Likes Given

1

Policy and solutions / Re: Renewable Energy

« on: February 06, 2019, 11:56:31 PM »

The Florida Public Services Commission ruled that solar leases don't constitute the sale of electricity:

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/02/05/florida-public-service-commission-opens-the-floodgates-for-solar-leases/

The approval gives Tesla and other solar providers in the state the green light to move forward with solar leasing in the state. Solar is the easiest to get onto rooftops when it does not come at an incremental cost to homeowners and instead, replaces the existing electricity bill with a solar leasing bill that is typically lower than what customers were paying for electricity.

The ruling clarified that the Florida Public Service Commission views Tesla’s solar leases as leasing of equipment and not the sale of electricity, which allows Tesla to continue leasing solar equipment in the state. Click Orlando quoted Florida PSC Chairman Art Graham as saying, “while today’s declaration is limited to the facts in Tesla’s petition, companies operating under the same facts can rely upon this declaration as well.”

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2

Policy and solutions / Re: Renewable Energy

« on: February 06, 2019, 11:46:15 PM »

Off-grid solar is growing in Africa:

https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/africa-embraces-an-8-billion-solar-market-for-going-off-grid/92303

Nairobi-based M-KOPA started the revolution. Launched commercially in 2012, M-KOPA allows low-income families access to solar energy for as little as $1 per month. This is cheaper and more environmental than the alternatives, kerosene or diesel fuel, and offers a metered payment system tracked through their phone SIM cards. The first firm in the world to develop that innovation, M-KOPA now has 600,000 customers across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and is bringing solar power to 500 new homes every day. It has received $162 million in investments since 2014. But the firm is no longer alone.

Uganda-based Fenix, which launched in Africa soon after M-KOPA, has now reached more than 1 million homes. While Uganda remains its biggest market, it is now expanding to other nations. In 2018, Fenix — which has raised $16 million in investments — entered Zambia, and within nine months had converted 30,000 families to solar energy users. Tanzania-based ZOLA Energy — better known by its earlier name, Off Grid Electric — is now expanding into West Africa, starting with Ivory Coast. It has already reached 50,000 homes in Tanzania.

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3

Policy and solutions / Re: Renewable Energy

« on: January 29, 2019, 06:22:15 PM »

The EIA underestimates of the growth of renewables are on the order of over 300% for generation and 4000% for capacity.  So if the EIA is projecting that the US will be getting 30% of it's electricity from renewables in 2050, it's going to be closer to 90 to 100%.

That includes all electricity generation to meet all demand, whether it's from EVs or cell phones or TVs or electric heaters.

Source on EIA underestimates:

https://qz.com/1103874/the-us-government-underestimated-solar-energy-installation-in-the-us-by-4813-along-with-renewable-wind-and-solar-generation/

The agency’s “projections bear little resemblance to market realities” because they ignore publicly available evidence, argues the clean-energy non-profit Advanced Energy Economy. It cites the EIA’s 2015 expectation for solar capacity to double by 2026, despite a pipeline of projects that would—and ultimately did—exceed that benchmark by early 2017. Similarly, the EIA expected the installment of 6.5 GW of new wind capacity between 2017 and 2030—even though new US wind installations averaged 6.5 GW per year between 2007 and 2014. “They’re not just conservative about change,” Advanced Energy Economy vice-president Robert Keough told Politico. “ They’re ignoring the evidence of what’s actually happening in the market.”

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4

Policy and solutions / Re: Batteries: Today's Energy Solution

« on: January 24, 2019, 04:12:59 AM »

I thought this was a very insightful interview.

I agree, showcases the thought processes on the (rather conservative) utility side, and the benefits of a battery system.

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5

Policy and solutions / Re: Batteries: Today's Energy Solution

« on: January 24, 2019, 02:12:12 AM »

Colorado's largest Tesla Powerpack




I thought this was a very insightful interview.

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6

Policy and solutions / Re: Batteries: Today's Energy Solution

« on: January 16, 2019, 09:30:22 PM »

Peakers, storage and batteries: duration matters

"I can beat a gas peaker anywhere in the country today with a solar-plus-storage power plant,"

" Hohenstein advocated a "duration portfolio" approach that uses energy storage to shave peak load. "

"When solar penetration is lower than about 11%, the potential of four-hour storage is lower than it would be with zero solar deployment because solar penetration of 11% or less flattens the load curve. Above 11% penetration, however, NREL found that solar power creates a "peakier" load curve that increases the potential of four-hour storage."

"the cost of energy storage is highly dependent on the number of hours of duration needed."

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/unlayering-peak-demand-could-accelerate-energy-storage-adoption/546098/

sidd

2 Likes

7

Consequences / Re: Pathogens and their impacts

« on: January 08, 2019, 09:16:44 PM »

Unintended consequences ...

Wild Monkeys With Killer Herpes are Breeding Like Crazy In Florida
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/01/wild-monkeys-with-killer-herpes-are-breeding-like-crazy-in-florida/

https://www.wftv.com/news/local/monkeys-swarm-ocala-mans-property/552589371

A quick reminder: there’s a band of feral monkeys running wild in Central Florida that carries a type of herpes lethal to humans. The mischievous simians—who are not shy around people—can transmit deadly disease with just a scratch, nip, or fling of poo.

Last year, experts warned that the rhesus macaques are a public health threat. It now seems that the monkey business is likely to get worse, with a wildlife expert revealing that their population is set to double in the next few years.

“It’s going to be a problem… Continual growth of that population is going to occur without intervention,” Steve Johnson told Florida ABC-affiliate WFTV in a report published January 3. Johnson is a professor and wildlife expert at the University of Florida and part of a team of researchers that has followed the monkeys for years.

