Tuesday

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72 comments to Tuesday

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    Steve

    I know most of the contributors on this blog will already have read this 🙂 But I think it’s well worth reporting on …
    China set to introduce mandatory national standards on e-bike batteries.
    According to statistics from the National Fire and Rescue Administration, there were 21,000 reported cases of electric vehicle fires nationwide in 2023, an increase of 17.4 percent from 2022. In 2022, there were 18,000 reported cases of electric vehicle fires nationwide, a significant increase of 23.4 percent from 2021.
    On Friday, a fire broke out in a residential area in Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu Province, resulting in 15 deaths. Preliminary analysis indicated that the fire started in the area where electric bicycles were parked on the ground floor of six buildings. On Sunday, separate electric vehicle fires occurred in Beijing and Shanghai. The frequent occurrence of e-bike-related fires after the Spring Festival has further raised the Chinese public’s concern about the safety standards for electric vehicle batteries.”
    https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202402/1307713.shtml
    China again takes the lead, when will our governments provide regulation ?

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      Yarpos

      Mmmm taking the lead after the horse has bolted and there are millions spread worldwide. More like trying to catch up and do damage control. In a society that isnt rife with fakery and workarounds this would be good nes, guess we will see what actually happens.

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    Took the liberty of transposing this posting by Tony from Oz from yesterday’s comments @jo Nova to today so no one misses it.

    ‘During this past week, I was asked a series of questions in a Comment at my weekly wind Capacity Factor (CF) Update Post about the data I ‘come up with’.

    Once you see that list of questions, you’ll see that there was no easy (short) way I could respond in a comment in reply.

    So, what I did was to make a Post about the whole process I use to come up with those ‘seemingly simple’ data points, the Weekly CF percentage, and the two long term CF percentages, both for the full (now) five and a half years and the most recent 12 Month yearly percentages.

    By its very nature that is a long Post, just to address the questions asked.

    However, what this new Post does is explain, not just to the person who made the comment, but to anyone who wants to see just how I do it.

    It will always be there now at the top of my home site.

    The link below is to that Post.

    Wind Generation Capacity Factor Calculations Explained.’

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      Hey thanks Beth, and Ossqss as well.

      It always sort of niggled at me that people might not understand how I came to that figure, and what was behind it all.

      I mean, everywhere you look, it’s (that CF percentage) rarely even quoted at all, and if it is, they hide it by saying X number of homes etc, and no one knows how to work it out from that anyway, well, the general public anyway.

      Then if it is even mentioned at all, it’s usually always inflated.

      So, I’m the ‘outlier’ and because of that, wherever I do make a comment about, it’s either ‘anecdotal’ or something I’ve just made up.

      So, I’m glad I actually did the exercise of writing it up.

      Anyone can do it, just that ….. no one ever has actually done it, just believed the rhetoric.

      I even saw an article that said that, hey, CF doesn’t really matter.

      Huh, if you have a Nameplate of 11,409MW, and all it actually delivers is an average of 3420MW, that, umm, sort of DOES matter, actually.

      Tony.

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        Ted1.

        Thank you ever so much for this very valuable work that you do that so few bother with. It must be of use some day when somebody decides to research the scene. I worry that it could fade away with us.

        There is a number of contributers on and about this blog who do such work. Is anything being done to preserve the records when the current custodians have moved on?

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    David Maddison

    If you think the Liberal Party’s (fake conservative) Snowy Hydro II project is an A$12 billion+++ dollar engineering folly, here’s a strong competitor.

    Its is a US$8 billion (A$12 billion) ship or “terayacht” shaped like a turtle that is 550m long and 610m wide and carries 60,000 guests.

    It is to be built in Saudi Arabia, home of another bizarre engineering project, a 170km city building called “The Line” and costing US$500 billion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Line%2C_Saudi_Arabia?wprov=sfla1

    At least the terayacht is just wasting private, not taxpayer, money, like SH2 and at least it has some use if it’s ever finished, unlike SH2.

    https://www.pangeosyacht.com/projects

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      KP

      ‘at least it has some use if it’s ever finished, unlike SH2.”

