#diesel generator in congo

[sacredtrinitydigiagency]

When I watched this video 🔗 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3tSfp8Le2v/?igsh=MW1wazYybzMyeDFldA== it struck me how easily we, as a society, can be swept along by trends and schemes. The comical juxtaposition of an electric police vehicle being charged by a diesel generator in France highlights the absurdity of our actions sometimes. But beneath the humor lies a darker truth: the exploitation of child labor in Congo and the reckless misuse of our planet's resources. It's a sobering reality—one that reminds us to question the motives behind the trends we follow and the agendas we unwittingly support. Let's strive for a more conscious and responsible path forward. 🌍💔 #ev #liveinawareness #isitworthit #sacredtrinitydigiagency #stopchildlabour #chennai #india #saveearth

[brookstonalmanac]

Beer Events 12.30 (after 1930)

1935 – The Italian Air Force bombs a Swedish Red Cross hospital during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. 1936 – The Flint sit-down strike hits General Motors. 1943 – Subhas Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair. 1944 – King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant. 1947 – Cold War: King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania. 1952 – An RAF Avro Lancaster bomber crashes in Luqa, Malta after an engine failure, killing three crew members and a civilian on the ground. 1954 – The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation is established to consolidate criminal investigation and intelligence into a single agency. 1958 – The Guatemalan Air Force sinks several Mexican fishing boats alleged to have breached maritime borders, killing three and sparking international tension. 1967 – Aeroflot Flight L-51 crashes near Liepāja International Airport in Liepāja, Latvia, killing 43. 1972 – Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker II ends. 1987 – Stella Sigcau, Prime minister of the South African Bantustan of Transkei, is ousted from power in a bloodless military coup led by General Bantu Holomisa. 1993 – Israel establishes diplomatic relations with Vatican City and also upgrades to full diplomatic relations with Ireland. 1996 – Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel. 1997 – In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people from four villages are killed. 2000 – Rizal Day bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a period of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred. 2004 – A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 194. 2005 – Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin. 2006 – Madrid–Barajas Airport is bombed. 2006 – The Indonesian passenger ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sinks in a storm, resulting in at least 400 deaths. 2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed. 2009 – A segment of the Lanzhou–Zhengzhou–Changsha pipeline ruptures in Shaanxi, China, and approximately 150,000 L (40,000 US gal) of diesel oil flows down the Wei River before finally reaching the Yellow River. 2009 – A suicide bomber kills nine people at Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan. 2013 – More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[newsbites]

Winds Exploration and Production LLC said its project to produce methane from Lake Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo can be expanded to a $500 million investment and displace diesel generators used by miners.

The company plans to build a modular plant, ship methane by pipeline and export liquefied CO2 from the 473-square-kilometer (183-square-mile) Idjwi block it won last month.

[ahamay79]

This is an excellent breakdown.

Batteries, they do not make electricity – they store electricity produced elsewhere, primarily by coal, uranium, natural gas-powered plants, or diesel-fueled generators. So, to say an EV is a zero-emission vehicle is not at all valid.

Also, since forty percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. is from coal-fired plants, it follows that forty percent of the EVs on the road are coal-powered, do you see?"

Einstein's formula, E=MC2, tells us it takes the same amount of energy to move a five-thousand-pound gasoline-driven automobile a mile as it does an electric one. The only question again is what produces the power? To reiterate, it does not come from the battery; the battery is only the storage device, like a gas tank in a car.

There are two orders of batteries, rechargeable, and single-use. The most common single-use batteries are A, AA, AAA, C, D. 9V, and lantern types. Those dry-cell species use zinc, manganese, lithium, silver oxide, or zinc and carbon to store electricity chemically. Please note they all contain toxic, heavy metals.

Rechargeable batteries only differ in their internal materials, usually lithium-ion, nickel-metal oxide, and nickel-cadmium. The United States uses three billion of these two battery types a year, and most are not recycled; they end up in landfills. California is the only state which requires all batteries be recycled. If you throw your small, used batteries in the trash, here is what happens to them.

All batteries are self-discharging. That means even when not in use, they leak tiny amounts of energy. You have likely ruined a flashlight or two from an old, ruptured battery. When a battery runs down and can no longer power a toy or light, you think of it as dead; well, it is not. It continues to leak small amounts of electricity. As the chemicals inside it run out, pressure builds inside the battery's metal casing, and eventually, it cracks. The metals left inside then ooze out. The ooze in your ruined flashlight is toxic, and so is the ooze that will inevitably leak from every battery in a landfill. All batteries eventually rupture; it just takes rechargeable batteries longer to end up in the landfill.

In addition to dry cell batteries, there are also wet cell ones used in automobiles, boats, and motorcycles. The good thing about those is, ninety percent of them are recycled. Unfortunately, we do not yet know how to recycle single-use ones properly.

But that is not half of it. For those of you excited about electric cars and a green revolution, I want you to take a closer look at batteries and also windmills and solar panels. These three technologies share what we call environmentally destructive production costs.

A typical EV battery weighs one thousand pounds, about the size of a travel trunk. It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.

It should concern you that all those toxic components come from mining. For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth's crust for just - one - battery."

Sixty-eight percent of the world's cobalt, a significant part of a battery, comes from the Congo. Their mines have no pollution controls, and they employ children who die from handling this toxic material. Should we factor in these diseased kids as part of the cost of driving an electric car?"

I'd like to leave you with these thoughts. California is building the largest battery in the world near San Francisco, and they intend to power it from solar panels and windmills. They claim this is the ultimate in being 'green,' but it is not. This construction project is creating an environmental disaster. Let me tell you why.