Early last year, Johnson and colleagues published a study estimating that about 25 percent of Florida’s population of free-wheeling monkeys carries the deadly virus, known as macacine herpesvirus 1 (McHV-1), herpes B, or monkey B virus. The study appeared in the February issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

In humans, McHV-1 can cause a flu-like illness that can progress to neurological problems, such as double vision and paralysis. At that point, an infected person is likely to die of the infection.

The population got its start during the 1930s and 1940s when the captain of a glass-bottom boat released a handful of macaques on an island in Florida’s Silver River to amuse tourists. The monkeys, which are excellent swimmers, established in the surrounding Silver Spring State Park and nearby Ocala National Forest.

----------------------------

Escapades in Ecology: Bart Simpsons
https://ekostories.com/2013/03/08/simpsons-bart-mother-ecology/

... Bart discover that they are in fact Bolivian tree lizards, an invasive species responsible for the demise of many native birds and must by law be exterminated. After developing a bond with the hatchlings, Bart refuses to hand the lizards over and instead releases them to freedom.

“Our top story, the population of parasitic tree lizards has exploded, and local citizens couldn’t be happier! It seems the rapacious reptiles have developed a taste for the common pigeon, also known as the ‘feathered rat’, or the ‘gutter bird’. For the first time, citizens need not fear harassment by flocks of chattering disease-bags.” (Kent Brockman)

Much to everyone’s surprise, the lizards turn out to be a blessing, dining on the town’s pesky pigeon population. Bart is thanked and praised by Mayor Quimby, but Lisa worries about the long-term ramifications of the introduced lizards. Principal Skinner reassures her that releasing other non-native species will keep the lizards in check.

Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn’t that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we’re overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They’ll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren’t the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we’re prepared for that. We’ve lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we’re stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that’s the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.

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8

Consequences / Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD

« on: January 05, 2019, 11:36:47 PM »

I got some solutions:

a)eat less meat. For every gram of meat you don't eat you get a multiplier of ten in grains grow. So, eat 5 fewer grams meat, grow 50 grams less grain. And burn less fossil. What's not to like ?

b) Get rid of ethanol and fresh soy to biofuel conversion. That saves you a buncha farmland. Right now a third of all corn in the USA and a third of all fresh soy oil does into biofuel. This is a completely mad thing to do EROEI is around 1, and costs in degradation of land is huge.

sidd

 

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Policy and solutions / Re: Oil and Gas Issues

« on: December 28, 2018, 04:31:06 PM »

great video on EV disruption of the Oil and Gas industry

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Policy and solutions / Re: Space colonization

« on: December 23, 2018, 03:39:20 PM »

In answer to the the poll question:  Musk envisions eventually 100 persons per ship — with 1,000 ships making the trip during the Earth-Mars rendezvous period every two years.  He figures a Mars population of one million is the minimum to be self-sustaining.

Good news. It is hoped that by the end of the 21st century millions of people will live and work in space. This will be a good insurance against disasters on Earth.

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11

Policy and solutions / Re: Oil and Gas Issues

« on: December 20, 2018, 12:13:47 AM »

The EIA has been notorious for underestimating the growth of renewable energy, the reductions in the cost of renewable energy and for overestimating the growth of fossil fuels.  Here's a link to one article summarizing their errors:

https://www.energyandpolicy.org/eia-forecasts-are-frequently-wrong/

Given that both new wind and new solar power plants are currently cheaper than continuing to operate existing coal plants, there is no way that coal will maintain the market share it currently has until 2040.  In the US alone, about 20% of existing plants are expected to be retired in the next five years.

And a lot of natural gas is currently being produced by fracking.  Fracked wells deplete quickly and producers have to continuously drill and frack new wells to maintain production levels.  In the face of rapidly declining prices for new solar and wind plants, plus the rapid development of battery technology, natural gas production will be on the decline by the 2020s. 

Oil production will decline when the transportation sector switches to electric vehicles.  We're still in the early stages of the transition and vehicles will be on the road (and in the air and on the seas) for decades after new electric vehicles become the dominant form of transportation.  Solid-state batteries are still in the experimental stage; they're expected to be commercialized in the 2020s.  When that happens, EVs will outsell ICEs  So, we'll probably see peak oil demand in the 2020s as well.

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12

Policy and solutions / Re: Renewable Energy

« on: December 19, 2018, 09:05:50 PM »

Team Locates Nearly All US Solar Panels in a Billion Hi-Res Satellite Images with Machine Learning
https://techxplore.com/news/2018-12-team-solar-panels-billion-images.html
DeepSolar Interactive Map: http://web.stanford.edu/group/deepsolar/dual-map.html 

Knowing which Americans have installed solar panels on their roofs and why they did so would be enormously useful for managing the changing U.S. electricity system and to understanding the barriers to greater use of renewable resources. But until now, all that has been available are essentially estimates.

To get accurate numbers, Stanford University scientists analyzed more than a billion high-resolution satellite images with a machine learning algorithm and identified nearly every solar power installation in the contiguous 48 states.

The analysis found 1.47 million installations, which is a much higher figure than either of the two widely recognized estimates. The scientists also integrated U.S. Census and other data with their solar catalog to identify factors leading to solar power adoption.

The group's data could be useful to utilities, regulators, solar panel marketers and others. Knowing how many solar panels are in a neighborhood can help a local electric utility balance supply and demand, the key to reliability. The inventory highlights activators and impediments to solar deployment. For example, the researchers found that household income is very important, but only to a point. Above $150,000 a year, income quickly ceases to play much of a role in people's decisions.

