octave
-
Posts
4,195 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
45
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Downloads
Blogs
Events
Our Shop
Movies
Posts posted by octave
-
-
I just wonder how politicians all over the world appear to care very little about the people they are supposed to represent. We seem to be run by greenies and do gooders who never think anything through.
I am always bemused by the term "do gooder" What is wrong with doing good?
-
Fear not, after drone attack on Saudi oil facilities Trump is "locked and loaded" Sounds reassuring to me -not!
-
That Tom Lehrer recording must be at least 30 years old. I nearly fell out of my cot when I first heard it. It goes well with poisoning pigeons in the park.
Even older than that, I think this recording was made in the 60s. I do tend to judge people on whether or not they have heard of Tom Lehrer. ? Poisoning pigeons in the park was my first introduction to Lehrer.
-
Some great musical satire by mathematician and satirist Tom Lehrer, written in the mid 60s but still relevant today.
Who's next
-
Best argument for not believing climate change comes from the green leader today in a statement about the Queenland bushfires. . Di Natalie is rapidly becoming another speak before you think expert. Please, all you greens out there, speak to the people on the land, people who actually know what the situation is and live with its effects before you get on your high horses in your city dwellings, turn off your airconditioning and actually think using facts and real world evidence not rubbish spouted by "experts" with no experience. There may be a problem but walking off the cliff with everyone else because some "expert"says so turns people into sheep. Talk to real life people living with the land and climate, not high rise plastic tree huggers...
Tree huggers like NASA etc.? That argument is similar to anti vaxxers and anti evolutionists, the experts are making it up. Bottom line is this If I am unfortunate enough to get cancer I will consult an oncologist. If 9 of the "experts" give advice that is contradicted by 1 I am going with the 9.
You dont really provide any evidence you just warn us to not listen to experts (or at least the ones you dont agree with)
Of course it is important to listen to the views of farmers
https://www.farmersforclimateaction.org.au/climate_change_and_agriculture
https://www.foreground.com.au/environment/the-farmers-fighting-climate-change/
People talk about climate alarmists but I would like to point out that there are also renewable energy alarmists. Australia has a very small percentage of its power generated by renewables, there are countries with much more renewable generation. By and large these countries are not economic basket cases.
The fact is that the denial club is quite small and getting smaller. Whilst governments tend to be bad at this sort of thing private enterprise is surging ahead.
BP https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/sustainability/climate-change.html
BP rolling out EV charging network
https://www.electrive.com/2019/08/15/bp-opens-150kw-chargers-at-uk-service-stations/
I am a bit over debating this. I am happy to discuss the merrits of the evdence but other than the odd graph not much is actually presented here. I will take EASA, NASA, CSIRO, Brithish accademy of science if science, I could go on but the list is too long over the odd retired geologist or meteorologist or Andrew Bolt.
Aas long as we take a measured and science based approach to moving to the next energy age, I do not forsee massive problems. If the climate science turns out to be wrong then we have just moved to the next phase long before fossil fuels run out. If the deniers are wrong..........
Quote from a Mining Journal -
"The electric revolution and digital transformation are two parallel streams that are coming together. High-capacity batteries and smart communication will rapidly change the way we operate.
"We live at a very interesting time."
History not repeating, perhaps.
-
[ATTACH]3238[/ATTACH][ATTACH]3239[/ATTACH]
Electricity prices related to installed wind and solar capacity. No politics, just the facts at present.
[ATTACH]3238[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]3239[/ATTACH]
Background
The ACCC’s preliminary findings are that, on average across the NEM, a 2015-16 residential bill was $1,524 (excluding GST). This average residential bill was made up of:
- network costs (48 per cent)
- wholesale costs (22 per cent)
- environmental costs (7 per cent)
- retail and other costs (16 per cent)
- retail margins (8 per cent).
The ACCC which certainly does not go easy on renewables claiming that rooftop solar should have it's subsidies reduced but none the less finds the environmental costs of electricity in Australia are 7%. I am assuming you reject these findings, it would be interesting to know where you believe its findings are faulty. As for your above offerings the first chart shows a correaltion but only compares some countries and not others. I note that Australia in 2016 was at 14.5% renewables and th UK was 27.9% in 2016 and yet the per capita price is more in Austraila than in the UK. Norway 97.2% yet fairly low prices. Finland 44.2% and yet cheaper than Australia. New Zealand 83.9% yet does not appear on graph. There are many reasons for differences in cost of electricity. The ACCC goes into this in a lot of detail.
The second graph is a table of electricity costs, it does not give any reasons. I would suggest that given our sparse population and large land mass direct comparrison may be problematic.
Like it or not new technologies are coming.
- network costs (48 per cent)
-
Interesting video on lithium battery recycling.
