Sub's Alternative Energy Thread

[ShockTalk]

I'm really getting fatigued with all of this talk of "unprecedented" heat waves. Some commentators use the word unprecedented at the same time they talk about current temperature highs matching highs in 1912, 1925, 1936, 1955, 1966, 1973, 1980, 1988, etc etc. That is not the proper use of the word UNPRECEDENTED !!!

Number of 100-degree days for Wichita, 2011 (56 days) and 2012 (36), is the most in back-to-back years. While not consecutive years, 1934 (40) and 1936 (50) totaled 90.

[ABC]

I'm really getting fatigued with all of this talk of "unprecedented" heat waves. Some commentators use the word unprecedented at the same time they talk about current temperature highs matching highs in 1912, 1925, 1936, 1955, 1966, 1973, 1980, 1988, etc etc. That is not the proper use of the word UNPRECEDENTED !!!

[SubGod22]

Pioneering Zero-Emissions Hydrogen Fuel-Cell-Powered Ship Successfully Tested in Japan

A consortium of Japanese firms has conducted successfully a demonstration of the first ever zero-emissions ship above 20 gross tons.

Sailing 30 kilometers between the Port of Kokura and the Shirashima Offshore Wind Farm, the HANARIA was powered entirely by hydrogen fuel cells.

An island nation, 10.25 million tons of carbon emissions from Japan’s transportation sector came from coastal shipping and transport. In 2015, former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga outlined carbon neutrality by 2050 as a major component of Japan’s development strategy, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, and major steps need to be taken to achieve that.

The Nippon Foundation, a research and development fund dedicated to passing the riches of the sea intact to future generations, worked in tandem with manufacturers and shipping operators to develop a suite of hydrogen-powered, zero-emission vessels for use in shipping and coastal transport.

Hydrogen is manufactured by using an electrical current to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The pure hydrogen can then be used as a substitute for heavy engine fuels like diesel and kerosene in a fuel-cell vehicle. If the hydrogen is manufactured with green energy, it’s known as ‘green hydrogen’.

A passenger ship, HANARIA spans 108 feet, (33 meters) weighs 248 gross tons, and is equipped with a hydrogen fuel system. She is expected to be used for transporting personnel to the offshore wind farm and for site tours.

They also plan to test a yacht and tanker powered by hydrogen in the next couple of years.

[WuDrWu]

When it improves my quality of life and pocketbook, I'll be a buyer.

As long as I have to have plan one extra second to drive out of town, I wouldn't give an EV the time of day.

[asiseeit]

There are many significant factors that keep me from ever buying an EV but THE biggest factor, for me, is the government wanting to force me into it. It's also the reason I never took the COVID shot.

[SubGod22]

The biggest reason EV owners cited for wanting to return to owning a gas-powered vehicle was the lack of available charging infrastructure (35%); the second-highest reason cited was that the total cost of owning an EV was too high (34%). Nearly 1 in 3, 32%, said their driving patterns on long-distance trips were affected too much due to having an EV.

This has always been my concern with EVs and why I wouldn't buy one right now. If charging was a quicker process with good to great range and readily available everywhere like gas stations are they'd make much more sense.

This could begin to change and change some minds down the road as new and improved batteries and charging stations come online and the infrastructure grows. I know there are areas of the country that continue to add to the network of chargers. My employer does some work and has some contracts for installation and maintenance of such things. Not a huge part of our business, but a part we got into because of the expected growth within the industry.

When I travel my general rule is I'm not going to go more than 12 hours away from where I'm at. If I'm in an EV and have to charge a time or two it would really cut down on the radius of where my destination could be. I believe going from KC to Denver takes an extra two hours in an EV than it does in a gas vehicle. For some people, that's not a big deal but for others it's a deal breaker.

[1972Shocker]

Buyer's Remorse: Nearly half of American EV owners want to switch back to gas-powered vehicle, McKinsey data shows

McKinsey & Co.'s Mobility Consumer Pulse for 2024, released this month, found that 46% of EV owners in the U.S. said they were "very" likely to switch back to owning a gas-powered vehicle in their next purchase.

The high percentage of Americans who want to make a switch even surprised the consulting firm.

"I didn't expect that," the head of McKinsey's Center for Future Mobility, Philipp Kampshoff, told Automotive News. "I thought, 'Once an EV buyer, always an EV buyer.'"

In the poll of nearly 37,000 consumers worldwide, Australia was the only country with a greater percentage, 49%, of EV owners than the U.S. who said they were ready to return to owning an internal combustion engine.