On the other hand, low- and medium-income households do not often install solar systems even when they live in areas where doing so would be profitable in the long term. For example, in areas with a lot of sunshine and relatively high electricity rates, utility bill savings would exceed the monthly cost of the equipment. The impediment for low- and medium-income households is upfront cost, the authors suspect. This finding shows that solar installers could develop new financial models to satisfy unmet demand.

Joule, Yu & Wang et al.: "DeepSolar: A Machine Learning Framework to Efficiently Construct Solar Deployment Database in the United States"

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13

Policy and solutions / Re: Tesla glory/failure

« on: December 17, 2018, 11:11:49 PM »

The magic of editing.

With regards to why Robyn Denholm, the new chairman of the board, has not tightened control over Musk’s impulsive conduct, he noted that he hand-picked her and that it would be “not realistic” for her to control the board: “I am the largest shareholder in the company. And I can just call for a shareholder vote and get anything done that I want,” he said.

His view stands in stark contrast to the law, which views him, as both CEO and controlling shareholder, as a fiduciary to the remainder of the shareholders, under longstanding Delaware law, the state where Tesla is incorporated.

The CBS interview edited out the statement that invalidates the legal concern of the expert who supposedly wants Tesla to succeed. Here is the full quote that CBS edited.

“I am the largest shareholder in the company. And I can just call for a shareholder vote and get anything done that I want I mean that’s not realistic because I am the largest shareholder in the company and a very high percentage of the shareholders support me and the company. So essentially I could just call for a shareholder vote and get anything done that I want provided I could get support of at least a 1/3 of the other shareholders, which is likely. At the end of the day the shareholders control the company.”


Elon is the leader of Tesla and got Tesla to where it is today. He has done such an excellent job that not only Tesla is growing at breakneck speed and its profitable, but it is actually accomplishing its primary mission of accelerating the advent of sustainable Energy.

If Elon leaves Tesla then Tesla will be swallowed by corporate interests and be more profitable than ever, but it won't grow and more importantly it will stop the acceleration of renewable energy.

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14

Consequences / Re: Weird Weather and anecdotal stories about climate change

« on: December 17, 2018, 02:38:35 PM »

Storms Shatter Records In the East, Create Massive Waves In the West
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna948646

Powerful storms drenched the East and West coasts over the weekend, shattering rainfall records in the Washington, D.C., area and creating office tower-sized waves off the California coast.

Tweeting in all-caps Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service issued a warning to surfers and gawkers in Northern California: “STAY WELL BACK FROM THE OCEAN OR RISK CERTAIN DEATH.” 

 

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Policy and solutions / Re: Oil and Gas Issues

« on: December 17, 2018, 08:57:06 AM »

A bit of hopeful news for a change.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/16/divestment-fossil-fuel-industry-trillions-dollars-investments-carbon

At last, divestment is hitting the fossil fuel industry where it hurts
Bill McKibben

Trillions of dollars of investments are being taken out of carbon-intensive companies. Governments must now take notice

......we have marked the 1,000th divestment in what has become by far the largest anti-corporate campaign of its kind. The latest to sell their shares – major French and Australian pension funds, and Brandeis University in Massachusetts – bring the total size of portfolios and endowments in the campaign to just under $8 trillion (£6.4tn).....

.....since the fossil fuel sector has badly underperformed on the market over recent years, moving money into other investments has dramatically increased returns. Pity, for instance, the New York state comptroller Thomas DeNapoli – unlike his New York City counterpart, he refused to divest, and the cost has been about $17,000 per pensioner.......

At first we thought our biggest effect would be to rob fossil fuel companies of their social licence. Since their political lobbying power is above all what prevents governments taking serious action on global warming, that would have been worth the fight........As time went on it became clear that divestment was also squeezing the industry.......Indeed, just a few weeks ago analysts at that radical collective Goldman Sachs said the “divestment movement has been a key driver of the coal sector’s 60% de-rating over the past five years”.

Now the contagion seems to be spreading to the oil and gas sector, where Shell announced earlier this year that divestment should be considered a “material risk” to its business. That’s how oil companies across the world are treating it – in the US, petroleum producers have set up a website designed to discredit divestment...

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16

Policy and solutions / Re: Cars, cars and more cars. And trucks, and....

« on: December 16, 2018, 02:44:27 PM »

Another outstanding video by Two Bit da Vinci on you tube. As a bonus, they include the spreadsheet used for their calculation.

Is Driving a Tesla Actually Worse for the Environment?

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Policy and solutions / Re: Renewable Energy

« on: December 04, 2018, 08:35:03 PM »

NASA makes good on Mars.
Also a nice indication that PVs do a worthwhile job even under poor conditions.

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2018/12/03/mars-solar-power-generation-record-set-with-29-5-efficiency-solar-cell/

Mars electricity generation record set with 29.5% efficient solar cell
The NASA InSight lander generated 4,588 watt-hours during sol 1, a new record for electricity generation on Mars.
Mars has weaker sunlight than Earth because it’s much farther away from the Sun, but the lander doesn’t need much to operate: The panels provide 600 to 700 watts peak production on a clear day, about 1/2 of the production on Earth. Even when dust covers the panels — what is likely to be a common occurrence on Mars per NASA — they should be able to provide at least 200 to 300 watts peak production.

The maximum solar irradiance on Mars is about 590 W/m2 compared to about 1000 W/m2 at the Earth's surface. ...

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18

Policy and solutions / Re: Cars, cars and more cars. And trucks, and....

