Green energy discussion

[Ozukus]

I bought the car because I wanted a large fuel efficient car, which from my perspective the PHEV delivers on.

I installed a foot of insulation in my ceiling and replaced the single glazed windows with double glazing to make my house warmer and reduce my energy bills.

I didn't do either of the above on the basis it would reduce my CO2 footprint, however if that is the result of my decisions then I guess that's a positive additional benefit.

 

[maby]

There are certainly many things we can do in life to reduce our impact on the environment - but buying a plug-in hybrid really is not one of them. A Leaf probably does make some small contribution.

 

[jaapv]

Well it is in the "Non Outlander PHEV Discussions >> Off Topic" section

I don't see a V2H unit being sold as an optional extra at my Mitsubishi dealer.

The ideas are all good but the technology just isn't there yet or far too expensive. Even the Outlander Phev is a gamble at the moment as I see it - I normally keep a car around 4-5 years - what's it going to be worth then, are the batteries going to be knackered, how much will the batteries cost to replace - nobody knows. Also how much CO2 savings will there be over the lifetime of the car if the batteries do need replacing and then you take in manufacture of them into account?

The batteries are not the problem. Guaranteed for five years, expected to last ten and then easily recycled or still useful for other applications...

 

[Hunda67]

Maybe I can use the batteries when they are no good (in 10 years at least hopefully) to store my excess energy then

I certainly would not feel too virtuous about saving the environment

I am certainly not - I am quite aware of the CO2 released with manufacture of the car (and wind turbine etc.) and transporting the lot up here to the middle of nowhere. Technically speaking my house is carbon neutral as I generate as much electricity as I use - but this does not take into account the manufacture and supply of all the materials used in the house so no saving the enviroment there.

The Outlander is a very nice car

Agreed and that's why we buy it if you can. The main reason was for the 5% BIK otherwise I would have just bought the diesel version.

I just joined this thread to give a point of view from someone who has a supposedly enviromentally friendly car and house and to show that it is not really the case and that technology has a way to go to cut CO2 emmissions drastically.

 

[maby]

From another forum today:

"On Monday, the UK electricity demand reached it's peak of winter so far at 52.54GW to which windmills contributed just 573MW, equivalent to just over 1% of the UK's needs. On Tuesday windmill power dropped even lower to 354MW or a paltry 0.75% of the UK's needs, setting a new record low for this winter. The UK apparently now has 12GW of rated windmill capacity but the UK's windmill fleet was producing less than 5% of this capacity on Monday and Tuesday.
And the response of the renewables lobby? "Low wind speeds frequently accompany low temperatures as happened yesterday". No shit, Sherlock. This scam is now costing the UK £1500 per household per year "

 

[greendwarf]

From another forum today:

This scam is now costing the UK £1500 per household per year "

Do you mean my all electric house only really costs me £500 per year for fuel?

 

[jaapv]

From another forum today:

"On Monday, the UK electricity demand reached it's peak of winter so far at 52.54GW to which windmills contributed just 573MW, equivalent to just over 1% of the UK's needs. On Tuesday windmill power dropped even lower to 354MW or a paltry 0.75% of the UK's needs, setting a new record low for this winter. The UK apparently now has 12GW of rated windmill capacity but the UK's windmill fleet was producing less than 5% of this capacity on Monday and Tuesday.
And the response of the renewables lobby? "Low wind speeds frequently accompany low temperatures as happened yesterday". No shit, Sherlock. This scam is now costing the UK £1500 per household per year "

But the real problem in the UK is the sorry state of the grid. In Germany you can even find the percentage of alternative energy currently generated on Teletext. On a sunny windy day the total green energy generated will be up to 100 %. But then Germany is tied into the general European grid by connections of sufficient capacity to allow flexibility.
I have never seen it go below 10%.
The real scam is lagging technology.
An interesting case is Belgium. Parts are faced with power cuts. Why? Because of the simple fact they don't want to spend the money to upgrade their connections to the Netherlands, which generally has a surplus of capacity.