Wind and Solar vs Coal, Gasoline, Nuclear

Sadly the most likely end to lead right now, is just being recycled back into another lead-acid battery.

TheBeastie said:
And even only recent models of Tesla cars don't have a lead "back up / auxiliary" battery in them any more, I couldn't believe it when I first read that even Teslas have a lead car battery in them as well, it should be all lithium ffs!
Hey!- one thing that lead cell can do, is still power something at stupid cold temps and take crazy shocks, which only until recently Tesla's were doing that (I found a fan blog about deep dives into the S, and they used to tear through Lead-acids on the regular because they never charged them right). I do agree that we can now replace them for Lithium-irons, but more car batteries also means sequestering lead out of the environment in some way.
 
Some places are trying, even when others say it's too expensive or it's impractical, and humans aren't really affecting the environment, lead is just a natural thing not a pollutant and releasing into the environment isn't bad, some things actually thrive on lead, etc.

Because actually, it's too important an issue not to try, right?


Nonlead Ammunition in California
"Effective July 1, 2019, nonlead ammunition is required when taking any wildlife with a firearm anywhere in California.

In October 2013, Assembly Bill 711 was signed into law requiring the use of nonlead ammunition when taking any wildlife with a firearm in California. This law required the California Fish and Game Commission to adopt regulations that phased-in the statute’s requirements by July 1, 2019".



https://wildlife.ca.gov/Hunting/Nonlead-Ammunition#:~:text=Effective%20July%201%2C%202019%2C%20nonlead,with%20a%20firearm%20in%20California.
 
Today, a typical EV battery weighs one thousand pounds. It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminium, steel, and plastic. Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.

It should concern you that all those toxic components come from mining. For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust for just one battery.
...There is virtually non-existing transparency of the environmental degradation and the human rights abuses occurring in developing countries with yellow, brown, and black skinned people. Both human rights abuses and environmental degradation are directly connected to the mining for the exotic minerals and metals that are required to manufacture wind turbines, solar panels, and EV batteries....
https://www.cfact.org/2022/06/07/is-it-ethical-to-purchase-a-lithium-battery-powered-ev/
 
So it seems “micro” nuclear reactors for power generation are coming soon.
$300m to design, build, test, and supply a 1-5 MW portable unit, seems like a bargain ?
Possibly $100m for production units ?..
...but even at $150m for a 5MW unit , it would still be better than an equivalent solar+ battery set up.
BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT) will build the first advanced nuclear microreactor in the United States under a contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO). The Project Pele full-scale transportable microreactor prototype will be completed and delivered in 2024 for testing at the Idaho National Laboratory.

SCO has partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy to develop, prototype and demonstrate a transportable microreactor that can provide a resilient power source to the DoD for a variety of operational needs that have historically relied on fossil fuel deliveries and extensive supply lines. Transportable microreactors deliver clean, zero-carbon energy where and when it is needed in a variety of austere conditions for not only the DoD, but also potential commercial applications for disaster response and recovery, power generation at remote locations, and deep decarbonization initiatives.

The prototype will be built under a cost-type contract valued at approximately $300 million, depending on options selected, by BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC in facilities in Lynchburg, Virginia and Euclid, Ohio. Over the next two years, ......

“We are on a mission to design, build and test new nuclear technology to protect the environment while providing power, and we are thrilled with this competitively bid award after years of hard work by our design and engineering team,” said Joe Miller, BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC president. “The entire nuclear industry recognizes that advanced reactors are an important step forward to support growing power needs and significant carbon reduction imperatives.”

Safe Design

The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) will operate at a power level between 1 and 5 MWe and will be transportable in commercially available shipping containers. It will be powered by TRISO fuel, a specific design of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel that can withstand extreme heat and has very low environmental risks.

The transportable reactor core and associated control system is designed to maintain safety under all conditions, including transitional conditions throughout transport. The fuel has been tested and verified to temperatures far exceeding the operating conditions of the reactor.

