The joys of electric car ownership!

[Agent_zed]

On a slightly different path,we have a National Grid,so why hasn't more been done to create an International Grid? Would it be beyond us to set up a few million solar cells in some of the world's vast deserts and convey it across national borders? It could transform the economies of quite a few nations.

- international co-operation required
- what happens when a war breaks out in a country between you and the supply?
- huge transmission losses
- easier to target for terrorism purposes
- Deserts aren't good places for solar panels
- Expensive to setup - e.g huge capital investment
- We already import and export elec with europe Britain is a Net Electricity Exporter for First Time in 44 years and they also trade energy between countries.

 

[heimlaga]

I live few miles from a large forest that was planted with a view to providing pit props.We don't actually have much need for such things at present.Which makes me wonder if we might be doing more with researching ways to make the most of the energy sources we have or if we ought to just gradually replace some mediocre pine trees with something more useful.Is there recent research into either clean gasification of coal?

On a slightly different path,we have a National Grid,so why hasn't more been done to create an International Grid? Would it be beyond us to set up a few million solar cells in some of the world's vast deserts and convey it across national borders? It could transform the economies of quite a few nations.

My oppinion is that the greatest hindrance there is to making the best of the woods both as sustainable fuel and sustainable timber production is that most people including woodland owners have become too detached from the woods.
Then they start to think that one either must let timber companies run it their way, that is large scale clear felling as soon as there are trees large enough to get two short knotty 2x4s out of or one must preserve the trees and not touch them.
Sustainable exploitation of nature's surplus in a woodland is only possible if the owner family lives near enough to the woods to be able to do a significant part of the work themselves and don't own more woodland than they can manage themselves. Or if an institutional or communal owner has the sustainable small scale perspective written into it's statutes.
A tree has a finite lifespan just like a milk cow and when it has reached high age it is time for a trip to the butcher. A sane farmer ensures that his milk cows aren't all the same age so he can keep production going constantly. He also makes sure to let suitable calves grow up into new milk cows before sending off all the old cows to the butcher. The same applies to sustainable small scale forestry in an intact ecosystem.
The mediocre pine trees certainly have their uses but in an English climate I think it would be worth the effort to gradually replace some with usable hardwoods. Not all at once but a little at a time. With suitable management I also rekon you could get good quality pine plus a steady supply of firewood out of a pine plantation instead of a single harvest of pulpwood.

 

[Yojevol]

I live few miles from a large forest that was planted with a view to providing pit props.We don't actually have much need for such things at present.Which makes me wonder if we might be doing more with researching ways to make the most of the energy sources we have or if we ought to just gradually replace some mediocre pine trees with something more useful.Is there recent research into either clean gasification of coal?

On a slightly different path,we have a National Grid,so why hasn't more been done to create an International Grid? Would it be beyond us to set up a few million solar cells in some of the world's vast deserts and convey it across national borders? It could transform the economies of quite a few nations.

Ouarzazate Solar Power Station - Wikipedia

Octopus Energy backs mega solar farm in Morocco to power 7 million heat pumps with cheap green power

HVDC Cross-Channel - Wikipedia

 

[Agent_zed]

My oppinion is that the greatest hindrance there is to making the best of the woods both as sustainable fuel and sustainable timber production is that most people including woodland owners have become too detached from the woods.
Then they start to think that one either must let timber companies run it their way, that is large scale clear felling as soon as there are trees large enough to get two short knotty 2x4s out of or one must preserve the trees and not touch them.
Sustainable exploitation of nature's surplus in a woodland is only possible if the owner family lives near enough to the woods to be able to do a significant part of the work themselves and don't own more woodland than they can manage themselves. Or if an institutional or communal owner has the sustainable small scale perspective written into it's statutes.
A tree has a finite lifespan just like a milk cow and when it has reached high age it is time for a trip to the butcher. A sane farmer ensures that his milk cows aren't all the same age so he can keep production going constantly. He also makes sure to let suitable calves grow up into new milk cows before sending off all the old cows to the butcher. The same applies to sustainable small scale forestry in an intact ecosystem.
The mediocre pine trees certainly have their uses but in an English climate I think it would be worth the effort to gradually replace some with usable hardwoods. Not all at once but a little at a time. With suitable management I also rekon you could get good quality pine plus a steady supply of firewood out of a pine plantation instead of a single harvest of pulpwood.

