Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 8:30 pm
Think I mentioned this in the thread before, but I've seen this in Atlanta. I thought it was a good idea.
I’m not sure, but as I understand things, there isn’t any power that’s not subsidised in one way or another.Gfamily wrote: ↑Sat Nov 12, 2022 6:16 pmI keep reading people moaning about how much the green energy levies have cost, generally in terms of "that expensive green crap!" - but I'm not sure how the economics works.
Given that wind is now (AIUI) the cheapest form of electricity production, it'd would be interesting to know what the situation would be if there hadn't been the subsidised development of no-carbon generation, which is currently providing c40% of our electricity across the year.
Does anyone know of an authoritative source of figures that will help me understand how the subsidies worked ?
I think this has been known in outline for years based on internal memos, but this fills in the detail nicely. What a shower of bastards Exxon are.FlammableFlower wrote: ↑Fri Jan 13, 2023 9:29 amWho would have guessed oil companies were very good at modelling fossil fuel burning induced climate change all along?
Source paper here
Yeah, that sums them up. I haven't looked at the Science paper in detail, but I did note that the Guardian article mentions that Exxon had worked out that there would be fossil fuel-based global warming in the 1970s, but some other oil companies had twigged even earlier (although perhaps not to the same level of accuracy and detail that Exxon had).Grumble wrote: ↑Fri Jan 13, 2023 11:36 amI think this has been known in outline for years based on internal memos, but this fills in the detail nicely. What a shower of bastards Exxon are.FlammableFlower wrote: ↑Fri Jan 13, 2023 9:29 amWho would have guessed oil companies were very good at modelling fossil fuel burning induced climate change all along?
Source paper here
https://xkcd.com/2500/FlammableFlower wrote: ↑Fri Jan 13, 2023 9:29 amWho would have guessed oil companies were very good at modelling fossil fuel burning induced climate change all along?
Source paper here
I can imagine Greece buying a few of them, not to mention Malaysia and the Philippines.dyqik wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 7:38 pmThere seems to be some progress being made with electric interisland hop type flights, with electric hydrofoil/wing in ground effect ekranoplans being funded by airlines in Hawaii and Japan, among others.
https://beatofhawaii.com/japan-airlines ... der-fleet/
Very interesting. Industrial heat pumps were covered in Cleaning Up recently, https://overcast.fm/+fkiz_8UpMbjn wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 10:00 pmInteresting article on the rapidly increasing use of industrial heat pumps replacing gas heating in Europe. It also introduces the “Sherman Tank” as a unit of volume.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/europe-i ... heat-pumps
Ekranoplans are a fantastic bit of technology, and one that will potentially benefit a lot from modern computing and fly-by-wire. It's also possible to build an aircraft that functions as an ekranoplan when it can, but is also capable of more conventional flight if necessary, which could be useful for short hops between bodies of water, or to allow them to operate from conventional airfields.dyqik wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 7:38 pmThere seems to be some progress being made with electric interisland hop type flights, with electric hydrofoil/wing in ground effect ekranoplans being funded by airlines in Hawaii and Japan, among others.
https://beatofhawaii.com/japan-airlines ... der-fleet/
Footage here of how they will look on the Portsea Island - Channel Islands route:
Interesting. Looks like they will have the pros and cons of other ground effect vehicles. Faster, cheaper and lower power use than convectional aircraft. Using the sea rather than an expensive land based runway will save a lot of money and allow for departure from close to the middle of some large urban areas on the coast.TimW wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 7:21 amFootage here of how they will look on the Portsea Island - Channel Islands route:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-h ... e-57483039
Historically, seaplanes were how tourist access to Hawaii started - Pan-Am Clipper flights - with roughly the same considerations. These are more efficient than eitherseaplanes or ferries.Woodchopper wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 12:35 pmInteresting. Looks like they will have the pros and cons of other ground effect vehicles. Faster, cheaper and lower power use than convectional aircraft. Using the sea rather than an expensive land based runway will save a lot of money and allow for departure from close to the middle of some large urban areas on the coast.TimW wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 7:21 amFootage here of how they will look on the Portsea Island - Channel Islands route:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-h ... e-57483039
But, its going to be difficult in heavy seas and high winds. Also a vehicle going at high speed close to the surface of the water will be a greater risk of collisions than a ship. The ekranoplan might be severely damaged by something that a passenger ferry wouldn't notice.
Definitely need to see the bad weather performance. I believe hydrofoils also suffer in heavy weather, although I’ve seen footage of electric hydrofoils cutting through big ship wakes quite nicely.Woodchopper wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 12:35 pmInteresting. Looks like they will have the pros and cons of other ground effect vehicles. Faster, cheaper and lower power use than convectional aircraft. Using the sea rather than an expensive land based runway will save a lot of money and allow for departure from close to the middle of some large urban areas on the coast.TimW wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 7:21 amFootage here of how they will look on the Portsea Island - Channel Islands route:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-h ... e-57483039
But, its going to be difficult in heavy seas and high winds. Also a vehicle going at high speed close to the surface of the water will be a greater risk of collisions than a ship. The ekranoplan might be severely damaged by something that a passenger ferry wouldn't notice.
At first I read this as a flight to Portsea Island, but then I read on.TimW wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 7:21 amFootage here of how they will look on the Portsea Island - Channel Islands route:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-h ... e-57483039
Interesting that the one exception is (unsurprisingly) the most modern of the last major wave of coal-fired power stations and was literally built next door to it's supplying coal mine to minimise transportation costs making it a special case.bjn wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 5:32 pmCoal economics get more and more suckier in the USA. Just the opex of coal is now more than the all in cost of new build wind and solar, with the exception of one coal plant.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01 ... oal-plant/
Fossil fuel has become sufficiently expensive in general at the moment, that probably the opex of any kind of fossil fuel station is higher than the levelised average cost of wind and solar. It is noticeable how much less gas is being used at the moment in Britain, in comparison to last year. See Gridwatch.bjn wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 5:32 pmCoal economics get more and more suckier in the USA. Just the opex of coal is now more than the all in cost of new build wind and solar, with the exception of one coal plant.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01 ... oal-plant/