« on: December 02, 2018, 04:04:04 PM »

Why battery-powered vehicles stack up better than hydrogen

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-battery-powered-vehicles-stack-hydrogen.html

Based on a wide scan of studies globally, we found that battery electric vehicles have significantly lower energy losses compared to other vehicle technologies. Interestingly, however, the well-to-wheel losses of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were found to be almost as high as fossil fuel vehicles.

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19

Consequences / Re: Volcanoes

« on: November 29, 2018, 12:13:17 AM »

If it's at 1/17 Hz and no other frequencies, then I'm not at all surprised that no one felt them.

Slow Slip Earthquakes are a relatively recent discovery, 16 years ago or something. AFAIK they aren't very well understood yet. I have a feeling this 1/17 Hz Mayotte event is going to teach us a bunch of things we didn't know yet.

For now I'll just call it the Magma Flute 

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20

Policy and solutions / Re: Cars, cars and more cars. And trucks, and....

« on: November 27, 2018, 03:41:36 PM »

A 180 kWh pack (400+ miles range)? That's around 35 thousand kg of CO2. That's not a solution or improvement, it's just plain stupid. 

Your calculation is for the manufacture of the battery?
Might or might not be stupid.
For a commuter, a big pickup truck or SUV is indeed stupid, electric or ICE.  The electric is just a little less stupid.

For a contractor, it may be very, very intelligent.  That battery pack is a power source for power tools.  Its capacity may well replace a portable generator.  Very smart.

An over-capacity battery will far less often be fully discharged, and will last much longer.  When the vehicle becomes unusable, that used over-capacity battery will likely live on in some fixed power setting, and will have much more usable life there.  The capacity and its lifespan won't be wasted.

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21

Policy and solutions / Re: Tesla glory/failure

« on: November 26, 2018, 08:03:03 PM »

my last comment re: electrolysis and H2 fuel cell vehicles.

The current cost to fill a Toyota Mirai is about 0.33 cents (u.s.) per mile.  at our current cost of gasoline (in California) that comes out to a fuel efficiency of 8 miles per gallon (gasoline equivalent). 

Comparatively, the Tesla model 3 goes about 4 miles per kilowatt-hour, a kilowatt hour costs about 12 cents so the cost per mile for the model 3 is about 0.03 cents (u.s.) or less than 1/10th that of the Toyota Mirai.

The primary supplier of hydrogen fueling stations in California "True Zero" received $47 million dollars from the state of California to build 28 fueling stations. 

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/build-california-invests-millions-hydrogen-fueling-stations/story?id=24962830

only 1/3 of the total hydrogen provided by True Zero for vehicle use is produced using "renewable energy" the rest is from the oil and gas industry.  As they move more and more into 'true zero' renewable only generation of hydrogen, this price will go up. 

http://www.truezero.com/sources-of-hydrogen/

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22

Policy and solutions / Re: Robots and AI: Our Immortality or Extinction

« on: November 26, 2018, 06:02:07 PM »

Engineers Developing a HAL 9000-type AI system for Monitoring Planetary Base Stations, and What Could Go Wrong, Really
https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/21/theyre-making-a-real-hal-9000-and-its-called-case/
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-built-an-ai-inspired-by-hal-9000-and-what-could-go-wrong-really



A team of engineers at TRACLabs Inc. in the U.S. is making inroads toward the creation of a planetary base station monitoring system similar in some respects to Hal 9000—the infamous AI system in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. In this case, it is called cognitive architecture for space agents (CASE) and is outlined in a Focus piece by Pete Bonasso, the primary engineer working on the project, in the journal Science Robotics.

Bonasso explains that he has had an interest in creating a real Hal 9000 ever since watching the movie as a college student—minus the human killing, of course. His system is designed to run a base situated on another planet, such as Mars. It is meant to take care of the more mundane, but critical tasks involved with maintaining a habitable planetary base, such as maintaining oxygen levels and taking care of waste. He notes that such a system needs to know what to do and how to do it, carrying out activities using such hardware as robot arms. To that end, CASE has been designed as a three-layered system. The first is in charge of controlling hardware, such as power systems, life-support, etc.

The second layer is more brainy—it is in charge of running the software that controls the hardware. The third layer is even smarter, responsible for coming up with solutions to problems as they arise—if damage occurs to a module, for example, it must be sealed off from others modules as quickly as possible. The system also has what Bonasso describes as an ontological system—its job is to be self-aware so that the system can make judgment calls when comparing data from sensors with what it has learned in the past and with information received from human occupants. To that end, the system will be expected to interact with those humans in ways similar to those portrayed in the movie.

Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Dave Bowman: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
...
HAL: You can't take care of your own planet. I'm not letting you f**k this one up.

Pete Bonasso. CASE: A HAL 9000 for 2021, Science Robotics (2018).

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23

Policy and solutions / Re: Tesla glory/failure

« on: November 26, 2018, 12:26:35 AM »

the efficiency that you claim (over 60%) appears to only be when the waste heat generated by the SOFC is captured in some thermal process (impossible for a vehicle)

even so,  if your (highest) electrolysis production efficiency is 80% and you have an end-use efficiency of 60% for the vehicle you are still talking about only 48% total efficiency of electricity generation.

The capture, storage, compression, transportation and other significant issues of hydrogen, (like hydrogen embrittlement of metal defects, welds and joints) as well as the massive amounts of leakage observed from hydrogen systems (H2 is the smallest molecule in the physical world) results in far less efficiency than the 95% end use efficiency of Li-Ion batteries and without the Hindenburg Effect that your preferred system poses.

if anyone is drinking koolaid it is you, my friend.

