"green energy" feasibility and investment opportunities

It’s enlightening to see your definition of the right thing. What’s worse? For Democrats to do what you call the right thing, push had to come to shove. :nauseated_face:

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Whoops.

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At least he was honest. The road trip was from LA to Vegas, probably one of the most heavy traveled by EVs. He charged up at the giant charging station at Coalinga and said it took him 40 minutes to get a 40% charge. He promised to sign up Ford to use the Tesla fast chargers. How long will it take to get a charge station once the number of users skyrockets?

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I know nothing about charging EVs. What does it cost per watt/watt-hour at these charging stations?

Not only is wind energy not sustainable, the UK government does not offer high enough subsidies to attract bidders.

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The politics over nuclear power in Europe is getting fierce. Germany is fully on the solar/wind side and has closed all its nuclear power plants. France gets most of its power from nuclear.

For France, which needs to modernize its nuclear power stations, the reform of the European electricity market currently being examined in Brussels is a major challenge. France has convinced the Commission to take its demands into account – the text on the table bears witness to this – but is facing fierce opposition from many of its partners, with Germany foremost among them. As for its traditional pro-nuclear allies – Eastern European countries and Finland –, they are now cautiously supportive. It did try to rally its camp before the summer break, but “the blocking minority around France remains fragile,” explained a European source.

For Berlin and its allies in Luxembourg and Austria, it is out of the question for Paris to use disguised subsidies to finance its “grand carénage,” the renovation program to extend the life of its nuclear power plants. “Berlin is panicked that its industry is losing competitiveness. It wants to keep electricity prices high so that France doesn’t benefit from nuclear power,” said a pro-nuclear European diplomat.

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Before they get on too high of a horse, they should quit re-opening coal plants.

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Good point. The NPR article makes no mention that Germany has shut down their nuclear power plants. Of course they did not mention that they closed windmills to mine lignite coal.

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That is a large change over four years.

A majority of Americans (57%) say they favor more nuclear power plants to generate electricity in the country, up from 43% who said this in 2020.

A line chart showing that support for nuclear power is up among both Democrats and Republicans.

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It looks like they’ll have to move to China …

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Ørsted said it had been hit by a flurry of setbacks in its American business, triggering a rapid sell-off in its shares, listed in Copenhagen.

In their haste to dump the stock, investors had cut the notional value of the business by nearly £7bn by the time the market closed on Wednesday.

The Danish firm’s woes include soaring costs in its supply chain, echoing problems cited by Swedish rival Vattenfall, which suspended a giant British offshore windfarm project off the coast of Norfolk last month.

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Let’s hope that the NRC expedites the approval of the reactors

The timeline for the installation wasn’t specified, and Oklo’s design still awaits the green light from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC):

This selection initiates the acquisition process to potentially award a contract to Oklo. Oklo would obtain a license for its power plant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, construct the power plant, and operate it to deliver both electricity and steam to the Eielson Air Force Base under a long-term power purchase agreement executed by the Defense Logistics Agency Energy. --Oklo

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I have not investigated any of their financials, but the technology seems valid.

The Company develops proprietary next-generation nuclear fuel technologies for current and future reactors, which significantly enhances the economics and safety of nuclear power, operating about 1000° C cooler than standard fuel. Lightbridge invented, patented and has independently validated the technology, including successful demonstration of the fuel in a research reactor with plans to demonstrate the fuel under commercial reactor conditions. The Company has assembled a world-class development team including veterans of leading global fuel manufacturers. Four large electric utilities that generate about half the nuclear power in the US already advise Lightbridge on fuel development and deployment. The Company operates under a licensing and royalty model, independently validated and based on the increased power generated by Lightbridge-designed fuel and high ROI for operators of existing and new reactors.

Edit. An abstract of a proposal from an MIT team, to study their technology.

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A green failure

“The perception of Germany’s underlying strength may also have contributed to the misguided decisions to exit nuclear energy, ban fracking for natural gas and bet on ample natural gas supplies from Russia,” he said. “Germany is paying the price for its energy policies.”

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Cartoons better than a thousand words…

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Ford said in a statement to FOX Business that work on the factory had been paused and spending would be limited, but declined to pinpoint the exact considerations that factored into the decision. The Detroit-based company also said it hadn’t made a final decision about the project despite repeatedly defending it for months.

“We’re pausing work and limiting spending on construction on the Marshall project until we’re confident about our ability to competitively operate the plant,” Ford spokesperson T.R. Reid told FOX Business. “We haven’t made any final decision about the planned investment there.”

Ford announced in a ceremony earlier this year that it would invest $3.5 billion to build the plant in Marshall, Michigan. As part of the announcement, the U.S. automaker said it had reached an agreement with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), a Ningde, China-based firm, to manufacture battery cells at the plant using services provided by the Chinese company.

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I get having a diesel backup; it goes against the claims of the movement to the point of being hypocritical, but really is just basic common sense. However, this sounds like the generator is part of the charging station’s regular operations.

Makes you wonder how electricity is supposedly cheaper than fuel, when that same fuel is being used to produce the electricity. But then again, if we are supposed to ignore biological fact, why would we expect the laws of physics to be any different?

Some people are so desperate to push this, that they are willing to sacrifice the entire premise to make it appear to “work”. That alone makes the entire boondoggle suspect. “Fake it til you make it” only holds up for so long.

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I have posted up thread about offshore wind energy projects being canceled, and that has continued. The leftist greens say that wind and solar are the cheapest forms of energy, but the laws of physics and finance do not support that. See this article that lists more offshore wind energy projects being canceled with the developers paying hefty penalties to pull out.

The only thing dumber than onshore wind energy is offshore wind energy. The good news for ratepayers, taxpayers, birds, bats, landscapes, viewsheds, and the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, is that both sectors are getting hammered by market forces that make their projects uneconomic.

On Monday, Avangrid, a subsidiary of the Spanish utility Iberdrola, announced that it was abandoning the 804-megawatt Park City Wind project offshore Connecticut because the project was “unfinanceable.” In a statement that includes a marvelous but unintended pun, the company blamed:

Unprecedented economic headwinds facing the industry including record inflation, supply chain disruptions, and sharp interest rate hikes , the aggregate impact of which rendered the Park City Wind project unfinanceable under its existing contracts.

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more on the economics of electric vehicles

https://www.motortrend.com/news/rivian-loss-per-vehicle/

Rivian Loses a Huge Amount on Every Vehicle It Sells

Analysts say that the Rivian’s “complicated” skateboard chassis is a contributor to its high production costs.

In its Q2 2023 letter to shareholders, Rivian revealed that it has lost $32,595 for every vehicle it sold that quarter. That’s enough money to buy an entire Honda Civic and still have some change left over. For every vehicle sold.

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