Climate Change

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Originally Posted by neufox47

We use 60-90 kWh per day in the summer but with 10kw of solar and a 18kwh battery that eliminates most of our grid pull. The problem is eliminating that last bit of sporadic grid pull. One option that looks pretty darn appealing is to use vehicles as backup. That would potentially give EV homes 50-150 kWh of backup from a fully charged car.


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I should actually check just how much solar our system generates. I really have not done that since we put it in.

Most months we get about 10-20 dollars back. Occasionally we have a bill, but I don't think I have paid one that is more than 20 dollars since we put the solar in.

We occasionally use air conditioning during the summer. Sometimes we use heat during the winter. We live in Newport Beach so the weather is pretty moderate, and we don't have kids so even though we are both remote now, and always on our laptops, we really don't use all that much power.

I will give the Treeium guy credit, they pretty much nailed the number of panels we would need.

We opted against a powerwall for now. Based on our usage we don't really need one. Most of the days are between 60 and 80 degrees here, so it is not as if one season has a massive need for power over other seasons.

In a lot of winter months our Mammoth ski lease uses more power than we do down here. Most of our group only uses it on weekends, and we have to keep the power on so the pipes don't freeze. Most of us use the woodstove when we are up there, so we don't use that much power for heat when we are actually there, but during the week we obviously can't use the woodstove to heat the place.

I still need to put a charger in the garage, I have not done that yet. I need one that could charge both a Tesla and a Rivian. I love my Tesla, but if the Rivian reviews from the first owners are good I might change.

Solid state batteries. Hopefully someday.

The problem needs to be solved using a number of different methods. But we do have too many people and people do simply need to use their brains. When there is a TV on in every room, regardless of whether anyone is in the room, and all the lights are on in the house that is a problem. We do consume quite a bit, but there is definitely room to cut back.

You do know that we do not have enough lithium or cobalt right? Sure we should speed up the progress but 700 years. Come on Man!

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WSJ - IEA Report
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Originally Posted by NakedShorts

You do know that we do not have enough lithium or cobalt right? Sure we should speed up the progress but 700 years. Come on Man!

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WSJ - IEA Report
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Oh great, an estimate using current technology only that claims “it is unlikely to be off by several multiples”. Our batteries will likely use less or no lithium and cobalt by the time we fully convert to renewables. Sodium, iron, or some other technology will replace lithium and cobalt in the next 10-20 years. Our known reserves of lithium currently are 50% of the amount required in your study. There’s plenty of lithium to get us to the next battery technology.

You can do that with oil too, where we only have 40 years of known reserves. We’ve spent a lot more money lookin for oil than lithium.

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Originally Posted by Long duc dong

I should actually check just how much solar our system generates. I really have not done that since we put it in.

Most months we get about 10-20 dollars back. Occasionally we have a bill, but I don't think I have paid one that is more than 20 dollars since we put the solar in.

We occasionally use air conditioning during the summer. Sometimes we use heat during the winter. We live in Newport Beach so the weather is pretty moderate, and we don't have kids so even though we are both remote now, and always on our laptops, we really don't use all that much power.

I will give the Treeium guy credit, they pretty much nailed the number of panels we would need.

We opted against a powerwall for now. Based on our usage we don't really need one. Most of the days are between 60 and 80 degrees here, so it is not as if one season has a massive need for power over other seasons.

In a lot of winter months our Mammoth ski lease uses more power than we do down here. Most of our group only uses it on weekends, and we have to keep the power on so the pipes don't freeze. Most of us use the woodstove when we are up there, so we don't use that much power for heat when we are actually there, but during the week we obviously can't use the woodstove to heat the place.

I still need to put a charger in the garage, I have not done that yet. I need one that could charge both a Tesla and a Rivian. I love my Tesla, but if the Rivian reviews from the first owners are good I might change.

Solid state batteries. Hopefully someday.

The problem needs to be solved using a number of different methods. But we do have too many people and people do simply need to use their brains. When there is a TV on in every room, regardless of whether anyone is in the room, and all the lights are on in the house that is a problem. We do consume quite a bit, but there is definitely room to cut back.