Agree. But just to add that Forestry England are already switching to mixed forestry planting. Any new plantation near me is planted with multiple different species both soft woods and deciduous.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

One of our co-respondents from the Land of the Long White Cloud might remember this one. A farmer planted a whole plantation of a particular hardwood intending to harvest it decades afterwards. The time duly came and the powers that be heard about it and banned him from felling them. He burned them down.

 

[heimlaga]

Agree. But just to add that Forestry England are already switching to mixed forestry planting. Any new plantation near me is planted with multiple different species both soft woods and deciduous.

Great news!

 

[selectortone]

On a slightly different path,we have a National Grid,so why hasn't more been done to create an International Grid? Would it be beyond us to set up a few million solar cells in some of the world's vast deserts and convey it across national borders? It could transform the economies of quite a few nations.

Morocco has invested in huge solar and wind farms and intends to export the energy to Europe.

Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project - Wikipedia

 

[paulrbarnard]

Another interesting bit of information gleaned in passing. I watched a video about Bering boats who make luxury yachts. They have shifted to hybrid power chains for present production but say their firmly expect to be in a position to shift to small nuclear reactors to generate the electricity in the next 10 years. Now these are multi hundred tonne super yachts but very interesting to see they expect small reactors to become viable and commercially available in such a short time frame.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Apparently the UK has the greatest potential in Europe for wind power - no surprise given an island location with 3000 miles of Atlantic weather systems rolling in from the west and up to 19000 miles of coastline (depending how it is measured).

The UK could become a major exporter of green energy - onshore wind is currently the cheapest way of generating green energy.

 

[Sachakins]

Apparently the UK has the greatest potential in Europe for wind power - no surprise given an island location with 3000 miles of Atlantic weather systems rolling in from the west and up to 19000 miles of coastline (depending how it is measured).

The UK could become a major exporter of green energy - onshore wind is currently the cheapest way of generating green energy.

Now sit back and wait for rambler and wellie brigade to launch a broadside that "... it spoils the countryside....."

 

[Fergie 307]

It depends on our willingness to increase forestry within the UK, but some other countries are in a place to do this already.

Including coal and oil? Also as I stated industrial gasifiers are pretty much as clean as any other burning powerstation.

Did you bother to read my reply at all? I'll repeat it once again in a simpler form - If you don't collect food waste it will create methane in landfill and has to be vented. If you anaerobically digest it you get fertiliser and usable gas. I'm not sure I can explain it any simpler.
It's also not just leakage from pipes and transport, oil wells need to be vented 'Every year, U.S. oil and gas companies set fire to billions of cubic feet of natural gas and directly vent an additional unknown amount.' Oil and Gas Companies ‘Flare’ or ‘Vent’ Excess Natural Gas. It’s Like Burning Money—and it’s Bad for the Environment - Inside Climate News



The uk produced 9.5million tons of foodwaste https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/food-waste-in-the-uk/ in 2018. Seems like a lot of raw material to me. Coupled with the fact that this food production required huge amounts of petrochemicals to produce. For 1 litre of veg oil it takes about 3 litres of petrolchemicals. Seems a bit stupid to dump this in the ground when you can recycle it, reducing your waste stream and producing 2 useful products. Besides countries are already doing this! 'Denmark, a leader in biomethane production, which already has 26% home-grown biomethane' Biomethane offers rapid and safe alternative to expensive, imported, ‘natural’ gas



Oh course we will continue doing that because there are a lot of people with money invested in fossil fuels who want to remain rich and a lot of people like you who don't really care about making any meaningful change because something will come along to save us all in the future (in your case Fusion). When Texas got hit by unusual cold weather a few years back it knocked out their power grid. The companies were quick to blame the wind turbines for not running, despite the fact the gas generator were also knocked out because they failed to invest in the required cold weather equipment. But the oil/gas companies don't want you to know that do they, they want you to believe Windmills bad, oil/gas good. That 'genuis' Trump even says wind mills cause cancer?!



By opening new oil wells and mines? Yep investing a load of time and money into new oil wells is sure to spur those companies on to closing them as quickly as they can.



