The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Apparently the three installed in the municipal parking lot in our downtown area are all broken right now.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
It's a bit surprising how sh.t capitalism is being with this.
These machines are able sell electricity at much higher than cost price. But it takes upfront investment to install machines, particularly the ultra fast type at services. Interest rates are exceptionally low and funding is easy to obtain, making that upfront investment easier to cover.
It's a fairly basic business - big outflow on day one, steady profit month after month. Just the sort of thing that should thrive in a low interest rate environment. Capitalism with this sort of business dynamic hates to have machinery in a factory out of order, the machine stops generating cash while still costing you interest.
I suspect what's happened is a muddle of public and private enterprise. Councils got into the subsidies business, plus have control via planning regulations. There are too many amateurs taking decisions, no professionals with years of experience. Some of the companies are so amateurish they can't even handle the basics of taking credit card payments from customers at the pump and give out free charges.
Some companies are starting to offer quality at a higher price - canopies over the chargers, good lighting to make it safe for lone drivers at night, highly reliable chargers. But I believe some locations have artificial price constraints imposed by local councils, as a condition of the initial subsidy or planning rights, and that's f.cking up the proper market mechanisms. You end up with broken chargers, dangerous locations and terrible customer service.
These machines are able sell electricity at much higher than cost price. But it takes upfront investment to install machines, particularly the ultra fast type at services. Interest rates are exceptionally low and funding is easy to obtain, making that upfront investment easier to cover.
It's a fairly basic business - big outflow on day one, steady profit month after month. Just the sort of thing that should thrive in a low interest rate environment. Capitalism with this sort of business dynamic hates to have machinery in a factory out of order, the machine stops generating cash while still costing you interest.
I suspect what's happened is a muddle of public and private enterprise. Councils got into the subsidies business, plus have control via planning regulations. There are too many amateurs taking decisions, no professionals with years of experience. Some of the companies are so amateurish they can't even handle the basics of taking credit card payments from customers at the pump and give out free charges.
Some companies are starting to offer quality at a higher price - canopies over the chargers, good lighting to make it safe for lone drivers at night, highly reliable chargers. But I believe some locations have artificial price constraints imposed by local councils, as a condition of the initial subsidy or planning rights, and that's f.cking up the proper market mechanisms. You end up with broken chargers, dangerous locations and terrible customer service.
Awarded gold star 4 November 2021
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Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Can I just spend a minute to give some praise to Chargemaster? (Now BP Pulse of course)
I recently had the experience of using their system (fairly newly installed, by the looks of things) in Aylesbury, and I must say how impressed I was with just how pathetic, unusable, and absolute f.cking gobshite the entire thing is. I'm not a subscriber, as I don't use their system often enough to make it worth it, but I would like to use their pay as you go service (more expensive per kWh but that's fine). I rocked up to one of their points, plugged in, went into the app, and got a no go. Tried a different charge point. Nothing. Tried another one. Nothing.
I've never had a good experience with it. The app is sh.t, the system doesn't work, and every single one of them can go f.ck themselves.
I recently had the experience of using their system (fairly newly installed, by the looks of things) in Aylesbury, and I must say how impressed I was with just how pathetic, unusable, and absolute f.cking gobshite the entire thing is. I'm not a subscriber, as I don't use their system often enough to make it worth it, but I would like to use their pay as you go service (more expensive per kWh but that's fine). I rocked up to one of their points, plugged in, went into the app, and got a no go. Tried a different charge point. Nothing. Tried another one. Nothing.
I've never had a good experience with it. The app is sh.t, the system doesn't work, and every single one of them can go f.ck themselves.
If truth is many-sided, mendacity is many-tongued
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
It's bizarre. It's every capitalist's dream to say "I've got a local monopoly in Aylesbury and my customers keep telling me they're fine to pay whatever premium I impose".
The world's sliding into apathy where even the capitalists can't be arsed to rip us off.
The world's sliding into apathy where even the capitalists can't be arsed to rip us off.