-
I would agree that it is easy to get info about how to do anything in the handyman line, but I don't see anywhere near as much handyman work being done now, compared to 20 years ago.
The current idea seems to be get rid of something and replace it with new. There is very little repair of existing things.
There are very few owner builders of houses and I know of only one aeroplane being built in this area, whereas ten years ago there were 4 or 5. I seldom see a boat being built in the backyard and 20 years ago there was one in every street. Nowadays everyone is too busy looking at their mobile phone to have time to build anything, even though the information to do so is freely available.
Not partcullary my experience but I guess it is about who you know. There are extremely vibrant makers" communites online Also it is my go to place to find out how to repair something. To the extent that people dont repairs thing is I believe nothing to do with people being less willing but lets face it many appliances are specifically made not to be fixed.
The kind of people I know are like this fellow, who is my sons business partner. This is the 3D tank he designed and built, nearly entirely by 3D printing. Oh and he built the 3D printer himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO3M_ODuiZU
-
I feel that my General Knowledge, which was pretty good before the year 2000, has increased markedly in the past couple of years since I've had the chance to spend more time researching stuff. I know for sure that I wouldn't have been able to create a family tree back to the 1690's without the internet. On the home front, Youtube taught me how to correctly sharpen a chisel; to create scale scenery; produce realistic painted scale models. Then there is the knowledge I have gained about aircraft hardware, fuels, engine operation and so on. Finally I would never have established the world-wide acquaintanceships that I now enjoy via the 'Net.
Pre internet we owner built a house ultimately successfully but with many missteps. Post internet we renovated our house and now we are renotvating our present place. Youtube is a fantastic resource. How the hell do I tile around that corner? What tool can I use for this job? Why doesent my oven work?
-
I agree, and it also has liberated commerce (something it was not originally designed for). I was listenting to a radio show here where an Aussie entreprenuer stated the internet has reduced the barriers to entry of a global market so much, that it is cheaper to do that than set up in a local market (i.e. bricks and mortar - or even clicks and mortar).
It certainly has created many opportunities that did not exist before. My son started an indie PC games development company which started as a 2 person operation in Melbourne. Because his market is the whole first world the company became successful. One day he and his business partner decided that they could operate their business from anywhere and so they moved to Wellington NZ. In my own business I am tied pretty much to a geographical area, my customer base is much smaller than his.
In terms of the bad stuff, I suspect some of it was happening anyway, pedophiles networks still existed the difference is now perhaps we are more aware of it. The existence of snuff films is not a new phenomenon, I heard of such things many years ago. Perhaps now the chances of getting caught may be greater than when the method was sending pictures in the post although I have no evidence of that assertion either way.
The internet is a tool just like a hammer most people use it to build something useful and occasionally someone beats someone to death with one. It is easy to trawl through the net and be dismayed at what seems to be a post facts era but I believe that it is early days with this new tool. We will get better at using it.
Personaly I think the good far outweighs the bad.
-
The precautionary principle would say we should not allow batteries to proliferate until we understand how the dead ones can be disposed of or recycled at the scale required. Who will pay for that? Yes, a little tongue in cheek, but it could become a problem to dwarf coal sludge dams and nuclear waste. Imagine ten million installations in Australian homes, each say 400kg, recycled every ten years. That’s 400,000 t of highly toxic waste each year. Then scale up to the whole world.
We already have allowed batterires to proliferate, phone and tablet batteries and many more. To compare litheum batteries to Strontium and Cesium etc. is a bit of a stretch.
Quite rightly though the question of the life cycle of large litheum batteries (and small but I guess you are not as concerned about them). This is a common objection people have and fair enough. Imagine if we had held up the proliferation of the mobile phone because at the beginning we weren't sure what would happen to the used batteries? In the early days of the home PC old machines probably did go to land fill but because they contain valuable materials we found ways to recycle.
So what does happen to all of these batteries?
First of all EV batteries are generally exceeding expectations
https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/16/tesla-battery-packs-live-longer/
Last year my son bought a BMW I3 second hand, it was 4 years old. The funny thing is I have so many times by the doubters have told me that the batteries will only last 4 years. As my son says, they come with an 8 year replacement warranty so he is pretty relaxed about it. The real world case is this after 5 years this battery is at about 97% of its original caapcity. I have driven this car many times and it is a delight to drive and cost very little to run and maintain. I wont get to drive this car again as he has bought a Tesla model 3 which I will be very excited to drive.
Although batteries dont last forever, their life is not yet over. When EV batteries degrade to the point when they are no longer viable for a vehichle they still have plenty of life left in stationary applications.
https://greenlight.nl/expert-views/a-second-life-for-old-ev-batteries/?lang=en
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/nissan-reborn-light-ev-batteries/
In terms of recycling things are definately happening.
