Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Thanks to the nuclear-energy advocates, we get the dirt on wind and solar

The environmentalist ideology is coming into contradiction with itself. The unprecedented scale of destruction of the natural landscape by 30 000 gigantic wind turbines has brought a growing realization, that reliance on renewable energy is by no means friendly to the environment – and not necessarily safe. 
People don’t want to live near wind turbines, because of unpleasant noise and possibly dangerous infrasound emissions, disturbing optical effects, reports of fires, broken-off turbine blades flying through the air, ice throws, etc. And the dead birds.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/01/germanys-overdose-of-renewable-energy/ 

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Nuclear backfires, Japan turns to coal

[after Fukushima accident] total electricity consumption dipped only slightly. Where did Japan make up the difference? Fossil fuels. These went from 62% of Japan’s electricity production before the disaster to about 80% after...

...the country is still on track to add more than 20 coal plants in the next five years. These plants are expected to emit as much carbon as all the passenger cars in the U.S.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-05/japan-turns-to-coal-after-closing-nuclear-power-plants? 

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Non-exhaust PM pollution just as bad for electric cars

However, this literature review suggests that electric vehicles may not reduce levels of PM as much as expected, because of their relatively high weight. By analysing the existing literature on non-exhaust emissions of different vehicle categories, this review found that there is a positive relationship between weight and non-exhaust PM emission factors. In addition, electric vehicles (EVs) were found to be 24% heavier than equivalent internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). As a result, total PM10 emissions from EVs were found to be equal to those of modern ICEVs. PM2.5 emissions were only 1e3% lower for EVs compared to modern ICEVs. Therefore, it could be concluded that the increased popularity of electric vehicles will likely not have a great effect on PM levels. Nonexhaust emissions already account for over 90% of PM10 and 85% of PM2.5 emissions from traffic