Saving the Planet … or is it ?

Great idea JL , I will be happy to be connected to the Grid , as long as the 'new generation' are pedaling away too, and with no complaint , because they were "too busy" to see this situation happening.

Could anybody please explain why it is considered sensible to turn productive farmland over to "solar farms" instead of installing the panels over supermarket parking spaces? My suspicious mind wonders whether once the panels age and fail they will be removed leaving a brownfield site that can be used for housing.

Brian G

So many massive warehouses seem to be getting erected they could become solar generators if the roofs were covered in panels.

Edited By V8Eng on 16/09/2021 16:14:12

Edited By V8Eng on 16/09/2021 16:15:23

The framework for holding the panels over the car park would cost more than the panels. Likewise the reinforcement for the warehouse roof would use up 10 or more years of energy generation.

Which explains why I now have an extra 2 light pendants in my lounge & 1 each in the study & bedrooms, so I can still see due to the stupid dim light of these so called "efficient" light bulbs & why I now have to flush the water saving wc cisterns in my house 3 times to clear the pan, because there is insufficient water discharge per flush. Nothing like a bit of regulation to c..k things up

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 16/09/2021 21:47:12

Which would stil be a win if the panels last 25yrs.
Solar panels have never worked out cost effective for me but I am revisiting them since I forecast that electricty prices will surge over the next 10 years and while their return may not be as dramatic, any other investments I might make would be subject to tax ( all other tax free avenues committed)

Apparently the French inter-connecter has caught fire and likely to be out action for some time possibly with only half power at some stage

Of course predictions suggest consumer bills will rise.

Winter is nigh I must check my generator out and get some fuel!

Edited By V8Eng on 16/09/2021 23:19:30

Wouldn't be cooincidental with Le French losing the Australian Subs order?

Don't forget that from reports in the USA wrt overwintered small equipment the new improved E10 fuel doesn't store well.

Thanks for that info Bazyle have to watch that one as I have petrol for various garden machinery as well.

Perhaps I will investigate the preservative additives.

For those of you that are interested in saving the planet look
in at this video

https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA

At somewhere around 3min 07 all life is nearly extinct if
you are still hanging in there at 6 .05 any surviving life that remains
find refuge around aging white dwarfs ,probably the descendants
of these half a dozen rich 'oiks' swanning around 'in space'
referred to by J Hancock a few posts back ,hope they have a good supply of
corned beef sandwiches and toilet rolls as Waitrose is shut for good, sitting
there desperately trying to read the re-run jottings of Geometer in the
umpteenth trillion issue of MEW by the dim light of an energy
efficient light bulb.
Getting back to planet E dimwit protesters blocking M25 no doubt
the offspring of these a*******s who thought it was a good idea
to put broken glass in baby food in the 70's or was it 80's
forcing suppliers to triple wrap items in plastic which is now floating
somewhere in the Pacific.

All this disruption has delayed my coal being delivered for my pot
belly stove in the workshop ,still i've saved all the junk mail the
postie has shoved through the letterbox all of the summer so i'll have
to use that to keep it warm for a few weeks .

Turn on the telly and there's that Attenborough chap who's made a fat living
jetting around the world with his crew for 50 odd years reporting on things
like the sex life of a dung beetle and now has a conscience trying to
conserve the planet.
Well i suppose global warming is here at least this Thunberg bird is
assured of a well rewarded career ,i expect when she has made
enough of a pile she will have her own private jet so she can travel
the world lecturing us all like that Kerry chap.

Is it my eyes or does the sun seem to to be a brighter yellow now than
some years ago.

Well did you make it to the end of the video ,i didn't there are plenty more
to see there on a similar theme ,watch enough of them and you will be
depressed enough and have to nip down to B&Q and buy a
length of rope.

Just as a postscript this tree hugging individual who portrays
himself as conservationist ,whilst we may have thought
this tree hugging was his attempt to connect with nature
judging by the pile of coal in his fireplace maybe he
was just sizing up the tree trunk to see if it would fit in
the grate.

The lights stayed on courtesy of running up the 'emergency generators ' the OCGT's , massively inefficient devices.

Luckily it was summer , again.

After listening to the first 6 minutes of this ‘Money Box’ prog, explaining the breakdown of my electric bill, I thought of the term ‘scam’.

**LINK**

And if the facts stated in last 8 minutes of this prog are correct, looking forward to an era of ‘cheap’ energy is a pipe dream.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000zv4b

The privatisation of our utilities was always going to be a disaster

.

There’s a surprisingly succinct review of advantages/disadvantages here: **LINK**

https://www.araner.com/blog/combined-cycle-gas-turbines

MichaelG.

.

Very interesting, thanks Jimmie

The Professor’s ‘outing’ of the Feed In Tariff says a lot !

MichaelG.

Humanity has the exact opposite problem: energy prices are about to go through the roof. Fossil fuels are 'free' apart from the cost of extracting, processing and transporting them, plus tax. It's been great: mankind has enjoyed the benefits of marvellously cheap energy since the Industrial Revolution started.

Unfortunately, after 250 years three major problems have emerged:

• fossil fuels are running out - think 10 years time
• too much fossil fuel is imported from unreliable countries
• Carbon Dioxide and other industrial gases are heating the planet. The consequences are off-the-scale, so extreme many reject the predictions as science fiction. The evidence suggests they're wrong.

Ignore Climate Catastrophe though and ask what happens when demand for fossil fuels exceeds supply? Easy, the cost of fossil fuel will rise until most people can't afford it. 'Most people' means you and I - the party is over.

Only the most stupid politician would bank his country's future on burning fossil fuels forever. Green energy is part of the answer, not the enemy. People want energy and don't care where it comes from: remember fossil fuels are just one way of providing it. Finding alternatives to coal, oil and gas is urgent and believing fossil fuels will last forever isn't the answer. Rather than rely on a tired old friend, it's time to change...

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 26/09/2021 10:45:37

Which is exactly why we should have been building more nuclear stations.

The present gamble on super large, untested , 3.2 GW units , now that was incredibly stupid...........but predictable.

Re CCGT v OCGT

This is trickier than it looks. The CCGT 60% plus efficiency only applies over a amall optimum operating range, and the start up time during which nothing is generated is of the order of an hour. Fine when used for baseload, but the achieved efficiency will be much less when used for load following to make up for the random variability of renewables. CCGT has become the remaining main provider for this.

CCGT OCGT, no idea what they mean so your clever post is lost on me😴

Tony