Posted on 02/16/2021 11:16:01 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It would seem to Xiden that Soylent Green is the best form of energy.
“You need to supplement them with NatGas, coal, etc...to meet sudden excess demand during cold snaps or very hot weather conditions where there is sudden widespread demand.”
Or we need to build some really big batteries.... don’t even need to be electrical batteries. We could pump water uphill to a reservoir when there is low demand, then let it run back through a hydro dam when demand spikes.
Nukes are the only real green energy.
And some of the new generation of reactors safe, and don’t generate much waste - they burn it!
We have enough nuclear energy on earth to last for millennia. By that time, we will certainly got the handle on the controlled thermonuclear fusion (the hydrogen bomb) which has the energy potential of a lot more than even that.
Other energy sources will be found by then!
The irrational fear of nuclear energy is totally unscientific. There were less than 100 people killed at Chernobyl, about the same amount of people killed that day on US roads!
Radioactivity is not that bad, actually lower doses seems to be goo to you! The present day safety standards (developed from extrapolation of Hiroshima research) are overly conservative, the safety factors build in are just extreme, but everybody is in fear of lawsuits if they ever relax them.
Places with high level of natural radiation are known for being healthy spas with lower than average cancer case.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsar,_Mazandaran
Ramsar, the most radioactive place on Earth is famous spa, where Shah of Iran used to have his summer palace. That place has natural radioactivity about 10x more than considered safe by present day science, yet people live there happily for millennia.
On the flip side, places with very low natural radiation are known for high occurrence of cancer.
That suggest that we really need some level of radiation for healthy life!
The natural radiation on Earth is (very!) slowly decaying, life on Earth developed under at least 10x radiation levels and everything was OK then. This decay of radiation is linked to decaying vulcanism on Earth and decaying levels of CO2! (Most CO2 on Earth comes from volcanoes.)
That seems to be one (main) reason for overall cooling trend of the Earth and the ice ages, as well as explaining why Earth is not hotter, than it should be, given that Sun output has risen at least 10% over last billion of years and continues to rise.
Just to clarify, the decaying of CO2 levels are on million years scale! Co2 levels were substantially higher in time of dinosaurs (like 5x) then they are even now.
On the scale of last 6000 years, as Earth rebounds from the last ice age, CO2 levels rose.
You have the same reclamation costs for any strip mine. Wyoming has sub bituminous, not bituminous. The benefit of Wyomng Powder River Basin subbituinous is low sulfur and nowhere near as much furnace slagging as lignite.
You can deal with slagging — it’s been done successfully for decades. Cyclone burners were a slag-lined high-temperature vortex burner. High temperatures leading to high NOx were problems.
“They are constant output generators”
Yes, it takes awhile to start and stop them. Also, coal and natural gas steam circuits need to slowly warmed and cooled because of thermal stresses on the large, thick pipes and casings.
Those gas turbine generators, basically built out of sheet metal, can be stopped and started quickly.
These solar and wind generators — how much does the government help pay for them?
That was God’s way of telling you that green energy is BS.
And how much fuel is that helicopter burning and what’s happening to the propylene glycol that’s dripping onto the ground?
“And how much fuel is that helicopter burning and what’s happening to the propylene glycol that’s dripping onto the ground?
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Not to worry...perhaps the De-icer is falling on the snow which is melting so that the solar panel will work, and the helicopter will blow away the fumes so everyone will be green again. Now, what will we do about those Cow-farts???
Years before 3 Mile Island and the “China Syndrome” movie, Dr Petr Beckmann wrote a small but pertinent book, “The Health Hazards of (NOT) Going Nuclear”. I read it then and from my memories now it is probably more true than ever! But you have the dedicated and more than slightly fanatical anti-nuke crowd. They will kill you before they allow this Frankenstein-ian monster to be resurrected!
The main reason for the end of lignite mining in Texas was the vast reserves of natural gas that have been found, thus making lignite-fired plants non-competitive. That is why you see long coal trains headed down from Amarillo with “sub-bituminous” coal in them to take the place of the lignite. From what I have heard, many of the plants have switched over to natural gas.
California built many gas-fired combined cycle plants because they were cheap, gas was cheap, and (when they were built) “clean” and low-carbon.
The green kooks changed their minds and decided CH4 has too much C in it and they have shut down a lot of the gas plants.
Frankly, the whole situation is criminal. You should use coal and lignite to make electricity and save natural gas for high-value uses like home and commercial heating, making fertilizer, etc.
That is true but the commies have convinced everyone through the media that coal is “dirty”. It is probably one of the most regulated entities in America. They like to show stacks belching out thick columns of “pollution,” which mostly is water vapor. Why West Virginia still has any democrats that govern in their state is beyond me.
I’m still reading with interest the observations, science and hypotheses behind gamma ray bursts and its atmospheric effects.
Fascinating.
Texas shut down several coal and lignite power plants during the Obama years. Bet they wish they had them back now.
When we started up our 450 MW coal fired Power Plant, the locals were terrified it would blow up and wipe out the local area, as Three Mile Island was in the news. We were a coal Plant! It still scared them.
Stupidity in action.
It was the fear of Three Mile Island that got the Black Fox nuke plant in Oklahoma then under construction, shut down.
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