The transportable design consists of multiple modules that contain the microreactor’s components in 20-foot long, ISO-compliant CONEX shipping containers. The reactor is designed to be safely and rapidly moved by road, rail, sea or air. The entire reactor system is designed to be assembled on-site and operational within 72 hours. Shut down, cool down, disconnection and removal for transport is designed to occur in less than seven days.
https://interestingengineering.com/us-army-portable-nuclear-reactor-2024
 
Chickens coming home to roost ?
After decades of pandering to emission reduction demands and forcing the shutdown of numerous coal fired generators, whilst at the same time installing more Wind , Solar and battery storage, than most other western countries (per capita) ....
....the Australian government have now had to invoke Emergency Powers to take control of all grid generators, and fuel supplies, to ensure there are no major supply failures this winter.
Already industry are operating “Demand Management” routines, some even shutting down permantly due to the crazy hike in power costs,....and the population of most states have been requested to reduce power usage at peak times.
Mainly , this means they have seized control ( in true Socialist style), of the coal and gas generators to force them to keep supplying into a market that would normally be uneconomical for them due to a failed pricing model .
Ironically, they see the inability of Coal and gas to compensate for the lack of wind and solar during the winter, as a consequence of not having enough Win and Solar infrastructure ! :shock:
Convieniently ignoring the fact that no amount of wind or solar will help during a 7pm nation wide wind drought !
And one of the worlds biggest batteries is contributing less than 0.1% to peak demands.
It is a cluster Phuck on a national scale , all resulting from the brainless drive to reduce emissions.
 
ZeroEm said:
Wonder how it the advanced nuclear microreactor would handle being hit by a train. Oh! does that happen.

Can you tell me when a train stuck a nuclear facility ?
 
In reality the best fuel has always been that fraction of air we call oxygen, with out it many processes stop including ourselfs.

Ive yet to see a form of energy that has no degradation of life even the sun ages theres no way around it you want energy there for you must terraform simple as that.

Can we see thats what we do as we listen to the radio waiting for a green light even in a battery car ? Na its to deep and complex a matter only people with ocd think that deep.
 
Ianhill said:
In reality the best fuel has always been that fraction of air we call oxygen, with out it many processes stop including ourselfs.
........
And right up there along side it...maybe even more important, ?...is CO2 !
Together with Sunlight.
Without those, there is NO life on this planet .
 
ABC Australia just posted this new article, I always find it interesting when ABC posts such articles because I view them as the most pro-renewables major MSM news service out there...

Biogas supply chain emissions found to be higher than fossil fuel equivalent
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-06-20/biogas-has-hidden-climate-cost-emissions-warming-methane/101149894
Quote from article:
But a new study, published in the journal One Earth, claims emissions from biogas could be higher than we've been estimating, and there is significant work to be done to get its emissions down.

The researchers looked at data from European biogas producers.

They found the rate (not the total volume) of emissions along the biogas supply chain — from production through to supply — was comparable and generally higher than for natural gas, according to lead author Semra Bakkaloglu from the Imperial College London.

"The level of emissions was higher than we thought it would be," Dr Bakkaloglu said.

"At present, our results indicate [biogas emissions] are high — higher even than natural gas, which is clearly a worry.

Frankly I always saw biogas as bullshit, I mean if you think that burning trees has lower emissions than natural gas you got to have rocks in your head but that was the official established science.
And yes there are different types of biogas but most of it is really just coming down from burning trees and wood directly while they pretend to have a few advanced plants that do more magic and break it down to methane etc that would be about 10% maximum in my opinion.

To me for the "scientists" to turn around so many years after biogas and say it's as bad as fossil fuel tells me there wasn't any science behind it to begin with, they just wanted it to be true because countries like Germany generate a comparable amount of MWh in biogas as they do in solar and windfarms.

I still believe in removing emissions from cities etc, I believe until 4th gen nuclear is here we should aim for "emissions displacement", that is continue to run coal-power stations that are far away from the cities and charge our electric cars from it etc.

The recent Hazelwood power-station was a great example, it was 300km away from Melbourne and the local town area was lovely and green and the air felt very clean for the few I visited the place.

