Returning With Great News via Mr Stefan P M Chantrel of the Fraunhofer Institute - The European Power Sector in 2019

I have not been very active with this blog in recent years, and that was something that I decided to remedy. Friends who have been following my efforts from way back when I started writing here, told me that I was crazy to let something that they had come to enjoy, die. And then came a stimulus that I am grateful for. I connected on LinkedIn with a number of experts whose help I plan on taking to revive a much needed initiative from 2006 or so. I reached out to some of my new LinkedIn connections for help with information. That came immediately! The world of Energy Research scientists is a very supportive one, and I have to sincerely thank Mr Stefan P Chantrel of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Research in Freiburg, Germany, for this and several of the forthcoming posts here. He has given me a treasure-trove of information to post, and I hope to do this carefully, and after reading through the very interesting links that he was kind in compiling for me. I must also give credit to the scientists at Agora Energiewende in Germany and at the Ember Coal to Clean Energy Policy think tank in the UK for the report that Mr Chantrel has so kindly provided. I cannot recommend reading this brilliantly compiled report on the European electricity / power sector enough. There is powerful momentum on the European continent towards moving away from traditional fuels to renewable energy, and that is the transition that the transition that the two bodies involved in producing this report have worked hard to map. What blew me away was the fact that coal's share in generation in the EU shrank by 24% in 2019. That is nearly a quarter less coal burned on this huge continent in just one year! While industrial emissions declined only slightly, overall emissions are declining rapidly in a Europe that now generates 35% of it's electricity via Renewables. This is a longish report, certainly, but it is fascinating reading and is beautifully presented for both technical and non technical readers. Most of the information included is very positive, and it certainly warms the heart of a blog that is aimed at Showing Fossil Fuels the Fist. There is a little disappointment over Biomass generation, because my company has long been looking for appropriate biomass gasification technologies for our own use in Europe, but then, you can bet that there are some very enthusiastic and brilliant geniuses working away on something that we shall soon have good news about. Keep checking us out, and please comment / write in. If you would like to communicate privately like some friends prefer, that is also most welcome. Best wishes, and happy reading!

An Excellent Electric Car Review Channel

When I started this blog about eleven years ago, there were a smattering of cheap electric scooters available, and the only electric cars sold were Neighborhood Electric Vehicles, effectively fancified golf carts built for driving inside gated communities. How much the world has changed since then! A new carmaker called Tesla Motors introduced a little convertible based on a Lotus sportscar followed by a sedan and several other models, and while the company has still not become profitable, it has a cult following that could ensure it's survival. On the other hand, Tesla's opening broadside met a response at the lower priced end of the car model spectrum from Nissan-Renault and General Motors. There are more than a dozen new manufacturers of electric cars now, some legacy manufacturers, some startups, and some old names revived by investors from China for the major part. If you are interested / considering buying an electric car, the selection is big enough to bewilder all but the most diehard electric-mobility enthusiast. Fortunately, several entrepreneurs have come forward with dedicated electric vehicle reviews for the public, and in my opinion, Driving Electric is easily the best of the currently available efforts. The lady who reviews cars for this channel has a practical approach that will appeal to the vast majority of buyers: enough technical details to hold your interest while ignoring the silly "my favorite brand is better than..." arguments on some other channels, combined with a fantastic analysis of what it would be like to live with each model that she reviews. There is a practical approach minus the bulls**t that you get on some other channels, that is especially appreciable. Do check it out, and let the hard working people who put a lot of effort into this channel, what you think.

Sometimes, You Come Across Assholes - It is Good to See Them Fail

There is always an exception to the rule - a cheap shit entrepreneur who believes that he has the sole solution to some issue that deserves to have attention paid to it. This jerk is doomed to flop - my Zero motorcycle costs way less than his contraption, and it will do highway speeds for short hops without difficulty. For longer runs, you can buy a Chevy Bolt for not much more than his glorified bicycle. The idiot also has an attitude that makes it worthwhile rooting for him to fail. It will be good watching this outfit collapse.

Iceland's Ice Wind Uses an Ancient Wind Turbine Design to Power Cellphone Towers

Ice Wind's website is interesting: http://icewind.is/en/ Several countries have struggled to deal with the costs of the diesel that they currently use to power cellphone towers in remote areas. In some cases, solar panels have worked, but they use a lot more land than the Ice Wind turbine design does. This VAWT Savonius design does look like the wind turbine design of the future.

Bringing Rotor-Sails Back on Conventional Cargo Ships

An old German technology from the 1920s is now being revived both in the country of it's birth, as well as in Finland. I like the idea of rotor sails to supplement conventional propulsion and reduce fuel consumption, but cannot help wondering if this tech will be beaten in overall efficiency and costs by the Dyna-Rig.

An Important Reason to Use More Solar and Wind Power - Dwindling Water Supplies for Cooling

Wartsila, one of the world's most important generation system manufacturing companies, points out a huge problem facing conventional generation systems around the world - dwindling water supplies for cooling. This is especially important in the case of nuclear power and in coal fired thermal powerplants. While locating powerplants on the coast in order to use sea water for cooling would help to some extent, the problem would be in investments, maintenance and more in supplying the electricity generated deep inland in different parts of the world. The problem becomes worse in capital-short countries like India that have huge problems with power. The solution, then, is to use localized sources of energy that do not require water for cooling, which means wind and solar power. Wind energy is not cheap, and it may not be practical everywhere. In regions that receive more than 4 hours of sunlight for 325+ days a year, current solar PV prices are certain to help. There would also be a need for smart grids to integrate the solar / wind power with whatever baseload source is used, but that is something that could be addressed when the wind / solar generating systems are being installed. PS I do know that water use could be reduced by using sodium or other coolants, but have to wonder about the added complexity and costs involved.

The Hyperloop As a High Speed Transportation System That Avoids Fossil Fuel Use

There are many articles on the internet about the proposed Hyperloop, as Tesla Motors's Chairman Elon Musk calls it. Popular Mechanics mooted the idea in the 1950s, but Musk is to be commended for reviving it, even though he isn't building a Hyperloop train himself. As this blog titles itself "Showing Fossil Fuel the Fist," the angle of reducing fossil fuel use is what makes the Hyperloop most interesting. Unlike aircraft that cannot fly without fossil fuels at today's state of the art, the Hyperloop could easily be powered by nuclear power, or bywind, solar, or other non fossil power. The ability to travel at near aircraft speeds with no fossil fuel being used in larger numbers than are typical for today's airliners, is a most interesting prospect. This blog hopes that the various teams building hyperloop trains will succeed beyond their wildest expectations!