Electric cars

[culzean]

More bad news for Wales.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/dec/11/car-battery-firm-scraps-plan-to-build-uks-first-gigafactory-in-wales

See also
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/20/uk-first-car-battery-gigafactory-amte-power-britishvolt
For background

Wales is a devolved government,  investors may not feel money well spent if they want to be independent soon - far safer to build in England.  Same for Scotland,  they will probably miss out on similar investment because of all the machinations of the SNP.. Next submarine base will be in Portsmouth, next navy ships built in Tyneside or Portsmouth as well, I believe the EU call it 'cherry picking' when you want your cake and eat it' - investors need certainty when they are spending loadsa' money.

[Westy36]

Just watched episode 3 of an interesting programme on BBC Alba called An Lan (Tide) about the tide, and those who earn their living working with it. It is narrated in Gaelic with English subtitles, but worth a watch.

There's a bit about the Surf & Turf operation in Orkney at about 46 minutes in, and tidal energy in general.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00052k0/an-lantide-series-1-3-a-beartachadh-an-lainharnessing-the-tide

What happened to the project to harness the massive tidal energy of the Bristol channel?

[ColinB]

What happened to the project to harness the massive tidal energy of the Bristol channel?

Plenty of info available if you search for it, eg here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Barrage

Looks like the benefits simply don't outweigh the problems and disbenefits. Latest full-stop seems to be:
"However the Hafren Power plan collapsed after it was rejected by three independent committees of MPs and by the Government. On 14 January 2014 it was announced that the Chairman and Chief Executive of Hafren Power had resigned, putting an end to the Severn Barrage project."

[JimSh]

Wales is a devolved government,  investors may not feel money well spent if they want to be independent soon - far safer to build in England.  Same for Scotland,  they will probably miss out on similar investment because of all the machinations of the SNP.

If Scotland and Wales are ignored in parliament and receive no investment, it is only going to increase the desire for independence.

[culzean]

Wales is a devolved government,  investors may not feel money well spent if they want to be independent soon - far safer to build in England.  Same for Scotland,  they will probably miss out on similar investment because of all the machinations of the SNP.

If Scotland and Wales are ignored in parliament and receive no investment, it is only going to increase the desire for independence.

Next indyref should include English voters,  then Scotland would get a massive majority to leave the Westminster they hate and they would be controlled by Brussels .. as a really small fish in a big pond - and a hard border at Carlisle  -  Out of the frying pan into the fire springs to mind.

[JimSh]

Wales is a devolved government,  investors may not feel money well spent if they want to be independent soon - far safer to build in England.  Same for Scotland,  they will probably miss out on similar investment because of all the machinations of the SNP.

If Scotland and Wales are ignored in parliament and receive no investment, it is only going to increase the desire for independence.

Next indyref should include English voters,  then Scotland would get a massive majority to leave the Westminster they hate and they would be controlled by Brussels .. as a really small fish in a big pond - and a hard border at Carlisle  -  Out of the frying pan into the fire springs to mind.

Sorry.
English (and some Scottish) voters have done enough harm already.

[JimSh]

Anyway back on topic.
Wind and solar are intermittent and need to be backed up or, even better, stored for when input is insufficient.
Finding a suitable storage medium is now the big problem.
Sorry about going off topic.

Here are a few more ideas in this series of videos.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=The+Future+Of+Energy+Storage+Beyond+Lithium+Ion&docid=608050215758726709&mid=FE0C2805990216694F1EFE0C2805990216694F1E&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Hydrogen as a storage medium.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/in-depth-qa-does-the-world-need-hydrogen-to-solve-climate-change?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

Latest edit added hydrogen link.

[Jocko]

Volkswagen Zwickau car plant, which is now building EVs only, is powered solely by Wind, Solar and massive battery storage. It runs 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year. If they can do it, so can the rest of us.

[culzean]

Volkswagen Zwickau car plant, which is now building EVs only, is powered solely by Wind, Solar and massive battery storage. It runs 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year. If they can do it, so can the rest of us.

Powering one factory for propaganda purposes ( look how green we are etc.....) and powering a whole country that needs 45GW+ without even charging BEV are two different things...

[richardfrost]

Volkswagen Zwickau car plant, which is now building EVs only, is powered solely by Wind, Solar and massive battery storage. It runs 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year. If they can do it, so can the rest of us.

Powering one factory for propaganda purposes ( look how green we are etc.....) and powering a whole country that needs 45GW+ without even charging BEV are two different things...

It is am impressive call to arms though. We think of supplying renewable energy on a National scale and maybe we should think about it more locally.

[Westy36]

Volkswagen Zwickau car plant, which is now building EVs only, is powered solely by Wind, Solar and massive battery storage. It runs 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year. If they can do it, so can the rest of us.

Interesting, that is the plant that used to make the Trabant.  Look how quickly things change, from 2 stoke Trabbi to ID4 EV.

[Jocko]

Was directed to this site, the EV Database. This gives figures for electric vehicles available here in the UK. It gives a much more realistic range figure than the WLTP figures.

https://ev-database.uk/#sort:path~type~order=.rank~number~desc|range-slider-range:prev~next=0~600|range-slider-bijtelling:prev~next=0~600|range-slider-acceleration:prev~next=2~23|range-slider-fastcharge:prev~next=0~1000|range-slider-lease:prev~next=150~2500|range-slider-topspeed:prev~next=60~260|paging:currentPage=0|paging:number=9

[Jocko]

Interesting data I came across today.

Scotland generated enough electricity from renewable sources last year (2019 - my brackets) to meet the equivalent of 90.1% of its total electricity consumption, according to latest figures.

[madasafish]

Now it's the turn of Apple to build an EV

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-autos-exclusive-idUSKBN28V2PY

[Jocko]

The exciting bit in that link is:
Central to Apple’s strategy is a new battery design that could “radically” reduce the cost of batteries and increase the vehicle’s range, according to a third person who has seen Apple’s battery design.