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There's the answer--everyone move to the Socal coast.
Unfortunately, returning to pre-industrial CO2 levels means returning to a pre-industrial world and a pre-industrial lifestyle. It's hard for me to see how more technology is going to solve the problem of too much technology. I'm not saying don't try but it's hard for me to be optimistic.

Better batteries are only one part of the puzzle. I remember when flashlight worth using had two D cell batteries that needed replacing after an hour. The bulbs have gotten better Now a little AA battery can run a flashlight for what seems like days. For cars though, I won't be tempted until there's a battery swap (universal batteries) that makes long toad trip stops just as quick as they are with refilling gas tanks.

Or, the roads and parking lots are giant solar powered wireless charging pads that provide sufficient juice to all devices/cars using them at any particular time..

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Originally Posted by neufox47

Oh great, an estimate using current technology only that claims “it is unlikely to be off by several multiples”. Our batteries will likely use less or no lithium and cobalt by the time we fully convert to renewables. Sodium, iron, or some other technology will replace lithium and cobalt in the next 10-20 years. Our known reserves of lithium currently are 50% of the amount required in your study. There’s plenty of lithium to get us to the next battery technology.

You can do that with oil too, where we only have 40 years of known reserves. We’ve spent a lot more money lookin for oil than lithium.

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While I am rooting for a technological breakthrough RE: batteries, this sounds awfully similar to the nuclear fusion crowd who have been saying nuclear fusion and clean energy are only 10 years away! That trope started all the way back in 1970, and continues today.

Understanding the technology/science to create the reaction, and scaling up the tech to make it economically viable are two different things, sadly.

Edit: For the dentists: To many people are looking at this great clean mythical energy search as a tooth extraction, but rather should be thinking more like orthodontics.

I am sure of one thing replacing the current stuff with stuff that does not exist yet will certainly NOT be cheaper.

How about the USA goes the way of France and builds a fuckton of small modern nuke plants for electricity so we can produce hydrogen for our vehicles. Seems more green than raping the earth for battery minerals.

What’s important is that we remain frozen in place and wait for a perfect solution instead of taking incremental steps in the right direction.

.... and moving to the coast - any coast anywhere - requires a major investment in house boats.

Unfortunately the earth can't sustain 8 billion people and growing with any kind of lifestyle we are used to. Human induced climate change is one of several issues related to overpopulation. I'm not optimistic for a good solution.

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Originally Posted by Asspen

While I am rooting for a technological breakthrough RE: batteries, this sounds awfully similar to the nuclear fusion crowd who have been saying nuclear fusion and clean energy are only 10 years away! That trope started all the way back in 1970, and continues today.

Understanding the technology/science to create the reaction, and scaling up the tech to make it economically viable are two different things, sadly.

Edit: For the dentists: To many people are looking at this great clean mythical energy search as a tooth extraction, but rather should be thinking more like orthodontics.

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I don’t think any credible source ever said fusion was 10 years away. More like 30. But we are still 30 + years away. There have been breakthroughs that have gotten us closer. But according to my physics and EE friends, the fusion problem is several orders of magnitude more complicated than the next generation of batteries. We have the next generation of batteries in tech that works, it is just expensive as shit to produce currently. We aren’t very close to having a continuously sustained fusion reaction that is a net energy positive.

Glad the pioneers didn't whinge on about the obstacles they faced while trying to roll across the plains.

Honestly, they likely did. But some of them also continued to roll.

Ah...looking pretty dang warm around here. Bump

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Originally Posted by googledidoo

Unfortunately the earth can't sustain 8 billion people and growing with any kind of lifestyle we are used to. Human induced climate change is one of several issues related to overpopulation. I'm not optimistic for a good solution.

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Yep.

But a few more wars and pandemics can pare that population.

We just need 500 million living in harmony with nature.

Any volunteers? Soilent green is delish

Earth Day bump.

There are some good before after slides on google's home page from various regions today. Snow/glaciers receding, coral dying, forests drying up...

https://www.google.com/


It makes one wonder if we'll see desertification of regions within the US over the course of our lifetimes (boomers not included).