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24

Policy and solutions / Re: Tesla glory/failure

« on: November 25, 2018, 09:00:16 PM »

Electrolysis is not the only inefficiency loss in a fuel cell setup. There are also loses during hydrogen storage and during electricity use. There is also higher maintenance and complexity. When you add all the inefficiencies from power to final load, batteries are the more efficient form of electricity storage.

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/11/hydrogen-fuel-cell-battery-electric-vehicles-technology-rundown/



However I think fuel cell might be worth it for stationary storage as most of the inefficiencies can be reduced by scaling.

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25

Policy and solutions / Re: Tesla glory/failure

« on: November 25, 2018, 08:59:02 PM »

Listening to Musk speak just hurts. He said electrolysis is an extremely inefficient process. industrial electrolysis is ~80% efficient.....

just having hydrogen doesn't do a thing for you, you have to USE the hydrogen.   current U.S. Department of Energy analysis show that the theoretical MAXIMUM efficiency of a hydrogen fuel cell is between 40% and 60%. 

so the end use electrical efficiency of electrolysis produced hydrogen in fuel cells (the highest efficiency use of hydrogen by the way) is LESS THAN between 32% and 48%  (it is less than because hydrogen is notorious for leakage and you have to pressurize it to liquid form and transport it, all of which takes energy)

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26

Consequences / Re: Places becoming less livable

« on: November 21, 2018, 11:30:17 PM »

AIG: Total Assets: $498 Billion.
https://rctom.hbs.org/submission/aig-underwriting-the-risk-of-climate-change/

On May 15, 2006, American International Group (“AIG”) became the first U.S. insurance company to publicly address climate change as a risk and formally outline its corporate policy and programs regarding the issue. As a leading provider of Property and Casualty (“P&C”) insurance in the U.S., AIG is directly exposed to the risk of insured losses resulting from severe weather. According to Allianz, one of AIG’s competitors, “climate change stands to increase insured losses from extreme events in an average year by 37 per cent within just a decade”[2]. Given this threat, the players in this market have focused on limiting their financial exposure to high-risk areas, either by canceling or not renewing policies or by increasing deductibles, reducing limits, and adding new exclusions to policies.

Swiss Re: Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd, generally known as Swiss Re, is a reinsurance company based in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the world’s second-largest reinsurer. Total Assets: $222 Billion
http://www.swissre.com/eca/our_climate_change_strategy.html

As a major global reinsurer, Swiss Re has had a major role in the climate change debate for over two decades. 

 For a reinsurer, climate change constitutes a key risk because it can lead to an increase in the frequency and severity of natural catastrophes such as floods, storms, excessive rainfall and drought. In combination with growing asset concentrations in exposed areas and more widespread insurance protection, this will cause a rise in losses.

Since detecting the long-term threat posed by climate change more than 20 years ago, we have been an acknowledged thought leader on the topic. 

Munich Re: Munich Re Group or Munich Reinsurance Company.. It is one of the world’s leading reinsurers.
https://www.munichre.com/topics-online/en/climate-change-and-natural-disasters/climate-change.html

For more than 40 years, Munich Re has been dealing with climate change and the related risks and opportunities for the insurance industry. Our approach to coping with this challenge is holistic and based on the following pillars: risk assessment – insurance solutions – asset management

Like aperson said:

... Find me an insurance company that does NOT charge based on risk!  Anyone that does not accurately base their premiums on the risk of payout, will probably be out of business soon.

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27

Policy and solutions / Re: Cars, cars and more cars. And trucks, and....

« on: November 18, 2018, 04:57:36 AM »

The legendary Potholer54 picks apart and turns to shreds a piece by Bjorn Lomborg about the carbon footprint of electric cars :



Interesting note here : The video by Bjorn Lomborg is produced by Prager University.

It turns out the that Prager University is not a university at all, but instead a Youtube channel funded by the Wilks brothers. If you don't know these guys, they are like the Koch brothers, rich because of fossil fuels, and fully committed to spend their money on people that deny climate science :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_and_Farris_Wilks

Can't make this stuff up.

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28

Consequences / Re: Places becoming less livable

« on: November 17, 2018, 02:49:14 PM »

Threat to USA Grain Harvests - depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer. I have been watching this for over 20 years.

http://duwaterlawreview.com/crisis-on-the-high-plains-the-loss-of-americas-largest-aquifer-the-ogallala/

The grain-growing region in the High Plains of America—known as America’s breadbasket—relies entirely on the Ogallala Aquifer. But long term unsustainable use of the aquifer is forcing states in the region to face the prospect of a regional economic disaster.

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29

Policy and solutions / Re: Oil and Gas Issues

« on: November 14, 2018, 12:16:52 PM »

A really good article on why US shale oil and gas producers may be in real trouble. It explains free cash-flow very well and why when it's negative it is really bad news for the shale industry while can be just normal for a new business, e.g. TESLA, as it builds itself into long-term profitability.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Can-US-Shale-Overcome-Its-Cash-Flow-Problem.html

The shale oil industry in the United States is using investor money to subsidize oil consumers and to line the pockets of top management with no long-term plan to build value.

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30

Policy and solutions / Re: Tesla glory/failure

« on: November 01, 2018, 09:23:08 AM »

NeilT and zizek, are you now going to continue slinging insults at each other? Well, if you are, this is the wrong thread for it. This thread is for mainly posting articles, videos, opeds, etc, that posit that either Tesla is going to make it, or is going to fail in the biggest sea of flames in history.

