Posted on 04/03/2021 10:38:50 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
“Most workers work daylight hours, which is the time the sun shines.”
Except those times in North Texas and other places in winter where you have gray skies for weeks at a time.
And it sure is efficient, strip mining all the rare earths and copper it will take for electric cars and this massive new infrastructure.
Gasoline works fine and we will have it for a thousand years if we want. These useless electric cars are a scam push by those who want them forced on us.
AMEN
Winters (in northern states at least) we drive to work in the dark and then drive back home in the dark. If you work in a factory or someplace with windows it’s possible to miss having daylight for days or even weeks.
My commute was 60 miles each way but more accurately measured was 90 minutes into work and 150 minutes (average) home. Some trips I needed to take into remote areas necessitated carrying a jerry can or two. I have driven with the “needle on empty” and never liked it. I imagine that I would be living with that as a constant companion with the current crop of EV’s.
I own several vehicles and so invested in solar battery tenders for the ones that don’t see regular use. They work great in the spring through late summer but don’t keep up with demand in the fall & winter. So occasional charging is a practical necessity.
I can see the market for electric vehicles but doubt that I will ever be a part of it. I like my gas guzzlers too much!
“Helpful thoughts and personal experiences”
Well, a very helpful thought I have is never try to arm wrestle with a cobra.
They don’t have arms.
As far as personal experiences, there was this one time I was arm wrestling this cobra, only it was a spitting cobra and he hocked up a big one and let it fly at me and it landed on my new Yamaha t-shirt, so I kicked him under the table. I don’t know if you’ve ever been kicked in your under the table, but it hurts like heck and he let go of my hand.
And that’s how I won the Cobra Arm Wrestling Trophy in Paris, France back in 1983.
For Dallas for the rest of April, I see two fully cloudy days forecast:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/dallas/75202/april-weather/351194
Accuweather says that Dallas is now cloudy.
Nice.
“The clearer part of the year in Dallas begins around May 28 and lasts for 5.6 months, ending around November 17. On October 5, the clearest day of the year, the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 74% of the time, and overcast or mostly cloudy 26% of the time.
“The cloudier part of the year begins around November 17 and lasts for 6.4 months, ending around May 28. On February 24, the cloudiest day of the year, the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy 46% of the time, and clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 54% of the time.”
https://weatherspark.com/y/8813/Average-Weather-in-Dallas-Texas-United-States-Year-Round
Technological solutions in a world driven by political ideologies and corrupt profit motives is just an academic exercise. The entire ‘green’ movement and the unrealistic push to make everything run on batteries made from chinese lithium that plug into rainbow magic juice receptacles is just but one example of the lunacy. A few profit handsomely by being on the inside track of the political game and everyone else is a slave to that vision.
“My commute was 60 miles each way but more accurately measured was 90 minutes into work and 150 minutes (average) home....I can see the market for electric vehicles but doubt that I will ever be a part of it.”
You are one reason among millions why Mike Bloomberg aimed for 90%.
If electric vehicle propulsion was so great they would have continued it within the cities over a hundred years ago.
Yes that is correct, they had electric vehicles back then.
Take the longest range Tesla and deduct 40% off the range. Thats how far you can travel. Never go below 40% on the remaining charge for reasons others can explain.
“Technological solutions in a world driven by political ideologies and corrupt profit motives is just an academic exercise.”
The capitalistic streetcar business once much reviled by leftists was pretty much put out of business by market forces (and gasoline tax-funded government road paving efforts).
“If electric vehicle propulsion was so great they would have continued it within the cities over a hundred years ago.”
It was easy to drive to a place and say fill ‘er up.
You pretty much had to have a wired-up garage on your own property for your electric car.
Farmers didn’t have the practical option of electric cars since farms almost always lacked electricity and farmers were the people most in need of having a car.
China has the lithium market cornered in forethought of what was going to happen to batteries...another black eye for China Joe, and Pelosi & Squad.
“If electric vehicle propulsion was so great they would have continued it within the cities over a hundred years ago.”
Do you mean the city buses? If so, very good point.
But actually the old-time electric buses use overhead wires. They’re still around, aren’t they, like in San Francisco?
“China has the lithium market cornered in forethought of what was going to happen to batteries”
It’s the rare earth market that they have cornered, which is actually a bigger problem.
Given the tremendous Chinese dominance in rare earths, Biden’s desire to sign up to the Paris accord marks him as demented.
“China...market cornered”
I suggested that:
Vehicle manufacturers should endeavor to build multi-year crucial raw material stockpiles.
Fuel cell technology would be a much better alternative than trying to make some kind of battery array that would charge as quickly as putting gasoline or Diesel fuel in a tank, and the supply chain would have swap-out tanks on “trade and go” means of dispensing the power supply.
Works for propane tanks.
Now, if people want a reliable power grid to plug into, the very means of generation of that electricity would have to be rethought. Atomic energy, at one time, was supposed to provide electricity so cheaply it would not even be necessary to meter it, just a flat fee for every residence. But the Luddites and troglodytes resisted, and fought tooth and nail to PREVENT, by any means necessary, to keep uranium fueled light water reactors from gaining universal adoption. They were sort of right, as regards Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, where some really disastrous and catastrophic events drew some very bad press for ALL nuclear power plants.
But there is a way to use nuclear power in a much safer manner than demonstrated by those events. Use of thorium fueled molten salt plants removes virtually every objection to a uranium-fueled nuclear reactor. Molten salt reactors CANNOT have catastrophic meltdown, or a “runaway reaction”, they do not generate long-lived radioactive isotopes as part of their atomic “ash”, and they can even use “spent” uranium fuel rods (in which some 95% of the energy is still IN the rod), to initiate the fission reaction in the thorium fuel mixture. Widespread adoption of this technology would assure plentiful electrical energy production, with a more available fuel, and the plant, because of its inherent safety factor, could be located within highly populated centers, reducing the need for extended grids.
These plants can be run 24/7/365 at near maximum output, providing baseline power at all times, and with the addition of auxiliary peak power demand generation capability, provide a degree of reliability equal to or better than ever enjoyed in the modern industrial world.
Is it feasible? Yes. Do we have the will to put this technology to use? That is much more iffy. But it is still much more attainable than rainbow sparks or unicorn farts.
Recycled our engine oil today.
RENEWABLE ENERGY.
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