green power solar is

[Marty_d]

I've started researching electric cars for when our Forester bites the dust. Guess what? We're hopeless here in Australia. There are only 3 fully electric cars on the market - secondhand Nissan Leaf (the Nissan website says new ones will not be sold in Australia), BMW i3, and the Tesla.

 

The Beemer costs around $70k and has a real-life range between 200 - 250km. The Tesla starts at over $100k. When looking for a 4wd I also came across the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, but that's a hybrid and range on pure electric is only 54km (about 40 in real world). Plus it starts at $50k.

 

Unsurprisingly therefore, people are not springing out to buy them so the electric new car market in Australia is around 0.05%.

 

Compare this with Norway where 42% of new cars sold are electric. That's because their government has wisely offered incentives such as tax reduction, good charging infrastructure, free parking and no tolls for electric vehicles. They are aiming for 100% electric for new vehicles by 2025.

 

Oh, and despite claims from those of a conservative bent that "electric cars are coal cars", Norway has fully renewable Hydro & Geothermal energy, so their cars are indeed clean.

 

It's a bloody disgrace that in a country with as much sunlight, wind and pumped hydro potential as Australia, we can't pull our finger out and make the change. And make electric vehicles more attractive than petrol guzzlers.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

My kid was adamant that the old diesel Corolla would be their last fossil fuel car. A decade later they're still waiting for hydrogen and electric to become affordable.

 

Meanwhile, I see Turnbull wants to extend the life of Liddel PS, in case we run short of electricity. What is he doing about replacing coal?

 

Not much.

 

 

[kgwilson]

With the LNP running the show where the PM doesn't have the balls to counter the conservative heads in the sand mob we will not see any real progressive move to renewables even though they all talk about it. Look what happened when the storm knocked the power out in SA. Renewables was the kicking boy for weeks with the lot of them including Turnbuckle chanting baseload, baseload, & blaming solar & wind even though it was proven within a few hours the problem was destroyed infrastructure. The only good part was in a press conference when the SA premier called Frydenberg a total dickhead. Correct and nothing has changed.

 

 

[Marty_d]

They put the "coal" in "coalition", that's for sure.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

[ATTACH]48942._xfImport[/ATTACH]

[storchy neil]

Well buggerrrrrr me over 600 new COAL FIRED POWER STATION being built were are the greenies all asleep on dear.

 

Such a travesty oh the would is going to end suck it up princess

 

Well we will be selling them the coal or are you going to leave it in the ground neil

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Is it 600 being built or 600 being put on hold: Coal power sees 'dramatic' fall in 2016

 

I worked in a market risk project function a few years ago. The AUD historically tracked the spot thermal coal prices and AUD traders would seek to leverage volatility between the two to make gains. A market risk manager suggested I take out a short sell on the AUD to profit from a probable drop in its value as the correlation gap between the rising AUD and falling thermal coal price was very wide indeed. I suggested that the AUD's correlation to thermal coal prices were diminishing as the reliance on coal as a fuel was diminishing (and Aus has many other resources to plug the gap). It proved why he was a risk manager and not a trader.. the AUD climbed and the spot coal thermal prices declined. (I am not and never have been a trader).

 

If you look at the 5 year history of thermal coal prices (5 Year Coal Prices and Price Charts) you will see it dropped from about 70USD/short tonne to 40. However, futures prices at the moment on Nymex and ICE put it at around USD90/tonne... Thee seems to have been a spike in Feb for some reason. In anycase, it is not a commodity class I would be willing to put my super into (BTW - this is just me.. not advice in anyway)

 

 

[spacesailor]

red,

 

Now this is good!

 

"In the future, it is hoped the supercapacitor will be developed to store more energy than a Li-Ion battery while retaining the ability to release its energy up to 10 times faster - meaning the car could be entirely powered by the supercapacitors in its body panels”. "After one full charge, this car should be able to run up to 500km (310 miles) - similar to a petrol-powered car"

 

I already seen a "vehicle capacitor", when a caravan was miss-wired & became a deadly high voltage capacitor. the owner was instantly killed when he tried to open the door.

 

It would only take a minute leak in any part of the capacitor to ground (the body) to be shocking.

 

We drivers have often been zapped by our cars from static electricity

 

spacesailor

 

 

[facthunter]

You have 240 V AC all around you. Just the perfect potential to best electrocute you. Just put a drill into the wall in the wrong place.. There's red back spiders under the toilet seat.. Some current types of battery are not safe but neither is an overturned fuel truck or a gas tank, or atom bombs in the hands of lunatics or a truck driven at speed into someone, or something.. Nev

 

 

[spacesailor]

Not quite FH

 

House wiring is protected be the max current the wireing can handle, but (big but here) sheet of metal ( aircraft wing/ caravan body sheeting) can build up thousand's of amps

 

that can shoot a spark inches long. Also no fuses or earth leakage equipment.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[octave]

[octave]

My daughter was telling me about this, she's mad keen on electric cars:

Graphene-Based Supercapacitors Could Lead To Battery-Free Electric Cars Within 5 Years

 

and an interesting table of figures in this report:

 

Australian company buys 50% stake in “game-changing” graphene battery storage technology

Absolutley mental capacitor powered car for the early 70s

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Can't see any embedded yootoob stuff (work filters it out). However, wasn't there are water power car developed in Aus in the 70s of some description and the inventors sold the patent to the Saudis or similar who have it in a safe. I was young then so don't ercall much about it, except from memory they used a HR holden as the test bed.. I'll do some hunting tonight if I remember

 

 

[Marty_d]

Absolutley mental capacitor powered car for the early 70s

 

That's insane. My jaw hit the floor when he lit it up.

