Adventures in an all electric vehicle.

[Erie Fred]

Fizzy wrote:

The older British sites were up and running within about 7 or 8 years as well. People knew how to get things done in those days!

50 years ago, we knew how to build a nuclear piwer plant. Nowadays we know how to build renewable energy sites - windfarms, PV. We also have more available international HVDC connectors, than the nuclear fleet. That is progress in 50 years. Get used to it. Britains‘s nuclear builds are a a thing of the past. History.

Another thirty years before another nuclear power station comes on line? How long before the current build is connected? Let’s just get on and invest in renewables and means to avoid the periods of reduced wind.

Geothermal from Iceland, hydro from Norway, Solar from North Africa, etc. There is plenty of available energy - it just needs to be connected and distributed. Meanwhile the amount of energy from fossils needs to be curtailed - to both lower CO2 emissions and reduce local health risks. If the subsidies paid to the fossil fuel industry were redirected to renewables, energy storage, etc the problem could be resolved in just a few years.

The south west will be better served for BEVs when ‘inckley c eventually comes on line (the grid problem is that the connection of the SW to the ‘mainland Britain grid’ is hopelessly inadequate - it has been, for years. I expect the grid reinforcement was likely expected to not be unnecessary if that plant had been on time.

I would like to hear of anyone on the forum who actually suffers from ‘range anxiety’ with their EV. I most certainly do not.

...and then some very small, unplanned for incident will make the public decry the removal of every last windmill.
Small plane comes down and get's chopped up, people die ?
Parachutist (maybe a celebrated hero) gets entangled in one ?

Maybe the sea urchins get upset with the offshore ones ?

Then what ?

Does the term "Putting all your eggs in one basket" mean anything to you ?

 

[premmington]

Yabutt the climate terrorists want instant change RIGHT NOW !

Enlarge - explain that term?

 

[daleyd]

5 years was deliberately chosen to discourage new nuclear projects. Gordon Brown also sold off Westinghouse to put the final nail in the coffin. In fact he sold off £50 billion instate assets so it's not just the current lot to blame.

Brown plans £50bn sale of national assets

The government is to sell off assets including most of the state-owned nuclear industry, the Tote, public spectrum airwaves and Ministry of Defence firing ranges.

www.theguardian.com

Having said that most major builds are taking forever now with all the stupid planning laws. Apparently it has become almost impossible to build ANYTHING in the UK now - even houses!

Absolute nonsense - there has never been a "number of years" set for approvals, the best you could say is that the process is expected to take x number of months/years, based on the amount of work to be done - seeing as we haven't built any for decades and lots of expertise had been lost, and things also move on in terms of safety and design its hardly surprising that things might take longer than previous - but to suggest that there was some arbitrary time limit makes no sense.

As I've said, the approval time between us/uk/France is all broadly comparable. In fact I seem to recall reading a while back that the us timescale was longer, I'll see if I can find the link.

If anything I'm actually quite happy with it being 5 years, I'd rather it was thoroughly scrutinised at the design stage rather than after it was built, I've worked in the industry and am glad that no one shares your blasé attitude about how things are done, or longs for some mythical golden age of reactor builds where there was little regard to how they were going to be decommissioned, hence the hugely long times to get rid if the first and second gen stuff.

Don't get me wrong, weve done fantastically well from the pioneering stuff we did but to think that you can simply carry on and do more of the same is hugely naive.

 

[Erie Fred]

Enlarge - explain that term?

Those crazies that have been interrupting sporting events, and other mayhem.
Been postings on here with all their disruptive behaviors as of late.

 

[rhubarb7]

Enlarge - explain that term?

The likes of STOP OIL and Extinction rebellion.

 

[rhubarb7]

That programme last night, 7 years for planning and to build one on shore windfarm..Just one big spinny thing, 7 years ffs..Most of it was planning holdups.

 

[premmington]

Those crazies that have been interrupting sporting events, and other mayhem.
Been postings on here with all their disruptive behaviors as of late.

I am pro nuclear power - I also care about the planet (I am a Father and a Grandfather).

I also have "social conscience" about - normal working people and "transport poverty".

This why I am "fence sitting" about EV cars.

If I believe the press it is good idea - but when I get my Casio Calculator out - it looks a bad idea!

Not explaining myself very well here - sorry

 

[premmington]

The likes of STOP OIL and Extinction rebellion.

"Extinction rebellion" - I get the message - it is clear!

They just posh kids stopping poor people going to work - to earn money and feed families.

But yes I agree with their core message!

