How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,187]

On 6/22/2022 at 11:08 PM, Jeroen Goudswaard said:

Most of that "whole world" is actually doing quite well on renewable by themselves. Let's clean up our own backyard first.

 

Electrical demand is the vast minority of energy demand.

Remove hydro then talk.  Hydro other than in portions of the Himalayas, Africa, and small sections of S. America are all built out and vast majority there is done as well.  Electrical demand is multiplying multiple times over existing requirements if you cut coal/oil/ng. 

[specinho + 457]

not too sure if this generalization of concept could stand but...............

 

 

 

 

If we are not users or the ones experience it, we could still make mistake in judgement regardless how smart we think we could get our team to be........... or how experienced the personnel could be in the working field but never a user......

The more they try to modify in order to flow with the crowd, the more we realize things become worse in designs, in functions, in practicality etc...........

 

 

If it is less appropriate to form strategy or policy by government officers and leaders who do not share the enthusiasm or who have not lived with the society/like everyone else enough to know what problem they are trying to solve, but just going with the crowd, why act in hast at all........?

 

Edited June 25, 2022 by specinho

[Michael Sanches + 187]

We are looking at new renewable power generation (wind & solar) and forgetting the danger the old renewable sources are in.

Lake Mead has gone down from 1200 feet to 1000 feet. At 925 feet Hoover Dam stops generating power and at 825 feet Hoover Dam is closed and no longer lets water go down the Colorado river.

The Hoover Dam produces 4.5 billion kw hours of electricity which powers electricity for  8 million people.

 

[Michael Sanches + 187]

On 6/23/2022 at 1:08 AM, Jeroen Goudswaard said:

Most of that "whole world" is actually doing quite well on renewable by themselves. Let's clean up our own backyard first.

 

Your map is incomplete and, therefore, misleading. Norway gets 97% of its power from Hydroelectric. In the US Lake Mead has decreased from 1200 to 1000 feet. At 925 feet Hoover Dam  halts all power generation, which supplies power for 8 million people. At 825 feet Hoover Dam stops releasing water and the Colorado River dries up, denying water to millions.

The same is true with Nepal. They could provide hydropower for all of Nepal and India. But, they are too corrupt and need to factor in 90% of funds will be stolen. The final report of the $2 billion in Aide they received for the earthquake was 100 small wooden homes built. Of course, they hired hundreds of relatives as consultants and bough many hundreds of fancy cars for themselves (so they could get to work and go to meetings.) The corruption is so flagrant that they cover the government parking lots with giant tarps so the people won't deface the cars. (Yes, I lived there and saw this.) It is so bad they voted in a Communist government for improvement.

[Michael Sanches + 187]

On 6/23/2022 at 4:38 PM, Ron Wagner said:

The focus needs to be on Asian and other high coal dependent countries. The West is doing the best it can. 

China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam have signed up to build 600 new coal powered power generating plants. Italy is thinking of reopening coal plants. Germany and Austria are already gearing up to restart coal plants.

The good news is I made a bunch of money on coal stocks in the last 6 months. Thank you, Biden! Keep screwing America!

[gkam44 + 26]

Being a former engineer for a large power company and having earned a Master of Science in Energy and the Environment, I had PV panels installed six years ago, with my estimated payback of 15-17 years, . . the right thing for an eco-freak to do. Before they could be installed, we acquired a VW e-Golf electric car. The savings in gasoline alone took the solar system payback down to 3 1/2 years. So, we added a used Tesla Model S, P85, and that took the payback down to less than three years, which means we now get free power for household and transportation.

But that is not all: We do not need to go to gas stations, we fuel up at home at night with cheap baseload power. During the daytime, the PV system turns our meter backwards powering the neighborhood with clean local power, which we trade for the stuff to be used that night. If we paid for transportation fuel, the VW would cost us 4 cents/mile to drive, and the Tesla would cost 5 cents/mile at California off-peak power prices.

No oil changes are a real treat along with no leaks. And since it has an electric motor, it needs NO ENGINE MAINTENANCE at all. We do not go "gas up", or get tune-ups or emissions checks, have no transmission about which to worry, no complicated machined parts needing care. The future got here a few years ago.