      Hey, don’t knock Australia’s up and coming ‘largest mushroom-growing tunnels’ project!

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    David Maddison

    “The Biggest Scandal in the History of America”.

    Why they are out to get Donald Trump.

    Try to watch it before YouTube/Goolag censor it and download a copy if you can.

    https://youtu.be/klSzIK4KJFs

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      Hanrahan

      So the raid on Mar-a-Lago was to get the binder which is Trump’s insurance policy. Thought so.

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      Adellad

      Just watched it; confirmed my (admittedly wanting to be confirmed) existing views. But how can “we” win? “They” have control of all the big levers, especially in the US, but here as well. Read The Australian – Paul Kelly, Greg Sheridan, the Editorials etc – there is never any “evidence” of what we just saw and know to be true. If what we believe to be true is true, then ipso facto, Trump cannot be allowed to win. “They” have far too much at stake and it is their narrative, their oligarchy. Even worse, the bureaucracy is full of sometimes well-meaning types who lean hard Left. At all levels they make the decisions that matter and at all levels, they will not subscribe to the narrative we just saw. This is the Swamp, the Deep State and it’s bloody powerful. Short of storming the Bastille, I cannot see any way out of this – well not any way that I want to see.

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        Gary S

        ‘Storming the Bastille’ is just one of their angles in play to justify jailing the Donald.

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        Leo G

        But how can “we” win? “They” have control of all the big levers, especially in the US

        The “big levers” involve Corporatist influence, in the US through the twenty-odd agencies of US Intelligence Community, the military, the corporate media, the civil service and both major political parties, but also in China where that corporatist enterprise plans to extend its power beyond the limits possible in the US.

        The US-China connection has been seen in the Covid/Vaccine enterprise and in the cooperation of US agencies in facilitating the US Fentanyl “epidemic”.

        I suspect that the campaign to destroy Trump indicates that the corporatists are still opposed by other groups within the IC who fear Trump will strengthen those groups.

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      Annie

      Interesting, thankyou David.

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    David Maddison

    Word of the Day spuddle.

    -to work feebly and ineffectively, because your mind is elsewhere or you haven’t quite woken up yet.

    Late 17th century, still in use in parts of the West Country.

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    CO2 Lover

    China’s demonstration HTR-PM enters commercial operation

    The world’s first modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear power plant has entered commercial operation, China’s National Energy Administration has announced.

    The HTR-PM features two small reactors (each of 250 MWt) that drive a single 210 MWe steam turbine. It uses helium as coolant and graphite as the moderator. Each reactor is loaded with more than 400,000 spherical fuel elements (‘pebbles’), each 60 mm in diameter and containing 7 g of fuel enriched to 8.5%. Each pebble has an outer layer of graphite and contains some 12,000 four-layer ceramic-coated fuel particles dispersed in a graphite matrix. The fuel has high inherent safety characteristics, and has been shown to remain intact and to continue to contain radioactivity at temperatures up to 1620°C – far higher than the temperatures that would be encountered even in extreme accident situations, according to the China Nuclear Energy Association.

    https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Chinese-HTR-PM-Demo-begins-commercial-operation

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    another ian

    Example getting closer?

    “The UK is much closer to blackouts than anyone dares to admit”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/02/25/the-uk-is-much-closer-to-blackouts-than-anyone-dares-to-admit/

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      CO2 Lover

      Last week, the Office for Product Safety and Standards ordered the company Wallbox to stop selling its Copper SB chargers because hackers could potentially access the chargers and incapacitate the grid by such means as suddenly turning on thousands of chargers full-pelt at the same time.

      Could be the plot of the next James Bond movie and who could be have for the Villian?

