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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

Other than common sense, there is nothing that prohibits investors from pumping cash into companies like Flower Turbines, that one day, owners claim, will build and sell devices that capture small amounts of wind energy.

In fact, until about a decade ago, there were completely legitimate attempts to commercialize what was called “small wind.” At that point, however, it was realized that the costs of building, installing, and maintaining systems like this would literally never be recouped by the owner, and that the entire enterprise was doomed, or, to put it more accurately, limited to a customer base that didn’t care about the economics.

People like these do exist, btw.  There are luxury wristwatches that sell for six figures, that tell time no better than something you can buy in a drug store.

At right is a solar energy device that automatically folds up at night. Does that do anything of practical value? Of course not; in fact, it only adds moving parts that eventually fail. The price of electricity per kWh will be astronomical.  Apparently, some people simply do not care.

Investors, however, want profits, and profits derived from high-volume sales of products with decent operating margins.  In the case of the Flower Turbine, this is as improbable as the Earth’s getting hit by an asteroid the size of Utah.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy
Here’s a piece from Fossbytes, the same people who claim that the costs of maintaining EVs is greater than that of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles.
A cargo ship named the Pyxis Ocean equipped with two 123-feet-tall WindWing sails embarked on a journey from China to Brazil last August, aiming to test the efficacy of the wind-powered technology.
After six months of sailing worldwide, Cargill, the ship’s owner, unveiled the results. On average, the Pyxis Ocean saved 3.3 tons of fuel daily.
It showed potential savings exceeding 12 tons per day in favorable weather conditions, resulting in a 14% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
WindWing’s makers suggest even greater fuel savings with three sails. Although promising, the challenge remains in adapting ports to accommodate such vessels. Cargill is actively engaging with ports globally to address this concern.
A couple of points:
As the wind industry has known for more than a century, the amount of power derived from capturing some of the kinetic energy from moving air is proportional to the area of the blades or sails on which the wind is incident.  From the picture above, does it seem possible that huge, ocean-going cargo ships can be powered effectively from these two tiny sails?
It’s interesting that this is an artist’s rendering, rather than a photograph.  It is significant that such devices do fact, exist?
There is no doubt that this will save on fuel.  The ships the Vikings piloted around the open seas required no fuel either.  If we don’t care how long it takes to ship our goods across the Pacific, perhaps this is a good idea.  But of course, we care a great deal about modern supply change logistics.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Is the creator of the meme at left serious?  From this piece:

Electric Vehicle Drivetrains Only Have 20 Moving Parts Compared to Over 200 in Conventional Automobiles – This means lower maintenance costs and a radical shift in auto industry job skills.

While most of the media attention focuses on the big picture issues of how green-energy EVs are destined to help mitigate climate change by eliminating use of fossil fuels and will ultimately lower the costs of driving for consumers, there is another significant impact that deserves more attention too. That is the relative simplicity of EV powertrains and implications for lower maintenance costs.

Many EVs don’t even need a transmission. Those that do use a much simpler, single-speed system as opposed to the multi-speed gearboxes in gas-burning vehicles. For example, Tesla’s electric motors only have two moving parts and use single-speed “transmissions” with no gears. The company says its drivetrain has about 20 moving parts compared with 200 in conventional drivetrains. Similarly, the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt has 80% fewer moving parts than a comparable car with a gasoline engine.
And absent the power train, think about other entire systems that do not even exist in EVs, e.g., fuel delivery, pollution control, and exhaust.
This is why auto dealers dislike EVs; electric transportation virtually kills two profit centers: parts and service.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Re: the meme here, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said, “If we can explore colonizing Mars because we’ve ruined Earth, we can certainly fix Earth.”

The man has a point here.

What we need is the political will to put a stop to environmental collapse, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the spread of world fascism.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As shown at left, Trump’s reverence for the world’s authoritarian figures is among his most obvious, most glaring characteristics.

It jibes with his feelings for our soldiers. i.e., that they are “suckers” and “losers.”

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

What physicist Brian Greene says here is true.

I would be shocked if more than 10% of high school seniors in this country could name a single living scientist.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

From the Wall Street Journal:

The Biden administration enacted the strictest-ever rules for tailpipe emissions but also handed the auto industry a significant concession by giving them more time to comply, a recognition that the transition to electric cars will take longer than hoped.

This conforms with the sense most of us have about the transition away gas and diesel in favor of electric transportation: it’s informed by a warm (but not red hot) consumer demand, as well as fierce resistance from the fossil fuel industry.

Speaking of demand, I saw a bumper sticker on an older Ford Mustang the other day that read, “This car is a hybrid.  It burns gas and rubber.” The rednecks of the world are using this opportunity to ridicule the suffering on the 8 billion citizens of Earth who are experiencing floods, droughts, loss of land mass, etc.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

…. seems to have dried up.

Perhaps this is explained by the famous line that actor George C. Scott delivered in his 1970 film portrayal of “Patton”:  “American loves a winner, and America will not tolerate a loser.  The very thought of losing is hateful to America.”

After all this time, it looks like we’ve arrived at a point where his richest constituents have come to regard Trump as a loser, and by this I do not mean that he’s a lost soul, devoid of integrity and character.  That much is certainly true, but these people couldn’t possibly care less about their hero’s ethics and decency.  I mean “lower” in the sense of his flagging wealth, and that, in addition, he faces the prospect of losing his freedom as well.

It appears that big money has no further appetite for investment in a man who simply appears to be falling off a cliff.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Most American women who live within, say, 25 miles of downtown anywhere are educated and career-oriented.  They deeply resent the Republicans’ far-right position on abortion, and oppose most of the other principles of Trumpism, e.g., white nationalism, the rejection of science, and the Big Lie.

This is why they helped Biden win by 7 million votes in 2020, a margin that can only be expected to widen in 2024.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson puts it, photos like the one here are evidence that we live in a country with a) free speech and b) failed education.

Here, you’re free to believe in things like the flat Earth, chemtrails, the Big Lie, climate change as a hoax, Dr. Fauci working to destroy the U.S. economy, and Bill Gates enslaving the world’s people.

Fortunately, the rest of us are free to regard you as the nut-jobs you are, and to minimize your effect on organized society.

 

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