Posted on 12/01/2020 5:15:01 PM PST by george76
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that electricity consumption will double if the world’s car fleets are electrified, increasing the need to expand nuclear, solar, geothermal and wind energy generating sources.
Increasing the availability of sustainable energy is a major challenge as cars move from combustion engines to battery-driven electric motors, a shift which will take two decades, Musk said in a talk hosted by Berlin-based publisher Axel Springer.
There’s no unicorn energy source or free lunch. Currently, electric cars are primarily powered by coal, natural gas, and nuclear. Those are the sources we use to generate electricity, after all, according to the Energy Information Agency. Renewables are growing but still account for less than 20% of U.S. electricity.
There’s no free lunch when it comes to renewable energy source, which may not even be all that renewable. Wind and sun are free, but the means of generating power from them are not.
They require batteries, which requires extensive mining and the use of toxic chemicals.
Mining is a dirty business.
...
Tens of thousands of aging blades are coming down from steel towers around the world and most have nowhere to go but landfills. In the U.S. alone, about 8,000 will be removed in each of the next four years.
...
the blades can’t easily be crushed, recycled or repurposed. That’s created an urgent search for alternatives in places that lack wide-open prairies. In the U.S., they go to the handful of landfills that accept them, in Lake Mills, Iowa; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Casper, where they will be interred in stacks that reach 30 feet ..
Removing them and transporting them to landfills increases windmills’ energy footprint over time.
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more electric cars will require more electric generation.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
He wants them to fly every day. Trip from NY to Shanghai in 39 minutes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0
2 minute video
“Does anybody ever consider just how much electric energy it takes to push a two ton vehicle down the road?”
Less than the gasoline energy required.
Someone finally showed him the energy balance
What I mean is that China (a big chunk of the world demand) is going to use less oil by converting to coal fired electric ones.
As a smart guy on CNBC once said “China has central planning by scientists, engineers, and mathematicians and the US has central planning by lawyers. Neither is good, but by definition we lose.”
I worked at a power company.
For true applies to applies comparison, you have to include all the energy requirements to produce electricity with all the energy requirements to produce oil, not just the efficiency of electricity and oil. That calculation has to include the creation of all the industrial components behind the energy source.
Most folks do not address this (very complex) issue at all.
“Till then electric cars are garbage and will be junked before there is “clean” energy for any of them.”
Why?
Coal is missing from the mix? He's nuts if he thinks nukes will get built. And geothermal is a boutique source that doesn't amount to a hill of unicorn farts.
It is IMPOSSIBLE, ABSOLUTELY FREAKING IMPOSSIBLE to meet our energy needs with solar and wind. It is too diffuse and way too expensive to capture in large quantities.
It only makes economic sense if you force all of your neighbors in your state pay exorbitant taxes to subsidize your little power plant toys with tax breaks. But there isn't enough subsidy cash in the universe to replace conventional generation.
Sea level rise?
You just gave me an idea. Dredge the ocean so that melting ice has somewhere to go, and build up coastlines!
It’s not any dumber than electric cars or wind turbines.
Oil, an interesting resource that is used to create over 6500 products, fuel is just a fraction of that. Try creating roads, roofing products, paints, plastics, lubricants, solvents, fertilizer, insulation, etc. without oil. Windmills can't create plastics.
“What I mean is that China (a big chunk of the world demand) is going to use less oil by converting to coal fired electric ones.”
China doesn’t use oil for electricity generation.
Really dumb post!
You want me to repeat this post and replies, only more slowly?
“You want me to repeat this post and replies, only more slowly?”
Dumb and dumber?
The solution to electric vehicles is roof mounted wind turbines on every electric car.
True. The public is dumber than a box of rocks. Incapable of rational thought. No common sense.
True. The public is dumber than a box of rocks. Incapable of rational thought. No common sense.
Why not dump them in the ocean? Are they inert?
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