Tesla is developing a so called "closed loop" system https://electrek.co/2019/04/16/tesla-battery-recycling-system/ The need for these EV companies to build enough cars is ample incentive to ensure the raw materials are available.
“A common question we hear is, “What happens to Tesla vehicle battery packs once they reach their end of life?” An important distinction between fossil fuels and lithium-ion batteries as an energy source is that while fossil fuels are extracted and used once, the materials in a lithium-ion battery are recyclable. When petroleum is pumped out of the ground, chemically refined and then burned, it releases harmful emissions into the atmosphere that are not recovered for reuse. Battery materials, in contrast, are refined and put into a cell, and will still remain at the end of their life, when they can be recycled to recover its valuable materials for reuse over and over again.”
The fact is that large lithium batteries are being recycled, sure it is a slow start but as volume increaeses, so will encentive to reuses those valuable materials. China is doing a lot in this area but also other countries.
-
There is a report along the lines of what you guys are saying, and that is that solar and wind are cheaper. My only problem is that storage was not mentioned. Gas fired plants for emergency high loads were referred to but only in passing.The trouble with this argument is that I hope to be wrong, because solar and wind suits my politics of independence. But so far the figures don't show the cheapness I want to see.
Dick Smith was lamenting that Australian food was manufactured much cheaper in France and they used Australian uranium in nuclear reactors and had much cheaper power costs than here.
I certainly don't want to see subsidies to build and run nuclear power, but neither do I want to see artificial costs and delays built in. Anyway, the nuclear argument has been lost I reckon. At least until the Chinese begin making cheap and modern reactors.
If you want to read about the economics of storage here is an extensive report Annual update finds renewables are cheapest new-build power - CSIRO full report available as a PDF. This report is quite long and I have not read it yet but I will.
In terms of cheapness, we need to take into account various scenarios. If we factor in climate change it is a no brainer but my understanding is we are reaching or may have reached the point where renewables are cheaper without factoring in climate change.
Annual update finds renewables are cheapest new-build power - CSIRO
"Our data confirms that while existing fossil fuel power plants are competitive due to their sunk capital costs, solar and wind generation technologies are currently the lowest-cost ways to generate electricity for Australia, compared to any other new-build technology.
“At a global level, the investment costs of a wide range of low emission generation technologies are projected to continue to fall, and we found new-build renewable generation to be least cost, including when we add the cost of two or six hours of energy storage to wind and solar.
“This also holds when the cost of fossil generation technology is adjusted for climate policy risk or not."
Critics of renewables seem to assume that the renewables sector has not considered the area of storage. How often does someone say "but what about when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow" der never thought of that. Here is a list of storage projects around the world
List of energy storage projects - Wikipedia
I can foresee a time when every house will have its own battery pack interconnected with the grid. As EVs become ubiquitous we will have enormous battery capacity interconnected to by a smart grid.
-
Conservative means to conserve things the way they are. In other words, don’t stuff around with the system. Obviously a majority of Australians think that way.
Conserve things the way they are when? Before the Wright brothers? Before Penicillin?
-
A nuclear power plant well away from cropping country and big enough to provide power for most of Australia was what I was referring to. Alas it will never happen because we are too stupid to see the benefit. And why could you not recirculate the cooling water?If stored solar and wind could be made cheaper, I would like that but have yet to be convinced that it is possible. The price of electricity here should be the cheapest in the world, not the most expensive.
According to the ACC enquiry environmental costs are not the main driver of power price increases.
The ACCC’s preliminary findings are that, on average across the NEM, a 2015-16 residential bill was $1,524 (excluding GST). This average residential bill was made up of:
- network costs (48 per cent)
- wholesale costs (22 per cent)
- environmental costs (7 per cent)
- retail and other costs (16 per cent)
- retail margins (8 per cent).
As far as nuclear goes, I am not philosophically opposed, I just don't think at this point the figures stack up. Nuclear power plants are not built purely with local expertise money or ownership. The cost of building is enormous and the time required is long. Hinkley Point C
Hinkley Point C nuclear power station - Wikipedia
Certainly not cheap or easy.
By the way this I found this video interesting. It is not hysterically anti-nuclear but does describe the process and problems.
Owners and operators must be responsible for the security and safety for hundreds of years into the future.
- network costs (48 per cent)
-
I couldn't lug A 10 litre bottle of water Anywhere
It's called" Convenience".
spacesailor
I just go to the tap, even more convenient
-
Check the supermarket price of a bottle of water. ( close to $4. )
Woolworths 10 litres for $4. It pays to shop around. But yes the more expensive water is about the price you say. I can't for the life of me understand why people buy bottled water.
{{metaController.metaData.title}}
-
Octave, could you tell us about your fridge? I wanted to go off the grid but decided the fridge was the killer. Maybe I was too pessimistic.
