Another little problem with renewable energy?

[oldbrownhat]

I have wondered how that works. Most roofing materials don't have a very long life, and to replace it, all of the solar cells would need to be removed and later re-installed. Who pays for that? And what if there is a major hailstorm? Are solar panels hail proof? And will homeowners insurance pay for storm damaged solar panel replacement?

if I had the room, I'd put the panels on a raised frame on the ground. This would make servicing & cleaning easier and also make it possible to put them at the optimal angle. Not possible/practical on most city lots, however.

A "green" builder in Bellingham WA went all out on his own property and built a net-zero house that is completely off-grid, not relying on the city for power or water.

"This groundbreaking project is the vision of innovative designer Dan Welch of [bundle] design studio in Bellingham, Washington. Welch designed and built his own home as a case study to validate principles of the Living Building Challenge (LBC), and achieve an "off-grid" Net-Zero Water home. He and his family now use purified rainwater for all uses and treat all their wastewater on-site, approved through progressive local & state green building codes that allowed him to legally decline City water/sewer hookups."​

Pretty much a no-holds-barred, proof of concept project. He's in the same neighborhood as my gf, which has large, old lots so he had the room to experiment.

 

[ladder13]

Florida family drives into electric car problem: a replacement battery costs more than vehicle itself | Fox Business

$14,000 for car batteries?

 

[oldbrownhat]

Florida family drives into electric car problem: a replacement battery costs more than vehicle itself | Fox Business

$14,000 for car batteries?

Yup! I read another story not long ago about someone who bought a used Nissan EV. Eventually he needed to replace the batteries and the dealer quoted him $12k!

The prevailing reasoning is that you will save "xxx" dollars in gas over the lifespan of the batteries so it works out about even, but I'm sceptical. If I bought an EV I guess I'd be salting away a certain amount every month in a separate account to save up for the eventual replacement. Possibly, as EV's become more mainstream, the battery replacement costs might actually come down, but again, I'm sceptical.

I also read that one manufacturer will only "lease" you the battery. Some articles I've seen are suggesting that this is an alternative

There are a lot of "known unknowns" at this point.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Obviously it ain't here yet.
When it's here, we'll all want it.
It'll be obvious even to us slow Hill Billies.
We like good stuff. Show us good stuff, we want some!
But when you attempt to Ram us with technology that's really not perfected and force us to adapt it, you are going to get push back.
So don't get testy! That's real World!

 

[DWalt]

I saw the same story today. The car was a used 2014 Ford EV and the family paid $12K for it. It would certainly give me pause, in the highly unlikely event I ever intended to buy a used EV, without some significant warranty coverage on the battery. EVs scare me, and not just because of their price.

Changing the batteries on my golf cart runs about $1K (maybe even more today) and I think that is too much.

 

[oldbrownhat]

...Changing the batteries on my golf cart runs about $1K (maybe even more today) and I think that is too much.

And those are lead-acid, not lithium. I have LA in my whole-house backup system (4 x Trojan L16) and just for laughs I looked up the cost of replacing them with lithium Not a laughing matter.

 

[Bill Raby]

Speaking of big Blades.
Have you seen one up close?
They are Huge!

I know a guy that drives those trucks. Said it has an extra steering wheel that steers the back.

 

[Narragansett]

I found this today. We have them all over the state. Got to be a couple hundred acres. Hazardous waste in the making

 

[LVSteve]

I found this today. We have them all over the state. Got to be a couple hundred acres. Hazardous waste in the making

Get on Google Earth and look at the area NE of Primm NV if you want to see a big solar farm. Further towards Boulder City is the Eldorado Solar facility. It's huge.

 

[GaryS]

Solar panel roof fire in Quincy and recent heat wave suspected cause | Quincy Quarry News About Quincy Massachusetts

I found this today. We have them all over the state. Got to be a couple hundred acres. Hazardous waste in the making

 

[biku324]

North and east of Corona, NM, and SSE of Duran, NM is an amazing wind farm on thousands of acres.

