Solar & Batteries Will power the future..

[Uncle Gizmo]

I've been following James for over a year now. He is usually a guest on other people's youtube channels where he talks a lot of sense.

Here he predicts the advent of solar and batteries.

The computers needed to run AI will use a lot of power! The solution, build the data centres where their is ample free energy, use that and then link the data centres back to humanity with the starlink system.

This is how James explains it:-

x.com

x.com

Starlink now has around 1.7 million customers in 70 odd countries around the world and is predicted to make six billion this year!

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

If anyone tells you that electric cars pollute more than internal combustion engine cars then show them this video!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1789440907710001287

 

[Pat Hartman]

The numbers presented in this cartoon are quite far removed from what we see here:

Electricity production by source

Measured in terawatt-hours.

ourworldindata.org

There is also no mention made regarding the inadequacy of our current electric grid when it comes to distributing electric power. In places like California where they have a higher percentage of EV's, The public is forbidden from charging their EVs during a heat wave. Then we have the catastrophe in Texas a couple of winters ago where people actually froze to death because their solar collection arrays froze in the cold and there was not enough electric energy to heat homes dependant on electric heat.

The concept of EV's is good but like most liberal policies, the implementation is seriously poor and badly planned. It makes far more sense to gradually move first to hybrid cars that can use both gas and battery power.

Companies that run fleets of local delivery vehicles should be encouraged to convert to Natural Gas or Electric power. But northern cities have a problem with EVs for utility vehicles due to the lack of battery power when the temps are very low. NYC found that out the hard way when they couldn't collect garbage or plow the streets with their shiny new EV trucks because they kept getting stranded around the city as they ran out of battery power. Natural gas is far more efficient since it doesn't require refining and is a byproduct of extracting oil. We need to improve our collection capabilities instead of burning it off.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I've said it elsewhere in the forums and I'll say it here. The problem is enthalpy, a measure of energy in a given chemical system. It applies to any battery based on a chemical reaction. The energy available through chemical reactions depends on the speed of the reaction. Due to enthalpy formulas, that energy availability is strongly dependent on temperature.

The specific thermal coefficients vary from battery to battery, but in general, for every 10 degrees C that you drop, you lose 50% of your power. It's a compound interest problem, so the next 10 degrees is 25% more loss., then 12.5%, etc. When the temperature shifts from 35 degr. C to 5 degr. C, you have lost 87.5 % of your power. Then go to -5 degr. C and lose ANOTHER 6.125% - or a total of 93.7%. EVs just DO NOT LIKE cold weather.

With an internal combustion engine (ICE), the problem is a little different. Batteries depend on reduction/oxidation (redox) reactions, and technically so do combustion reactions. But the inefficiencies of the ICE means that the engine will warm up quickly whereas the EV has a lot less waste heat.