Awarded gold star 4 November 2021
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Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
As lpm and EPD point out, this part of the infrastructure is really poor. One of the issues is that it really isn't that tricky to put the charging points in, the problem is maintaining them. Even at my workplace with 10 chargers (so 20 vehicles can charge) there are often ones that are out of action. With the current usage it means you can always find another that is working, but it's frustrating. I spend a lot of time clicking on "report a problem". Apparently they trip out fairly easily...
So far the only time I tried to use another place (GeniePoint) it turned out they had network-wide issues and they were all buggered. Not great. I got to work with just a few miles left in the range and the car dashboard lighting up like a christmas tree with warnings.
The ability to charge needs to be much more reliable.
It's also not helped by the profusion of companies all trying to ring-fence their customers. Every single company requires a different app and early on they needed their own RFID card. They all want to keep you using their chargers and not a competitors. Ridiculously inconvenient. Hopefully this will become largely pointless as EV ownership increases. As the market saturates there shouldn't be the need to be so protectionist.
Another problem is that technology is still evolving - plug and socket types, speed of charging, AC vs DC charging - things aren't settled yet.
So far the only time I tried to use another place (GeniePoint) it turned out they had network-wide issues and they were all buggered. Not great. I got to work with just a few miles left in the range and the car dashboard lighting up like a christmas tree with warnings.
The ability to charge needs to be much more reliable.
It's also not helped by the profusion of companies all trying to ring-fence their customers. Every single company requires a different app and early on they needed their own RFID card. They all want to keep you using their chargers and not a competitors. Ridiculously inconvenient. Hopefully this will become largely pointless as EV ownership increases. As the market saturates there shouldn't be the need to be so protectionist.
Another problem is that technology is still evolving - plug and socket types, speed of charging, AC vs DC charging - things aren't settled yet.
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Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Well that’s easily solved, just standardise all EVs to run off USB-C leads, simples!
This place is not a place of honor, no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here, nothing valued is here.
What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us.
This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.
What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us.
This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
The public chargers in my town, including the electricity they supply, were funded off of VW's settlement for the diesel emissions scam. There are new chargers going in around town also funded by that settlement, but electricity won't be free there. We're just waiting for the town monopoly electricity supplier to hook them up.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
It was unreliable public charging that drove me into the arms of tesla for my 2nd EV, so I guess that's sort of a market pressure. Just rather indirectly applied.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
The UK just access to 1.4GW of Norwegian hydro with the North Sea Link interconnect now operating. They will now get our wind when we have excess wind generation, we get their hydro when there isn't enough wind. Cheaper, more reliable renewable generation.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
That prompted me to have a look at what's currently going on. It's a bit blowy today.
62% renewable overall NB IC Nsl is the new one.
62% renewable overall NB IC Nsl is the new one.
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
How much wind do we have to have before we send it back the other way?!
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three
now I sin till ten past three
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Makes a nice change from our sending them acid rain, as was traditional.bjn wrote: ↑Sun Oct 03, 2021 2:43 pmThe UK just access to 1.4GW of Norwegian hydro with the North Sea Link interconnect now operating. They will now get our wind when we have excess wind generation, we get their hydro when there isn't enough wind. Cheaper, more reliable renewable generation.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Not sure, but that spare capacity will ramp up soon. We currently have ~24GW of wind (~14 onshore, ~10 offshore) and there is a bit over 5GW under construction and another 4GW in planning, all offshore. The government has pledged to get us to 40GW of offshore wind by 2030. Those newer farms will have higher capacity factors than existing farms, eg: up to 65% for the planned Dogger Bank farms. (All from wiki).
In 2020 the UK had a peak generation capacity of 64.8GW, with a peak demand of 48.9GW. Source, HMG. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... icity-data
For comparison, nukes are at around 9GWe, solar in the UK is 10GWp*, with net nuke generation losing about 2GW capacity by 2030 due to shut downs, and assuming Hinkley C gets finished.
So in the middle of a windy sunny day in 2030 would see us with ~15 GW going spare with nothing to do.
