Featured Here’s Why The 2021 Toyota Prius Has Become An Undesirable Electrified Car

So did my Sonic. Small turbo charged engines do well on the tests. They can do so out on the road, but it is easy to push them into the being as efficient as bigger engine.

Chargers increase the pressure in the cylinder. Makes it easier to have fuel blow past the rings if they aren't tight enough. Mazda diesels had that issue in other markets, and that is a general thing to look out for in diesels, which have been turbocharged for decades now.

 

RE: hybrids are bad because they get energy from petroleum, even though it's quite efficient about using it.

MY recent research shows that a HUGE amount of the electricity in my state comes from NG (natural gas) by way of fracking or distilled from petroleum. 10% of the "green power" is going away within 2 years when the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is shut down. The only way to get more power quickly will be to build more NG driven power plants.

This is relevant because a HUGE percentage of the USA BEVS are in California, and plans are to mandate more of them.

In essence, the BEVs are contributing to raping the environment about the same as the more efficient hybrids. Depending on where you live, it's conceivable that the power may be 100% from NG or oil.

 

Ah, the hyperbole.

First, there isn't any grid that is 100% NG, oil, or even coal in the US. Not even in Hawaii. The exception will be isolated towns in Alaska, where plug ins and available hybrids aren't practical choices for transportation.
Power Profiler | US EPA

Long Island has the most NG, plus some oil, for its grid. A Prius is responsible for 205 g/mi of total CO2. The least efficient Leaf results in 190 on Long Island grid, Prius Prime 180, and Model 3 LR 160(numbers from Fueleconomy.gov). On California's cleaner grid, the plug ins will emit less, even if the nuclear is replaced by NG. Compare Side-by-Side



Next, NG is a cleaner burning fuel than gasoline in particles and pollutants. A CNG car even emits less CO2 than the gasoline version. Even when accounting for methane leaks from the well to the car, it is better than gasoline. Compare Side-by-Side



Then modern NG power plants are more efficient than even Toyota's engines. The DS4 engines might match an older NG plant in thermal efficiency. New ones run at over 50%. The turbines in those plants also spend more time in the efficient ranges than even a hybrid's engine. The NG plants can easily switch to renewable methane, or hydrogen, if such become available.

 

Suggest reviewing California's electricity generation portfolio history and trends.

California continues on a long trend of decarbonizing the grid by leading the incorporation of renewables. Noise in the trend comes from things like drought years when hydro resources are poor. Yet the trend unmistakably remains on a strong course of decarbonization.

NG peaker plants will be required for many years to briefly fill in renewable "gaps", perhaps until we figure out how to completely replace them by utilizing H2 instead of NG. But total energy from NG will still fade to low levels as the fossil mix continues to subside. The blip of fossil gap coverage to smooth the exit of Diablo Canyon on the way will be nothing special.

 

Natural Gas is in fact methane? If yes, could compost methane generation be a viable contributor? Is it less detrimental?

One advantage of BEV’s: they have one internal power generation method, but the electrical source is completely flexible. Kinda obvious I guess.

 

That is what some landfill energy is; methane coming off the garbage pile.
Farms have have been making electricity with anaerobic digesters to provide gas for generators.

Both of these are small scale in terms of contribution to the grid.

 

I figured I couldn't be the only one who consistently ignores the videos and instead offers comments vaguely related to the subject line of the post containing the video.

And the topic tilt-a-whirl is one of Priuschat's best features, IMO.

 

since a large (and quickly growing) contingent of plug drivers (especially CA where PV is mandated for new home consteuction) either already have or are planning to get PV to fuel their rides - that makes the raping contribution pretty much one-sided, wouldn't you say?

.

 

Power companies are starting to grow PV in large open fields and as mentioned above, if you live in "certain places" they mandate PV for new construction AND major renovations - so it's "statistically" possible that the planetary sexual assault that is 'most things battery' and "ALL things wire" will be attenuated.
As mentioned above, one supposes that if you mandate PV AND BEVs and force BEV owners to endure the extra charge-discharge cycling then the BEVs will make for a convenient reservoir for unprecedented weather phenomenon like......sunset and calm winds.

These are early days, and private passenger cars are not exactly the largest energy sink.....even in America.

However (COMMA!) as the great philosopher and (other) taker of other people's wealth, William Francis Sutton Jr, once didn't say:

"That's where the money is!"

 

Here in South Australia, they have just officially announced the electrical energy suppliers can charge households for pumping solar generated electricity into the grid .... it a crazy world we live in over here.
I can see the uptake for BEV's that can take in the solar but also supply the house when the demand is higher than the solar intake at the time, and telling the grid people where to go as far as putting their solar energy back into the grid. This will eventually lead to many simply dropping off the grid completely and leaving those that rent stuck with carrying the costs of a grid along with big power users that simply can not go off the grid. Tunnel vision at it's best, let's hope the get what they deserve .... the unemployment line

T1 Terry

 

Wow, that's lobby-love for sure.
I hope voters are well aware of that!