Hazelwood is completely gone now and there is no environmental mess left behind, restoring the site wasn't any more difficult than removing a shopping mall or something of similar size.
A side from the new lake there where the coal mine used to exist, the old Hazelwood site is almost an example of how clean coal can be after it has all been decommissioned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazelwood_Power_Station

If we can charge all our electric cars in Melbourne via it until 4th gen nuclear comes then I am fine with it, we get clean air in city of Melbourne and no one who is bothered by emissions has to live in the tiny town next to the Hazelwood or its next-door still operating power stations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6loj0kmrt2I
[youtube]6loj0kmrt2I[/youtube]

If Daniel Andrews state gov hadn't tripled the royalty tax to mine the coal that fed the Hazelwood power-station it would still probably be operating today.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victorias-own-mining-tax-to-triple-as-treasurer-gouges-brown-coal-for-revenue-20160422-gocymk.html

What was truly remarkable was Victoria's state leaders were so dumb they even warned Hazelwood operators to not dare increase electricity prices now they have tripled the state tax to mine the coal that fed the power-station. Hazelwood operators instantly called their bet by instead deciding to shutdown for ever!

Tripling of mining royalties won't impact electricity prices, treasurer says.

"The (energy) companies will need to be very careful about whether or not they see there is any value in attempting to pass on rather than absorb these negligible increases."
Electricity prices did triple in price due to no more competition left from reliable non-renewable electricity generators.
It has to be one of the stupidest things in history that is laid out so clearly I have seen in my life, but because it was a Labor government the MSM media reported it like they were doing Australia a huge smartly run favor. :roll:

The power of broadcast/cable media is epic in making people believe wind/solar renewables will lower their electricity bills.
https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/DE
^As you can look at Germany's massive 150,000MW (150GW) of installed wind/solar capacity at any time of the day and see that their coal power-stations are the most utilized.

https://www.electricrate.com/data-center/electricity-prices-by-country/
^And that Germany has the most expensive electricity in the world.

Only once all broadcast spectrum is re-allocated to internet only via 5G/6G mobile and public internet services like Starlink will the lies stop and bring balance to the force. :bolt:
The world will ALWAYS be retarded as long as broadcast media exists.
 
It would not be so disasterous if we had some leaders with enough balls to think through the bull5hit and make sensible decisions that are good for the country and the people.....rather than self serving Politicians who just protect their own interests.
 
Why would i want to throw myself into that bottomless swamp of corruption and power moungering ?
Many a good man better than I have tried ..Kennedy , Trump, etc.. and failed to have a lasting impact.
You cannot swim against the flow .
I am smart enough to know my limitations, ....and also at times see where others have exceeded their limitations !
 
Hillhater said:
Why would i want to throw myself into that bottomless swamp of corruption and power moungering ?
You cannot swim against the flow .
I am smart enough to know my limitations, ....and also at times see where others have exceeded their limitations !
If you ain't gonna do anything, why waste the energy to complain bitterly about it :lol: History is literally made by those who decided to carve their own path, or when societies changed beyond what their rich masters wanted of them and zeitgeist took hold.

I can think of nothing more pathetic, than someone crossing their arms and claiming nothing can be done when their nation literally just elected a party that hasn't been in power for 2 decades. It's really funny to watch you acting superior because you're lazy :lol:
 
CONSIDERABLE SHOUTING said:
If you ain't gonna do anything, why waste the energy to complain bitterly about it ....
Why do so many go to football/baseball games and bitch and moan about their teams performance ?
You could go to a UFC bout and yell at them what moves to make, ..
...but would you get in there to show them ?
Na !..Politics is dirtier than that even...
Better viewed as a spectator sport.!
I can think of nothing more pathetic, than someone crossing their arms and claiming nothing can be done when their nation literally just elected a party that hasn't been in power for 2 decades.
.??... who are you rambling on about now ?? :roll:z
 
Would you like to dance with the devil ?, only the most power hungry megalomaniacs make it to that hell hole and win anyone with the intention of supplying a helping hand WILL get it chopped off unless they bend too the will of capitalism.
 
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