Opinion Green Energy Sucks

[Prutfis]

have you tried moving to a first world country....well, there is only one, and that one being America???

Lol. Good one

 

[woodguyatl]

Yes, even at university (place with a strong liberal bias) they taught us that no form of green energy can be implemented on a large scale and they're all unreliable.

China and the 3 Gorges Damn would like to have a word with you.

 

[rob mafia]

China and the 3 Gorges Damn would like to have a word with you.

the dam that's been on the verge of catastrophic collapse?

 

[Texan6533]

For the most part, green energy is something well worth researching and improving, but full scale replacement of fossil fuels in America is a pipe dream for at least another few decades.

 

[Possum Jenkins]

I’m all about green energy, but a world without gas powered travel is a looong way off. People like their road trips and rv’s and boats and airplanes. And nobody with a family wants to stop every 200 miles for an hour to fill up.

A 200-mile range is the bare minimum for Teslas these days. Figures that in a decade or so, 300 could be the standard. And that's about how long a full tank of gas lasts anyway so you're stopping no matter what.

The only difference would be in charging time. Instead of a couple of minutes for gas, it's around 30 minutes for batteries presently. BUT, it's looking to go down to 5-10 minutes pretty soon:

https://www.wired.com/story/charge-...ew Formula E cars,battery in about 10 minutes.

Going 100% without gasoline is a long ways away, true. But going 50-60% would be a giant step and is totally doable.

 

[sickc0d3r]

A 200-mile range is the bare minimum for Teslas these days. Figures that in a decade or so, 300 could be the standard. And that's about how long a full tank of gas lasts anyway so you're stopping no matter what.

The only difference would be in charging time. Instead of a couple of minutes for gas, it's around 30 minutes for batteries presently. BUT, it's looking to go down to 5-10 minutes pretty soon:

https://www.wired.com/story/charge-a-car-battery-in-5-minutes-thats-the-plan/#:~:text=The new Formula E cars,battery in about 10 minutes.

Going 100% without gasoline is a long ways away, true. But going 50-60% would be a giant step and is totally doable.

Glad to see they’re getting that charging time down, that will be a game changer, imo.

Im down for anything that reduces combustion engine usage as much as possible. Cutting it in half would be amazing. In the US our infrastructure is a pile of shit, though. I think we need to expand access to alternative ways to commute, first and foremost. This topic always makes me think of that line from the movie Singles. People love their cars (I’m one of them).

 

[dreden1982]

What the fuck are you even talking about? What does green energy have to do with your power going out you incoherent lunatic?

 

[Prutfis]

A 200-mile range is the bare minimum for Teslas these days. Figures that in a decade or so, 300 could be the standard. And that's about how long a full tank of gas lasts anyway so you're stopping no matter what.

The only difference would be in charging time. Instead of a couple of minutes for gas, it's around 30 minutes for batteries presently. BUT, it's looking to go down to 5-10 minutes pretty soon:

https://www.wired.com/story/charge-a-car-battery-in-5-minutes-thats-the-plan/#:~:text=The new Formula E cars,battery in about 10 minutes.

Going 100% without gasoline is a long ways away, true. But going 50-60% would be a giant step and is totally doable.

That would take some major overhauling of the power grid. A few nuclear plants and couple million chargers need placing. Its not just a matter of switching the cars to electric

 

[Possum Jenkins]

Im down for anything that reduces combustion engine usage as much as possible. Cutting it in half would be amazing. In the US our infrastructure is a pile of shit, though. I think we need to expand access to alternative ways to commute, first and foremost. This topic always makes me think of that line from the movie Singles. People love their cars (I’m one of them).

Yeah, an improved public transport system is a must. Which must be coupled with greater residential density. The northeast cities have the right idea. Look at all those cities above 20%

https://www.governing.com/gov-data/car-ownership-numbers-of-vehicles-by-city-map.html

But the southern cities are a tragedy. Most are in the single digits. But it's totally a necessity. I live in Houston and don't know a single adult that doesn't have his/her own car. Which means 3-4 cars for every single household.

If given a choice, I'd walk or take a train or bike most places. But no, I have to drive absolutely everywhere.

 

[Possum Jenkins]

That would take some major overhauling of the power grid. A few nuclear plants and couple million chargers need placing. Its not just a matter of switching the cars to electric

That's fine. And we could start that huge undertaking now. In fact, we should have started years ago.

But we're still debating its profitability. Never mind that it will cause incredible catastrophe by the end of the century, how much money can we make off of it, is the real question.

 

[Whippy McGee]

We've been having a ton of rolling power outages this year, never has it been this bad.

I cant count how many power outages I've had these few months since covid, probably a dozen by now. How the hell am I suppose to work from home when the power keeps cutting out?

We have programs here to let the electric company disable our AC, I dont even use AC and rely on fans for the sake of the community. Useless.

During this heatwave, we have terribly stagnant air, and the wind energy simply is not producing shit when we need it most. Fires arent helping with the solar production either. One of the outages fried the PC board on my fridge...... samsung fridges suck ass, fuse didnt even trip.

I have worked in the Energy Industry for over a decade. Full disclosure, most of my customers are the nation's nuclear plants, but some fossil too.

Shutting down our nation's nuclear plants without replacing the baseload energy with something else (natural gas is all we got at this time, unless you want coal) is pure stupidity. San Onofre Nuclear got shut down in California and we lost over $500,000,000 a year in Carbon Free energy. Diablo Canyon will be shut down in 2024 and it will be even worse. We try to replace it with out of state energy, but when it is hot there too... were are shit out of luck.

