Those wind turbines and electric cars don't look so eco-friendly now....

It's worth being aware of some context - those of us interested in and using EV's have been repeatedly shocked, and are now frankly bored and disappointed, by the concerted media campaigns to cast EV's in a negative light.

It is, I think, worth asking ourselves: "Who has what to gain from peddling hearsay, half truths and outright porkie-pies?"

It's always been a successful media selling strategy to either present new tech as the answer to all problems or, as is currently the case, as dreadful new-fangled disasters that some (unnamed) 'they' are forcing us into...

The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle - moving from ICE to EV does, in most circumstances, reduce carbon emissions. Wind power has turned out to be cheap, though rollout has been slowed by a variety of factors) Their manufacture is (as is also of course true for ICE vehicles and nuclear power stations) deeply problematic.
Home charging is increasingly getting integrated with grid demand levels, V2G is working, though is in it's infancy...

...and the two things which aren't generating polarity and heat, because they're sensible and familiar, but which arguably have greater impact: home insulation and improved public transport...

 

However much maintenance is required wind power is much more eco friendly than oil or gas. It is also cheaper.
If we don't decarbonise, we probably won't have a habitable planet at all, so lets all carry on as we are.

 

Until the public actually sees "cheap" wind power there will always be sceptics like me, .

So who is making all the profits as I'm paying the same price regardless of how its generated.

 

....one possible answer to that question is Ripple, another is in the crazy arcane way that electricity prices are set...

 

Same people who have always been making the profits and have wealth they can't ever spend...

 

So is it worth us, joe public, getting scammed by these people?

 

According to the government and media from 1990 to 2022 the UK reduced carbon emissions by 50%. Well some of that statement is partially true, the UK has reduced C02 emissions by 50% within the UK border, but the C02 embedded in imports has increased, when you take the emissions embedded in imports into the equation, then our reduction in emissions is 11%

Carbon footprint for the UK and England to 2021.

They go on about how much greener we are, okay, there has been a number of windfarms come online but how many fossil hungry industries offshored due to higher taxes being imposed. Businesses offshoring from the mid 1990's started to accelerate, to think fuel duty increased by 33p a litre from 1989 to 1999, it's only gone up 8p in 24 years since if you don't take the current 5p reduction into account, so personally I don't think we are much greener than we think we are.

Like Sweden, they have reduced their carbon footprint per capita to one of the lowest in Europe, yet they have one of the highest carbon footprints embedded in imports. Even Greta Thunberg protested against the government for greenwashing the public, she has a valid point.

Greta Thunberg joins climate protest blocking Swedish parliament

Wait till all these countries start imposing this, Carbon border adjustment mechanism, TAX, then watch the cost of living increase even more through indirect taxation. They reckon, for every 1 million ton the UK exports we import 2.8 million ton, yet it was never like that. The cost of energy we are paying is decades in the making, but like most things the war in Ukraine will always be seen as the main cause.

 

Lets offset our carbon by planting more trees.
Who's kidding who?

 

As I understand it, wind and solar power are very cheap onnce they are installed so look good on paper.

However, most of the wind turbines now nearing end of life and quite a large number of the newer ones are not recyclable and end up being buried. The cost of building them is considerable oo as is the cost of transporting them to their windfarms for erection. The ones out at sea must have their feet buried in tons of concrete which is harldy carbon neutral in itself.

Solar panels made in Europe are generally of better quality than those made in Asia and can be recycled but at a cost. The materials used in their manufacture is not without environmental cost either.

Providing the minerals needed to make all the new generation batteries to power electric vehicles is creating huge areas of barren land as the extraction sites expand. In addition, the working conditions are appalling in terms of wages paid, lack of safety procedures and also child and endentured labour.

In France, we received a grant towards our German solar panels which included a couple of small heat exchangers - one to cool and ventilate the system in the roof space and another to heat a new water tank. They are guaranteed for 25 years. Our entire roof space was insulated for a nominal 1€ fee in a government sponsored scheme.

We still have oil fired CH as the support for installing a bigger heat exchange system is not adequately funded for us and we will keep our diesel cars as long as we possibly can.

 

Some houses here have only in the last fews years been connected to the mains elecy + mains water it's going to be many years before any public chargers come any near

 

On shore wind farms also require large amounts of concrete. They started pouring concrete for the 103 foundations for the Shetland windfarm in September 2021 with the last pour being on the 12th November 2022. The amount of concrete used for all 103 foundations was 70,246m3, which relates to 8708 trucks with 8m3 per load.

 

The biggest issue of all: too many of us do what is cheapest for us and don't give a toss about the future of the planet/ human race, but then I expect our demographic aren't really going to suffer.

 

Many people who are on minimum wage have no choice but to do what is cheapest, to say they don't give a toss is an insult. Germany recently increased their dependence of coal in their energy mix and imported over 40 million tonnes of hard coal in 2022. The EU has approved a 1.75 billion euro compensation package to power company LEAG as Germany looks to exit coal by 2038. Going green is not going to be cheap, with many people only being able to do what they can afford.

 

The thing is … there are plenty of both groups … there are those who really do have to do whatever is cheapest and sadly can’t afford to follow any environmental principles they may have … and for their own sanity daren’t even think too much about it … but there are also plenty of folk who, sadly really really really don’t give a toss …

 

Great post. But what's your main point?