Insprired by Disasters- Green to the rescue

**Several months ago I had a bit of an argument with someone on Facebook.  That promoted this article.   I've decided to republish it due to the city of New York recently purchasing over 1000 all electric Police cars and replacing most, if not all, of its gasoline fleet.  You can read about that here.**

 

One of the reasons I write this blog, is because I believe that knowledge is useless unless it is shared.  Someone that reads this may disagree with me or my conclusions and that's fine.   However they can't say that they didn't learn something.

Facts and Reality are not something we get to choose.  Nor can we ignore a fact that does not fit our world view.  

Example of an EV Fire Truck

Even though I do try to keep politics out of the blog, this post and the last were inspired by a political debate about disaster relief in the future.  Or the mistaken belief that somehow hybrid vehicles or electric vehicles (EV) will never replace gas powered emergency vehicles. Or that they have limits that can not currently be overcome.

While the technology to replace your fire engine is still young and experimental, the city of Los Angeles purchased it's first electric Fire Engine.  Meno Park, New Jersey, purchased the second.  For now they are only being used in a limited capacity, but should only grow in the future.

Emergency vehicles have been hybrid for some time and a company like Nissan has been working on all electric emergency vehicles since at least 2017 as the below video shows.    The advantages to them are easy to understand, as these types of vehicles do cut down on emissions, save money on gas and reduce noise pollution.  

They can also be used as mobile charging stations for other pieces of equipment in emergency situations.  Despite high initial costs, they do tend to pay for themselves over time in gas savings alone.

The biggest disadvantage is that they do have to be charged, and in some cases that can take several hours, and may only have a limited run time or range of use.  These are problems that will be overcome in time.

It's only a matter of time before our fire, police and other emergency vehicles are electric powered, or based on some fuel source other than oil and natural gas.   Zero motorcycles has been providing police forces with electric motorcycles for years for examples.  

So honestly it's not a matter of "if", but "when".   

However can so called "green energy" survive a storm?  Again, the answer is a yes.  Solar panels can withstand up to 140 MPH (87 KPH) winds, Florida requires them to withstand wind speeds of up to 160 MPH (99.4 KPH).  Solar panels not only withstood Hurricane Sandy which devastated Puerto Rico and parts of New Jersey in 2012 but have provided uninterpreted power to fire stations in Puerto Rico since 2017.   

Solar panels can crack if water freezes in the crevices of the panels but generally if the panels are properly installed this is not an issue.  If the panel itself reaches temperatures of 150 F (65.6 C) then the efficiency of the panel falls.    So much for the meme of "they don't work if it's cloudy" crowd.

A few years ago in Texas the power went out due to extreme winter storms.  Frankly the locals were not prepared for it and some simple planning would have saved millions in dollars in damages.  

Green Power, in particular windmills got much of the blame.  The blackouts and other issues that Texas faced however were due to aging power plants and infrastructure.   The same infrastructure that people are so afraid to replace with windmills and solar power.  

Yes, I get it.  Change is difficult and hard to understand.  I'm not happy about bringing back nuclear power due to environmental concerns that I have BUT we have to take into consideration job loss and other factors.   Frankly converting today's coal powered electric plants to nuclear not only makes sense, but is the right thing to do.  

Windmills can withstand storms with extreme winds but frankly their power input becomes zero if winds exceed 55 MPH (34 KPH) to avoid the risk of burning out the engine.  Windmills can operate and still generate power if the temperature stays above NEGATIVE 22 degrees (-30 C).   A fact that this idiot cites but then quickly glosses over to make a political point.  

Well either cold or hot weather can present challenges to a windmills operation, generally speaking they work can continue to provide power.  In fact, in 2021 roughly 9% of the power generated in the US was from windmills.  That is about 380 Billion Kilowatt hours of energy and it's increasing every year.  

Green power is the future.   

Managing all the power however is going to take moving to a Smart Grid system.  Currently the power grid in the US is based upon local utilities that are not interlinked and barely interconnected.   

For example, I hate to pick on Texas but their power grid is still separate from the rest of America.  Imagine if they were able to isolate a problem quickly?  Millions would have NOT lost power, froze in the cold and millions of dollars of damage could have been avoided. 

The point of all this is simple.   Green power is here to stay.  Understanding how it can benefit you; and it's problems is a good thing.

We don't have a choice in this particular instance.   We have to act, not only as individuals but as a nation to do what we can to save the environment.   Part of the reason for this blog is to educate...and the more you know, the more you are likely to make the right choice for you, your family and the future.

Green Power is going to be part of that future.  If your politics agree with it or not.  It really is that simple.