Climate Change thread

[Chekhov]

4 hours ago, El Cid said:

If we had more wind turbines and 90% of houses and factories had solar panels, the poor and businesses would be in a much better place.

Incentives are needed to bring about change, even oil companies are incentiveised to exploit oil fields.

I agree with you, e.g. making solar panel installations (and other energy efficiency measures) VAT free for an absolute start is a no brainer. You could even make them tax deductible. TBH I cannot believe VAT was ever charged on them bearing in mind they used to massively subsidise solar installations

[Guest sibon]

16 minutes ago, Chekhov said:

I agree with you, e.g. making solar panel installations (and other energy efficiency measures) VAT free for an absolute start is a no brainer. You could even make them tax deductible. TBH I cannot believe VAT was ever charged on them bearing in mind they used to massively subsidise solar installations

I’d go further and make them compulsory on new build houses. I’d also be looking for urban sites to install as many panels as possible. Along roads, on top of high rise buildings, anywhere really. 

[hackey lad]

2 minutes ago, sibon said:

I’d go further and make them compulsory on new build houses. I’d also be looking for urban sites to install as many panels as possible. Along roads, on top of high rise buildings, anywhere really. 

Agree with about new builds and high rise buildings but not on roadsides 

[Guest sibon]

48 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

Agree with about new builds and high rise buildings but not on roadsides 

Why not?

 

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/06/motorway-central-reservations-could-be-turned-into-solar-farms/

[hackey lad]

16 minutes ago, sibon said:

Why not?

 

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/06/motorway-central-reservations-could-be-turned-into-solar-farms/

I think they are eyesores . Place I used to go fishing  ,all flat land , was surrounded by farmers fields , wheat , potatoes etc . Farmer turned it all into a massive solar farm , looked awful  . Having said that just looked at your link and I could live with that 

Edited August 26, 2022 by hackey lad

[Chekhov]

13 hours ago, sibon said:

I’d go further and make them compulsory on new build houses. I’d also be looking for urban sites to install as many panels as possible. Along roads, on top of high rise buildings, anywhere really. 

I much prefer the carrot than the stick. As you know I think there are far too many rules and edicts about how we live our lives as it is, and it's getting worse all the time.

So, certainly VAT free on solar panels and their installation, and possibly subsidised, but there would have to be some way of doing that without it being too bureaucratic.

As an aside, being able to get solar panels in different shapes to fit roofs would make a big difference to how good they look and also how many you can get on a roof. There is nothing worse than seeing an oblong solar panel installation on a triangular roof, it looks awful.

[Jim117]

18 hours ago, hauxwell said:

Our energy costs are going up and Russia is burning off large amounts of natural gas each day according to the BBC News.  The gas would have been exported to Germany, they think Russia couldn’t sell it elsewhere.

 

I think Greta should have a word with Mr Putin about climate change and his carbon footprint,  polluting the atmosphere with all of that gas being burnt every day. She’s been a bit quiet lately. Send her to Russia.

 

 

 

 

From what I’ve been reading Russia’s problem is that it exported the majority of its energy to Europe via existing infrastructure. It has little in the way of pipelines to export to China and the cost of building pipelines from the producing regions would be vast and take years to build. The alternative is convert gas to LNG and ship it by tanker but again there’s a catch. Russia has no partners to help with this since it burned its bridges with the likes of Shell, BP and Exxon. Also the route by sea would be prohibitively time consuming and require a tanker fleet that does not exist. So the current situation would seem to be a double edged sword with no parties being winners at the moment.

[trastrick]

2 hours ago, Chekhov said:

I much prefer the carrot than the stick. As you know I think there are far too many rules and edicts about how we live our lives as it is, and it's getting worse all the time.

So, certainly VAT free on solar panels and their installation, and possibly subsidised, but there would have to be some way of doing that without it being too bureaucratic.

As an aside, being able to get solar panels in different shapes to fit roofs would make a big difference to how good they look and also how many you can get on a roof. There is nothing worse than seeing an oblong solar panel installation on a triangular roof, it looks awful.

Remember the unsightly and innefficient TV antennas that were hung on every rooftop?

 

They solved that by the simple expedient of cabling the signals.

 

That's why I say that windmills in the "backyard" is a regressive step for society.

 

At the extreme you would have your own miniature wind turbine, your own water well, and maybe even a few chickens in your back yard. But most folks don't have back yards. A limited solution for the few.

 

It's basically question of energy efficiency. 

 

You can plop a solar panel of different shapes, on everybody's rooftop and wire it up, (most folks have rooftops) or you can develop centralized solar farms and feed the electricity to the homes by transmission lines and local mains (hopefully buried).

 

Services are best, and most efficiently provided by centralized distribution, whichever source of power is you choose to generate it.

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by trastrick

[Chekhov]

2 hours ago, trastrick said:

Remember the unsightly and innefficient TV antennas that were hung on every rooftop?

 

They solved that by the simple expedient of cabling the signals.

 

That's why I say that windmills in the "backyard" is a regressive step for society.

 

At the extreme you would have your own miniature wind turbine, your own water well, and maybe even a few chickens in your back yard. But most folks don't have back yards. A limited solution for the few.

 

It's basically question of energy efficiency. 

 

You can plop a solar panel of different shapes, on everybody's rooftop and wire it up, (most folks have rooftops) or you can develop centralized solar farms and feed the electricity to the homes by transmission lines and local mains (hopefully buried).

 

Services are best, and most efficiently provided by centralized distribution, whichever source of power is you choose to generate it.

 

TV aerials are not inefficient, they are a very efficient method of transmission ! Also not requiring any roads to be shut for the installation and maintenance of the cabling ! RF at UHF is also very much easier to split and distribute round your house, and pickup whilst on your caravan or boat.....

[trastrick]

21 minutes ago, Chekhov said:

TV aerials are not inefficient, they are a very efficient method of transmission ! Also not requiring any roads to be shut for the installation and maintenance of the cabling ! RF at UHF is also very much easier to split and distribute round your house, and pickup whilst on your caravan or boat.....

I'm not saying antennas are not useful, but they can't pick up 900 channels of cable, with no drop outs.

 

And I've no problem with folks getting "off the grid" to generate their own power, or grow their own food.

 

But most people live in cities, where such facility is not available, like apartments and office towers.