Electrifying or Just Plain Revolting?

 

  Natrium Plant                                  24M Battery

We do love the benefits of access to lots of energy. It made the Western World, particularly the United States, unbelievably rich, replaced slavery as the driving force behind our economy, moving from ye olde wind and water wheels and massive coal gas belching industrial plans to… oh, we still have a lot of coal gas belching plants around the world… to electrical power from bigger wheels (hydro-electric dams), sunlight-converting silicon chips and wind turbines to nuclear power plants… generating steam to turn powerful wheels to generate electricity… unless they melt down, implode and toxify a regions for… a really, really long time.

So, it may come as a complete surprise that one of the biggest coal producing states – under a GOP Governor (Mark Gordon) – is coming to accept that global warming is very real, must be addressed and is welcoming to any viable technology that can produce clean energy. Soon, Wyoming will have the largest windfarm in the nation, is evolving carbon emission removal from coal-fired electrical power plants and is about to be the birthplace of a new generation of nuclear power generating stations that do not rely on high-pressure steam, which does seem to be the source of most of the meltdowns we have seen. What?! The same nuclear power that can blow us to smithereens?

Sorry Governor Gordon, you are out-of-step with your party’s “only I can fix it” autocratic leader. Why all this emphasis on the ravages of climate change, asks the 45th President, who happens to live in what is, as of this writing, a heavily flooded South Florida: “Donald Trump has been caught downplaying the threat of climate change, insisting that sea levels will only rise ‘one eighth of an inch’ over the next 400 years… ‘That basically means you will have a little more beach front property,’ he said. ‘I really think… nuclear weapons, which I think are the single biggest threat, not global warming.’” The Daily Beast, June 15th. For complete science skeptics or MAGA adherents who do not believe that Donald – why not use bleach to stop COVID – Trump ever misspeaks the truth, we can all relax. OK, Trump is obviously wrong, but here is what can we do.

TerraPower, an engineering company financed in part by Microsoft billionaire, Bill Gates, also believes that Wyoming is the right state to pioneer a completely redesigned nuclear power plant that relies on stable liquid salt to carry heat (hotter and more efficient) instead of dangerous pressurized water. Gates just participated in a groundbreaking ceremony in Kemmerer, Wyoming. His website tells us that this Natrium Plant is “far safer than any existing plant, with the temperatures held under control by the laws of physics instead of human operators who can make mistakes. It would have a shorter construction timeline and be cheaper to operate. And it would be reliable, providing dependable power throughout the day and night. As I looked at the plans for this new reactor, I saw how rethinking nuclear power could overcome the barriers that had hindered it—and revolutionize how we generate power in the U.S. and around the world.” And soon it will be generating power.

We’re learning. And I suspect that mega-billionaire, Phil Anschutz, who is funding a whole new generation of efficient powerlines that will deliver Wyoming electricity to power-hungry California, has no intention of losing money. Indeed, we are now grappling with this era of energy power generation in transition. We may not solve all the issues in time to keep Mar-a-Lago from being flooded off the planet, and we are having more than a few bumps in the road, but it is pretty clear that the future job creation does not lie with the fossil fuel industry.

One of those bumps in the road (highway?) has been the sudden fall in the sale of all-electric vehicles (EV) for lack of a sufficient number of rapid charging stations. Biden’s infrastructure legislation has not been enough, the cost of maintenance for those that have been built was not factored into initial funding, and “range fear” still dominates many would-be EV buyers. Hybrids have surged in popularity as all-electric car sales (and prices) have fallen. Sometimes, it also does seem that politics and the power transition are strange bedfellows. For example, the new 100% tariff the Biden administration has layered onto very inexpensive Chinese-made cars (under $15K) literally undermines the potential resulting demand for rapid charging stations.

We’re also seeing the development of a new generation of “won’t cost an arm and a leg” batteries with ranges of a thousand miles or more. And that would make EVs sell more, last longer and have a much better resale value. Writing for the June 11th FastCompany.com, Adele Peters tells us: “If an electric car is made with a new EV battery from an MIT spinout, you’ll be able to start driving in New York City and keep going until you reach Orlando. The battery, from a company called 24M, is designed to have 1,000 miles of range on a single charge.

“That could convince more people to buy electric cars, since some drivers still say that range anxiety—being concerned about how far they can make it on a single charge—holds them back from making the switch. The anxiety isn’t necessarily warranted: A typical commute is a fraction of the 300- to 400-mile range on many EVs, and drivers can often charge their cars overnight at home. (Once people actually buy an EV, their worries about range tend to disappear.) But for drivers who live in apartments and can’t plug in their cars as easily, or for anyone taking a road trip, a longer range could make a difference… We think that to get to full competitiveness, or full acceptance for those who are used to an internal combustion engine, something in the 1,000-mile range is going to be needed,’ says Rich Chleboski, 24M’s chief financial officer.” In the end, we can and must accelerate this transition.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we need to reject mythmakers with political agendas and reestablish a world based on facts… or we may in fact “enjoy” a version of The Rapture that doesn’t end well for anyone!