LENR vs Solar/Wind, and emerging Green Technologies.

  • Cal Thermo | Notion
    Putting Neutrons to work for good
    www.calthermo.xyz


    Miniature Reactors Could Supply U.S. Bases With Unlimited Fuel


    Supplying fuel to remote military bases has always been an expensive headache; in Afghanistan the Pentagon paid an estimated $400 per gallon to get fuel where it was needed. The logistics chain also created a huge vulnerability, as supply convoys are prime targets for roadside bombs and ambushes. Now startup California Thermodynamics is offering miniature nuclear reactors to produce synthetic fuel on site replacing everything from diesel to Jet A1, removing the need for the entire supply chain and making bases self-sufficient.


    Return Of The Water Boiler

    The underlying technology dates back to the earliest days of the nuclear age with Aqueous Homogenous Reactors (AHRs) otherwise known as “water boilers” developed in the 1940s. The AHR is a simple design consisting of a solution of uranium salts in water, circulating between an inner reactor chamber and an outer cooling chamber.

  • Here is a newsletter from Patty Durand, a woman who has it in for Georgia Power.


    500: We've Run Into An Issue | Mailchimp


    (That link does work, despite what Mr. Chimp says.)


    There is a lot of extraneous stuff in this. To see the parts about nuclear, natural gas, and wood-fired generators in Georgia, scroll down to where it says:


    "3. Built the most expensive power plant ever built on earth ($36 billion for Plant Vogtle) and pass along most of the enormous cost overruns to customers. . . ."

  • Quote

    Equinor has retracted a claim that it stores about a million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually at its flagship carbon capture project after DeSmog obtained data showing the real figure was as little as a tenth of that amount.

    Exclusive: Norway’s Equinor Forced to Withdraw Key Carbon Capture Claim
    This story is the tenth part of a DeSmog series on carbon capture and was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe. Equinor has retracted a claim…
    www.desmog.com

    "The most misleading assumptions are the ones you don't even know you're making" - Douglas Adams

  • Quote

    Equinor has retracted a claim that it stores about a million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually at its flagship carbon capture project

    Carbon capture strikes me as a fraud. A genuine, deliberate fraud, similar to ethanol from corn. That is an energy sink, not a source. Meaning it take more energy to produce a liter of ethanol than you get from burning it. (Pimentel, "Food, Energy and Society")


    I think actual fraud from large established industries is rare. Not because industries are honest, but because they are in the spotlight. They can't get away with fraud. Volkswagen tried to with their emissions claims, but they were caught. If a small company did that, probably no one would notice.

  • It looks like wind overtook coal late last year in the U.S.:


    U.S. wind generation hit record in April 2024, exceeding coal-fired generation - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)


    Here is an interesting article about the decline of coal. It is going down faster than you think, for various reasons. For example, people keep track of the number of coal fired plants being retired. They should also count the number of recently constructed coal fired plants that are being converted to natural gas.


    Nowhere to go but down for U.S. coal capacity, generation
    Recent projections of sharply higher electricity demand growth are creeping into forecasts for coal plant retirements, prompting some energy analysts to revise…
    ieefa.org


    QUOTE:


    "Our research shows that U.S. utilities have plans to retire or convert to gas 68,789 megawatts (MW) of existing coal-fired generating capacity from 2025-2030. This is almost twice the 36,425MW total included in data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its September Electric Power Monthly report.


    EIA’s numbers are not wrong, per se, they are just limited. The agency’s numbers reflect information provided to them by utilities; [this organization] IEEFA’s data includes public announcements made by the companies, financial filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission and long-term resource plans submitted to state regulators. Another important distinction is that EIA does not include coal-to-gas conversions in its retirement data since the plant is not technically being retired. IEEFA counts those plants as retired when the conversion results in the end of coal combustion at the facility. This fact alone accounts for 12,273 MW of the difference in the two estimates between 2025-30. . . ."

  • Carbon capture strikes me as a fraud.

    I do not mean "they are not actually capturing carbon!" I mean it will never be practical, or cost effective, energy effective, or capable of sequestering enough carbon to make a significant difference.