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86°, 60 MPH winds, dust blowing, extreme fire warning in Denver metro earth day bump.

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Originally Posted by googledidoo

Unfortunately the earth can't sustain 8 billion people and growing with any kind of lifestyle we are used to. Human induced climate change is one of several issues related to overpopulation. I'm not optimistic for a good solution.

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The earth can't support 8 billion people who live like we do, that's for sure. But not everyone lives like us. An average US refrigerator emits more CO2 annually than the average person in several African nations.

Attachment 414057

According to reporting in the NYTime the latest IPCC report (April 2022) says: "On the whole, it is the richest people and wealthiest nations that are heating up the planet. Worldwide, the richest 10 percent of households are responsible for between a third to nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report. The poorest 50 percent of households contribute around 15 percent of emissions."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/c...e=articleShare

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Originally Posted by east or bust

Earth Day bump.

There are some good before after slides on google's home page from various regions today. Snow/glaciers receding, coral dying, forests drying up...

https://www.google.com/


It makes one wonder if we'll see desertification of regions within the US over the course of our lifetimes (boomers not included).

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We are most likely going to surpass 1.5C of warming around 2032 and 2C before 2050. We are going to see all kinds of crazy things. Even the boomers.

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Originally Posted by WMD

We are most likely going to surpass 1.5C of warming around 2032 and 2C before 2050. We are going to see all kinds of crazy things. Even the boomers.

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I’ve been having climate change anxiety over this fact. We need this huge global effort even just to reduce the potential horrors and we couldn’t even join together as a country to fight Covid.

The energy consumption of one person’s skier day is approximately
20 kilowatt-hours, which is in the same league with, for example, one day at a spa or two weeks’ energy consumption of a fridge-freezer. The energy consump- tion of a ski resort includes the energy consumption of snowmaking and mainte- nance of the slopes, ski lifts and lighting, as well as the maintenance and service buildings in slope operations.

FWIW, good spot on PBS this week about the renewed interest in Hydrogen fuel cells.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/co...-of-the-future

Abridged version: Hydrogen has the potential to be produced on a large scale using available Solar and Wind instead of the older methane intensive production.

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But when people looked under the hood, they were less impressed with the idea. After all, most hydrogen is produced with methane. So there really was nothing climate-friendly about hydrogen.

You could probably say it was a little bit of greenwashing.

Jack Brouwer:

Yes, I would agree with that. And it kind of tainted hydrogen a bit, if you will, as something that enables fossil to keep going.

Miles O’Brien:

But they never stopped going here and now are drawing renewed attention and funding. The reason? Cheap and increasingly plentiful wind and solar power generation make it possible to employ renewable electricity to split water molecules, making hydrogen carbon-free, so-called green hydrogen.

Is there currently a hydrogen renaissance, in your view?

Jack Brouwer:

Absolutely, there is. Almost all jurisdictions that have objectively considered, how do we achieve zero emissions in all end uses, they have come to realize that the features of hydrogen are required for making all of those sectors zero emissions.

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Originally Posted by The SnowShow

I’ve been having climate change anxiety over this fact. We need this huge global effort even just to reduce the potential horrors and we couldn’t even join together as a country to fight Covid.

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Makes it hard to plan for the future for sure.

Where to move, skills, resources, kids, etc.

Maybe ignorance is bliss?

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Originally Posted by Core Shot

The energy consumption of one person’s skier day is approximately
20 kilowatt-hours, which is in the same league with, for example, one day at a spa or two weeks’ energy consumption of a fridge-freezer. The energy consump- tion of a ski resort includes the energy consumption of snowmaking and mainte- nance of the slopes, ski lifts and lighting, as well as the maintenance and service buildings in slope operations.

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Certainly something I think about when I take the kids skiing. That and if I should be teaching them a sport that might not be around by the time they are 30.

There’s no way that we reach a global consensus and do anything to mitigate the effects of climate change. Look around, no one cares other than bitching about the weather and high fuel prices. I feel bad for my children.


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