Forum Topic

Electric cars

A Norwegian university has more than confirmed my suspicions about electric cars and polution: www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19830232

Chris Bell ● 4931d28 Comments

Well you're nearly well informed ;O), the Lake of Mentieth near Stirling is a Lake, there are a couple of others called lakes,but as they're man made probably don't count.A small Loch? Aye yull be meanin a Lochan.

Tony Wood ● 4927d

Even given the phenomenal cost of a licence to fish for salmon by 'part of the cost' I assume you mean something rather less than 0.000001% of the cost then?  :-)

Tony Colliver ● 4927d

Part of the cost is covered by the fish they catch (I have even seen people fishing about 2000 feet up Ben Nevis where there is a pumped water energy storage system, I am reliably informed that there is only one lake in Scotland, so I assume it is a very small Loch).

Chris Bell ● 4927d

Chris   Thanks for the heads up on that I'd missed it but found some info on the web. It looks good but we'll have wait and see the efficiency of it,some of these things claim silly efficiency figures.   We have lots of hydro electric schemes up here,supposedly the best renewable, they're claiming 80-90% efficiency...I just can't see it myself...during the day the water assisted by gravity wooshes down and makes electricity but at night they have to use the mains to pump the water against gravity up to the reservoir. Now even using cheap electricty (white meter ? :0) that can't add up to anything like 80-90 eff. or am I missing something?

Tony Wood ● 4927d

The BBC website recently published an article about research on compressing air off-peak when there is surplus power available until it is liquid, then using the stored energy to drive a turbine as required to generate electricity. Technology on test at the Nestle site in Hayes.

Chris Bell ● 4928d

e... that's for the end of exquisit

Tony Wood ● 4928d

Far and away the funniest post I've seen,the bald cat line had me gasping for air,exquisit logic! Thankyou!

Tony Wood ● 4928d

By the sounds of it, the locals don't like outsiders, its only good when its sunny and the place is full of radiation.And the cats have no fur.At least in my home town, people come all year round, we are generally quite welcoming to visitors and don't have secret words ao we can talk about them without them knowing.  How would someone from Cornwall like to be described as a Pasty Head?

Bernadette Clover ● 4928d

Ooops sorry, errors and omissions included (Laughing at Bernadettes  Cornwall comment).

Tony Wood ● 4928d

"Cornwall is crap anyway."  :0)Care to illusidate just a tiny bit? It seems a tad SWEEPING.

Tony Wood ● 4928d

Yes Grockles are holiday makers whereas Yanfroms are "incomers".Getting back on thread these batteries are looking promising,  http://www.treehugger.com/wind-technology/new-battery-could-be-energy-storage-solution-wind-and-solar-power.html    I can't see why the technology can be scaled down for car use. They wont of course solve the biggest problem,where the electricity comes from in the first place. It looks to me that we only have the nuclear option,windfarms  are ok but not terribly efficient,generating just 30% of their rated output per year,and that's up here in Scotland.

Tony Wood ● 4928d

Well it gives them something to do during those months.Cornwall is crap anyway.

Bernadette Clover ● 4928d

The problem is that the 'ants' create wealth only for a limited season and skew the true economic needs of an area for infrastructure investment.Worse still are the 'second homers' (not just a problem in Cornwall) who have caused such inflation in house prices that the vast majority of locals cannot afford to buy houses anywhere near the area in which they were raised.

Nigel Brooks ● 4928d

The proper Devonshire term is 'Grockle' but I like yanfroms :-)

Nigel Brooks ● 4928d

I like the Devonshire equivalent...Yanfroms as in "he an from round ear".

Tony Wood ● 4928d

I assume the "ants" are holiday makers?That's not a very nice way to descrbe people who bring income and the need to provide employment to an area, we don't describe tourists in London as insects do we?

Bernadette Clover ● 4930d

Too right it's the 'emmets'.Emmets are the 'ants' who swarm all over Cornwal during the summer.No, I am not Cornish but a very good, now sadly pased, friend was a very proud Cornishman.

Nigel Brooks ● 4930d

The Cornish are not odd. It's the others!

George Knox ● 4930d

Is that why Cornish people are considered to be a bit odd?  If you watch Doc Martin, many of the characters are a bit eccentric.

Bernadette Clover ● 4930d

Cornwall is well known for its higher levels of Radon. Also applies to some other parts of the West Country.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-01/hong-kong-radiation-exceeds-tokyo-even-after-japan-crisis.html

George Knox ● 4930d

The same applies with Radon.I have an old mate who lives in Looe and they have a forced air ventilation system in their cellar to clear any gas. Again it has a very short half-life but they were advised when buying the house that there was a 'problem' in the area.

Nigel Brooks ● 4930d

One of the problems with xenon is that it tends to collect in low lying areas and basements, so forced ventilation is sometimes required. Local news broadcasts are a large and important part of the working week at BBC Leeds.

Chris Bell ● 4930d

A strange gas Xenon.Highly radioactive with a very short half-life (some variants are as short as five minutes) and used, believe it or not, to test pulmonary response and cerebral blood flow.Stil, back on track. The 'whole-life' costs of electric vehicles ahs been proven over and over again to be higher than a properly maintained fossil fuel vehicle.There has to be a better way, hydrogen perhaps, but again the input energy to 'crack' the hydrogen has to be taken into account.

Nigel Brooks ● 4930d

OK, what else do they monitor and how is this information distributed?It can't be life threatening or no-one would be able to live there.Why is his employment at BBC Leeds worth mentioning?  Or is there a Jimmy Savile link/joke coming up?Meanwhile back to a local environment issue, what kind of pollutants pose a danger to us here in Ealing?

Bernadette Clover ● 4930d

A friend who worked for many years in BBC Leeds does not monitor the radiation and pollution himself but it is monitored by the relevant authorities in the area.

Chris Bell ● 4930d

How do your friends know this?  Do they measure it, if so how?Here is question which maybe you can answer, what pollutants should we be looking out for?

Bernadette Clover ● 4930d

I have friends who live in Yorkshire downwind from the huge Ferrybridge power station. They tell me that a large amount of heavy trapped radioactive xenon gas is released as the coal is burnt, taking the local radiation levels far higher than anything permissible near any nuclear power station.

Chris Bell ● 4931d

Where you lead, Norway follows!

Bernadette Clover ● 4931d