Sub's Alternative Energy Thread

[C0|dB|00ded]

The tech is still early. Lots of problems, some probable upside. The environmental impact is negligible.

Incorrect. If you replaced all the gasoline cars/busses/trucks from a random major city with electric, you would notice an immediate large, not negligible, improvement in local air quality. The improvement in noise pollution would be even greater.

There still is legitimate debate over the ultimate/total/lifetime environmental cost of processing batteries vs. dinosaurs. It's clear we are heading in the right direction for the future.

Subsidies are bad.

Electric cars are FUN!

[wufan]

No people are not ready, nor is the technology. If a gasoline vehicle burst into flames for no apparent reason, it would be pulled from the market.

Gas (and steam) powered vehicles also used to burst into flames. Agreed tech is not quite there for electric and gov pushing it is silly.

[Atxshoxfan]

I don't get it at all. Tax payers subsidize companies to invest in "clean energy" including electric vehicles. Then govt demand the public purchase them to reduce fossil fuel usage. But then the electric companies use fossil fuels to generate most of the electricity.
And by the way, if your planning on taking a 4 or more hour trip in one, take a pillow and blanket as you will be spending some time waiting for the damn thing to charge.

No people are not ready, nor is the technology. If a gasoline vehicle burst into flames for no apparent reason, it would be pulled from the market.

[wufan]

Are electric vehicles, and other powerful lithium batteries really ready for Prime Time? Besides being very expensive, difficult to dispose of, and without infrastructure to re-charge, they are dangerous. They don't require a "vehicle crash" to ignite. Are we only a half a decade away from doing away with Internal combustion engines?

Lithium-ion batteries caused an electric Wichita city bus to catch fire early Wednesday morning, making it the second time in a week fire officials have attributed a damaging fire to such batteries. The bus damage is estimated at $650,000. It’s a growing problem nationwide, so much that it will be the topic during a national fire convention next month.

https://www.kansas.com/news/local/article275502066.html

The tech is still early. Lots of problems, some probable upside. The environmental impact is negligible.

[Ta Town Shocker]

The bus damage is estimated at $650,000[/B][/I]

https://www.kansas.com/news/local/article275502066.html

They could have dumped all 650k in dollar bills into the Arkansas River and it would have generated the same $ ROI and resulted in less environmental impact. What a tragic misuse of taxpayer dollars.

[Shockm]

Are electric vehicles, and other powerful lithium batteries really ready for Prime Time? Besides being very expensive, difficult to dispose of, and without infrastructure to re-charge, they are dangerous. They don't require a "vehicle crash" to ignite. Are we only a half a decade away from doing away with Internal combustion engines?

Lithium-ion batteries caused an electric Wichita city bus to catch fire early Wednesday morning, making it the second time in a week fire officials have attributed a damaging fire to such batteries. The bus damage is estimated at $650,000. It’s a growing problem nationwide, so much that it will be the topic during a national fire convention next month.

https://www.kansas.com/news/local/article275502066.html

[Atxshoxfan]

Microbes that Digest Plastics at Low Temps Are Discovered in the Alps and the Arctic



This could be a game changer in reducing plastic waste as breaking down the plastics will become much cheaper and easier to do.

So how many hours/days/weeks or years would it take a 5 gallon can of microbes to eat 1 - 16oz soda bottle?

[SubGod22]

Microbes that Digest Plastics at Low Temps Are Discovered in the Alps and the Arctic

Microbes that can eat plastic at low temperatures, making them more cost-effective than current ones, have been found in the Alps.

Several microorganisms capable of destroying plastic polymers have already been discovered. As a result, businesses have latched onto bioengineering the enzymes found in various bacteria and fungi as a means to tackle plastic pollution.

But the industry has been limited by the need for heating since already-discovered ones require artificially high temperatures to work, making the process costly and not carbon neutral.

Now, the Swiss Federal Institute WSL found the most effective performers were two fungi in the genera Neodevriesia and Lachnellulam, which were novel and that worked at just 15 degrees Celsius, or 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

They are capable of digesting biodegradable polyester-polyurethane (PUR), and two commercially available biodegradable mixtures of polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) and polylactic acid (PLA.)

But the study went far further, finding a total of nine fungi and eight bacteria species from multiple genera that were able to digest PUR, and a total of 14 fungi and three bacteria managed to eat mixtures of PBAT and PLA.

This could be a game changer in reducing plastic waste as breaking down the plastics will become much cheaper and easier to do.

[Kung Wu]

3 Damning Equations to Defeat Global Warming Zealots

Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/arti...#ixzz81VQngkSD

This is a pretty technical article that I must admit is somewhat over my head even though the author states this is presented simply enough for the general reader. And, at a very basic level I could follow the logic being presented. Assessing whether or not what he presents is accurate is above my pay grade.

This is an extremely interesting article -- thanks for sharing it.

I have concerns about the second equation. It's accurate today, but there are new advances in energy storage that could change that equation substantially. It will probably take a lot of time for those storage solutions to become prevalent in a meaning way.

But that first equation ... man. SB Shock has studied control systems, he'll love it.

[1972Shocker]

3 Damning Equations to Defeat Global Warming Zealots

Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/arti...#ixzz81VQngkSD

This is a pretty technical article that I must admit is somewhat over my head even though the author states this is presented simply enough for the general reader. And, at a very basic level I could follow the logic being presented. Assessing whether or not what he presents is accurate is above my pay grade.

