Electric vehicles

[Reckless Rat]

It really is quite laughable this obsession with so called "green" initiatives. Apparently the amount of fossil fuel energy needed to make just the cement for the concrete base of a wind turbine exceeds by a big margin any so called "free" electricity it will ever generate.

[Tony Griffiths]

It really is quite laughable this obsession with so-called "green" initiatives. Apparently, the amount of fossil fuel energy needed to make just the cement for the concrete base of a wind turbine exceeds by a big margin any so called "free" electricity it will ever generate.

....and when the hyper-expensive gearbox packs up....and when the wind doesn't blow...or blows too hard...or the wind is in the Goldilocks 15 to 45 mph range but the blades are covered in ice...or when the wind is not blowing, but its very cold and the blades have to be turned (by electricity) to stop the things freezing up. And, not forgetting that the whole idea is grossly uneconomic and funded by a huge addition to one's energy bill - the power generated costing around twice as much as that using nuclear, coal or gas. The Green Blob have a lot to answer for....

[Alan]

No they haven’t. I thought they were unaccountable and untouchable.

[Bruce Nicholls]

Read an interesting piece the other day about using liquid air to store surplus power from wind turbines. It used the surplus power to freeze air to minus 169C at which point it became liquid, It can then be stored in super insulated tanks at no pressure, much like liquid natural gas. When required it is rewarmed and becomes a much larger volume of air again and is used to drive turbines to generate power. There is pilot plant running apparently.
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/fos...orage-make

[Reckless Rat]

The question I therefore ask is WHY? If the turbine is making power that is not needed then why build the bloody thing in the first place? The technology necessary to freeze and store air and then release it is far too expensive and quite frankly, pointless.

[Bruce Nicholls]

I agree, but with Honda, Volvo et all planning to drop petrol and diesel production along with govt regulation where is there to go?

[Austin in the Shed]

Heard it on the news this morning,Honda will stop production of pure petrol and diesel cars in 2022.
The next environmental goal is to cut emissions/dust from car tyres and brake pads.

[AllAlloyCup]

Interesting thread Jim.

Apparently UK alone would need 3x Tesla Giga factories to make the required
batteries for current level UK car production......

Hydrogen power may well be more useful if metal hydride storage technology can
provide safe storage. Apparently if you inject Oxygen into oil/gas reservoirs you can
Extract Hydrogen. You can use some of the hydrogen to extract Oxygen from the air
But there’s a net gain of Hydrogen.

Hydrogen burns to form water in an internal combustion engine set up or can, with oxygen
Power electric fuel cells..

Not sure though how to make a network of thousands of hydrogen tanks and tankers safe enough?

Worth keeping an eye on these technologies, But petrol cars days are limited now I’m sure.

Regards

Bill G

[Tony Press]

It appears this push to electric vehicles is driven    by so called 'developed' countries- while the developing countries- such as China and India are  from earlier comments still building many fossil fuel powered electricity generating stations ?


Surely the only country of any size  to make a success of the change would be USA.

[AllAlloyCup]

China made and sold 1 million electric cars this year and e pacts to make 2 million next year.

Tesla built Giga car factory in China recently in 168 days? Capable of making more than 100,000 cars in the first year. source “Wired” website.

Regards

Bill G