It was some time ago now, we lived there between 1990 and 2011. We had a fridge that was converted to 12 volts by these people Solar Power & Batteries | Hot Water & Pumps | Rainbow Power Company hard now to remember the details. Our system was pretty small so refrigeration was one of the challenges. Some of our neighbours used large gas refrigerators.
Something I find a little frustrating is that 8 years later there have been huge advances in technology. For most of our time there we used quartz halogen lights which at the time were relatively efficient although they were $13 each which was a lot back then. I am renovating the house that I live in now in the suburbs and I have installed LED downlights 10 watts each x 6 in the lounge, they are so bright that I have them on a dimmer and they are always turned down. They use as little as 1 old fashioned 60w incandescent bulb, if only they had been available back then.
Likewise, the solar panels we purchased in 1991 were 60-watt panels $595 each today a 60 panel is $156.
At the time living off-grid was not particularly easy to achieve and did take some compromises. We had a small system with 12-volt lighting and an inverter. Washing day we would fire up the generator to run the washing machine and charge the batteries if they were low.
I think living off the grid is achievable but I would suggest probably not worth it purely from an economic view. For us, it was economic because we were not near mains electricity and it would have cost a fortune. We did enjoy smugly saying to the people in town "power cut? no, we didn't notice it". It also gave us great pleasure to be the master of our own empire.
-
In the cities of Melbourne & Sydney,At the moment we ( in Sydney ) can't see the aircraft over-flying us do to OUR bad air pollution. ( mist & smoke MAKE smog )
So solar will NOT BE AT PEAK POWER !.
SPACESAILOR
Reduction in solar production due to pollution haze in Los Angeles and London a whopping 2%
"However, even modern haze is still reducing sunlight in cities. Scientists find that in Delhi air pollution over the city is reducing the efficiency of solar panels by between 12% and 17%, depending on the type of photovoltaic technology. Losses are between 9% and 13% in Beijing, and around 2% in London and Los Angeles."
Pollutionwatch: hazy air of cities 'reducing solar panel efficiency'
-
In the cities of Melbourne & Sydney,At the moment we ( in Sydney ) can't see the aircraft over-flying us do to OUR bad air pollution. ( mist & smoke MAKE smog )
So solar will NOT BE AT PEAK POWER !.
SPACESAILOR
Are you saying solar does not work in large cities? I would suggest that various forms of solar are working in the city such as rooftop solar. Having lived in an off-grid solar-powered house for 21 years I can tell you that solar still produces power in less than perfect full sunlight, even a cloudy day will still produce a reasonable amount of power.
-
I can't see solar or wind power producing the amount of electricity the desal plant needs, right now, not in the future,
-
But... I agree with Bruce that there are better ways to deal with our crooks than simply locking them up.
I agree that by and large prison does not work but I think this is not the right case to hang that argument on. I am not for jailing wrongdoers if other means of correction, punishment and rehabilitation are available. Some wrongdoers do however pose a risk to society and do need to be segregated from society until they no longer pose a risk or the least the risk is acceptable.
-
The punishment for a crime should not be discounted because of the high position they held or the respect they may once have commanded. If you commit a serious crime you will go to jail and lose your job and the respect of society. The fact that because some occupy a higher position in society means they have further to fall but on the other hand have a greater responsibility to understand the consequences.
-
I tend to think most sentences are too much. Pell has been disgraced, which is a big and hard thing for an important man. Except for violent crimes, when the public needs protecting, jail sentences are expensive and I don't like them. South Australia once had a report along the lines of how we were incarcerating the wrong people and at great expense. For example, a defrauding accountant can be adequately punished financially and if he is not violent, the public does not need protection beyond his exposure and debarring.
One day I got to put this to the minister of prisons, he was the local member at Gawler.
He said that they ( the cabinet ) were well aware of that, but the public wanted big sentences and they wanted to stay in power.
I would say that the crime that Pell was found guilty of was violent.
As a private music teacher if I abused a child the fact that I would lose my job should not play a part in my sentence. In fact in some professions you would expect people to be more aware of cosequences. Some jobs come with extra responsibilities.
Many years ago when I was in the RAAF a collegue was caught drink driving, as well as losing his licence he was also punished administratively by the airforce. Some jobs just carry extra responsibilities.
-
I Can't.I rely on the Coal-fired grid !.
For almost all my electricity.
spacesailor
I rely on the grid which in my area means some coal some wind and some solar. Increasingly the proportion of coal generation is decreasing.
EU PLANS TO TAKE OVER ENTIRE UK ARMED FORCES.
in Politics
Posted
I would agree that "doing good" should be evidence based. All too often people confuse their gut feeling with what the evidence suggests. It is all too easy to cherry pick evidence that supports what we want to believe.