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    I read this little gem from Bloomberg this morning.
    “Australia faces unique challenges in electrifying its heavy-vehicle fleet because of its vast geography but a futuristic new technology may be a solution: roads that can wirelessly charge electric trucks as they drive. In an Australia-first trial, a research group from Melbourne’s Swinburne University will embed dynamic wireless charging technology into a 1.5-kilometer (0.93-mile) stretch of road as part of a broader bid to accelerate lagging EV uptake.”
    Now i believe that it can take quite a long time to charge these batteries so this so called cable would theoretically have to run very long distances if truck travelling at 100 klms/hr.
    My mind boggles.

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      Dennis

      Evidence of a Fire No Sales

      The business model change comes after multiple highly-publicized instances of Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles catching on fire and causing massive damage.

      An EQB model caught ablaze while being charged in a car showroom in Malaysia on New Year’s Eve 2023, with video footage showing the terrifying moment a portion of the building went up in flames.

      The fire destroyed “about 90 percent of the car, five percent of the showroom building structure, and 20 percent of the electric vehicle charging bay” the local fire and rescue operation commander told the Star.

      Earlier in the year, a new Mercedes-Benz EQE350+ electric vehicle spontaneously caught fire while parked in a Nocatee, Florida home garage, causing an estimated $1 million in damage to the house.

      The car wasn’t even charging when it caught fire, Breitbart News reported.

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    Hanrahan

    roads that can wirelessly charge electric trucks as they drive.

    They tried it. One unforeseen problem was that the tyre rubber made the road dirty.

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      Gary S

      And battery powered vehicles shed much more tyre rubber don’t they? Compounds the problem somewhat.

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      • #
        Dennis

        And they cannot carry an equivalent “payload” to the ICEV

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      • #

        battery powered vehicles shed much more tyre rubber don’t they?….

        Do they ?…… any valid references for that comment ?
        ( and if you think itis weight related, ..remember ALL trucks have a maximum axle load limit !)

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        • #
          Hanrahan

          Heavier, more torque, how could they not?

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          • #

            Trucks cannot be heavier..weight limits.
            Torque has little to do with tyre wear ,..its mostly braking and cornering that wears tyres.
            If truck tyres wear quickly, it is a major cost impact on operating costs.

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            • #

              Chad – you’re right.
              But, where trucks are operating close to their maximum axle limits, the payload of an BEV truck will be less.
              So needing more trucks for the same volume of goods.
              Even if each truck – ICE or BEV – sheds the same amount of rubber – there need to be more BEV trucks.
              So more rubber shed.

              Unless
              – every yard [metre if you prefer] of the road is ‘electro-fied’ so the truck doesn’t need a battery, but that’s like building a light railway to every address in Australia [or the UK, or wherever] … which will have extra costs, you will agree.

              Auto

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              • #

                Yes i do agree..
                ..further , i seriously doubt that the technology to allow 100 kW + of “contactless inroad charging” is viable or ever likely to be..!
                ….a heavy haul truck would need upwards of 50-75 kW just to maintain speed on a flat road, ..so for useful charging a power charge of 50kW above that would be necessary …for hours of driving distance !
                Just another grant harvesting scheme ?

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      KP

      The magnetic field must be intense… that will do a lot for the proteins in the driver’s body!

      Maybe if they ran overhead wires like trolley buses it would work.

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    Dennis

    So China is the world’s main supplier of wind turbines and solar systems.

    Look what I found accidentally, the future of electricity generation and China is working hard to become top supplier.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/01/climate/nuclear-small-modular-reactors-us-russia-china-climate-solution-intl/index.html

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      another ian

      Well, given the opportunity, why not sell wind and solar systems for whatever price the gullible are willing to pay and use the profits to develop SMR’s?

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      Hanrahan

      I’m not a China shill, in fact I think they are the pits, but if they can make a safe product cheaper, why not? Just be careful to use western command and control.