 

[cmj8591]

Just this week, POTUS came to Somerset, Ma., just down the street from me. It took 3, C17 cargo planes and a modified 747 to get him to Greene Airport in RI which is about 10 miles away from where he spoke. There was about 12 vehicles in the motorcade and an unknown number of vehicles in support. His climate "czar" flew into Greene on a private jet. All of this so that he could give a speech on how we need to reduce our carbon footprint. It's just a bit disingenuous and illustrates the whole problem with the man made climate argument and it seems to me that it's another case of whipping up fear and then making a profit of off it.

 

[cmj8591]

Around here many solar companies require a 15 year lease commitment. Which gives me a good idea of how long they expect the panels to last.

Oh, they also require the lessee to require the contract to be continued if they sell the house.

Oh, they also charge the lessee if they have to put a new roof on during the term of the lease. Which means that before your sign the lease, you should probably put a new roof on your house.

They also put a lien on the house which can present all kinds of problems when you go to sell it or refinance. The other thing is, what happens to the equipment if the company goes belly up? When the panels get to the end of their life and have to be disposed of or something breaks, do you have to pay for it? Good luck with that!

 

[biku324]

Solar panel roof fire in Quincy and recent heat wave suspected cause | Quincy Quarry News About Quincy Massachusetts

Well, how about 3 natural gas explosions in three days?

June 8 explosion at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Freeport, Texas. That facility is reportedly expected to reopen in several months.

July 7, gas pipeline explosion in a rural area southwest of Houston, Texas. Local officials report that the damage was isolated to a field and no structures were affected. The fire was extinguished in roughly an hour.

July 9 fire at an Oklahoma natural gas processing plant forced hundreds of nearby residents to temporarily evacuate. As of Friday, that plant remained closed amid damage assessments.

No power source is completely risk free. Ask PG & E, who've destroyed more California homes in fires than any other entity.

 

[Rustyt1953]

 

[9mmPatriot]

So how long before wind power is blamed for a lack of wind for sailboats?

 

[biku324]

Hmmmm....

Diesel-Electric Types
Like an automobile, a diesel locomotive cannot start itself directly from a stand. It will not develop maximum power at idling speed, so it needs some form of transmission system to multiply torque when starting. It will also be necessary to vary the power applied according to the train weight or the line gradient. There are three methods of doing this: mechanical, hydraulic or electric. Most diesel locomotives use electric transmission and are called "diesel-electric" locomotives. Mechanical and hydraulic transmissions are still used but are more common on multiple unit trains or lighter locomotives.

Diesel-electric locomotives come in three varieties, according to the period in which they were designed. These three are:

DC - DC (DC generator supplying DC traction motors);
AC - DC (AC alternator output rectified to supply DC motors) and
AC - DC - AC (AC alternator output rectified to DC and then inverted to 3-phase AC for the traction motors).

The DC - DC type has a generator supplying the DC traction motors through a resistance control system, the AC - DC type has an alternator producing AC current which is rectified to DC and then supplied to the DC traction motors and, finally, the most modern has the AC alternator output being rectified to DC and then converted to AC (3-phase) so that it can power the 3-phase AC traction motors. Although this last system might seem the most complex, the gains from using AC motors far outweigh the apparent complexity of the system. In reality, most of the equipment uses solid state power electronics with microprocessor-based controls. For more details on AC and DC traction, see Electric Traction Power and Electric Locomotives on this site.

In the US, traction alternators (AC) were introduced with the 3000 hp single diesel engine locomotives, the first being the Alco C630. The SD40, SD45 and GP40 also had traction alternators only. On the GP38, SD38, GP39, and SD39s, traction generators (DC) were standard, and traction alternators were optional, until the dash-2 era, when they became standard. It was a similar story at General Electric.

There is one traction alternator (or generator) per diesel engine in a locomotive (standard North American practice anyway). The Alco C628 was the last locomotive to lead the horsepower race with a DC traction alternator.

Diesel Locomotives | The Railway Technical Website | PRC Rail Consulting Ltd