Speaking of which, last week, when I got into trouble with my new EV for the first time, I ended up at this guy's home in Germany where he let me fill up with his private charger, and he showed me this pro-Tesla YouTube channel:

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31

Policy and solutions / Re: Cars, cars and more cars. And trucks, and....

« on: October 31, 2018, 10:23:48 AM »

I went EV hunting last week, in Germany, and came back yesterday with a Mitsubishi i-MiEV (from 2017). It was a really good deal, and only 10 km from where my best friend lives. Given that I will probably be able to sell it without a loss two years from now (because second-hand cars are much more expensive in Austria than in Germany), I just had to do it, fed up as I was to emit 135 grammes of CO2 per kilometre driven with our Opel Combo CNG.

The range is quite limited on the i-MiEV, and so I didn't go anything near 200 km/h. More like 80-90 km/h, safely hiding behind a truck. That way I drove 300 km from my friend's home to visit my mother in the Netherlands (fast-charging every 50-70 km), and back again a few days later, followed by another 300 km to Hamburg where I put the car on a special night train that brought me to Vienna. Then it was another 160 km to my home.

I almost got stuck a couple of times, expecting more range, but conditions like driving style, temperature, weather, tire pressure, all have a huge influence that I underestimated. Fortunately, I was able to improvise every time, and extremely lucky to have a (slow) charging station nearby. Mind you, I don't have a smart phone, which complicated things even further (although I did have a small tablet with me, with no SIM card, and thus entirely dependent on free wifi or the good will of some company). During my first tight situation, I was extremely lucky to find a private charging station, where the owner gave me a heap of tips as well as his charging card (I had ordered two that covered everything, but they hadn't arrived in time, so all I had, was an app on my - mostly offline - tablet). In hindsight, this was nothing short of a miracle.

Now I have to figure out what the best way is to get from my house to Graz and back, twice a week. In theory, the i-MiEV can make the 120-130 km round trip (when conditions are good), but in practice I will need to charge somewhere, if only for an hour or two.

But I'm glad to be home. You don't want to be stuck along the Autobahn, 1000 miles from home. 

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32

Policy and solutions / Re: Tesla glory/failure

« on: October 14, 2018, 03:35:15 PM »

I have a awful feeling that maintaining the status quo but with a green "twist" is going to be an utter failure. I can't help but to think that solving the problem with the techniques that got us into this mess is a really bad idea.

I generally agree with this comment. Green BAU cannot solve the world's problems quickly enough and/or thoroughly enough, and on its own will end in failure. Other solutions are required as well - sharply reduced consumption, sharply reduced pollution, and reduced population (sharply reducing births). What I fail to understand is why so many hate Tesla for trying to build some kind of partial solution, as if they are to blame that other more thorough, quicker and more correct solutions are not implemented. Blame politicians, and even more blame the general public whose priorities dictate all this, and/or who lets distractions and expensive ads to sway its votes.
The claim that because of Tesla all those simpletons lose sight of the real problem is pure nonsense.

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33

Policy and solutions / Re: UN Climate Agreement - Paris 2015 and beyond

« on: October 08, 2018, 12:06:12 PM »

But something did happened. Acceptance at the highest level. Acceptance is the first step.

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34

Policy and solutions / Re: Renewable Energy

« on: October 07, 2018, 02:28:41 AM »

...
For instance there are approximately 26m residential homes in the UK.  If we were to put 2Mw/h capacity in each home that is 52 Tw/h of capacity.

...

Erm, just one little problem.  at $100 per kw/h that's 10 quadrillion and 400 trillion dollars to deploy.  Even at $1 per Kw/h that it $100Trillion

Now let's do that figure for the US.....

Just to inject a little reality into the scale of things...

Nuclear decommissioning looking so expensive now??

NeilT,

I have great respect for your contributions here and in other threads to inject some real calculations to help us grasp the scale of efforts required to wean our civilization from fossil fuels (or die trying, as we seem to be aiming for).

I hope to be able to return the favor and point out that your math seems to be off here.

52 trillion watt hours, 52 TWh, at $100/kWh (or $0.10/Wh) = $5.2 trillion, not $10.4 quadrillion.

Somehow, you are off by a factor of 2,000.  Not sure how, exactly, but British vs American usage of trillions may be part of it.

Another way to look at it - if every household had a car with a 100 kWh battery pack, plugged into the grid with Jim Hunt's bi-directional charging equipment, that would be a similar scale of investment in storage capacity. We already replace the auto fleet every decade or two, so we should expect BEV to start taking up some of the storage duties at no additional cost as they replace FF ICEs.

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35

Policy and solutions / Re: Tesla glory/failure

« on: October 04, 2018, 11:24:29 AM »

Tesla did "promise" 5k model 3/week a long while ago, and even though it's happening in certain weeks, the average rate has still not reach that threshold in Q3. Tesla knew ahead of time that it was not going to happen, hence the guidance for 50-55k model 3 in Q3, rather than 65k or more.
My take is that it's more difficult to scale up than they thought. The plan of full automation was ahead of its time, partly due to their lack of experience in mass production, and Elon's grand vision which in this case was a bit too much. And I'm sure supply chain management (and delivery chain) contributed as well.
However, I think the constant criticism is unjustified. They moved the schedule 2 years ahead, and they rolled it about 1 year back. Elon made grand promises and then had trouble living up to them (though he didn't admit it), but this pales in comparison to the actual achievement of making the first profitable + highly desirable + mass market EV. Calling this a scam is nonsense.
I expect that once they gain experience with the current rate of manufacturing, they'll be able to engineer away the bottlenecks and streamline costs, hopefully resulting in the "base" version launch in the next few months.

