Adventures in an all electric vehicle.

[fizzy]

Not happy that National grid have said we need far more pylons than ever. This is the penalty of power from all over the place. Giant ugly pylons in our National parks. It's a disgrace
5 times more than in the last 30 years!
SMRs on existing sites and they wouldn't be needed.
And for what?

 

[reb78]

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.

Very good point.

 

[500e]

Note yesterday MD of a Co with 4 charging sites (multiple chargers) on the motorway say they dont work due to not enough power to site so not connected

Then look at comparable infrastructure costs in Europe for train, tunnels, large engineering projects.
We have the new Hinkly point pylons within 3/4 mile They have replaced at leas2 other pylon runs, I quite like them

 

[Erie Fred]

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!

Look around nearby Buffalo NY, they are all over the place there.

Even Lincoln Electric (yes, the welder company) has one:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

And I can tell you, it is a very bad distraction trying to work thru friday afternoon
traffic with that thing whirling around.

 

[fizzy]

Look around nearby Buffalo NY, they are all over the place there.

Even Lincoln Electric (yes, the welder company) has one:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

And I can tell you, it is a very bad distraction trying to work thru friday afternoon
traffic with that thing whirling around.

Didn't see any in Florida. Nor solar. Perhaps they don't get enough sun

 

[Erie Fred]

Didn't see any in Florida. Nor solar. Perhaps they don't get enough sun

Windmills, beeg beeg ones don't need no sun.
They do however work just fine in a winter snowstorm.....
So we ship the electrons down to Floriduh, and they send them back for re-cycling.

Floriduh is not the entire USofA BTW.

 

[daleyd]

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.

I don’t particularly care how anyone looks at it - but it is what it is. I think everyone acknowledges it needs changing but actually doing that seems difficult.

I agree it would be better but it doesn’t change the fact that renewables are actually pretty cheap. The fact we are paying higher prices currently is at odds with that, but it isn’t exclusive to Britain.

Like I said, I’m not particularly pro or anti anything (a lot of my work is both in the oil/gas and nuclear industries, and i don’t do any work on renewables - so if anything I’ve got vested interest the other way) , but if you care to scratch a little below the surface of any headlines then it’s quite interesting what turns up.

 

[rhubarb7]

@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...

But then we've got to bury lots of nuclear waste :/

 

[rhubarb7]

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

But then we'd have to buy new everything for our homes.

 

[daleyd]

Didn't see any in Florida. Nor solar. Perhaps they don't get enough sun

Florida - the one that’s third in the list of US states for the amount of pv installed?

And the US that’s no2 in countries for pv installed?

 

[bricol]

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!

But don't forget, like the French with their nuclear reactors, they seem to have forgotten maintenance - either to design the ability to do some into them, the ability to do it, or maybe more likely, the willingness to actually pay to do it . . . so with all apologies of our Fred from Erie, everywhere I've lived and worked in the US, from upstate NY, through Ohio, Texas, across in California and up into Washington, get a good storm and the power goes out . . . and on . . and off . . . over the last 20 yrs, been in so many plants where suddenly the lights go out and the alarms go off . . . cue many people running to their designated positions to perform controlled restarts. I soon learnt - hear thunder . . click "save" . . .

 

[bricol]

Im quite interested in the abnormal wear as well. Sone great insights from you and Ubique. Do you think you are seeing a good cross section of EVs or just the ones that come in with problems? ie are the ones you see on a regular service schedule and these problems are being picked up? My T hasn’t been in the workshop since it was new - 2 years. A guy came and did a charger lead replacement in my driveway and replaced a rubber o ring while he was here (a recall) but i am working on the assumption it will tell me when it needs servicing…??!!

I always have that story in my mind about the bombers coming back from raids in WW2 and they were using them to determine where to put armour. Then they realised they were looking at the wrong bombers :-(

Not sure what that's got to do with EVs - but yes, they realised bombers with holes in that came back told them that holes in those bits didn't matter so much as the bits they survived with that didn't have holes in - so stick the armour where the holes weren't.

 

[Erie Fred]

But then we'd have to buy new everything for our homes.

From ME......

