The Alternative Green Energy Thread

JKenH

I had my first longish ride out in the Leaf today. Started with 116miles range on a full battery and completed 84.4 miles with 27 miles range and 21 % battery remaining. The destination was Meadowhall (Sheffield) and the plan was to get a top up charge there if we needed it. Fortunately we didn’t as the two CHAdeMO chargers were out of service and the other type 2 chargers required me to have my own cable which I didn’t have. There were however plenty of spare chargers if I had been suitably equipped.

I did though get the chance to have a good chat with a Uber taxi driver while he was getting a free top up charge. He tells me he has the only BEV cab in Sheffield. He is really into his EV having his Leaf Spy app permanently displaying data on a separate phone in the car.

He bought his 30kwh leaf 3 years ago and has done 78k miles in it. He is very careful about battery charging and only charges it for 2 hours at 6.6 kW each night on E7. (4.10 am to 6.10 am). He then tops up during the day not exceeding 80% charge while he has a break. He showed me the state of health of the battery on his Leaf Spy app which indicated the battery is at 100.7%! He is hoping to run it for 300k miles.

Just as I was leaving a guy pulled up in the next bay in a long range Tesla Model 3 just 2 days old in dark blue. It looked far better in the metal than in photos. It was his first time using a public charger. He connected the type 2 charging lead and fired up the app on his phone which showed it was charging at 8 kW from a 7.2 kW charging point.

It seems EV owners are a chatty bunch.

JKenH

At last Solar PV installations are being advertised at less than £1 per Wp so a decent price is available without the need for haggling.

https://www.thesolarpeople.co.uk/shop/special-offer-4-2kw-solar-pv-system/

Cardew

1961Nick wrote: »

How on earth did Toyota manage to only get 69bhp/litre out of the petrol engine? It shouldn’t really need anything bigger than a 1.8 to achieve 173 bhp.
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It's not a truck! A 1.8 litre petrol turbo would have more than enough torque for a small SUV with electrical assistance.

The full fat Range Rover 400e hybrid makes do with a 2.0 litre engine (300bhp).

The Toyota Prius has even lower outputs of 51bhp/litre and 54bhp/litre for the 1.5l and 1.8l respectively.

Reading the Toyota technical blurb the low output is in order to get the engine to meet the stringent California regulations on emissions and fuel consumption.

JKenH

Long electric car journeys don’t always go well even for an experienced EV’er.

https://youtu.be/8EU2GWPivwU

JKenH

Just following up on an article on another thread, here are some interesting statistics from a week ago.

At 17.30 on 16 November when electricity demand peaked, wind was able to contribute just 4.5% of demand (1.9GW out of total demand of 41.6 GW). Solar had of course already shut down for the day. Gas contributed 55.5%, coal 6.0%, Imports 9.4% and nuclear 13.7%. Mention has been made of batteries charged from renewables being able to step in to eliminate the need for non renewable sources but from 10am on 16 November wind power did not get above 2.0 GW or exceed 5% of grid demand so there was never any surplus to charge the batteries. Wind had peaked the previous day at almost 10GW but at that time coal was still being burnt to meet demand so the opportunities to send to storage were limited and any overnight storage would presumably have been used up during the day.

I am a supporter of offshore wind and but its proponents have to be realistic that it is still a long way from being able to reliably respond to meet peak demand. I often think of the analogy of staffing. Wind is a volunteer who will help out when it suits him at minimal cost but he is not reliable and at the time you most need him he might not turn up - you have to plan based on that eventuality.

I recall reading somewhere that, planning for the future, wind should not exceed 30 % of total generation capacity as beyond that level the need for curtailment and back up generation makes it uneconomic.

https://electricinsights.co.uk/#/dashboard?start=2019-11-16&&_k=n9ilfz

Cardew

JKenH wrote: »

At 17.30 on 16 November when electricity demand peaked, wind was able to contribute just 4.5% of demand (1.9GW out of total demand of 41.6 GW). Solar had of course already shut down for the day. Gas contributed 55.5%, coal 6.0%, Imports 9.4% and nuclear 13.7%.

I am a supporter of offshore wind and but its proponents have to be realistic that it is still a long way from meeting peak demand. I often think of the analogy of staffing. Wind is a volunteer who will help out when it suits him at minimal cost but he is not reliable and at the time you most need him he might not turn up - you have to plan based on that eventuality.

Such treasonous remarks have no place in a forum dedicated to the glorification of all things RE;)

JKenH

“Imagine if all the petrol stations made people use an app to put fuel in their car. People would kick off and never visit that petrol station again”

Another EVMan video, this time explaining how to access the UK charging network.

Stupidly when I first started thinking about getting an electric car I thought you could just buy your electricity with a credit card.

https://youtu.be/XEBPtVDZj34

onomatopoeia99

JKenH wrote: »

“Imagine if all the petrol stations made people use an app to put fuel in their car. People would kick off and never visit that petrol station again”

My parents don't even have smartphones so an app to buy fuel would be a total non-starter.

I've never looked at EV charging outside the home (and I can't watch videos here), is it not just plug and pay at "pump" like with petrol?

JKenH

Another EVMan video, this time on running costs.

Early Nissan Leaf users got some tremendous PCP deals, like £200 a month. A 30kwh Leaf on PCP then buying the car at the end of the contract worked out at £15k total cost! (I just paid £13k for my 15k, 30 kWh Leaf but that was from a Nissan dealer). I see Nissan are advertising the new Leaf at about £330 with a £2k deposit although that might be contract hire.

https://youtu.be/XWg5tGyvq5U

JKenH

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

My parents don't even have smartphones so an app to buy fuel would be a total non-starter.

I've never looked at EV charging outside the home (and I can't watch videos here), is it not just plug and pay at "pump" like with petrol?

I am no expert but based on the comments in the video; generally no, even though the government brought out legislation to make it pay at pump, phone apps are considered as complying. There are some networks like Instavolt that you can just pay at the pump with a debit card. Electric Highway (Ecotricity) who operate the motorway chargers are app only but you can ring up and pay with a debit card. Some other networks allow you to use an RFID card.