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Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6675
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 25 4:41 pm Post subject:

It makes sense where the methane would be produced regardless, and where the heat can be useful. The trouble is that those opportunities are fleeting, and eventually the infrastructure existing perverts incentives and suddenly we can't reduce yeah generation because the energy plant needs the feedstock, and we don't manure the field, etc.....

It's hard to compete with the cost of solar, and one day it'll be even harder to compete with fusion.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16273

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 25 9:39 am Post subject:

Agree Slim. Not too sure about fusion; it has proved elusive so far. While I admit that it took quite a while for nuclear fission energy to become available; the first plant in the UK 'went critical' the year I was born I believe, and we didn't get nuclear power here for about another 10 years. Fission requires some rather difficult conditions, which so far haven't been achieved in more than very tiny volumes and certainly not enough for a reactor. I can't remember how long they have been working on it, but certainly more than 40 years.

I have always regarded nuclear as a stopgap until we find ways of producing electricity more cleanly. I first came across solar in the mid 1960s when Bell were working on it. I still have a tiny solar cell that powers a buzzer that they gave my father.

At present, solar and wind look like our best ways of producing electricity in the quantity we need. We may find others that don't produce dangerous waste, and with work on solar cells and batteries, we may find ways of avoiding the damaging mining that is currently their problem.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43862
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 25 12:32 pm Post subject:

things that move, tidal flow/gravity flow for water, wind flow, solar, geothermal/heat pumps etc

so far nukes have a very worrying history, legacy cleaning has not been factored in to the profit/mil aspects of them
the odd shell of mustard gas ploughed up in belgium is harmless compared to poking about in high level nuke waste for the next million yrs or so
ps much of it is either too hot to handle or undocumented and probably "somewhere over there"

mil is messy, civil to create mil is even messier, nuke leccy is energy washing mil or hideous expensive per KWH

i would rather use less leccy than agree to more or new nuke leccy

ps by using well designed grid and battery tech , pump storage, tidal reliability etc. very green, safe and affordable energy sources at large or small scale can cover baseline and peak regardless of weather based energy harvest at a given time

pity the fossil/nuke lobby shills have prevailed with public opinion for at least 6 decades
i have met "the public" ........ umm

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6675
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 25 1:26 pm Post subject:

Agreed, but fusion will be a different animal.
I know the breakthrough has been ten years away for many decades now, and don't put complete faith in it coming through in time to save us from ourselves. But it is nice to know that they've gotten to net positive energy generation, and longer sustained runs. Makes me hopeful that maybe my kids' generation could see the cheap energy needed to reverse some of the climate harms we're creating.
Whether we can fix politics, economic systems, culture, etc. enough to use it equitably is perhaps an even more concerning question.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43862
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 25 1:53 pm Post subject:
a bit quick although a decent yield for dumb apes gravity helps

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28268
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 25 3:00 pm Post subject:

Battery claims
The following link is to the complete list of claims I have been compiling.

https://martindavidwalker.blogspot.com/2024/09/battery-claims.html

The new claims in the last week are as follows.
March 14th 2925, BYD to show off 1000kw fast chargers
That's enough to fill batteries In 5 minutes. It's obviously a great thing for trucks but EVs generally stop to charge where people actually want to take a break, you really don't want 5 minutes till you get charged for not charging!

https://electrek.co/2025/03/14/1000-kw-fast-charging-byd-teases-tech-twice-as-fast-march-17/

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6675
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 25 4:17 pm Post subject:
It's a long time window for plans to fall apart or be changed, but the first grid scale plant has in fact been planned to produce within the next decade: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Fusion_Systems

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43862
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 25 5:33 pm Post subject:
imagine sven and olaf chatting about kit "shall we use the axes or the swords?" "in a thousand years we could have a F35 or day zero cyber weapon"

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43862
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 25 6:10 pm Post subject:

Slim wrote:

It's a long time window for plans to fall apart or be changed, but the first grid scale plant has in fact been planned to produce within the next decade: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Fusion_Systems

"planned" and working are not the same

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16273

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 25 9:01 am Post subject:
Nice to know things are progressing, but not sure if I will see the long touted fusion in a useable state. I might be proved wrong, but as has been said; if it works, not sure that it will be used equitably.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28268
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Mar 23, 25 5:03 pm Post subject:

Battery claims
The following link is to the complete list of claims I have been compiling.

https://martindavidwalker.blogspot.com/2024/09/battery-claims.html

The new claims in the last week are as follows.
March 21st 2025, CATLs second generation Sodium battery
The claim is that it approaches LFP performance metrics with significant cost advantages. Notably it has been a set back for Sodium that the price of Lithium has come down drastically from its peak, but notably even then Lithium was just 25% of the cost of producing a battery pack. So with Lithium down 80% from it's peak in 2022 one has to ask if the significant cost advantage comes in production as well as materials? But as batteries become commodities â€œsignificantâ€ can mean just a few percent!
https://autonews.gasgoo.com/new_energy/70036285.html
March 18th 2925, BYD launches 1000v fast charging battery platform
400 km of range can be added in 5 minutes by the previously announced 1000kw fast chargers.
https://carnewschina.com/2025/03/17/byd-han-l-ev-and-tang-l-ev-1086-hp-started-presales-in-china-for-37300-usd/

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43862
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Mar 23, 25 6:14 pm Post subject:
is the 1kv kit public proof?

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16273

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 25 8:29 am Post subject:
If lithium can be reclaimed from waste or from things like spoil heaps of china clay, then the price should drop and the extraction be more ethical and cleaner. Sodium is more easily obtained than lithium, so long term it might have advantages.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43862
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 25 6:58 pm Post subject:

making Na metal is a bit moody, no worse than smelting steel and a lot safer than playing with "hot cell stuff"

thermal Pu to steam to personal vehicle has less merit that a nitrocellulose fireguard

any of the above are loads safer than burning oil as a default energy source

even as a metal Na is sort of ok, at least it is predictable

sodium azide, ummmm

i did tell them what it was and what it could do, some folk do not read labels or documentation and then they whine about me destroying their plant

approx 500 gm of sodium/sodium azide is the most disturbing thing i found in a chemical store
very elderly diethyl ether is ok unless it breathes, accidental lead picrate is safe if moistened etc etc

i have played nitrations small and unknown and very personal, then big after that, town is still where it was

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16273

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 25 7:57 am Post subject:

When I worked in the chemistry lab we had a lot of Winchesters of sodium cyanide in the bottom of the chemical cupboard courtesy of a previous Chief Chemist who had an idea about making up his own cyanide plating bath. While I was there a new Chief Chemist was appointed and he had them removed by a specialist company. The one in between made a small amount of an explosive, who's name I can't 50 years on, remember. I have a feeling it was a sodium iodide of some sort, and it was evaporated on filter paper which was then broken up and scattered on the floor so anyone walking on it had tiny explosions under their feet. He threatened me with instant dismissal if I tried the same thing.

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