The move should be towards Small Modular Reactors. They use the nuclear waste from our current plants as fuel. They have zero meltdown potential and can be placed virtually anywhere. But, we have many fighting them, because Energy is big business and it's real viable competition.

SOLAR - Solar power is stupid as fuck if you are making Solar Plants, however local solar on houses, buildings, parking structures is smart and that should be the direction of solar.

SMR's now, keep working on Fusion, and put solar locally. That is how it should go. We may want to add some Natural Gas plants until we are at a good volume, but that should be our plant if we were intelligent.

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

I put up a couple solar panels and cannot believe my electricity is gone now that coal mines have closed.

 

[sickc0d3r]

Yeah, an improved public transport system is a must. Which must be coupled with greater residential density. The northeast cities have the right idea. Look at all those cities above 20%

https://www.governing.com/gov-data/car-ownership-numbers-of-vehicles-by-city-map.html

But the southern cities are a tragedy. Most are in the single digits. But it's totally a necessity. I live in Houston and don't know a single adult that doesn't have his/her own car. Which means 3-4 cars for every single household.

If given a choice, I'd walk or take a train or bike most places. But no, I have to drive absolutely everywhere.

One positive to consider is this new embrace (thanks to Covid) of the telecommute culture. I really hope it becomes more the norm than the exception.

As far as trains go I’d definitely ride the rails if it was an option where I live. Also, trolleys would be the tits. Why the fvck aren’t there more trolleys, seriously?

 

[Possum Jenkins]

One positive to consider is this new embrace (thanks to Covid) of the telecommute culture. I really hope it becomes more the norm than the exception.

As far as trains go I’d definitely ride the rails if it was an option where I live. Also, trolleys would be the tits. Why the fvck aren’t there more trolleys, seriously?

An actual, literal conspiracy by car, tire, and fuel companies led to its demise

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy

Then suburbanization finished it all off:

From the mid-1930s onward, suburban communities themselves underwent physical changes and increasingly were planned, as Michael Berger suggested, “with the assumption that the car would be the major mode of transportation for their inhabitants.” The new highways as well as other technologies—septic tanks, longer range electrical transmission lines, and power-driven water pumps—made it practical for developers to buy up farmland for new subdivisions at great distances from metropolitan centers. Newer suburban communities also were designed for automobiles with stores, schools, churches, and recreational and cultural centers geared toward motorized transportation, not pedestrians—drive-in markets, drive-in movies, drive-in churches.

http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Environment/E_Casestudy/E_casestudy12.htm

I really wouldn't mind living an NYC-type of lifestyle. But presently, the only place in the whole damn country you can do that in is NYC.

 

[ocean size]

Didn't look like it on the first page but ITT did @chardog or anyone else provide evidence that renewable energy is the cause of his outages

 

[HeffDoesWant]

Didn't look like it on the first page but ITT did @chardog or anyone else provide evidence that renewable energy is the cause of his outages

Nup.

 

[chardog]

Didn't look like it on the first page but ITT did @chardog or anyone else provide evidence that renewable energy is the cause of his outages

5 or 6 posts down

edit: post 10

 

[ocean size]

5 or 6 posts down

edit: post 10

ah k I see the article. Interesting, he points out that this isn't due to the 'dependability' issues of renewables i.e. cloudy day or no wind, it was a mismatch with the known characteristics of solar generation - it always scales down at night. Management issue.

This one is interesting, everyone is pointing fingers at each other but there's at least some reason to think the unknown type of plant that switched off was gas.
https://www.politico.com/states/cal...-in-19-years-and-everyone-faces-blame-1309757

But there was no technical reason this had to happen bc renewables, ultimately this is a grid management failure. The generation capacity is there for the necessary reserves even with the phasing in of solar.

 

[chardog]

ah k I see the article. Interesting, he points out that this isn't due to the 'dependability' issues of renewables i.e. cloudy day or no wind, it was a mismatch with the known characteristics of solar generation - it always scales down at night. Management issue.

This one is interesting, everyone is pointing fingers at each other but there's at least some reason to think the unknown type of plant that switched off was gas.
https://www.politico.com/states/cal...-in-19-years-and-everyone-faces-blame-1309757

But there was no technical reason this had to happen bc renewables, ultimately this is a grid management failure. The generation capacity is there for the necessary reserves even with the phasing in of solar.

the article is somewhat inaccurate. by 6:30, my power was back on, I was cut around 4-4:30pm.

our reliance on wind and solar is pretty big, we have a massive solar and wind farms in san bernadino county. We also had fires, so temps were 10 degrees above reported, AC demand up the roof. Solar is less effective because of our orange skies, and we had no wind blowing, it was a hot and muggy week. Wind production gone down the gutter as well as solar. I have no idea where you can find realtime energy production, however you can find historical data, and I have little doubt, it will be in the gutter for August.

 

[superpunch]

That's fine. And we could start that huge undertaking now. In fact, we should have started years ago.

But we're still debating its profitability. Never mind that it will cause incredible catastrophe by the end of the century, how much money can we make off of it, is the real question.

For all you know we'll all be robots by then, or global warming will be solved by carbon eating microbes. You have no idea. How can you possibly predict what will happen by the end of the century? Seems a little arrogant.