    I strongly favor planting more trees to capture carbon. Trees have many benefits other than carbon capture. See:


    https://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/RothwellJhowtofixgl.pdf

  • Spotted by Mitch Swartz


    "A catastrophic fire has broken out at the Mount Holland lithium mine in Western Australia. It is located 105 km southeast of Southern Cross.

    The mine is operated by Covalent Lithium [a joint venture between Sociedad Química y Minera, Chile and Wesfarmers, Australia]. Operations began in late 2023."


    Australia.. A catastrophic fire has broken out at the Mount Holland lithium mine in Western Australia. It is located 105 km southeast of Southern Cross
    Australia.A catastrophic fire has broken out at the Mount Holland lithium mine in Western Australia. It is located 105 km southeast of Southern Cross.The mine…
    news-pravda.com


    https://media.128ducks.com/file_store/fd47814eb49724f7f420b6959884481f8c98522e179c4a34fd7af6b22d2265ea.mp4

  • at the Mount Holland lithium mine

    lost in translation. "at the mine".

    means. a widespread bush fire,,near the mine

    the locals seem fairly casual about it.. they. have. bush fires. every. so often in summer

    there is nothing much there for a catastrophe to happen to

    most. of the people are in party mode...for Australia Day

    unlike some places closer to Pravda..in winter

    AF1QipNGZZ43qqM1tzagPJ_39wr2XuoYSLkSaD3w4c1e=w408-h306-k-no

  • https://www.readymontereycount…137921/638730600662000000


    Informative powerpoint on the Moss Landing lithium battery fire.

    Thanks Alan. Missed this one, with all the other stuff going on in the US.


    Drone footage shows fire at one of world's largest battery plants
    The Moss Landing power plant, in California, was evacuated, as were people in the surrounding area.
    www.bbc.co.uk


    Maybe, in future, Lithium storage battery banks will have to be arranged across distributed small buildings, with fire/explosion breaks/barriers between them - like they do with ordnance & fireworks factories.

    "The most misleading assumptions are the ones you don't even know you're making" - Douglas Adams

  • Was talking to someone recently who operates a couple of battery banks in the UK. He tells me that because of the way payments are arranged (after recent changes) that the business is no longer attractive.

  • Was talking to someone recently who operates a couple of battery banks in the UK. He tells me that because of the way payments are arranged (after recent changes) that the business is no longer attractive.

    Further to which..

    Essentially, National Grid is not utilising batteries to help it balance supply and demand and is instead prioritising other technologies like gas at a greater environmental cost and greater cost to consumers. National Grid ESO's trading system, along with its processes, needs updating to fully utilise the more efficient flexibility batteries offer. The good news is this is underway. The new system was launched in December, albeit with limited improvements to date until further issues are fixed through 2024, and further improvements are planned through 2024, including removing a time restriction on how long batteries can declare power for and being able to reserve battery capacity ahead of time to drive greater competition with gas.

  • This article describes how capitalism fails with a monopoly. It is infuriating. QUOTE:


    . . . But along with market forces, utilities could also take advantage of changes in environmental regulations to keep coal stations open, especially in coal-friendly states like Wyoming, where two-fifths of U.S. coal is still mined. “For an investor-owned monopoly utility, it’s not costing them to keep running the plant, necessarily, it’s costing the ratepayers who are paying for that,” Dr. Solomon said. “Politically, there’s a lot of support for coal in Wyoming and Utah where Rocky Mountain power is operating so I think they just don’t feel a ton of pressure to move to cleaner energy sources.” . . .


    “A lot of it is politics,” said Christine Shearer, a project manager at Global Energy Monitor. “The pending E.P.A. regulations on coal plants are now uncertain, and utilities can see they have a friendlier political atmosphere and could be looking for ways to keep coal plants online longer, even though it’s more profitable to shut down and replace them with solar and wind.”


    [In other words, the power company makes a profit by wasting money and overcharging customers.]

  • This article says DeepSeek will consume roughly 2% of what was projected for AI servers:



    More about DeepSeek from Matthew Berman:

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