation’s first wireless-charging public roadway last month.

Using technology from Electreon, 14th Street is now equipped with inductive-charging coils that will charge electric vehicles (EVs) equipped with receivers as they drive on the road.

The road will be used to test and perfect the Israeli company’s wireless-charging technology in a real-world environment to perfect it ahead of making it available to the public in the next few years.

“We’re excited to spearhead the development and deployment of America’s first wireless charging road,” said Dr. Stefan Tongur, Electreon vice president of business development. “This milestone stands as a testament to our collaborative efforts with the State of Michigan and the Department of Transportation (MDOT).”

The charging road, which runs between Marantette and Dalzelle streets, paves the way for addressing range limitations of EVs,

The move toward electrification was touted by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who announced the pilot initiative in September 2021 to develop the nation’s first wireless charging infrastructure on a public road, after MDOT and Electreon entered a five-year commitment to develop the electric road system (ERS).

Roads like these aren't going to fully charge a vehicle while it's traveling, but the potential to extend the range of vehicles is there. And in the case of this road, those parked on it can charge without having to try and find a station. I do think for the EV world, if this truly functions like it's supposed to, it's a massive step in the right direction to making EVs make more sense for more people. Time will tell if it plays out that way, but it's a good idea at the very least and I'm sure the tech will only get better.

[Shockm]

I've seen articles on this from Europe, but this is a first for the US.

Detroit's Newest Road Can Now Charge Electric Cars as They Drive on it



Roads like these aren't going to fully charge a vehicle while it's traveling, but the potential to extend the range of vehicles is there. And in the case of this road, those parked on it can charge without having to try and find a station. I do think for the EV world, if this truly functions like it's supposed to, it's a massive step in the right direction to making EVs make more sense for more people. Time will tell if it plays out that way, but it's a good idea at the very least and I'm sure the tech will only get better.

Sounds like a good idea, but I wonder what the cost would be to do this. To make it work, wouldn't it need to be done on most major thoroughfares, and interstates?

[WstateU]

[WstateU]

[pinstripers]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/john-kerry-stepping-down-u-000500839.html

goodbye, you ****ing loser

[asiseeit]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/john-kerr...000500839.html

goodbye, you ****ing loser

understatement

[ShockerPrez]

Who is 'you guys?' That lied to them?

[SubGod22]

This just makes sense to me. I'd never really thought about it, but having the ability to avoid wasteful energy allocation is brilliant.

Small 'Magic Balls' for Grid Power Lines Can Increase Capacity by 30% - Coming to the US

A Norwegian company named after a mythical Norse god is helping power lines transmit as smoothly and evenly as possible with the help of a small magic sphere the size of a soccer ball.

Heimdall Power is bringing its technology—which is already a hit across Europe—to North America, with a first stop in Minnesota and Michigan.

Power lines today, explains Michelle Lewis writing at Electrek, are mostly ‘dumb’ which is to say that there is no information about how much more electricity is being delivered than is needed, or how much less. No real-time information exists about how they are operating at all in most cases.

For a country like the United States of America where there can be found 160,000 miles of power lines, the untapped potential is enormous.

Installed in a few minutes by a drone, Heimdall’s flagship product, a spherical sensor that mounts on high voltage power lines and is called the Neuron, monitors the voltage, temperature, and angle of electrical currents in the lines in real-time, transmitting that information back to grid managers who may, for example, see that there is an enormous over-transmission in one part of the grid that could either be tamped down to save money for the consumers, or reallocated to another part of the grid where demand is higher.

The Neuron was pioneered with the Norwegian utility Arva, which now uses them extensively through its grid portion.

They claim to have already saved Norwegian customers more than $10M.

This tech also gives them a better idea of where they need to invest in future projects based on true power needs and such.

[1972Shocker]

Today’s ‘Climate Crisis’ Is a Fairy Tale

Daniel W. Nebert is professor emeritus in Gene-Environment Interactions at the University of Cincinnati. He thanks Professor Will Happer (one of the CO2 Coalition directors) for valuable discussions.

The author actually establishes that climate change is real (which I think almost everyone accepts). What he isn't buying is that we are currently in a CO2 induced climate crises.

He provides a lot of data and analysis. Is his analysis accurate. That would probably take other knowledgable scientists not funded by the governmnet and pro-climate crises groups.

But I did find the article interesting.

Life on Earth is based on carbon! CO2 is plant food, not a pollutant!

The evidence contradicting the climate apocalypse is vast.

From his seminal work while a prisoner of war during WWI, Serbian mathematician Milutin Milankovitch explained how climate is influenced by variations in the Earth’s asymmetric orbit, axial tilt, and rotational wobble — each going through cycles lasting as long as 120,000 years.

Within each Interglacial Period, there’ve been warming periods, or “Mini-Summers.” For example, within the current Holocene Interglacial, there have been warmer periods known as the Minoan (1500–1200 B.C.), Roman (250 B.C.–A.D. 400), and Medieval (A.D. 900–1300). Our Modern Warming Period began with the waning of the Little Ice Age (1300–1850). Today’s Mini-Summer is colder so far than all previous Mini-Summers of the last 8,500 years.