 

[Ron Wagner + 702]

On 6/21/2022 at 8:39 PM, Polyphia said:

The WSJ leans right, and The Epoch Times is firmly right and overall, pretty mixed in terms of its reliability.

I have never seen a false or incorrect story on The Epoch Times. It has a very strong anti C.C.P. stance and, I believe, is strongly influenced by Falun Gong adherents. They have little voice elsewhere and are IMHO good people while the CCP is evil for the most part. 

[Ron Wagner + 702]

On 3/19/2022 at 3:26 AM, KeyboardWarrior said:

You seen the price of coal as of late? 

More like 30 years IMHO.

[HR59 0]

I do not believe any SOLID technology is here yet to not just increase the % of renewables used (see chart above) but do it in a way that is affordable AND practical..not here yet..currently we are forcing the issue...

I own a fairly large home solar system, no way I would have done it if the govt had not MORE than paid for it. It only generates roughly $800/year in electricity, has a roughly 20 year life and cost about $45K installed...NO WAY that makes sense...

I have also worked on Prius cars...NO WAY..for a mountain of reasons... 

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

On 6/25/2022 at 8:02 PM, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Electrical demand is the vast minority of energy demand.

Remove hydro then talk.  Hydro other than in portions of the Himalayas, Africa, and small sections of S. America are all built out and vast majority there is done as well.  Electrical demand is multiplying multiple times over existing requirements if you cut coal/oil/ng. 

Russia's hydro potential is only 20-ish percentile built out, and that's not counting tidal. The demand is pretty flat, though, because there is no population growth.

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,187]

5 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

Russia's hydro potential is only 20-ish percentile built out, and that's not counting tidal. The demand is pretty flat, though, because there is no population growth.

Theoretical is not reality.  Theoretically USA/Europe has only ~20% of its hydro potential built out... Economically we all know that is BS as we are talking small streams of water or low pressure head falls which is NOT economical in the slightest.    Tidal is an ever bigger joke of epic proportions.

[Boat + 1,323]

On 6/23/2022 at 4:38 PM, Ron Wagner said:

The focus needs to be on Asian and other high coal dependent countries. The West is doing the best it can. 

That and maybe 5 billion people instead of 10. 

[Boat + 1,323]

2 hours ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Theoretical is not reality.  Theoretically USA/Europe has only ~20% of its hydro potential built out... Economically we all know that is BS as we are talking small streams of water or low pressure head falls which is NOT economical in the slightest.    Tidal is an ever bigger joke of epic proportions.

If we go by the Putin price of $8 for nat gas and $5 for gasoline a lot of alternative energy becomes competitive. Prices at $2.50 for nat gas breaks pretty close to even with wind and solar a couple years ago. You know why Texas still has cheap electricity? It’s growing solar, wind and battery additions. 

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

4 hours ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Theoretical is not reality.  Theoretically USA/Europe has only ~20% of its hydro potential built out... Economically we all know that is BS as we are talking small streams of water or low pressure head falls which is NOT economical in the slightest.    Tidal is an ever bigger joke of epic proportions.

Most of the major Siberian rivers are hydropower free yet. This:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penzhin_Tidal_Power_Plant_Project

would be by far the largest single power plant in the world. Epic, yes. Joke? Not really. The biggest issue is that nobody around needs that much electricity yet.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

1 hour ago, Boat said:

If we go by the Putin price of $8 for nat gas and $5 for gasoline a lot of alternative energy becomes competitive. Prices at $2.50 for nat gas breaks pretty close to even with wind and solar a couple years ago. You know why Texas still has cheap electricity? It’s growing solar, wind and battery additions. 

Only solar has competitive prices. Not everywhere, but in sunny places like Texas.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

11 hours ago, Boat said:

That and maybe 5 billion people instead of 10. 

Nah. The entire humanity can be ground into a meatball which fits into NYC's Central Park, apparently.

https://mymodernmet.com/human-goo-meatball/

Edited July 9, 2022 by Andrei Moutchkine

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

On 6/25/2022 at 8:02 PM, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Electrical demand is the vast minority of energy demand.