I mean if 'we' try really really hard and skip a few coffee breaks maybe we could do it in 20 years (or some other random number)!
Lets just hope if they do work it out that there isn't a nuclear fusion accident in it's early days, I guess we are lucky there has never been any nuclear fission accidents.....


Yes, including our own country.

Bit much to say they can't chop down their trees for palm oil but we are allowed to open new oil wells and coal mines. isn't it?


No he doesn't! He is a shoe in for the republican nomination but his overall popularity is not as great as you might like to think. There is always a chance, but despite the propaganda, Biden is delivering a strong economy with unemployment way down and low inflation. Trump is delivering anti-abortion retoric that is not going down well with 70% of Americans. That's if he doesn't go to Jail for his attempted coup and/or classified docs.

Some of your remarks really do conveniently ignore some very pertinent facts. Biogas production in Denmark for example. A country with a population of 5 million or so, population density five times less than ours, and with an awful lot of pigs, the major source of the raw material. So for the Danes this is a good solution, but not readily transferable as a major source of supply in most countries. I share your views on the disgraceful.practice of flaring off gas from rigs etc, this ought to be banned. And I also agree that methane capture and biogas have a part to play, on the basis that every little helps, but I would suggest that in the majority of countries they are not going to provide a major part of production. The same argument applies to burning wood. Set aside the other pollution issues and yes, in a country with a sparse population and lots of trees, this might be viable. In most places it isn't.
Oil gas coal. Do you think we will be able to stop using these altogether in the next probably twenty years? I very much doubt it, although I would hope we can drastically lower that use. Whilst we have to continue with them please explain how it makes more sense, either environmentally or in any other way, to import them from far afield when we have them on our doorstep.
Fusion. What makes you do pessimistic about this? I think most people would agree it is the ultimate solution. As for doing it well take the Manhattan project as an example. And I mean as an example of the scientific progress made in a short space of time, not the creation of the bomb. This was achieved by gathering together the best scientists they could find, and providing the funds necessary to do it. This is what needs to be done with fusion, so far we really have been playing at it. I recall Brian Cox quoting statistics that showed that we spend more money on mobile phone ringtones than on research into fusion. So yes, I believe that if we can get some serious funding in place, and the right people, there is no reason why it shouldn't be possible in a reasonable timescale.
Trump. What makes you suggest that I would like him to be popular, certainly not the tenor of my comment at all. He is a denier of global warming, climate change etc. Last time I checked these were fake news according to him. As for the likelihood of him being elected, well it certainly looks like he is a dead cert for the republican nomination. The deeper he gets in the s**t the more his supporters seem to love him. As for Biden whatever good he may be doing he is an old man, I can't imagine why he would even want a second term at his age, and let's face it he is looking increasingly doddery. I will leave it to members from the other side of the pond to comment but I am struggling to see a democratic candidate apart from Biden, and I have little confidence he can beat Trump. And to be perfectly clear, since you seem to have misunderstood me the first time, I do not want Trump to win, I think that would be a catastrophic outcome for the wider world.

 

[Fergie 307]

Oh and I forgot palm oil. We In the developed countries have largely created the demand for the damn stuff, and so encouraged its production at enormous cost to the environment, bio diversity etc. We should drastically reduce our consumption, and ensure that what we do use is from responsible sources. We should also be giving help to the countries in question to firstly halt further deforestation, and secondly start to restore some of the areas lost. Ultimately it is our consumption of resources that has led to this issue, we need to take more responsibility for sorting it out.

 

[Fergie 307]

Now sit back and wait for rambler and wellie brigade to launch a broadside that "... it spoils the countryside....."

Indeed. Onshore wind, no, we don't like that. OK then we will do it offshore, that's better. Oh but we will need pylons to get it to where it's needed. Can't have that, ruins my view! Cost and aggro aside I have no doubt if you suggested burying the cables people would kick off about that as well, already happened in some places. You just can't win. Would I like to see pylons marching across my favourite bit of countryside, no, but I would be prepared to accept it as a necessary evil.

 

[worn thumbs]

Interesting to see the comments about mixed planting of new forests.I'm wondering if the Forestry Commission have overhauled the Department of Transport as the biggest planter of hardwoods.Most newish roads have had vast numbers of trees planted alongside them for decades,but sadly the deer population have intervened in many places.
I find it hard to see oil remaining in the ground in future as we don't use it solely for fuel and many industries depend on it for a source of raw materials.Could there be a greater catastrophe than a shortage of case material for the next generation of smartphone?

