Posted on 05/17/2024 1:22:17 AM PDT by Jonty30
That’s part of the consideration. If the upfront costs are large, but the operating and replacement costs are low, it could be worth doing.
I liked the Volt in concept, but its batteries were too large as I recall. I hope it makes a comeback, but with smaller and lighter batteries.
The liberals want a net zero carbon, no carbon whatsoever. They don’t want a civilization that has engineered its carbon use to beneficial for the environment, which probably could be done.
My city, for example, only sends about 10% of its garbage to the dump. Everything else gets into the recycling market. My city has done a fantastic job, so this stuff can be done. It is just the will and the willingness to have proper understanding.
For example, I’m aware that modern car actually cleans up the environment as it drives around collecting air particles that get changed when you change your filter.
We can do, but we are the carbon that environmentalists want to be rid of.
>> Consider for a moment, a generator for home. Most of us laugh at the idea of a solar generator and batteries to store power, etc.
I don’t laugh at that idea at all. In fact, I already have most of the components purchased (including the LiFePO4 batteries). Already I have a couple “point-of-use” solar devices in place in applications where they make sense.
(In addition I have a generator and some stored fuel, but what you say about running out definitely applies... unless you are tapped in to a gas well on your property, that generator is a short term convenience, not a total solution.)
I am funding 100% of my alternative energy out of my own pocket, though. Not one government dollar in any form, including subsidy. As you suggest, I’m doing it for reliability and energy continuity, not to save money. There’s nothing wrong with solar technology, properly applied.
>> It’s when the govt FORCES you to choose one or the other that things get messed up.
That, and when the govt FORCES you to PAY for someone else’s solar/wind/hydrogen/EV.
>> Store the power for night.
The scheme you reference in your OP doesn’t seem to be a photovoltaic system, but rather a direct-heat solar thingy.
If that’s true, then what DO you do at night? And a bigger problem, what if making steel requires several hours to raise it to melting point and then keep it molten?
It was a joke.
For me, these various alternatives are useful where and to the degree they are useful. They are not a complete solution, definitely not in the immediate future, but synergistically they can probably be part of a complete system.
>> It’s part of a death wish religion.
^^^^^ THAT ^^^^^ is the problem with militant environmentalism — succinctly stated. It’s literally a religion, and a nihilistic one.
>> It was a joke.
Whew! Good.
>> For me, these various alternatives are useful where and to the degree they are useful.
Nothing wrong with experimenting, as long as it’s not on my (broke) government’s nickel.
“No carbon” begs the question, though.
The people who promote “no carbon” have yet to prove that their goal serves any real problem.
But there are practical pros and cons. For example, DoodleBob is in New Jersey, which gives him different power needs than I have in Alabama. Plus New Jersey gets less solar. Lastly, when NJ needs the most energy is in the winter (though I imagine most NJ homeowners use gas or oil heating, so maybe not as much power needed). Unfortunately, in the winter is when you get less sun. Conversely in Alabama we use the most energy keeping our house cool in the summer --- which is when we get the most sun.
About emergency power after a hurricane, I don't get hurricane weather in the northern portion of Alabama. But we get tornados. Usually the next day after a tornado the sky is clear -- good for solar. Is that what it's like after a hurricane knocks out power? Or do you have days of rainy weather (read: little sunshine)?
When a tornado hits here it's usually in the late afternoon/early evening (in other words, my solar power has a long time to charge my home batteries before the tornado hits). Thus, if a tornado was to knock out my power I'm probably running on home solar/battery power all night anyway. Especially since most tornados are in the spring or fall (calm temperature weather: meaning I don't have to consume a lot of power running the HVAC and have plenty of power in my batteries for the home). So if a tornado knocked out our grid power I wouldn't know it except for my solar app notifying me that there was a problem with the grid (it often dings me when it detects "dirty power").
Nope. Let's be real.
My home batteries lose 10% through the process of storing the charge from solar, holding the charge for hours until night, then releasing the charge as my home needs power in the evening (or when it rains). How do I know this? Because my inverters reported that in all of 2023, 12,066.7kWh of excess solar was sent to my batteries, while only 10,880.5kWh was pulled from batteries when solar wasn't enough (i.e. at night). So right away, even with home solar and very mild power demands (relative to a steel shop), resorting to batteries means losing 10% off the bat.
Then there's the conversion loss when going from DC power to AC power. I can see with my EV going from AC to DC while charging it, I lose at least 10.8%. If I was to charge my EV at night (directly from battery instead of solar, which I sometimes do), then this 10.8% loss would be on top of the 10% loss of battery storage. So a 21% total loss. Assuming there's an equivalent 11% loss when going from DC power to AC (like running the steel mill from solar and/or batteries), we're now talking a 21% loss of energy to run the steel mill at night and on rainy days.
Then there's the wear and tear on batteries of high power demands.. For example, my EV's battery has a 10-year warranty, but my home solar batteries have 19-year warranties. Why? Because driving the EV means a high demand on the battery. Maybe not all day (unless I'm driving a long trip). But when I need power in my EV, I need lots of it. How much more does a steel mill demand on power? And if the solar system is able to charge those batteries for night use, then we're talking about really fast charging too. That'd be too much hard wear and tear on batteries.
It was a joke. Batteries only store about 6-7% of the energy that hydrocarbons can.
And sustained??
I think the “solar oven” that Edmund Scientific sold decades ago could easily reach 1000 C at the focal point of its Fresnel lens. Anyway, hard to imagine a steel mill that only works in the daytime on sunny days. 8 hr startup time and then shut down for the night.
My vote is still for oil, coal, nuclear reactors and deep geothermal. Fusion maybe someday. Plenty of valid options without wind/solar crap.
It can vaporize lots of bald eagles and other birds.
It’s an interesting technology that might be employable during the day and then they switch over to hydrocarbons at night. What is really missing, that prevents society from adopting alternatives, is the ability to flick a switch that allows you to seamlessly switch between a powerplant and homegrown power.
I’m sure - be scary to see any of them fly to the heart of that beast
[It’s literally a religion]
They like to feel like they’re “doing good”
If they put as much effort, (all of this effort) into the Gospel, great would be their reward in Eternity
The root word of fossil means something that is dug up or removed from the ground.
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