The other countries included in the survey were Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Norway. Across all countries surveyed, the average share of respondents who want to ditch their EVs was 29%.

The biggest reason EV owners cited for wanting to return to owning a gas-powered vehicle was the lack of available charging infrastructure (35%); the second-highest reason cited was that the total cost of owning an EV was too high (34%). Nearly 1 in 3, 32%, said their driving patterns on long-distance trips were affected too much due to having an EV.

[SubGod22]

[WstateU]

[WstateU]

[SubGod22]

KAKE - The Senate just passed a critical clean energy bill to pave the way for more nuclear

Democrats and Republicans in a bitterly divided Congress can agree on one thing: the US needs more nuclear to power America’s rapidly growing energy appetite — and fast.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved a major bill Tuesday night to make it easier, cheaper and faster to permit and build new nuclear reactors. The ADVANCE Act, which passed with just two senators voting no, now heads to Biden’s desk for signing, which he is expected to do.

The bill represents one of the most significant actions Congress has taken to advance clean energy since Democrats narrowly passed the Inflation Reduction Act almost two years ago. And it comes as the US tries to revive an aging nuclear energy industry at home and bolster cutting-edge technologies abroad.

“In a major victory for our climate and American energy security, the U.S. Senate has passed the ADVANCE Act with overwhelming, bipartisan support,” Democratic Sen. Tom Carper, the chair of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement.

The bill works to bring down costs for developers by streamlining the permitting process — cutting fees and speeding approval times — and spurs more development of new-wave projects, like small modular nuclear reactors.

It also incentivizes deploying advanced American nuclear technologies overseas, as the US competes with Russia and China for global nuclear energy dominance.

But the bill could also be a boon for big, traditional nuclear reactors, which make up all of the current US fleet. Georgia Power recently brought two new large reactors online; together, Vogtle Plant units 3 and 4 represent the largest clean energy generator in the nation, according to the utility. They were the only large reactors to be built in the US in the last three decades.

The US government has been the biggest roadblock to new and improved nuclear energy options. They've finally taken a step to make the process a little bit easier and will hopefully lead to new nuclear facilities to help power the nation.

[WuDrWu]

Speaking of the wind.... I-70 was a no go or should have been a no go yesterday afternoon. Anytime there was a bare field, visibility went from less than a mile to less than a car length with little warning, and that is harrowing at 30mph much less 75+ with tractor trailers everywhere. I counted at least 14 areas of no visibility between Colby and Salina. Watching the trucks fishtail their trailers due to the wind wasn't any less disturbing.

I do not want to relive that experience.

[pinstripers]

It's windy as hell! I wish i woulda mailed a hunnerd dollars to Paris.............

[SubGod22]

Sunbeam-Powered Portable Factory Manufactures Zero-Emission Plastic Goods Anywhere There's Trouble

A startup has found a way to create high-quality plastic products like water tanks, boat frames, and more, all using the power of the sun, and has created a portable factory that can be transported anywhere in the world via shipping containers.

The speed and flexibility of the factory system make it an incredible asset for firms or governments operating in numerous environments and situations from disaster relief to rural development.

Called Light Manufacturing, the technology is known as Solar Rotational Molding (SRM), and in layman’s terms involves putting raw plastic into a mold and blasting it with a beam of sunlight concentrated via a bank of 30 special mirrors called heliostats that automatically adjust to keep shining on the mold as the sun moves across the sky.

Karl von Kries, founder of Light Manufacturing and inventor of SRM, used to work for a Massachusettes-based company that used rotational molding for flight cases, and started on his entrepreneurial journey after seeing the company’s energy bills, and watching An Inconvenient Truth.

“Back then I found it strange that we were paying for a lot of natural gas, but in the summer months, the roof of the factory was well over 130 degrees Fahrenheit,” he told GNN. “I wondered if there was some way to capture that solar heat.”

“I assumed that this idea had been tried before, and was found impractical. But I couldn’t find anything in the literature about solar rotational molding, so I set up a new company to ‘prove the idea would NOT work’ so I could get on with my career.”

Then a strange thing happened, solar molding “failed to fail.”

“We made some pretty low-quality parts at first, but we kept iterating, and by 2014 we were molding high-quality plastic parts and had landed several critical patents,” said Von Kries, who sees one of the best ways to utilize SRM technology as furnishing rural areas in poor countries with critical plumbing equipment like pipes and rainwater catch tanks.

Low cost, low emission, high quality. Not bad.

There's about a four minute video at the bottom of the article.

[SubGod22]

That's intriguing in theory. I'll have to sit and watch the video when I get a chance.