It seems that over the years of the seemingly constant WordPress security updates, the registration system was broken at some point, when they forced all SMTP connections to use ‘STARTTLS’ even when not needed (e.g. connecting to a TLS only port). A minor patch restored previous functionality and now the registration system and therefore the ability to comment has been restored.
Electricity Generation and ‘Base Load’
So I’ve written a little on climate change, and tweeted/posted on climate change, talked to people etc and one reoccurring theme seems to keep coming up and seems to cause the biggest rifts between climate change activists, climate deniers and even those who know better!
So lets look at a few arguments and dispel a few myths.
Baseload.
Baseload seems to be universally dismissed as something that will go away at some point in the future… or as something I haven’t quite worked out what people think it is…
Very simply base load is:
The amount of electricity that is always needed, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, regardless of night or day, regardless of winter or summer etc.
… it is NOT anything else. Follows are some simple questions and answers that will upset a few of the Greenies (I, the author, am one.) “Supplied” below means all the time, every day of the year.
Can baseload be supplied by solar or wind? NO
Can baseload be supplied by batteries or pumped hydro? NO
Can baseload be supplied by hydro? Maybe
What can base load be supplied by? Coal, Gas, Oil, Geo-Thermal, Nuclear.
Smartgrids
Smartgrids are the supposed technological solution. In reality, they are if they are done right, but unfortunately there are many people and policies that make the smart grids not so smart.
A Smartgrid is a power grid with the ability of all generators (large and small – including home solar panels etc) to all work together to ensure the power requirements at any one time are satisfied to maintain reliability and stability. (more on it over here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid )
What does it mean for the consumer?
Reliable power that is stable (in theory) but nothing else.
What does it mean for a producer (someone pushing power into the grid)?
A central control (or localised control hub) will tell your generator (whether it be an inverter supplied by batteries (like a Tesla Powerwall II), rooftop solar, or even a gas/diesel/petrol generator) to stop pushing as much power into the grid or push more depending on what is needed.
This means if your power is not needed, you won’t get paid for it, regardless of the number of solar panels on your rooftop. What it does mean though is if you have batteries that can supply the grid, when power is not needed your batteries will be charged up, and if power is needed and the sun is not shining the batteries can supply the extra power for the grid… or the extra power can be sent to power the pumps of a pumped hydro system, or (in theory) to charge someone else’s batteries.
This means with a smartgrid and enough people supplying it with storable solutions it is possible to reduce the baseload requirement in your area…. oops there we go, this is where the confusion happens.. it does *NOT* *REDUCE* the BASELOAD .. it supplies part of it!
Pulling that concept out further if you have enough people with enough storage and generation to cover the baseload requirement then you have baseload supplied without additional generation needed. It’s still there, still a requirement, but you have it covered… this is very very different from eliminating baseload!
Power generation types (carbon and not.)
Solar
The rooftop panels on houses, ‘farms’ of them supplying MegaWatts of power. “Free Power from the Sun” … well people got news for you. After 25 years they are expected to be at 80% their original efficiency. They are currently NOT recyclable for the major component. This means you have a 10kw set of panels on your house, in 25 years time you have a set of 8kw panels – this is assuming you keep them clean. If the projected degredation is linear (ie a straight line and not a curve) it means in 125 years time they will be generating 0kw (zero, nothing, nada!).. Great, I won’t be around to worry, but what of my children or my children’s children? Huge amount of non-recycable materials that no one can do anything with!
Carbon wise, no emissions, but carbon is put into the atmosphere creating and transporting/installing them.
Wind
We’ve all seen windmills, the precursor to the wind turbine, they’ve been around for hundreds of years, but as with all things, they wear out. They have bearings that wear out, they have blades that will degrade and eventually need to be replaced… They also have an environmental impact, though the sound of them does NOT cause cancer regardless of what the President of the United States says.. Are they recyclable? I don’t know the be honest, parts of them are, but parts are not.
Carbon wise, no emissions, but carbon is put into the atmosphere creating, maintaining and transporting/installing them.
Nuclear
Despite what you see in the media (all types) this is currently one of the safest power generation types and has the fewest deaths/illnesses relating to it (along with wind and solar.) It is usually depicted in the media with the first image of a mushroom cloud from a nuclear warhead, which instills FUD (Fear, Uncertainty (of it’s safety) and Denial (from using it)). The fact of the matter is nuclear bombs and nuclear power use completely different types of technology and the only link is you can dilute the fuel used in bombs for use to generate power… in fact this is the very reason for the Megatons for MegaWatts deal between Russia and the USA where Russia decommissioned 20,000 nuclear warheads and the Uranium was mixed with other things to make it suitable for use in the USA’s nuclear reactors to generate power. Yes you got that right, the disarming of nuclear weapons resulted in cleaner power.. how about that for recycling!
Nuclear power is also the only true ‘renewable’ power generation method, as the fuel is naturally occurring and continuously being replaced deep in our oceans. We have enough for billions of years.
Carbon wise, no emissions, but carbon is put into the atmosphere creating, maintaining and transporting the fuel for them. Expected lifetime of modern reactors is 60 years.
The amount of power generated from fuel ratio is the average person will use 1 kilo of fuel through out their whole life (70 years).. thats a bag of sugar or 2.2 pounds for those that don’t know what a kilo is… per person, for 70 years of normal electricity….
