What we need to do now

[spread-tee]

I have just received a copy of Chris Goodalls book of the above title,

it seems like a good read although I have only skimmed it so far, but having read "ten technologies to save the planet " by him I do like his style.
There is some detailed numbers and stuff, but he brings the big picture into focus and joins up a lot of different aspects of saving the planet particularly well I think.

For 9 quid its a bargain

Pesd

[bxman]

is what we need to ask as to how we revive the community we had until only last month

At the moment we can see the replies there were to our own personal posts so it takes you to threads where you had sufficient interest to post yourself

Hope that makes sense

cheers Patrick

[spread-tee]

The chapter looking at green energy doesn't contain anything radical which is probably a good thing. He proposes to increase our wind and PV capacity by a factor of twenty or so very roughly 250GW of solar and 45oGW wind. He calculates that at this level even during "lulls" we would nearly always cover our baseloads. All the spare would be used to electrolyse water and create hydrogen for storage and heating in conventional boilers and of course for charging EVs. He calculates that while the areas required are large they are doable and also the cost is comparable to the amount we spend of fossil fuels or about 2% of GDP, so given the political will it could be done.

I know there are some here that are sceptical of hydrogen as an option, and there are of course drawbacks, but as he points out the benefits include the fact that we would be using mature technology and the infrastructure already in place. Taking heating for example, retro-fitting heatpumps to older housing stock is pretty expensive and disruptive and in my experience a hard sell. The trend has been to go for smaller radiators for some time now, to suggest a big increase in size doesn't go down well, and we all hear the horror stories of pumps kicking in the resistance heating thus costing a fortune to run. Modern boilers are pretty efficient over a wide range of outputs which a heat pump cannot do.

He also suggests that with this level of generation there would be enough hydrogen to tackle the hard nuts of cement, steel and aviation, all again using fairly well tested and mature technology.

All we need is the political will

Desp

[Stinsy]

For me the answer is: stop burning stuff.

Biomass, carbon capture, etc., are all red herrings. Our energy needs must be satisfied by: wind, solar, and innovative storage.

How hard is that?

[spread-tee]

Personally I wouldn't write off biomass as a red herring more of a small scale bit player, but I think we should explore all possibilities. Regarding Carbon capture I do think we need to explore how it could work, in case the sh1t hits the fan in a big way and we need it for an emergency.

Spread.

[Stinsy]

I'm for: small scale biomass. Eg locally felled, naturally seasoned, etc... But virgin-woodland, felled thousands of miles away, undergoing energy-intensive drying and pelleting processes, before being burned in converted coal powerstations, just doesn't pass the sniff test.

[spread-tee]

Yes agreed, it doesn't seem right to move any bulk stuff around the globe but I guess some stuff just can't be sourced locally, energy doesn't fall into that category I think?

Tee spread