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Old 06-21-2021, 09:24 AM   #101
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Name: CalCop
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I’m no engineer and I haven’t spent the night in a holiday inn,
But I wonder if it would be possible to harness geo-thermal energy
To produce electricity
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Old 06-21-2021, 09:54 AM   #102
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Iceland has been generating electricity via geothermal since 1978.

While wind and solar get the love right now, geothermal and hydro have been producing electricity, at much lower cost, for decades. Hydro was first, 1882.
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Old 06-21-2021, 10:18 AM   #103
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Doe!
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Old 06-21-2021, 10:31 AM   #104
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Originally Posted by thrifty bill View Post
Iceland has been generating electricity via geothermal since 1978.

While wind and solar get the love right now, geothermal and hydro have been producing electricity, at much lower cost, for decades. Hydro was first, 1882.
also, the Geysers power plant in Sonoma County, northern California, since 1960. currently around 1500 megawatts rated output
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Old 06-21-2021, 01:21 PM   #105
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This was something I was concerned about from the get go with battery powered vehicles. Though I have to admit I was more concerned about a catastrophic release of all the energy in the batteries at once, (BOOM). I am relieved that the process is more gradual than that.

The problem, as I see it, is that the battery contains all the chemistry required for a complete discharge. Conventional fuel requires external oxygen to release the contained energy. Keep the oxygen away from the fuel, and the energy release stops. How to accomplish this with batteries is a problem not yet solved.
What got my attention was the 20,000 gallons of water to put the fire out. If I did the numbers correctly, that's 3200 cubic feet of water or twice the volume of your standard New England cape. The numbers vary but according to Google, a typical gasoline tanker carries 10,000 gallons. Didn't California just mandate all electric by 2035. I hope it rains by then.
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Old 06-24-2021, 04:27 PM   #106
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Here is a very useful bit of information, courtesy Google:


Lithium reacts intensely with water, forming lithium hydroxide and highly flammable hydrogen. ... The white powder that forms releases hydrogen gas upon later reaction with water, in amounts of 2800 liter per kilogram hydride. As such, lithium can be applied as hydrogen storage.


Hydrogen and air? In proximity of a fire? Remember the Hindenburg?


All these wonderful newfangled things do come with many questions, don't they?
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Old 06-24-2021, 07:19 PM   #107
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Here is another useful bit if information regarding hydrogen. It is also produced in hundred year old technology lead acid batteries, AND it can explode! This happened to me in my van one time. My wife needed to use the restroom afterwards. With any technology, there are do and don't things. If you really want to be safe use your feet to take you places, but be careful you don't twist an ankle. Technology will not stop advancing, it will have issues, we will solve them, it will change our lives, generally for the better. You may not be the first one to embrace it but you will eventually. EOR.
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Old 06-24-2021, 08:21 PM   #108
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Originally Posted by Paul O. View Post
Here is a very useful bit of information, courtesy Google:


Lithium reacts intensely with water, forming lithium hydroxide and highly flammable hydrogen. ... The white powder that forms releases hydrogen gas upon later reaction with water, in amounts of 2800 liter per kilogram hydride. As such, lithium can be applied as hydrogen storage.


Hydrogen and air? In proximity of a fire? Remember the Hindenburg?


All these wonderful newfangled things do come with many questions, don't they?

Let me describe a small part of my belief system: I happen to believe that electric vehicles are a very positive interim solution to our pollution/carbon problem. I happen to believe that in ~10 years hydrogen will begin to replace electric vehicles. Forgive me please if I get carried away, but electronic vehicles are interim, interim, interim solutions.


Yup, electric vehicles are new and (surprise!) different. They have replaced highly volatile and explosive gasoline and replaced the gasoline with high voltage batteries which do call to mind the French term auto-da-fei. My local fire department and I expect almost all fire departments have recognized that they have a new problem. I don't really know who the standards organizations are that fire departments rely on but they are there. There is a frame work of instructions for dealing with electronic cars (perhaps differentiating manufacturers and models, I never thought to ask) and it is now the responsibility of fire departments to be competent for all of them.


Change is tough and we are not good at it. Also, I wish that an electric vehicle made sense for me. My only vehicle now is an F-350.


Our conversion to hydrogen will also make us jump thru (again please forgive me) more flaming hoops.
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Old 06-25-2021, 09:17 AM   #109
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Hydrogen has other issues, like it can't be made into a liquid without cryogenic temperatures. This makes storing any quantity of it difficult. This brings us back to the range problem. I would assume that hydrogen would be used to generate electricity, using fuel cells vs. an internal combustion engine.
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Old 06-28-2021, 03:20 PM   #110
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Costco gas is significantly less than about everyone else. I believe there's one in Seaside.
But not where I live! Closest one is 84 miles away. The one in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada is closer, but gas is lots higher in Canada, and I we can't go up there now anyway.
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Old 06-29-2021, 09:30 AM   #111
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The whole situation reminds me of the stories of the early adventurers who took the new fangled internal combustion engines on cross country trips. I think we are well past the point of electric vehicles being the purview of daredevils and wealthy individuals or entrepreneurs having a race.

I would say we are getting close to the Model T days of vehicles mass produced for the masses. I believe the adoption rate will be faster but faces some of the same hurdles in terms of cost and support infrastructure. As well as the uncertainty surrounding any new technology.

I have no doubt that there were thoughtful and well written discussions of the massive explosive power of gasoline in the early days of the internal combustion engine. As compared to the established mature technology of steam powered ;-) Steam itself had issues in the early days until safety equipment was refined over time.

Steam trains were a marvel but the brakes were activated by a human running along the roof from car to car applying the brakes, an occupation with a really short life expectancy. The advent of air brakes was met with skepticism to outright hostility. Today that type of brake is common on almost all commercial heavy trucks.

I see no reason to expect that battery and electric vehicle technology will go through the same growing pains and public review by proponents, skeptics, and detractors. I don't think there is much chance of it going away however and considering the shift of population to urban living rather than rural it makes electric an even more viable option.

People rent special equipment such as entire motor homes how improbable is it that there will be camper/caravan tow vehicles for rent that are built with extended range batteries and higher tow capacity? I sometimes am annoyed that I have to give up 10 mpg for the 10's of thousands of non towing miles I drive in order to have tow capacity for camper and utility trailer the few times a year I actually use them. People rent a U-Haul truck to move, why not a U-Haul long range van to tow a camper for the family on vacation?
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Old 06-29-2021, 01:02 PM   #112
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I sometimes am annoyed that I have to give up 10 mpg for the 10's of thousands of non towing miles I drive in order to have tow capacity for camper and utility trailer the few times a year I actually use them.
The advent of plug in hybrid SUVs are an option, particularly for the people with 13 foot trailers.

The 2022 Hyundai Tucson PHEV is one option (2,000 pound tow rating), KIA Niro PHEV has a 2,800 pound tow rating. Watch for a burgeoning list of choices in the next two years: plug in for local commuting/driving, hybrid for longer range. Seriously considering one for my wife right now. In the end, we will probably go mid-sized SUV instead.
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Old 07-01-2021, 10:11 AM   #113
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Did you know Teslas don't have that new car smell?
They have more of an Elon Musk.
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Old 08-18-2021, 09:13 PM   #114
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https://insideevs.com/features/48945...v-owners-want/
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