The electric future

[duke63]

I have had an email direct form Triumph this morning asking for my opinions on electric motorcycles.

Like it or not, i think its something we have to embrace at some point. Not sure electric bikes will be the norm in my lifetime, at least as far as entertainment goes but electric cars certainly are, and i think that commuting vehicles will all be electric within 10 years.

Ironically, i wemt to have a look at the new Peugeot e208 on Saturday morning and I have to say, if i knew how the next 12-24 months were going to pan out with some certainty, then i would buy one tomorrow.

[Kwacky]

The big four Japanese manufacturers are working together on the electric bikes.

https://electrek.co/2020/09/04/honda-ya ... batteries/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This makes a lot of sense.

[Perkles]

and what the industry and press isnt telling us is that they are struggling to dispose of the old technology which is changing at a rapid rate

[Jack]

I cannot see the sense in electric vehicles , the battery technology is very costly to the environment , in the massive amounts of mining needed to extract cobalt , lithium etc from the earth , then the refining processes then the manufacture , then the charging of them , then the recycling processes (where it is possible) , all use huge amounts of power and resources and create pollution . It would seem to me that we are saying that pollution and the destruction of natural habitats and the exploitation of people is fine as long as it happens "elsewhere" . Don't get me wrong I'm all for saving the planet , I just don't see the benefits of a lot of the "green" technology , I believe in many cases our goodwill towards the admirable cause of saving the planet has been co-opted by big business to expand their profits and claim all the available subsidies , grants and low rate loans that the Government seem so keen to hand out .

[D6]

Just designing the Triumph version of a bit of rubber in the spokes, so that it has an engine sound still.

[Kwacky]

It'll always be about money and the environment will always take second place. But we do have to look at alternatives to fossil fuel. The UK could produce it's own green electricity but hasn't invested. We're behind most of Europe.

There are new problems with new technology but technology moves and advances. We won't always have to rely on the precocious materials currently needed.

[Perkles]

Just designing the Triumph version of a bit of rubber in the spokes, so that it has an engine sound still.

there you go i spent all of my lunchtime coming up with a design for you
https://images.app.goo.gl/dyR4N6iH6MyH5yuVA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[duke63]

Electric technology will come on in leaps and bounds over the next 5 to 10 years.

Reading an article the other day about supercapacitors and how useful they could be.

Regardless of what we use in the future, oil has a very limited lifespan. It’s a finite resource of energy.

The sun isn’t.

[Jack]

Solar doesn't work at night or on cloudy days , almost useless if you live in the Nordic countries .
In order to have a reliable backup for solar wind etc coal fired and biomass power plants still have to be run 24 hrs a day 7 days a week as we currently do not have the tech to make these alternative energy sources work the way we need them to and I can't see there being a viable alternative apart from nuclear in my lifetime .

[duke63]

Solar panels still produce energy on cloudy days, they don’t need direct sunshine.

[kiwikrasher]

Solar panels still produce energy on cloudy days, they don’t need direct sunshine.

I have 6 kW of panels on my house.

Best ever production day was 40 kW, sunny cloudless 26 deg C day. cloudless days hotter than that decrease production slightly with a 35 deg C day pumping out 35 kW.

A cloudy mid winters day will give me 10 kW average and a raining crappy day struggles to give me 4 kW.

My system has micro inverters so each panel runs as its own system and works at 20-30% better efficiently than a traditional string inverter.

So while yes, solar will make power on a cloudy day, it's by no means a healthy output worth relying on.

Wave/swell power generation i something that has a lot of merit and is being developed quietly in the background.

There is no one answer for renewables, but a combination of wave, solar, wind, hydro and geothermal generation with hydro lake power storage is a good leap in the right direction.

[Kwacky]

and you can store electricity.

There will be a transition between fossil and green energy but we do have the ability to move completely to green/renewable energy.

There's loads of green energy success stories online.

Finland (nordic and north of us) has the second highest rate of renewable energy in Europe. 80% of their electricity is emission free.

Sweden is first.

Germany gets 40% of its electricity from solar energy.

[Jack]

Germany gets 12.9% of its public electricity generation from solar ,46.7% from renewables in total .
This doesn't take into account the power stations run by the big manufacturing companies to power their plants , many of which still use brown coal .

[kiwikrasher]

NZ's renewables is 82.5% at last data

Hydro 60%
Geothermal 17.5%
Wind 4.7%
Solar 0.3%

But apart from wind and solar, the first two have been due to the type of environment giving the opportunities (lots of large rivers and geothermal activity) rather than to SAVE the environment (well at least in the past)

[kiwikrasher]

My best mate is the Asset Engineering Manager for the largest power generation company in NZ. He really feels the way forward is hydro-storage batteries.

Simply, when you have an excess of power, you use it to pump water to a higher storage area, and when there is a greater demand, you run it back down to the lower storage area via hydro turbines. There are many ways to facilitate this even in areas with no elevations (subcutaneous water storage).

He has set up a small scale system on his mum's farm, and has her off the grid with solar, wind and hydro turbine power generation.

[Kwacky]

I took my figures from here. It looks like 40% was a peak.

My bad

And this suggests it's going well this year.

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/ge ... lectricity" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kiwikrasher]

The biggest problem we have in Aussie with solar generation is there is an over production during the day when demand isn't as high, and then when everyone gets home at the end of the day and cranks up their AC, lights, TV's, cooking, hot water demands, there is next to no solar production.
So once again storage solutions that aren't environmentally damaging, are more important to develop than renewable production right now imo. Hydro-storage isn't practical on a 400 sq m section, so safe, non-heavy metal based batteries at an affordable price I see as the key.

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019 ... e-battery/

[C00kiemonster]

The biggest problem we have in Aussie with solar generation is there is an over production during the day when demand isn't as high, and then when everyone gets home at the end of the day and cranks up their AC, lights, TV's, cooking, hot water demands, there is next to no solar production.
So once again storage solutions that aren't environmentally damaging, are more important to develop than renewable production right now imo. Hydro-storage isn't practical on a 400 sq m section, so safe, non-heavy metal based batteries at an affordable price I see as the key.

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019 ... e-battery/

Agreed. The future is cleaner energy storage from renewables.

I have to say my solar setup with battery is working very well. Over the last 3 months I've had it I've used 20% of normal electric as well as using more AC than I've ever used.

[duke63]

This is the Hydro stoarge facility in North Wales. The beauty of it is that there isn't much to see to ruin the view.




https://theswitch.co.uk/energy/producer ... er-station" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[duke63]

How about buying an older Porsche, strip out all the mechanicals and re fit with a Tesla motor and batteries.

This guy has done it for £10k all in.