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36

Policy and solutions / Re: Batteries: Today's Energy Solution

« on: October 02, 2018, 05:19:24 AM »

Tesla Is 2 Years Ahead Of Schedule On Gigafactory 1

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/10/01/tesla-is-2-years-ahead-of-schedule-on-gigafactory-1/

It’s worth pausing to celebrate this rare but strong example of Tesla being two full years ahead of schedule on the timeline it originally set out for the Gigafactory back in 2014. From an initial 2020 target, we now find the 35 GWh annualized production volume goal looks set to be achieved by the end of 2018. That’s 4 years to reach a goal that was initially planned to require 6 years.

Tesla and Elon Musk have come in for a lot of flack recently, but the progress on the ground at the Gigafactory should serve to remind us that — away from the negative press and frequent skepticism about the revolutionary company’s broader mission — Tesla is achieving remarkable goals to accelerate the move towards sustainable transportation and energy.

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37

Consequences / Re: Weird Weather and anecdotal stories about climate change

« on: September 28, 2018, 08:49:41 AM »

Darvince


That's a recipe for some unbelievable flash floods.
Load up a camper and head for very high land if this begins to look possible. I've seen moderate flash floods and they are no joke.


Stay away, stay safe, and keep us informed.
Terry

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38

Consequences / Re: Weird Weather and anecdotal stories about climate change

« on: September 28, 2018, 08:03:09 AM »

I'm posting this here as it is very unlikely to happen, but Goofus (GFS) has spit out some truly absurd rainfall totals for us here in Arizona over the next two weeks, from Rosa, her follower, and then a persistent low hanging around.

That's 13.7" in central Phoenix, the 1981-10 YEARLY normal is 8.03".

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39

Policy and solutions / Re: Oil and Gas Issues

« on: September 24, 2018, 05:45:53 AM »

XXX cartel predicts massive rise in XXX consumption. Color me unsurprised.

sidd

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40

Policy and solutions / Re: Cars, cars and more cars. And trucks, and....

« on: September 24, 2018, 03:22:30 AM »

Tesla Model 3 Supercharging from 0 to 100% (3 min 23 sec) (Charge compressed to a 3 min 23 sec video)



The graphs in this video shows what the charging behavior for Model 3 batteries looks like very clearly.

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41

Policy and solutions / Re: Tesla glory/failure

« on: September 22, 2018, 02:46:25 AM »

@RyanDMC

A lot of Tesla owners, including myself, would be DELIGHTED to volunteer, for free, to help with deliveries in times like this. We can't do their paperwork but we CAN do orientations. It's fun to educate new owners & see their joy & enthusiasm! https://insideevs.com/tesla-prepping-7000-model-3-deliveries-week/amp/ …

@ElonMusk reply

Wow, thanks for offering to help! The coming week is incredibly intense. If any current Tesla owners who’d like to help educate new owners could head to Tesla delivery centers during midday on Sat/Sun & morning/evening on weekdays, that would be super appreciated!

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42

Consequences / Re: Floods

« on: September 21, 2018, 12:40:52 PM »

The consequence of Florence was mainly FLOODS. The article shows how there was building development where one shouldn't including draining wetlands, the response to floods is to build higher & bigger & more levees and dams and drain the swamps, but the real solution is to move to higher ground and restore wetlands, i.e. retreat.

Perhaps one can call it an example of geoengineering syndrome? (see "geoengineering-another rush for money" and "what's new in Antarctica" for larger examples ?)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/we-need-help-nc-towns-plead-for-dam-levee-upgrades-after-second-major-flood-in-two-years/2018/09/18/1792b788-bb61-11e8-a8aa-860695e7f3fc_story.html?utm_term=.7143d120dbb4&wpisrc=nl_green&wpmm=1

‘We need help’: N.C. towns plead for dam, levee upgrades after second major flood in two years

When it inundated North Carolina in 2016, meteorologists called Hurricane Matthew a “500-year rain event,” the kind of downpour that was likely to occur once every half-millennium. But then, just two years later, here came Florence, a “1,000-year event” that hit all the same places in all the same ways, if not harder.......

.....The mayor wants to clear the area’s swamps and canals of fallen trees and debris from Matthew and past hurricanes, which he said would allow storm water to drain out of neighborhoods faster.......

.....Ryan Emanuel, an environmental scientist at North Carolina State University who studies the Lumber River, said that dredging and levee projects are not long-term fixes for the escalating problem. Canals and levees have allowed people to build homes on river margins and in swampy areas over the decades, yet research shows that wetlands can mitigate flooding by temporarily storing water after storms. Emanuel said that moving to higher ground and restoring swamps to their natural state are better ways to alleviate the problem.

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43

Policy and solutions / Re: Cars, cars and more cars. And trucks, and....

« on: September 19, 2018, 05:28:40 PM »

Possibly only of interest to Jim H and others in the UK but here's the real world outcome of my most recent trip in my i3 REX to Bristol from Cheshire - total miles 375, all but around 20 completed without use of the range extender:

Webb's Garden Centre near Worcester (Polar CCS) - Fail - occupied for at least 45 minutes by a Mercedes hybrid that actually achieved a top up of just 1.1 KWh - irritating!

Michael Wood services near Bristol (Ecotricity CCS) - success - 80% charge in 30 min.

Bristol Zoo North Car Park (Polar type 2) - Fail despite really helpful staff - charger initiation failure.

Gloucester services (Ecotricity CCS) - success - 65% charge in 25 min.