Remove hydro then talk.  Hydro other than in portions of the Himalayas, Africa, and small sections of S. America are all built out and vast majority there is done as well.  Electrical demand is multiplying multiple times over existing requirements if you cut coal/oil/ng. 

Only because there is so much thermal supply you get for free with your electricity? Because most of the overall energy use is thermal, not electrical.

Hydro has some of the best costs per installed watt, down to under $1.

[Ron Wagner + 702]

3 hours ago, Boat said:

If we go by the Putin price of $8 for nat gas and $5 for gasoline a lot of alternative energy becomes competitive. Prices at $2.50 for nat gas breaks pretty close to even with wind and solar a couple years ago. You know why Texas still has cheap electricity? It’s growing solar, wind and battery additions. 

Where I live we have plenty of wind turbine farms and our prices include a small wind subsidy. I have a contract with Constellation, in Texas but really have no idea what they use to produce the electricity. Their price has gone up somewhat but I signed up for two more years recently due to worse possibilities. 

[Jay McKinsey + 1,490]

25 minutes ago, Ron Wagner said:

Where I live we have plenty of wind turbine farms and our prices include a small wind subsidy. I have a contract with Constellation, in Texas but really have no idea what they use to produce the electricity. Their price has gone up somewhat but I signed up for two more years recently due to worse possibilities. 

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,187]

4 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

Most of the major Siberian rivers are hydropower free yet. This:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penzhin_Tidal_Power_Plant_Project

would be by far the largest single power plant in the world. Epic, yes. Joke? Not really. The biggest issue is that nobody around needs that much electricity yet.

An 80km dam ~80m high in the ocean... all for maybe 1/5 of its stated capacity.... Sure.... same reason Bay of Fundy has not been damned up or any other spot in the world.  If it was economical it would have been done for Alumina production if nothing else.  Good luck

While we are playing make believe about giant dams in oceans, may as well put one across the Florida current between Miami and Bimini with its average 2m/s flow with multiple times more power available than any tidal fluctuations in some dumb bay... Of course Europe/Russia would Freeze so, they may go to war against the USA if they did that...

Edited July 9, 2022 by footeab@yahoo.com

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

4 hours ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

An 80km dam ~80m high in the ocean... all for maybe 1/5 of its stated capacity.... Sure.... same reason Bay of Fundy has not been damned up or any other spot in the world.  If it was economical it would have been done for Alumina production if nothing else.  Good luck

While we are playing make believe about giant dams in oceans, may as well put one across the Florida current between Miami and Bimini with its average 2m/s flow with multiple times more power available than any tidal fluctuations in some dumb bay... Of course Europe/Russia would Freeze so, they may go to war against the USA if they did that...

They've actually developed technology how to do it on the cheap. From prefab blocks towed to location and sank there, and built a smaller prototype that is still operational (from 1968 on)

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,187]

2 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

They've actually developed technology how to do it on the cheap. From prefab blocks towed to location and sank there, and built a smaller prototype that is still operational (from 1968 on)

Sure buddy.  I own some nice tundra you can buy...

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

16 minutes ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Sure buddy.  I own some nice tundra you can buy...

This one, I think

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kislaya_Guba_Tidal_Power_Station

The prefab block houses an "orthogonal turbine" that does not have to be reoriented for the high and low tide. Should produce the lowest cost per installed watt ever.

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,187]

9 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

This one, I think

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kislaya_Guba_Tidal_Power_Station

The prefab block houses an "orthogonal turbine" that does not have to be reoriented for the high and low tide. Should produce the lowest cost per installed watt ever.

Ah, we have a tundra buyer sucking on government tits eh...  suckle suckle suckle...

Are you Jay's "economic" degree?  Inquiring minds wish to understand this genius "economics"

[Jay McKinsey + 1,490]

45 minutes ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Ah, we have a tundra buyer sucking on government tits eh...  suckle suckle suckle...

Are you Jay's "economic" degree?  Inquiring minds wish to understand this genius "economics"

Nothing to do with me. Economics tells us this tech is a failure. Andrei is still trying to figure out how the US produces diesel and kerosene without Russian oil that in his imagination we were massively importing.