*Capacity factor for solar in the UK is about 10%. Nonetheless 10GW is way more than I thought we had.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Dumping a link (pdf) here so I can read it later and share it with you lot.
Another paper on cost projections of renewables, storage and H2 electrolysers from Oxford Uni.
Another paper on cost projections of renewables, storage and H2 electrolysers from Oxford Uni.
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Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
It's very annoying. Why do people draw such nice graphs as we see on p.6 and then put them on different scales so we cannot visually compare them???bjn wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 6:33 pmDumping a link (pdf) here so I can read it later and share it with you lot.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Isn’t that the same one that BOAF linked earlier? viewtopic.php?f=10&t=109&start=1150#p95529bjn wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 6:33 pmDumping a link (pdf) here so I can read it later and share it with you lot.
Another paper on cost projections of renewables, storage and H2 electrolysers from Oxford Uni.
Bit of a shame we can’t pin posts within threads.
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three
now I sin till ten past three
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Bother, it appears to be. Silly me.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
These things have a way of getting buried, maybe it’s worth splitting the thread for?
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three
now I sin till ten past three
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Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
This is pretty cool - Google Maps adding an option (default in some circumstances) to choose the lowest-carbon route https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... r-journeys
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.
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Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
https://www.ft.com/content/d53b5843-dbe ... c66127ea80The strength of the wind blowing across northern Europe has fallen by as much as 15 per cent on average in places this year, according to data compiled by Vortex, an independent weather modelling group.
The cause of the decrease is uncertain, say scientists, but one possible explanation is a phenomenon called global stilling. This is a decrease in average surface wind speed owing to climate change.
“Near-surface wind speed trends across the globe found that winds have generally weakened over land over the past few decades,” said Paul Williams, Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading. “This suggests that the phenomenon is part of a genuine long-term trend, rather than cyclic variability.”
One explanation for this could be that “human-related climate change is warming the poles faster than the tropics in the lower atmosphere,” Williams noted. “This would have the effect of weakening the mid-latitude north-south temperature difference and consequently reducing the thermal wind at low altitudes.”
Projections from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change support this trend. Wind speeds over western, central and northern Europe are predicted to drop by as much as 10 per cent in the summer months by 2100, based on 1.5C warming above pre-industrial levels.
Less wind has a direct impact on the amount of electricity that can be generated by the many wind farms across Europe.
In March this year, Britain experienced its longest spell of low wind output in more than a decade.
The power output as a percentage of total installed capacity averaged just 11 per cent between February 26 and March 8, according to Drax, the power generation company. This accounted for less than a quarter of the average for the rest of the two months either side of this period.
Again, on September 6 in the UK, wind provided only 2.5 per cent of electricity generation compared with an average of 18 per cent over the past year. This led to two units at West Burton A, one of the UK’s last remaining coal-fired power plants, being switched on to help with the shortfall.
The trend threatens the UK’s pledge for electricity generation to be carbon neutral by 2035, as it relies on fossil fuels to supplement its energy needs.
If there is a feedback loop then I assume that there would probably need to be more wind generators in order to compensate for lower wind speeds.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Get that application for solar in Morocco sorted
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three
now I sin till ten past three
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
Obviously all the new wind turbines are taking power out of the air and making the world turn a bit faster.
Re: The Death Of Fossil Fuels
But presumably Welcome Break on the M4 isn't deemed a public place? The company must own it all, the car park and the infrastructure and the rats in the food hall. Yes, need planning permission, but there aren't any neighbours to object to a row of chargers spoiling their view of the petrol station.
Likewise petrol stations must own their forecourts and Sainsburys must own their car park. Or rent from people who have an incentive to cash in. Councils want to boast about progress so hard to see why planning should be too hard.
The tricky bit must be getting enough electrons to each location through a grid built for the old world?
Likewise petrol stations must own their forecourts and Sainsburys must own their car park. Or rent from people who have an incentive to cash in. Councils want to boast about progress so hard to see why planning should be too hard.
The tricky bit must be getting enough electrons to each location through a grid built for the old world?
Awarded gold star 4 November 2021