 

[JOEPRO]

I'll just leave this one here

Darwin award winners

 

[bricol]

Remember the good old days when you had just 2 tariffs to worry about? Economy 7 and standard. No messing about with all these crazy new schemes. Just bring in loads of nuclear power stations and be done with. France built a load of nuclear power stations in the 70s. This was a result of the World oil crisis. From announcing the plan to starting work took 3 months. They had something like 40 plants running in 10 years. How times have changed. And yet all these older plants were perfectly safe.
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!

In Britain there is now a 5 year approval period. How can they make it 5 years? Surely the approval process should be based on results not a set time? One of the questions the regulators asked Rolls Royce was "What happens if gravity fails"? I feel safe knowing the regulators are so intelligent

But as in all engineering, it can take a lay-person to spot the blinding obvious problem that we all missed as we were looking elsewhere and forgot the minor detail.

And with all the problems of finding one radioactive particle on a beach downstream of Windscale, can you imagine the hassle now if something went a tiny tinsy bit wrong? Safer rather than sorrier.

Those older French plants aren't safe now - that's why they've been shutting them down and their electric prices were having to be heavily subsidised. So maybe building for a more realistic life span than they spent all the money for in the past, taking some time to sort out the approval process is a good idea.

No good having a quick squint at the drawings, banging the "Approved" stamp on them and then discovering we missed all the M8 screws lined up with the M12 tapped holes . . . Not that I've done that . . . for a while . . .

 

[Smallfry]

Not happy that National grid have said we need far more pylons than ever. This is the penalty of power from all over the place. Giant ugly pylons in our National parks. It's a disgrace
5 times more than in the last 30 years!
SMRs on existing sites and they wouldn't be needed.
And for what?

I hate the pylons. And the windmills. Just a bight on the landscape.

 

[minimutly]

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.

Well they are bad, in the way that you can’t guarantee their output at any time, so you have to run gas powered stations on standby, just in case, hence pushing up the cost of supply. Sure, the Co2 emissions come down, but prices don’t. Hence it will never work. (I say this as someone who works in the energy sector, and having built getting on for 20 “embedded” hydro schemes). Hydro being the most predictable of course, but tiny in the scale of things. What could change this is a few large scale pumped hydro schemes, capable of running long enough to start up any gas or other schemes..

 

[not done it yet]

Most of the current schemes are operated on a Cfd contract? Meaning the price of the commodity is fixed for the term of the contract. If the price of the generation falls below the contracted price, the difference is made up, as a subsidy, and if the price goes above the agreed rate, the generator has to forego the difference - meaning, in this case, the extra revenue goes to the government. I expect the government received some hefty income during the recent power crisis. Older arrangements are different, of course.

The current spate of off-shore wind farms planned, but not being built, is simply down to the interest rate hikes costing more to finance the building/installation. Once built and paid for, the operating costs are far better than burning fossil fuels - as the energy is free.

 

[Farside]

I hate the pylons. And the windmills. Just a bight on the landscape.

Conversely, I love pylons and windmills.
Makes me feel great in the morning, seeing their magnificent march across the countryside.

 

[fizzy]

But as in all engineering, it can take a lay-person to spot the blinding obvious problem that we all missed as we were looking elsewhere and forgot the minor detail.

And with all the problems of finding one radioactive particle on a beach downstream of Windscale, can you imagine the hassle now if something went a tiny tinsy bit wrong? Safer rather than sorrier.

Those older French plants aren't safe now - that's why they've been shutting them down and their electric prices were having to be heavily subsidised. So maybe building for a more realistic life span than they spent all the money for in the past, taking some time to sort out the approval process is a good idea.

No good having a quick squint at the drawings, banging the "Approved" stamp on them and then discovering we missed all the M8 screws lined up with the M12 tapped holes . . . Not that I've done that . . . for a while . . .

That particle turned out to be part of a luminous dial from a ww2 bomber. Just shows how sensitive the detectors are and how safe nuclear power is. People used to wear such things on their wrists
Also the last French government started turning its back on nuclear power. They wanted more pretty windmills. There was a lack of investment and people started leaving the industry. They have realised the folly of this and are back on track