Important greenhouse gases include water vapor (as high as 7% in humid tropics and as little as 1% in frigid climates), CO2 (0.042%, or 420 parts per million [ppm] by volume), methane (0.00017%), and nitrous oxide (0.0000334%, or 334 ppm). Water vapor (clouds) has at least a hundred times greater warming effect on Earth’s temperature than all other GHGs combined.

Today’s global atmospheric CO2 levels are ~420 ppm. Even at these levels, plants are “partially CO2-starved.” In fact, standard procedures for commercial greenhouse growers include elevating CO2 to 800–1200 ppm; this enhances growth and crop yield ~20–50%.

In Earth’s history, the highest levels of atmospheric CO2 (6,000–9,000 ppm) occurred about 550–450 million years ago, which caused plant life to flourish. Meanwhile, ice core data over the last 800,000 years show no correlation between global warming or cooling cycles and atmospheric CO2 levels.

Scientifically, “net zero” and “carbon footprint” are meaningless terms. There is no “climate crisis.”

[ShockerPrez]

Today’s ‘Climate Crisis’ Is a Fairy Tale

Daniel W. Nebert is professor emeritus in Gene-Environment Interactions at the University of Cincinnati. He thanks Professor Will Happer (one of the CO2 Coalition directors) for valuable discussions.

The author actually establishes that climate change is real (which I think almost everyone accepts). What he isn't buying is that we are currently in a CO2 induced climate crises.

He provides a lot of data and analysis. Is his analysis accurate. That would probably take other knowledgable scientists not funded by the governmnet and pro-climate crises groups.

But I did find the article interesting.

Life on Earth is based on carbon! CO2 is plant food, not a pollutant!

The evidence contradicting the climate apocalypse is vast.

From his seminal work while a prisoner of war during WWI, Serbian mathematician Milutin Milankovitch explained how climate is influenced by variations in the Earth’s asymmetric orbit, axial tilt, and rotational wobble — each going through cycles lasting as long as 120,000 years.

Within each Interglacial Period, there’ve been warming periods, or “Mini-Summers.” For example, within the current Holocene Interglacial, there have been warmer periods known as the Minoan (1500–1200 B.C.), Roman (250 B.C.–A.D. 400), and Medieval (A.D. 900–1300). Our Modern Warming Period began with the waning of the Little Ice Age (1300–1850). Today’s Mini-Summer is colder so far than all previous Mini-Summers of the last 8,500 years.

Important greenhouse gases include water vapor (as high as 7% in humid tropics and as little as 1% in frigid climates), CO2 (0.042%, or 420 parts per million [ppm] by volume), methane (0.00017%), and nitrous oxide (0.0000334%, or 334 ppm). Water vapor (clouds) has at least a hundred times greater warming effect on Earth’s temperature than all other GHGs combined.

Today’s global atmospheric CO2 levels are ~420 ppm. Even at these levels, plants are “partially CO2-starved.” In fact, standard procedures for commercial greenhouse growers include elevating CO2 to 800–1200 ppm; this enhances growth and crop yield ~20–50%.

In Earth’s history, the highest levels of atmospheric CO2 (6,000–9,000 ppm) occurred about 550–450 million years ago, which caused plant life to flourish. Meanwhile, ice core data over the last 800,000 years show no correlation between global warming or cooling cycles and atmospheric CO2 levels.

Scientifically, “net zero” and “carbon footprint” are meaningless terms. There is no “climate crisis.”

Its all a scam. You only need to know that the left embraces it to know it's a scam. No predictions have ever come true. And the elites are not changing their behaviors to indicate that they believe the climate is in chaos.

[asiseeit]

If they could the left would tax you 100 Trillion and still not be able to do anything about global warming but an awful lot about their power over the masses. They will be living on the beachfront properties and still flying their private jets any time anywhere

[SubGod22]

Solid State EV Batteries Overcome Safety, Climate Concerns of Lithium-ion While Charging Faster and Lasting Longer

Solid-state batteries have emerged as a promising advancement that could potentially revolutionize the electric vehicle industry, making EVs even cleaner and more sustainable than they are today.

What is pushing this innovation are the many drawbacks to lithium-ion batteries in EVs today: limited energy storage, fire safety concerns, short lifespans, and a challenging carbon footprint due to the mining of lithium and other heavy metals all have prompted researchers to explore alternatives.

Solid-state batteries address many of these issues by replacing the liquid electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries with a solid electrolyte. This cuts the risk of fires, and allows for more storage.

Solid-state batteries have a lower carbon footprint while providing longer lifespans, so they’re a more durable and sustainable EV option. Emagazine.com reported that solid-state batteries use fewer materials, and could reduce climate impacts by 39% compared to lithium-ion batteries, according to Scott Gorman at the Centre for Process Innovation.

Our climate would significantly benefit from a move to solid-state batteries, especially because EV sales are skyrocketing, as the cars (and lithium-ion batteries) get cheaper.

So far, Toyota is one of the leaders in the race to develop solid-state batteries. After discovering a “technological breakthrough” in June, they said this month they were accelerating development to launch solid-state EV batteries with 10-minute fast charging and a 750-mile range. But they are still a few years away.

Volkswagen, Hyundai, Nissan, and Honda are also developing their own solid-state batteries.

In Taiwan, the startup ProLogium has already ramped up its “giga-scale” solid state battery factory for delivery to electric vehicle manufacturers this year, with plans for a second factory in France.