Not explaining myself very well here - sorry

 

[fizzy]

"Extinction rebellion" - I get the message - it is clear!

They just posh kids stopping poor people going to work - to earn money and feed families.

But yes I agree with their core message!

Not explaining myself very well here - sorry

So do I - but as Britain accounts for 1% of CO2 production I feel their activities would be better focused elsewhere - strangely though they don't seem very keen to do it in China or India - or the USA funnily enough. I suspect others would be a tad less tolerant

 

[DanZac]

"Extinction rebellion" - I get the message - it is clear!

They just posh kids stopping poor people going to work - to earn money and feed families.

I'm not sure they're kids, average age of 41 according to https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/p/xr-study/

Which probably isn't that much lower than the average age on here, and puts the majority firmly into the parents and grandparents demographic.

1. The mean age of participants across both actions was 41.1 years old. Under 35s were slightly more numerous in the April London protests than in October (24.2% compared to 16.6%).

 

[premmington]

So do I - but as Britain accounts for 1% of CO2 production I feel their activities would be better focused elsewhere - strangely though they don't seem very keen to do it in China or India - or the USA funnily enough. I suspect others would be a tad less tolerant

@fizzy

I am just a "fat dumb mechanic". Born a "retard"...

I am pro environmental issues - pro re cycling - pro using less (less of everything).

I even have started questioning where the meat I eat comes from.

I am also SO pro nuclear power it is unreal - it seems such a contrast to my other views.

But I do have a "social consciousness" and the people with less money - make decisions on the basis of need. They have no other choice - they just don't. In the UK and in other poorer countries...

 

[redlig]

Comments like that make me chuckle especially when it is made by one of those pontificating ignorant armchair experts we see on what's laughably called , "News shows .

We will always need gas 7 oil for I suspect a couple of ceintures , hopefully in reducing amounts , not having it sourced by despots & blackmaiers is the big advantage of having home produced stuff as well as reduced miles it is transported to the UK

The thought of a home based oil source is all well and good until the price of crude is high enough for the home providers to sell it to another ,more affluent customer. Simple supply and demand.

 

[redlig]

A blind man would be delighted to see them Fizzy .

Upgrading supply lines takes time and money . " Rome was not built in a day " as the saying goes neither will all the EV charging network supplies.

Especially when one hand seems not to know or speak to the other.

 

[Erie Fred]

Especially when one hand seems not to know or speak to the other.

While your at it.....how about switching to 60 hertz 120 vac .....

 

[premmington]

The thought of a home based oil source is all well and good until the price of crude is high enough for the home providers to sell it to another ,more affluent customer. Simple supply and demand.

It is private business - it is capitalism - it is the "market"

I am a capitlist at heart.

The "market" decides the price...

 

[redlig]

Think that does not work Pete.
When petrol was sold in cans there were few cars and only the well off had one, now mass transport near impossible for society to function without motor vehicles so infrastructure first is a big requirement

And as usual the powers that be have failed to learn by the original ICE situation. I would love to have seen the Eureka moment when someone was told that the system wasn't working. " What do you mean we haven't got enough charging points ? Quick who can we blame?"

 

[fizzy]

The thought of a home based oil source is all well and good until the price of crude is high enough for the home providers to sell it to another ,more affluent customer. Simple supply and demand.

Indeed so - but the power supply there is the less likely the prices going high.
The USA has a glut of oil and gas - their energy prices are far less than here - and hardly a windmill or solar panel in sight!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

All this "free" renewable energy seems to have quite a volatile price it seems!

I'm pretty sure we were told price stability was one of the key benefits?

 

[daleyd]

All this "free" renewable energy seems to have quite a volatile price it seems!

Not really, gas does - and every other energy supply gets paid the same as gas.

That’s the issue that needs sorting, but it’s been that way for a long time and worked fine right up until gas prices went through the roof. I’m not saying it’s right, but that’s the way it is, and to lay the blame solely at the feet of wind/solar misses the point completely.

It’s been discussed on here loads but it seems that everyone defaults to the “renewables bad” mantra…

I’m not particularly pro renewables, but it helps to understand exactly what’s happening.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

It’s been discussed on here loads but it seems that everyone defaults to the “renewables bad” mantra…

Depends how you/we look at it I guess....if you want to get Joe Public on board with the whole "renewables good" mantra then price stability would kind of seem like a very obvious place to start!

If consumers had been insulated from the rises (by the renewables sector) I imagine they'd be calling for 100% renewables...as things stand all that advantage has been kind of lost in someones pocket and the public can't see anything has changed.