Are we being forced to go electric?

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FishFright

FishFright

More wheels than sense
Dogtrousers said:
UK baseload is predominantly gas, with some nuclear and dwindling coal.

Even if there are no carbon benefits from powering vehicles by electricity from gas turbines, there are some benefits or potential benefits from switching the pollution away from tailpipes (improved urban air quality, the opportunity for centralised carbon sequestration). Not to mention the fact that the % if renewables can always be increased.

Hanging around waiting for fusion power is a fools game. Even the reactors that promise to get more energy out of the reactor than is put in tend to be fudging the figures. They tend to refer to the in/out of the plasma itself and ignore all the energy consumption of the flipping great machine that sustains the plasma. It needs a dramatic breakthrough of some sort as the existing incremental research is not leading anywhere. The best fusion reactor we have to rely on is the big one in the sky.

Fission reactors were developed off the back of arms technology, which needed plutonium. That's why they produce so much shitty waste. If they had been designed purely for power production then maybe they would be cleaner. But there would be decades of research needed there. All the same, I still think they are our best bet for low carbon baseload production but they do have a slightly bad rep what with Chernobyl and all.
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I hear fusion power is still 'just 20 years away' ...
 
C

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
I am aware of that but my tariff is guaranteed renewable source. I pay more than I need, if I chose the cheaper tariffs I wouldn't be able to ensure where the energy came from.

We are moving next year, the site will have scope for solar, possibly wind. I will be taking maximum advantage of this, to try and become almost solely off-grid capable
 
Dogtrousers

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
CXRAndy said:
We are moving next year, the site will have scope for solar, possibly wind. I will be taking maximum advantage of this, to try and become almost solely off-grid capable
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Good luck. But from the bit of research I did years ago, wind is something you need to build BIG, otherwise it's not worth it. Stick to solar. But I could be wrong.
 
A

Alex321

Guru
Location
South Wales
CXRAndy said:
I am aware of that but my tariff is guaranteed renewable source. I pay more than I need, if I chose the cheaper tariffs I wouldn't be able to ensure where the energy came from.

We are moving next year, the site will have scope for solar, possibly wind. I will be taking maximum advantage of this, to try and become almost solely off-grid capable
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We are just in the middle of ordering Solar.

Getting a good big installation (10.4Kw), so that if/when we replace the cars with EV there should be enough to charge them, as well as enough to run all the heating (which is currently on a gas boiler).
 
All uphill

All uphill

Still rolling along
Location
Somerset
Oldhippy said:
Once I get my narrow boat I will run an electric motor on that and hope to be entirely off grid via solar on one half of the roof.
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I imagine a heat pump would work well in a canal? A ready source of 10 degrees c water year round.
 
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