advertisement


Electric cars and voltage drops and hifi

The civil engineering challenge to create hydro stations in remote or difficult to reach terrain is a big issue and pushes costs way up, generally speaking areas naturally suited for hydro stations are not suited to the heavy industry needed to create them. Even seen the costs of trying to get concrete or a large crane to remote location off grid, its scary.
It not a coincidence that hydro stations have decent road network as generally its cheaper to construct roads than try to bring a large scale building site across rough terrain.
 
say it as it is said:
The civil engineering challenge to create hydro stations in remote or difficult to reach terrain is a big issue and pushes costs way up, generally speaking areas naturally suited for hydro stations are not suited to the heavy industry needed to create them. Even seen the costs of trying to get concrete or a large crane to remote location off grid, its scary.
It not a coincidence that hydro stations have decent road network as generally its cheaper to construct roads than try to bring a large scale building site across rough terrain.
Click to expand...
Not to mention the fact that, in creating a new lake, you have to flood an area. This is hugely damaging to local ecosystems, and the methane given off by rotting vegetation can be equivalent to several years of CO2 savings once the plant is operational. Hydro is very, very far from a panacea.
 
agreed a lot of the time what looks like a green solution is far from it sadly.
I return the point each building or structure needs to generate some form of energy reduce the demand
the issue as said before is how to store energy until its required as very few genuine carbon neutral are truly reactive.
yes Nuclear energy is far from clean or cheap and has many draw backs I accept that, but the potential yields are huge.
short of a clever way of storing colossal amounts of energy so it can be used on demand I fear the options are limited
 
davidsrsb said:
Huge solar arrays in N Africa is a better solution. Covering arable land in panels is madness. The long distance transmission is easy enough.
Click to expand...
It was though that wars would be about securing water resources. It's not hard to see that it could easily be about access to power generation.
 
parts of Spain have huge solar arrays that move to achieve maximum efficiency, yes of course the climate is better suited but the concept is sound and produces enough energy to offset the renew lost from farming. Point is even in this dull country we do not utilize solar energy, look at some of the huge commercial buildings out there if you have ever had to scale one of those roofs the steel work can be warm to the touch in daylight. The misconception that solar needs bright red hot sunshine has damaged the image I feel.

Long distance transmission is possible but not easy, it still does not solve the issue of power storage that is the key to making renewable work, having a suitable reserve of power to draw on when needed.

also there is lot other areas not utilised in this country we don't need to look abroad
 
i think what even in the dark times were in just now ignoring the fact that we are heading towards disaster unless huge and meaningful change takes affect soon, either we drastically reduce our overall energy consumption or we need generate colossal amounts of additional energy to compensate. Do nothing and we simply wont have enough power
 
say it as it is said:
i think what even in the dark times were in just now ignoring the fact that we are heading towards disaster unless huge and meaningful change takes affect soon, either we drastically reduce our overall energy consumption or we need generate colossal amounts of additional energy to compensate. Do nothing and we simply wont have enough power
Click to expand...

I've posted this before https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/...-energy-from-1-of-the-sahara/?sh=1a37ff1ed440

We have a massive amount of power reaching the Earth from the Sun. Its people/countries/governments that are in the way of progress.

Cheers,

DV
 
I would hazard a guess that the mining and processing of raw materials plus energy used in manufacture etc combined with building of new power stations and infrastructure and pollution from the power stations (assuming not all wind power etc) will cause vastly greater environmental damage than continuing with the current greener ICE with lean burn, catalytic converters, particulate filters etc and that for now the best bet is to keep these running for as long as possible and mandate that new ones should have a 20 year plus service life.

Call me cynical.... but I reckon the motives for the push to electric are the usual capitalism ones rather than green issues. All those profits to be made from scrapping all the cars on the road and making everyone buy a new electric one, the jobs and new factories to make magnets and batteries etc (Bozo the clown was up here recently at a newly opened vehicle battery plant), the contracts to make the new power stations, the charging equipment, the civil engineering contracts to dig up roads for more cabling and to build new "super electric car parks" with charging points in every bay etc etc etc... and imagine the environmental costs of all that! But all that filthy lucre for huge civil engineering PLC's and car companies eh... and their tory shareholders and hedge funds etc etc plus lashings of "directorships" for MP's afterwards.

Of course cheap, efficient and subsidised public transport, even better than it was back in the 50's, combined with encouraging people not to buy cars and to travel less, especially air travel, is the way to go in green terms but the capitalists won't want that and so the re-educating of the public to except... want even, such change won't happen and any attempts by the like's of Greenpeace etc to bring such change will be fiercely fought off with the usual "tree hugger loony's" bollox and selfish tory types who think it is their "right" to be able to drive 400 miles in a 5 litre SUV on "freedom" grounds and any attempt to stop them is "socialist pinko propaganda".
 
say it as it is said:
agreed but until major infrastructure changes are made to allow change I don't think regulation alone can achieve a successful outcome, EVs point in case just banning ICs without having the full support and charging networks and making EVs truly affordable with decent range is destined to fail.
Click to expand...

There will always be ICE vehicles, fire engines, police cars, ambulances, lorries etc so there will always be oil based fuel to power them, all be it a small amount compared to now...
 
hal9001 said:
Result. After looking at the data Northern Powergrid have told me there is an issue with excessive voltage drop and they are going to decouple my supply from my neighbour with no cost to myself. It seems that it is actually worth complaining.
Click to expand...

Does your neighbour even need to charge that fast? Plugged my daughter's car into a standard extension lead and it would have co0mpleted a full charge overnight.

Good to get a result from any public utility though!
 
Don't think they care. Just plug in and switch on. I'm just happy that the incoming supply will be split and I'll be subject to the normal fluctuations in voltage. At least they measured it, analysed the data and found the problem. If you share a supply with your neighbour and they buy an electric car and you run a hifi then beware. I'm now wondering if they could run some "audiophile" power cable.......
 
I live in a condo with three phase. Only 4 floors down to my car park spaces, so a charging point would be feasible.
 
I'm surprised this was only an issue with a 7kW car charger. Do you not have electric ovens, washing machines and kettles?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top