Waste has to be stored, but everyone forgets it (currently) is being dug up, already radioactive, the waste can go back in the same hole it was taken out of (in theory.) There are waste solutions!
Gas
The cleanest of all the fossil fuel generation. Also with availability (at the moment) one of the cheapest, but as more is used, soon it will be expensive!
Carbon wise, lower carbon emissions, but carbon is put into the atmosphere creating, maintaining them. Expected lifetime of modern power stations is 60 years.
Oil
The not the cleanest of all the fossil fuel generation… but probably the most expensive, especially as it’s a finite resource that is rapidly running out and it is needed for many other things.
Carbon wise, a significant producer of carbon emissions, carbon is also put into the atmosphere creating, maintaining them. Expected lifetime of modern power stations is 50 years, none as far as I know are being built, instead they are all being converted to gas or decommissioned.
Coal
The dirtiest of all the fossil fuel generation… but one of the cheapest (fuel cost), it is a finite resource that will run out. It has a massive ecological impact both for the production and burning of the coal, and by far has the most deaths relating to its production and use every year.
Carbon wise, it is the worst producer of carbon emissions (highest), carbon is also put into the atmosphere creating, maintaining them. Expected lifetime of modern power stations is 50-60 years.
To be continued… (in a later post.)
Climate Hypocrites
So a short post on climate change and the hypocrisy surrounding it.
It occurred to me a few minutes ago the massive hypocrisy of the “Climate Deniers” so I thought it was about time I made comment, and get a whole load more people hating me for just confronting them with an uncomfortable truth.
No matter which side of the debate you’re on ask yourself some serious questions about your beliefs and behaviour. For example, how many of you have children and tell them to put a tooth under their pillow so the tooth-fairy can come along and convert it into money? How many of you teach children about Father Christmas/Santa Claus. How many other imaginary creatures/people do you teach your children exist? We as adults teach these figures to our children, who in some cases don’t want to believe in them, yet we don’t listen to scientists that tell us something we don’t want to believe in.
Now lets take that a step further, how many of you believe in imaginary creatures?
Now ask yourself again after I rephrase the question… How many of you believe in creatures/beings that have no scientific basis or fact to support their existence…?
Still not including yourself? Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Allah? Do you believe in Buddha? Do you believe in any other deity? Do you believe in Aliens? If the answer to any of these is, “Yes” then you believe in the existence of something that has no scientific basis or fact. There is nothing wrong with this as it should give you purpose and make you feel better about yourself.
So now ask yourself the question, why do you not believe in Climate Change, why do you not believe in Global warning? There are many scientists that specialise in climatology that are warning us of what’s coming, there is empirical evidence of global warming. You can even see things for yourself with no scientific training, just look how the hurricanes and cyclones are getting more severe. How drought for traditionally fertile land is now causing massive ‘dead zones’. How deserts are expanding and how glaciers are receding.
Now I know what you’re thinking, there are all those scientific reports that state the opposite, or those that show as the decades pass there are warm times and cool times “Its part of the natural cycle”… but look at the evidence are the cool times as cool as they used to be? Are the warm times warmer than they used to be? There is evidence out there, you only need to open your eyes and look.
The worst part of this whole saga for me is how a 16 year old girl with Aspergers syndrome, rather than being praised for her dedication to bring the possibility of our impending doom to light (whether well founded or not) is being attacked for “Mental Illness”, for her age, “How can a 16 year old know this, she needs to go back to school?” Seriously, this is another doing the rounds, “She must be a Nazi because she is white with braided hair.”
Then those same people, say, “I believe in God” where Christianity (for example) teaches love and compassion for others. Sorry you can’t be Christian if you are spreading the hate about a vulnerable 16 year old girl for telling the world that we are on the brink of destroying ourselves unless we start improving how we use the limited resources of our planet.
If you got here and still deny the science are still unwilling to listen to those who make it their life’s work to find the facts. Perhaps you should also stop listening to those others that do the same, like the scientists that created drugs to cure your illnesses, next time you get sick, don’t take those drugs no matter how ill you are. Perhaps in the same vein to those that discovered how to harness the power of electricity, get rid of your TVs, your Phones, your solar panels, your incoming electricity connection, your ovens, your fridges. Go back to lighting fires to cook, digging up vegetables and using spears to kill animals to eat… Even give up your homes (which are built using science) and go back to living in caves as you once did.
Science has provided you many luxuries in life, it has made you live longer, and now it is warning us that if we don’t change we will all (as a species) die within just a few hundred years… so now you chose not to believe in it?
Contact details in Australia
Ok have a temp phone number in Australia if you need to contact me…
0414 937 603
€500.00 Reward offered…
For several weeks now, cars on Triq, is-Swieqi, Triq, is-Sirk and Triq, il-Hemel all in Swieqi, near St Julians have been deliberately vandalised, including broken wing mirrors, slashed tyres and ‘Keying’ paint work.
I am therefore offering a €500.00 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators.
If you know who is doing this, why or when they are about to do it again (so they can be caught in the act) you should contact the St Julian’s police station on: +356 2137 1694 or myself via Email: michelle@sorbs.net or myself via SMS/Phone: +356 77 543 114.
To claim the reward, you will need to have given me details of when and whom in advance, or you will need to accompany me and make a statement to the police which results in successful prosecution of the offenders.