 

[Fergie 307]

Interesting to see the comments about mixed planting of new forests.I'm wondering if the Forestry Commission have overhauled the Department of Transport as the biggest planter of hardwoods.Most newish roads have had vast numbers of trees planted alongside them for decades,but sadly the deer population have intervened in many places.
I find it hard to see oil remaining in the ground in future as we don't use it solely for fuel and many industries depend on it for a source of raw materials.Could there be a greater catastrophe than a shortage of case material for the next generation of smartphone?

Lots of stuff that could be done. Total ban on plastic carrier bags, ban on non recyclable plastics, massive reduction in plastic packaging generally. Much more needs to be done to encourage recycling, not least of all to ensure it is actually recycled, and not piled up and burnt in some far flung corner of the world. Unfortunately we have become far to keen on having everything wrapped in the stuff, and in buying all sorts of things that we throw away after a relatively short time, often made of plastic, and all sorts of other nasties. Mobile phones are a good example.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Most newish roads have had vast numbers of trees planted alongside them for decades ...

All major roadworks here have trees planted, many of which then die from lack of water.

 

[Kittyhawk]

Lots of stuff that could be done. Total ban on plastic carrier bags, ban on non recyclable plastics, massive reduction in plastic packaging generally. Much more needs to be done to encourage recycling, not least of all to ensure it is actually recycled, and not piled up and burnt in some far flung corner of the world. Unfortunately we have become far to keen on having everything wrapped in the stuff, and in buying all sorts of things that we throw away after a relatively short time, often made of plastic, and all sorts of other nasties. Mobile phones are a good example.

Right on the mark.
Plastic wrapping is dreadful polluting stuff. On my own i feel powerless to do anything about it so i enlist the assistance of the big stores by unwrapping purchases at the counter and telling the sales person that I wish to buy the product and not the acres of plastic enclosing it. This relieves me of the waste disposal problem and hopefully if we all did that the stores would get sick of all the packaging left behind by customers and start pressuring manufacturers to address the issues. Needs a combined effort though..

 

[Jacob]

Right on the mark.
Plastic wrapping is dreadful polluting stuff. On my own i feel powerless to do anything about it so i enlist the assistance of the big stores by unwrapping purchases at the counter and telling the sales person that I wish to buy the product and not the acres of plastic enclosing it. This relieves me of the waste disposal problem and hopefully if we all did that the stores would get sick of all the packaging left behind by customers and start pressuring manufacturers to address the issues. Needs a combined effort though..

Could be scaled up - something like the war time utility mark where products have to conform to various standards. It produced good quality durable designs, many of which are still in use 80 years on.
Imagine it imposed on the motor industry, possibly the most wasteful industry of all in terms of investment in short lived products.

 

[Jameshow]

Could be scaled up - something like the war time utility mark where products have to conform to various standards. It produced good quality durable designs, many of which are still in use 80 years on.
Imagine it imposed on the motor industry, possibly the most wasteful industry of all in terms of investment in short lived products.

The motor industry !!! Our mini is 20yo previous polo same, VW caravelle 13yrs.
Ditto my previous Volvos!

The cars that aren't long lived are EV cars any that are in accidents are totalled!! No chance of repair due to the electrics!!

Once a Battery fails the car is US no one can swap them yet, unlike engines.

 

[Spectric]

No chance of repair due to the electrics!!

Or recovery as many recovery firms cannot handle the fire risk and many are to heavy for a lot of the recovery vehicles plus some ferries are baning EV's due to the fire risk.

Once a Battery fails the car is US no one can swap them yet, unlike engines.

I think this is down to cost, the batteries are a huge percentage of the vehicles value and then add on several days labour which in some cases involves almost a vehicle rebuild to change all the batteries they do beome beyond economic repair. So how are the scrap yards going to handle them, they cannot just rip them apart with a set of grabs and crush and the firebrigade will need water tanks in which to submerge them to extinguish a fire, this EV plan has not been well thought out and we need smaller steps rather than a giant leap into the dark so Hybrids are the way forward.