This is pretty typical of my experience in the UK. Longer trips require patience, flexibility and a reasonable knowledge of how it all works. I suspect this is pretty common elsewhere too.

Significant investment will be required in both the scale and the maintenance of the charging networks if demand for a rapidly growing fleet of EVs is to be met. Introduction of brand specific networks is less than helpful in my view.

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44

Policy and solutions / Re: What's New in Climate Change Acceptance and Action

« on: September 19, 2018, 09:00:12 AM »

How I Talk to My Daughter About Climate Change
As a reporter covering the environment, I'm all too aware of what the next 50 years could hold. As a 9-year-old(daughter), she's not—and for now, she wants to stay that way.
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/04/raising-kids-climate-change/554969/

Quote from the article:
My daughter is 9—9 and a half(daughter),.....doesn’t want to know about climate change. Not from me, at least. Not yet......
My own responses to climate change have, inevitably, affected my daughter.
///////
When I was 6 years old, playing out in the front yard, with our small town Main Street on our yard's border, I suddenly looked at some of the passing cars' exhaust pipes with little trails of exhaust emitted that disappeared into the air. I knew enough to know that what had "disappeared" was still in the air. I'd been to the smaller city fairly near to us & knew many cars with exhaust pipes puffing, also had "disappearing" stuff. I knew about big cities around the world with millions(more?) of "puffing" cars. At times, I'd stood by idling cars, that smelled bad & made my throat tickle. I didn't like it & believed that adults must be working on the problem to solve it. I grew older & found out that adults were working on........ "some of the problems". & later I discovered that adults were....... NOT "working on the whole problem".
Children know more than you think they know & excellent education teaches them more than "adults know".   

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45

Policy and solutions / Re: Renewable Energy

« on: September 19, 2018, 06:50:52 AM »

J H C.

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46

Policy and solutions / Re: Cars, cars and more cars. And trucks, and....

« on: September 15, 2018, 11:36:22 PM »

Sustainable Tallahassee sponsored an Electric Car Expo in a church (not mega-church) parking lot today. 

There were 30 or 40 e- and plug-in cars (8 Model 3s), a "truck" (max 25mph vehicle with a flat bed), a city bus, and bicycles, and plenty of folks oohing and awing. 

I stayed late and got a ride in a Model S that seats seven - the owner showed off the acceleration and self-driving capacity of the vehicle; his wife called right at the end of the trip, knowing he'd been out for a drive, cause her phone told her so (It's actually her car.).  A fellow from a factory in Montgomery, AL showed up whose factory makes part of the radiator-like battery cooling system (the ~4" wide metal fins with internal tubes that run the length of the battery pack, so that every cell can be chilled - I remember this from a video posted somewhere up-thread).  He came in a Ford C-Max plug-in hybrid (which I'd never heard of).  One man's Chevy Volt had an inverter plugged in with a fan blowing (it's like 97F here now); another had his Model 3 decked out with an air mattress (non-Tesla) laid out in the back (back seat folded down) and surfboard on top (surfboard reduces mileage by 8%) and said he has stayed at a campground, plugged in, and ran his A/C all night.  The two men with Rad Power bikes said is was by far the best on the market, and less expensive than some, and referred to advice from a local bike shop that services them. One owner 'couldn't wait for a Model 3' and bought a used Model S ('half the sticker price') for his 60-mile (one way) daily commute (we talked about China after I saw his CD favorites included Chinese children's music).  Several of the Volt owners had purchased their cars used, as well.

Thank you, Sustainable Tallahassee!

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47

Policy and solutions / Re: Cars, cars and more cars. And trucks, and....

« on: September 15, 2018, 07:19:56 PM »

Terry, you're off by a factor of 1000 again.

8 GWh = 8,000,000 kWh ... not 8,000 kWh

Therefore 8 GWh is enough for one Tesla semi to travel 4 million miles.

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48

Policy and solutions / Re: Renewable Energy

« on: September 14, 2018, 12:01:10 PM »

I stay away from these threads because most of it Tesla PR hype, Musk arguments and far too many pronouncements of mystical  faith and hope all is going to be well by "believers" ....

For someone who stays away from these threads there are a lot of posts from you, and very long ones too.

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49

Consequences / Re: Global Surface Air Temperatures

« on: September 13, 2018, 09:46:09 PM »

In other words, they're basically polar opposites! 

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50

Policy and solutions / Re: Renewable Energy

« on: September 10, 2018, 03:15:18 AM »

Tesla Energy is quietly setting its sights on peaker plants

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-energy-peaker-plants/

Behind the spotlights trained on the Model 3 production ramp and Elon Musk’s online behavior, Tesla’s Energy business is quietly growing and spreading its reach. Tesla notes that its deployment of stationary batteries, which are designed to supply electricity to residential homes, businesses, and even the power grid, surged 450% in the first six months of 2018 alone. These figures are well in line with Elon Musk’s statement during the Q2 2018 earnings call, when he noted that Tesla Energy is growing at such a pace that it would likely catch up and exceed the company’s electric car business in the future.
...

Tesla’s energy storage solutions are starting become more and more accepted by utility companies, particularly since battery technology has reached a point where it now has the potential to replace inefficient and dirty “Peaker” power plants, which are powered on when the demand for electricity is at its highest. Straubel believes that battery solutions such as those offered by Tesla Energy are poised to outcompete conventional peaker plants.

“I think what we’ll see is we won’t build many new peaker plants, if any. Already what we’re seeing happening is the number of new ones being commissioned is drastically lower, and batteries are already outcompeting natural gas peaker plants,” Straubel said.

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