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      DOC

      Nothing wrong with supplying these things so long as you don’t intend to use them extensively yourself.
      It’s unlike us, supplying some of the coal and metal to get them back as panels and turbines to help destroy ourselves. China’s economy is said to be in the doldrums so Xi wants to maximise his sale of these things to help us along. He and Modi – and their ~3B people – are too smart to fall for the climate scam.

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    Earl

    With due respect David but the Word for the Day is – U N L A W F U L

    This word was used this morning by the judge when he delivered his verdict on the case between a group of brave Queensland Police Service personnel (who said no to a brand new untested and untried inoculation and were cast out from their jobs AND in some cases their friendship groups and even relative groups) and the head of the service who said you WILL accept this liquid into your body.

    The court has suggested a meeting this Friday for discussion on costs in favor of the group etc.

    The judgement was delivered at 9:17am this morning and I have traveled home by bus to purposely put some distance (thinking time) between it and writing this. A quick review of online news sites uncovers….. nothing in the nationals (DM, Newsdot, Guardian).
    There is a headline on the Couriermail site but paywalled.

    It is worth drawing a comparison with Margaret Thatcher’s Falklands War when back then in the age of satellite communication the first photos of the conflict made it back to Britain one day less than the time it took for the news of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava to reach Britain some 100 years earlier.

    As it is said “The first casualty of war is truth”. Never forgive. Never forget.

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    CO2 Lover

    Michael {Michelle) Obama tops Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and Gavin Newsom as a replacement for Joe Biden, 81, if he drops out: New poll reveals who Democrats would want on the ticket.

    Barack Obama is already pulling Joe Bidden’s strings

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      el+gordo

      A dictatorship can have a violent cultural revolution but not in a democracy, we enjoy our freedoms too much.

      As China goes down the gurgler its only a matter of time before the tyrant is toppled.

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Old covid mandate ruled unlawful”

    Online Courier Mail headlind just now

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    another ian

    A different view on LNG –

    “Qatar is unwavering in its view that the world isn’t investing enough in natural gas. And the tiny Middle Eastern nation is trying to fix that.

    State-owned QatarEnergy said Sunday it will develop a 16 million-ton-a-year LNG export project by the end of the decade. That’s on top of its previously announced record-breaking expansion plans.

    Altogether, the Gulf state will boost shipments of liquefied natural gas by more than 80% by 2030.”

    https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/02/26/there-is-no-strong-business-case-for-canadian-lng/

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  • #
    MP

    New hire identifies as a cat and Roscoe aint having it!

    Breadstick Ricky & The Boss
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic9bfODFeA4

    A swear word or two.

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “First M1 Abrams Tank Destroyed In Ukraine Shortly After Appearance On Battlefield ”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/military/first-m1-abrams-tank-destroyed-ukraine-shortly-after-appearance-battlefield

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      Hanrahan

      What’s that all about? Leopards and Abrams have been in theatre for many months. No one ever claimed they were invincible but they don’t blow their turrets into near earth orbit so it is more survivable for the crew. Those damaged can usually be repaired.

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        Hanrahan

        Seems Leopards and M1s have only been in service since “fall” so not as long as I thought. Time flies when you’re having a war.

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      KP

      Absolutely and completely expected, by all 3 sides I am sure. No tank is safe these days, loitering drones have seen to that. So that’s the German Leopards, the British Challengers (‘Never lost one of them..’) and now ‘the best tank in the world’, the Abrams, none of which made the slightest difference to the war, but have certainly embarrassed the Western companies trying to sell them.

      It a good war for developing new technologies, just a shame that the people making money from it aren’t in the middle of it!

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      Lucky

      24Feb2024. First confirmed report of the M1 Abrams main battle tank in action in battle. One destroyed soon after that report.
      31 have been received. They have been in Ukraine for several months.

      What is the next ‘wunder-weapon’ that will save Ukraine?
      They have tried a new C in C, and boys and oldsters on the front, and women conscripted to the front.

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