Matteo, I think your negative attitude to solutions with regard to energy and environmental issues is self defeating and unhelpful. Perhaps your source of news in the US is Fox NewsMatteo V wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 2:35 amIt ain't an electric car if I use a gasoline generator to charge it. And that's the whole problem with Renewables and Electric vehicles. And I am right on topic with this one! A percentage of the electricity put into your battery is always going to be from NOT solar or NOT wind-generated power. This leaves nuclear hydroelectric or fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal to produce the electricity you use when driving the vehicle.Horst Sergio wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 1:49 amBut most important, this is the topic about electric surfer cars, maybe with solar cells on it if you like it, but if you are interested in solar power you better start a new topic.
But I do like the way you sell the solar farm thing. You make it sound great. But it's still uses up land, and is not always producing electricity but still using up that land. As far as recycling goes with current solar panels, what's the power input to melt those solar panels down? And what chemicals and chemical processes do you have to use to strip those toxic chemicals out and then reuse them?
One of the greatest failures of recycling is plastic bottles. If you have a single-use item, and then send it in for recycling, it takes energy to clean and make that product into a new one.
If it takes one barrel equivalent of oil energy to produce 1000 plastic bottles, and it takes 1 and 1/2 barrels equivalent oil energy to recycle those 1,000 bottles into 1000 new bottles, then you wind up harming the environment more by trying to recycle those bottles, then if you just bury them.
Humanity is starting to rack up a long history of good intentioned Environmental cleanups, that wind up destroying the environment to a greater degree than if that cleanup would have never taken place. This is the electric car, curbside recycling, strict industrial environmental regulations in the West, and many many more failures to come. All of those failures had some slick-talking salesman who had stock in that particular miracle cure who got rich. And on this topic I think you have the potential to really sell things to a degree that could create another environmental disaster. I would ask that you look very hard at the issues, history, and the repercussions of environmental policies sold by someone who is there to just sell.
So don't get me wrong here, I would love to have an electric vehicle if I didn't drive on so many long-distance trips. I just want the Forum members here to realize that's a large percentage of those miles they put on that electric car, have been powered by coal and natural gas. That electricity comes from somewhere, and Renewables are not ever going to be a major source worldwide for the power to run your electric car.
Australia currently has an appalling environmental record, but we also have some of the worlds best solar PV research which has increased solar panel efficiency and lowered cost of PV manufacture around the world. And it's still improving. Ditto with battery tech. In 2010 the US interstate highway system, which was constructed in just 35 years, is 94,000 square kilometres, or 20% of the overall required solar panel coverage area for the world. I don't think anyone is going to be concerned about having PV panels over your highways, house & factory roofs, sports stadiums and so on. So if desired one could power most the world with solar PV without sterilising any land.
Where solar PV is used on land it can coexist with agricultural practice and can be mandated to do so, producing both energy and food/fibre as is happening in Australia.
Wind, as you should know is an extremely powerful renewable source already significantly cheaper than fossil fuels. Contrary to popular belief it doesn't wipe out birds in massive numbers when the windfarm is well designed and located. If you cherry pick your arguments you can always find fault on the minuscule margins.
I agree with you re recyclables, we have a lot to improve upon here. But complaining won't solve the problem, start changing your own life. Don't use single use coffee cups, don't buy takeaway in single use containers. Supply your own containers, be an example of positive change in your life to set an example. Reduce, reuse and then recycle, in that order. Show the corporate f***ers you're not going accept their philosophy.
Below are two examples of energy solutions which cover energy in community and global energy networks:
Repower Shoalhaven https://www.repower.net.au/ is an organisation I'm a member of which began in my community through a number of dedicated individuals getting together to make renewables happen. This model connected ethical investors, who wanted a good $ return which supported renewables, with progressive businesses, who wanted lower power bills and didn't want to excessively spend or borrow to achieve that outcome. In the last 12 months, the 23 community funded solar projects administered by Repower Shoalhaven have:
* generated 860,000 kWh of clean electricity
* reduced CO2 emission by 700 tonnes
* reduced the power bills of local businesses and farms
* provided investors with reasonable returns.
Repower Shoalhaven is something virtually any community can do, even really small communities. It is a model that has been successful in many Australian communities and elsewhere in the world. Each project has quickly been subscribed as investors are keen for a guaranteed return and to be ethical. In some places in Germany the community even owns its own electricity distribution networks. (Take that you greedy corporate pigs )
On a Global scale there is GENI, (Global Energy Network Institute) http://www.geni.org/ Decades ago, visionary engineer Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller developed the World Game simulation, posing the question: How do we make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone? GENI was the answer.
In short the benefits of this sustainable development world electric power solution are:
• Decreased pollution from fossil and nuclear fuels
• Reduced hunger and poverty in developing nations
• Increased trade, cooperation and world peace
• Enables health care, communications and access to clean water
• Stabilized population growth
The interconnection of electric power networks between regions and continents into a global energy grid, with an emphasis on tapping abundant renewable energy resources — can create a world wide web of electricity. Remember there's always somewhere on the planet where the sun is shining and the wind is blowing and half the planet is working and half sleeping. Technically GENI is feasible by any measure. However politically ..., there's your problem. For countries to co-operate and agree to not to war with each other so as to maintain the integrity of a global energy grid, that requires global leadership that seems to be lacking at present. Still if we don't do something soon, more drastic solutions may be forced upon us.
This is just an example of two solutions, one local, one global. There are many more and we all should do our bit to support good effective solutions to make this planet a better place. Just complaining how bad something is doesn't usually help. Laying the blame on Governments, Corporates, and other parties without doing your best to make the changes we need in our own lives/communities/countries to make this a better planet isn't going to work.
My community has just experienced unprecedented bushfires, preceded by unprecedented drought as well as unprecedented high temperatures. An area greater in size than the country of Austria has burnt and the fires are still not all under control. This has woken up many complacent Australians who thought that coal mining is a great way for our country to make a buck and climate change was something that wouldn't affect them. So far more than 2000 homes, plus hundreds of businesses, farms and other assets have been lost to fire. The fires at one period extended for over 1000 km along the east coast of Australia. People huddled on the beach watching their waterfront homes burn, rainforests which had been stable ecosystems without fire for thousands of years burned. Billions of native animals have died, many ecosystems have been scorched beyond recovery.
In Australia we were warned. Scientists, fire chiefs, natural resource managers and others with relevant qualifications in climate science said years ago this could happen. Successive governments said it was just scare mongering and ignored them.
It's been really bad people, you don't want this happening in your country. Make the changes in your own life to make this planet a better place.