 

 

[octave]

Samsung's new electric car batteries boost range to 600 kilometers

[facthunter]

Volts is what gives the length of a spark. 110 Volts used in other places is nowhere near as likely to kill you as what we have (230-250). The human body has a resistance that makes low voltages harmless. It does vary from person to person by a small amount. Very high voltages at low amperes is safe also, though some people don't like any shocks at all, from the comfort point of view. IF you have a pacemaker or defibrillator don't go near strong magnetic fields or stray electrical currents. Nev

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Back to coal v renewables: Why Exelon Divested from Coal: The Case for Clean Energy

 

 

[coljones]

Hinkley Point C will alone have 3,000,000 tonnes of concrete poured. There are two other facilities in that plant. Only need to find 5 more facilities and that's a lot of rather environmentally nasty concrete around at the same weight... But, this is a large facility, so assume 10 more facilities.. not hard to find within the tiny UK. Coal plants use less and Gas even less.. But concrete alone for these in Aus will easily exceed 20m tonnes.

Each generation source has their advantages and disadvantages and its about finding the right mix that maximises output/reliability v environmental and economic cost - the priority between economic and environmental cost seemingly tilting to the latter.

You are quoting some large numbers. Can you authenticate from a reputable source? One of the issues for nuclear was the vast amounts and greenhouse gases used in their construction. There are also issues in decommissioning. While the running costs are low the whole of life costs are high (together with health, safety and political costs which are very hard to cost)

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

For Hinkley Point C: Hinkley Point C: Powering our future? - Glenigan - Nukes use a lot of concrete (and as I mentioned, these EPRs are massive plants compared to AGRs and PWRs).

 

 

[kgwilson]

Coal is dead, dead, dead. There is no such thing as clean coal as Abbot & co continue to rabbit on about without a shred of evidence.

 

Solar is not so viable in the UK with a distinct lack of sunshine along with the geographic location much closer to the polar region than Australia. There is plenty of wind but the farms have to be huge (1500 turbines) to produce the amount of energy that Hinkley Point will, & Hinkley Point will last twice as long. Plus energy storage would be required when the wind doesn't blow. Nuclear plants are relatively safe these days other than natural disasters like tsunamis or earthquakes or man made disasters like being sabotaged or bombed. BUT and it is a big one, what happens to all the radioactive waste? No-one wants it in their backyard.

 

Now check out what is happening in South Australia.

 

Teslas lithium battery at Jamestown next to the Hornsdale wind farm is half built and will be ready for Summer. It may only be 100mw but it is a great start and all done at breakneck speed. Add to this a 150mw solar thermal plant being built at Port Augusta next year, the Roxby Downs 120mw solar farm & 100mw battery, Morgan 300mw solar & 100mw battery. SAs renewables plan already in action makes the Federal Governments complete failure to have any plan absolutely pathetic. Their continued attacks on SA & renewables only serves to highlight their own failure to embrace future needs and elimination of greenhouse gas emissions. Add to this the latest sideshow where the east coast is running out of gas & consumers are paying twice what the gas companies get exporting it to India & China.

 

 

[Yenn]

KG. you can't say that our government doesn't have a plan. It does and it is very evident, the plan is not to have a plan, that way it can't be accused of having the wrong plan.

 

 

[facthunter]

Banks are not going to fund Coal powered power stations. They ( regarding coal fired) have run away in droves. They have a 50 + year life, and a new one is high in cost, Right at the top of all possibilities and they aren't suitable to sit on standby or be flexible. All the relevant figures are readily available. Adani is having strife getting a loan for his coal ventures. This idiot government wants to public fund BOTH and walk away from the Paris agreement as well which risks having much of the world impose a punitive duty to compensate our lack of costing the damage done by the pollution into our products. Abbot says the Paris agreement was an " aspiration" showing what value HIS word carries. Nev

 

 

[storchy neil]

Oh dearie me that battery going to last one hr but they have diesel generation to back up sa power is modern

 

South Aus power will have the fastest power restoration teams around Neil

 

 

[octave]

Oh dearie me that battery going to last one hr but they have diesel generation to back up sa power is modernSouth Aus power will have the fastest power restoration teams around Neil

"Upon completion by December 2017, this system will be the largest lithium-ion battery storage project in the world and will provide enough power for more than 30,000 homes, approximately equal to the amount of homes that lost power during the blackout period."

 

All The Details On Tesla's Giant Australian Battery

 

Clearly, you have access to different figures or have made calculations that contradict those made byTesla.

 

 

[kgwilson]

Oh dearie me that battery going to last one hr but they have diesel generation to back up sa power is modernSouth Aus power will have the fastest power restoration teams around Neil

A very selective response. 100mwh is 100mw used in 1 hour. If the draw on the battery was 100mw and there was nothing feeding in to it, yes it would last 1 hour. It is there to smooth power supply when demand is high to extreme and reduce the possibility of brown outs so if the wind is still blowing it is being replenished at the same time power from it is being used. Like any power supply it will be useless if a storm knocks out the grid and there is no alternative way of getting power to customers. Yes there are diesel generators as well but these are a short term insurance while the other renewable projects get built so they will eventually become redundant. The Hornsdale project is one of several around the state which will provide reliable renewable energy to SA in spite of the lack of action by the Federal Government.