| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Battery packs to store electricity | |
| Posted by: | Raymond Havelock | |
| Date/Time: | 11/08/19 09:56:00 |
| The whole electricity thing being 'green and clean' is a bit of a clutching at straws myth. The environment is a global issue. The problems are not yet solved so all that is happening is the pollution problem is just getting shifted from place to place. The finite raw materials and toxic materials to produce a battery requires more pollution and use of minerals than the life of any current battery can justify. The same with hydrogen fuel. It uses more energy to produce hydrogen fuel than the end yield. So the pollution and use of finite resources increases just to produce 'clean' vehicles. So TfL and it's ULEZ are actually increasing the use of finite resources and pollution by increasing demand and passing the problem to another part of the planet. As an example, A Prius would have to do 145,000 miles before it becomes less polluting than a small engined diesel. The problem is the battery life expires near to that point so the car would have to last at least 28 years and 4 batteries before being marginally less polluting. And that does not include what to do with toxic expired batteries. Electric motors do emit toxins, Carbon and copper are gradually burned in an electric motor All batteries emit small degrees of toxic fumes. In China there are now whole lakes so toxic that they are sealed off as a result of lithium mining. The demand for copper which is diminishing faster than oil and coal will make electric motors completely unaffordable along with all the other traditional uses for copper. It is likely that copper will exceed platinum in value at current demand. The cost of solar panel manufacture means that it is near a decade before its own energy costs are covered. By the time they do make a return, they are almost life expired. Finding a way of producing hydrogen that does not use energy. It works out as a guide example, that it takes 4 gallons of diesel to produce 0.5 of a gallon of Hydrogen. Until the safe high volume production and transportation of hydrogen is cracked - (and it is way off) that remains the only potentially environmentally sound means of fuel. So all that is happening is the use of resources and increase in use of toxic materials is being shifted to other places. Rather ironically , R&D into diesel and petrol engines has now slumped to almost zero worldwide with all funding eroded away and yet engineers were getting very close to zero emission petrol and diesel propulsion with high efficiency. That will now not happen as ignorance and panic has dominated pragmatic development. |