Wake Up Call for Green Energy

[SwampDonkey]

You've misrepresented the facts of the article. The plants were not damaged. The grid took the damage. The grid is susceptible no matter the source of power even if off hydro electric.

"The nuclear plant was not significantly harmed by the hurricane." 

Direct deaths from the Fukushima accident was one. 20,000 lives where lost in the quake and subsequent flooding. And 573 indirect deaths are attributed to the disaster, mostly due to evacuation stress [engineering.com] And Chernobyl was a complete engineering failure, 31 lives lost directly. And Three Mile Island, no deaths.  Fear of the unknown...facts.

[Ron Wenrich]

Some people study Three Mile Island, and some of us lived it.  It may be true that no one died immediately during the incident.  We don't know how many had side effects from the leaks. 

The biggest problem was there was a lot of bad information out there.  I heard about massive bird deaths.  But, I was doing a mgmt plan within 8 miles down wind of the plant the following week, and never found any dead birds in the woods.  It was a 900 acre plot.  You would think that I would have found some.

There was talk about farmers losing newborn cows close to the plant.  I don't know about that, but I did have a goat that was pregnant at the time.  She gave 2 kids, a male and a female.  The female was barren, and it was the only barren female I ever had.  Coincidence is not causation, but sure is suspect.

Another correlation is an increase in thyroid cancer in the area.  There was no study on infant mortality, that I could find.  You do hear of increases in certain diseases, especially cancer rates.  But, it is often dismissed by the regulators. 

TMI was shut down a few years ago because they couldn't sell the electricity, thanks to a cheaper alternative in natural gas and fracking.  It has recently found a buyer for the electricity in Microsoft.  They are going to use it to power AI.  It expected to be put back on line by 2027-28.

As for solar power, I was in St Thomas in the Virgin Islands 6 months after a hurricane went through.  They had a solar farm that experienced some damage.  After 6 months, it was still not functional.  You would think that electric generation was a high priority and would have been repaired quickly.  But, things are a lot slower in the Caribbean. 

[SwampDonkey]

Hydro electric dams. How many wild salmon runs were destroyed and pretty much nearly made extinct? How many farms were lost, cemeteries and churches moved, towns more susceptible to spring floods? Land expropriations? How many fisherman guides lost their livelihood on the Saint John and Tobique Rivers? At the same time how many jobs were created for those same families as employees of the power companies and had them for decades? What about industry that moved in for more job creation?

[rusticretreater]

I'm not a big fan of nuclear power though its really efficient.  Disposal of radioactive waste is a huge problem, terrorism worries now, aging and outdated designs, etc.  With so many, its not "will there be a major problem?", its when.  Smaller reactors may be workable but still, there will be accidents. Its Human Nature.

When I look at all of the solutions its six of one, half dozen of the other.  Each industry requires an environmental or carbon footprint to create and maintain the manufacturing side to create the clean energy gains.  Which technology is a real gain?  How accurate are any of the numbers? We have seen that the proponents of the green movement don't really care about the facts and cold, hard numbers. 

And the need for rare earths require mining, another eco-no-no.  And if you are paying attention, China just banned shipments of certain metals/earths to the US due to sanctions on sharing certain technologies with them.  So it is also becoming geo-political.

Nobody wants a wind farm near them.  Proposals get nixed all the time.  Wind farms supposedly harm sensitive whale populations, give people headaches from noise and pulsations.  Its really hard to move turbine blades around.  One fella started a company that created the largest plane ever made to fly turbine blades to locations.  The problem is that it runs on regular aviation fuel and can only carry one blade at a time.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91060067/this-will-be-the-worlds-largest-plane-and-it-was-designed-to-deliver-just-one-thing

With the ingenuity of the auto makers, tailpipe emissions are way down.  Sure there are many cars that are poorly maintained and of course diesel is never clean.  But would the type of person who buys an EV otherwise be driving one of these dirtier vehicles?  I might be wrong but it seems to me that it makes little to no difference overall.

I have also read that the major problem with EV manufacturing is that the majority of people who would buy an EV have already bought one.  This leads manufacturers scrambling for an ever shrinking market.  Ford has certainly paid the price for its shortsightedness as have many others.

So while everyone strives to make their chosen industry more cost effective and efficient(great!), its really going to take some great minds to solve the physics of it all.

[doc henderson]

nearly all forms of energy relate back to the sun.  the dinosaurs ate plants that were built from the suns energy and stored as sugar from conversion of CO2 and water.  wind comes from solar heat changes.  tides from the moon possibly and wind.  lakes fill from suns evaporation of water and then rain fills the lakes providing stored (potential) hydraulic energy if a dam is built.  the sun converted to electric is pretty clean if you ignore the mining and panel and battery production.  Even good ol solar energy can be used for a kiln if you just trap the energy in an insulated container with directed clear spots to let it in.  Even basic solar (stand in the sun on a cool day to warm up) can be bad.  skin cancer.  any form of highly concentrated energy is dangerous.  gasoline/fire and carbon monoxide, nuclear and radiation and disposal issues, hydroelectric dams can flood in high water or storms.

Skin Cancer: Quick Facts from the Surgeon General | HHS.gov