Three devastating equations have emerged, each of which calls fundamentally into question the imagined (and imaginary) basis for the economic hara-kiri by which the West is throwing away its gentle and beneficent global hegemony. Power and wealth are passing inexorably from the democracies of the West to the communist-led tyrannies of the East.

However, the three equations stand firmly in the way. It is these three equations — simple enough to be explained here for the general reader, yet devastating enough utterly to destroy the official climate change narrative — that will soon lay low the enemies of prosperity, democracy, and liberty who have, until now, gotten away with undermining the West, no less from within than from without, by their childishly apocalyptic climate change narrative.

[SubGod22]

Supersonic flight returning in the future under hydrogen power?

Hydrogen-Powered Swiss Jet May Herald Return of Supersonic Flight - And Cut Travel Time By 75%

A European firm is hoping to revive the dream of commercial hypersonic travel with a prototype that will reduce flight times by 75%.

Unlike several other supersonic startups that have come and gone, this is their third prototype, with two others having already succeeded in test flights, proving critical systems can work on a design that would allow one to travel from Frankfurt to Sydney in around 4 hours 15 minutes, or Memphis to Dubai in 3 hours 30.

Headquartered in Switzerland, but with a team of over 100 people working across several European countries, Destinus has received tens of millions from private and public funds looking to fund renewable innovation.

Destinus is now preparing its third prototype—the one meant to test the fuel systems, since for their design, sustainable hydrogen is the only reasonable option.

This isn’t due to a question of emissions, but a question of weight. Kerosene is much heavier than hydrogen, and if the machine is hoped to be able to reach across oceans with room for luggage and passengers, it needs to be as light as possible.

The design of the jet itself is very standard, and can be seen on the Concorde jet and hypersonic cruise missiles used in the large militaries of the world—a shape known as the “Waverider” because of its ability to “ride” the “waves” of the breaking sound barrier.

[Atxshoxfan]

https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/stat...75321634832384

"you don't know, do ya?"

Typical. I love Kennedy he's always to the point and funny at the same time.

[pinstripers]

https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1653775321634832384

"you don't know, do ya?"

[SubGod22]

It will be interesting to see how this concept progresses and which direction it ultimately goes.

Sweden's First EV-Charging Road Will Power Electric Vehicles as They Drive

The “E-20” highway stretch in Sweden will soon become the nation’s first functioning charging road to juice the batteries of heavy vehicles carrying freight around the nation.

E-20, (the E actually stands for Europe, rather than electric) runs between Hallsberg and Örebro in the middle of the country’s three major cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö.

Construction is slated to begin in 2025 along a whopping 21 kilometers of road (13 miles), but it hasn’t been decided which method of charging will be used. Previously-constructed charging roads in Europe have used methods that require outside equipment—overhead wires like a city tram line or undercarriage-mounted arms that attach to an electrified rail along the roadway.

These are highly impractical for regular motorists, who can neither reach the cables nor afford to mount a robotic arm on their car.

The last option, and the only sensible one for cars as well as trucks, is to build wireless charging infrastructure down the center of the lanes that send out an electromagnetic signal to a coil on the underside of the vehicle small enough to be fitted to a sedan or a tractor-trailer.

In any case, in order to conduct long-haul trucking in the larger European countries, there has to be sensible charging infrastructure to prevent the trucks from becoming overloaded with the battery packs necessary to drive long distances.

“If you are going to have only static charging full battery solution for heavy-duty vehicles, you will get vehicles with a huge amount of batteries that the vehicles need to carry,” said Jan Pettersson, Director of Strategic Development at Trafikverket, the Swedish transport administration.

[SubGod22]

This was done to not only save a lot of money ($150M), but it was also done to limit CO2 usage. I don't personally care about the CO2 aspect, but this was a pretty cool endeavor and a successful one at that.

Instead of Demolishing its Tallest Building, Australia Holds Contest to 'Upcycle a Skyscraper' Saving Tons of CO2

In 2014, the Australian firm AMP Capital launched a bold and bizarre call to action to the architectural community of Sydney—replace their skyscraper headquarters without demolishing it.

They wanted their AMP Center, the once-tallest building in Sydney, to become the world’s first “upcycled skyscraper,” and the results were truly inspirational.

By grating a second tower onto the existing core of the AMP Center and not demolishing it, 12,000 tons of CO2 were saved which would have otherwise been created through the use of heavy machinery and the loss of carbon captured in the cement. 12,000 tons is equal to 3 years of the 49-story tower’s maximum energy consumption.

Built in the 1970s, the AMP Center wasn’t necessarily on its last legs, but wasn’t viable for the company any longer. But the firm was unwilling to commit to the massive costs of carbon and money when another option was available.

First though, sufficiently bold architects were needed for the project. Three firms teamed up, led by Danish architects 3XN, an Engineering company called Arup, and the Australian architects BVN.

“The tower was coming to the end of the end of its life, in terms of viability… but the structure and the ‘bones’ can actually last a lot longer,” said Fred Holt from 3XN in a video interview. “You can’t always retain everything. But if you can retain the structure—and that’s where the majority of your embodied carbon is—then you’re lowering your footprint.”

There's a pretty cool, and short, time lapse video at the bottom of the article that shows a bit what the process looked like. They were able to double their office space.