That is so ridiculous, it's beyond words!

 

Wow, that's lobby-love for sure.
I hope voters are well aware of that!

 

Sheep still wander in a line up the ramp to the slaughter men at an abattoir, I don't hold a lot of hope for the voting public over here to act any differently .....
There has been an us v them mentality building for quite some time, all they have done is use that to twist the narrative to the home owner who can afford solar being the "them" and those in high rise apartments, social housing and those trapped in the private rental market where those much better off own the property they are renting out at unbelievable rental prices, have solar on the rented house roof running through a separate meter earning them an income, feeling they are being ripped off. So the electricity mobs twisted it to look like those who couldn't put solar into the grid were subsidising the grid upgrade costs so those who were seen as the rich end of town could continue make yet more money off the down trodden ......

The reality of the whole thing is, the power mobs give so little for the solar fed into the grid, deliberately hold the grid voltage high so very little can be fed in before the household inverters shut down due to over voltage, yet charge top $$ for the electricity going back into the same households when the demand is higher by using peak power time meters .... the suckers who put up the big $$ with the promise their new solar system would net them thousands of dollars, will never actually pay back their investment before the system needs to be upgraded due to the poor quality of these system that have been sold on false pretences ...... everyone on the business side of the equation made good $$, everyone else is going to pay and they don't even realise they've been had ..... The sheep analogy seems to be holding up ....

T1 Terry

 

Hi Terry,

I'm trying to understand the economics. I get the impression surplus power from home solar is not being stored in home batteries? Without home storage of solar energy, it would lead to:

1. Peak solar generation without home battery - would raise the grid voltage blocking further grid loading from home solar.
2. Peak solar generation with home battery - would allow unused power to feed a lower voltage grid during night and low solar generation earning an
3. income.

Have I misunderstood what is going on?

My understanding is Hornsdale makes money by minimizing the more expensive 'topper' plants from being able to sell electricity to the grid. I don't remember seeing a daily cycle of power in and out of the battery unit to maximize revenue of the co-located wind farm. Am I accurate?

Bob Wilson

 

Yes, they are pushing house solar owners to spend even more by adding a home storage battery/ies. They will actually subsidise the install, the catch is, even though you generated that power and stored it, the grid suppliers can grab it any time they wish, leaving the home with depleted batteries when the high charge tariffs apply when the solar is no longer producing enough to cover the load.
The other catch, you own the battery, so you are responsible for its service, maintenance and replacement when required.
The Horndale battery acts as a smoothing filter as well as a back up power supply designed to support the grid while other generation is linked in to avoid the grid going down. When one of the big interstate links went down, the power surge would have normally tripped all the grid circuit breakers, but the battery absorbed the spike, fueled the dip that followed the spike and the grid as a whole within South Australia didn't know anything had happened.

On the negative side, Victoria was building a mega battery and things didn't go quite to plan Electricity supply: Tesla needs to be transparent on Victoria’s Big Battery fire there have been a few home battery fires as well, so actually putting them inside the house as a wall feature like Elon Musk seemed to be suggesting, might be a bigger feature than was expected.
As far as I'm concerned, only two lithium chemistries are safe, LFP/LYP and LTO, the others do catch fire if the battery management fails

T1 Terry

 

Albeit off topic a typical house in a hot place can store about 16kwhrs of “cool air” by using excess solar or smart tracking the grid

In some cases you can store even more heat by superheating your water heater (tracking the grid)

if your like me and never use air conditioning and very little hot water this doesn’t work

 

Thanks!

Ok, that explains it. I don't have either solar or a battery power storage. All I know is what I saw on Fully Charged.

I remember Robert Liewellyn showed the automatic power flow based based on clouds vs sunny. Of course, he has a UK system. I did not wonder if the home owner had the option of scheduling power-to-grid and a minimum 'home only' charge level.

 

Ideas:

Pump water in to the house at ground temperature but instead of going to the water heater, route it to a tank in the attic where it heats to well over 100. Then to the water heater where the water heater needs to run less to attain an acceptable temperature. Shut off this system in the winter or use a thermostatically controlled valve to use it only when the attic is sufficiently warm to add value.

And why are air ducts routed through attics in the south? Yea they are insulated but poorly. Why not in better insulated spaces? Never occurred to me as I came from the north where metal ducts ran between floors. Result, when my AC comes on the first half minute blows hot (or cold in the winter) into the living space. Where the between the joists system was room temp for those 30 seconds.

 

there are already similar systems built at a couple different manufacturers. In essence, thin water jackets are attached to the back side of black PV panels. Not only can the water temperature get into the hot water loop at over 130°f, carrying the heat away from solar cells makes them run 10%-20% more efficiently. Circulating loops are how many multi story buildings implement hot water - where as soon as you turn it on, rather than have to run many gallons of water down the drain - the hot water gets to you near instantly.
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