The main problem with solar arrays is the chemicals needed to process silicate into the silicon used in the panels. To make pure enough silicon requires processing it with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, trichloroethane, and acetone. In addition, they also need gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium- diselenide, and cadmium-telluride, which also are highly toxic. Silicon dust is a hazard to the workers, and the panels cannot be recycled.

Windmills are the ultimate in embedded costs and environmental destruction. Each weighs 1688 tons (the equivalent of 23 houses) and contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass, and the hard to extract rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium. Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and will last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We cannot recycle used blades.

There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look beyond the myth of zero emissions.

"Going Green" may sound like the Utopian ideal but when you look at the hidden and embedded costs realistically with an open mind, you can see that Going Green is more destructive to the Earth's environment than meets the eye, for sure.

Obviously copied/pasted. I encourage you to pass it along too.

[wadbot]

32in24-17.wad: 32in24-17: 3 Flags 3 Furious MAP33 (0, -299, 64) Author: The 32in24 Team! Date: 2019-03-30 Description: AFTER A DRUG DEAL GONE WRONG, SHAIKOTEN (VIN DIESEL) NEEDS TO ORGANIZE AND PARTICIPATE IN ILLEGAL STREET RACES FOR MONEY, AND ENLISTS THE HELP OF HIS CHILDHOOD FRIEND, CARNEVIL (PAUL WALKER) AS A BOOKIE. HOWEVER DEATHZ0R (EVA MENDEZ) WHO TAILS THEM IS AN UNDERCOVER US CUSTOM SERVICE AGENT WHO FINDS OUT CARNEVIL IS ACTUALLY TRAFFICING UNDERGROUND FIDGET SPINNER SHIPMENTS COVERED IN HIGH GRADE CHINESE LEAD PAINT BUT THE MOVIE ENDS WITH ALL OF THEM EATING THE LEAD PAINT AND DYING (SORRY FOR THE SPOILERS) MAP01: Yoo Hoo Wrecking Crew by Mechadon MAP02: Twisty Business by Xaser MAP03: King of the Congo by DJVCardMaster MAP04: Cuisine Conflict by Worst MAP05: Butt Scratcher Deluxe by Mechadon MAP06: Leftover Birthday Caek by Marcaek & Xaser MAP07: Dikembe Mutombo's Teleport Fort by Worst MAP08: Crux of Captivity by Marcaek & Mechadon MAP09: So Close, Yet... by Shadow Hog MAP10: An Unreasonable Amount of Bushes by Alfred MAP11: scarydarkfast menageatrois by 40oz & TMD MAP12: Snowed In Town by Misty & joe-ilya MAP13: Hold the Guac by TMD & Marcaek MAP14: My Triad is Fully Risen by Baratus MAP15: My Everlasting Love For Entryway Never Ends by joe-ilya MAP16: The Dipshit Factory by TMD MAP17: This map doesn't deserve a funny name by Gothic MAP18: MMFRGB by Alfred MAP19: Kevlar Sombrero by TMD MAP20: Telethon Triumvirate by Shaikoten MAP21: Runaround by joe-ilya MAP22: Stussy Complex by Gothic MAP23: Best Instagram Nudes by Alfred MAP24: infernew mapping burnout-ville by bonnie MAP25: Swirlytron by Mechadon MAP26: Chronicles of a Father: Diarrhea Disaster by Philnemba MAP27: Generic Tres by Mephisto & TMD MAP28: Hardon Collider by Joshy MAP29: Naval Skeletal Battle 2: Electric Jumppadloo by Gothic MAP30: Anchorage à Trois by Shadow Hog MAP31: Resonance by Juza MAP32: Triandemonium by Shadow Hog MAP33: It's a triforce, IDIOT by TMD

[airmanisr]

Africa Railways - Angola - CFA "Beyer Garratt" type 4-8-2+2-8-4 steam locomotive Nr. 556 (Krupp Locomotive Works, Essen 2493 / 2498) by Historical Railway Images Via Flickr: Before Independence from Portugal in 1975 and the period of civil war that followed it, which devastated much of the country's infrastructure, the railways of Angola played an important part in its economic development. The three major systems (CF Luanda, CF Benguela and CF Moçamedes) were quite separate concerns and only the CFB was inter-connected with other parts of Southern Africa, through its border crossing into the Congo (Zaire) This photo shows a line of stored CF Luanda 551 Class 4-8-2+2-8-4 Garratt locomotives in the works yard at Muceques in 1970. Only delivered by Friedrich Krupp in 1956 (under works numbers 2493-2498) the six locomotives of this type - CFA numbers 551-556 - had accumulated very low mileage before general dieselization had displaced them from their mainline duties

[otcpower]

Elevating Lifting Solutions in the Heart of Africa

OTC Power, a leading provider of industrial equipment and solutions, is proud to announce its expansion into the vibrant African market. With a strong focus on delivering innovative and reliable lifting equipment, OTC Power is committed to empowering businesses and industries across the continent.

Introducing the Lifting Crane: A Powerful Tool for African Development

The lifting crane, a cornerstone of OTC Power’s product line, is designed to meet the diverse needs of African industries. From construction sites and manufacturing facilities to mining operations and logistics hubs, this versatile equipment plays a crucial role in enhancing efficiency and productivity.

Key Features and Benefits of OTC Power’s Lifting Cranes

Robust Construction: Built to withstand the demanding conditions of African environments, OTC Power’s lifting cranes are engineered for durability and long-term performance. Advanced Technology: Incorporating state-of-the-art technology, these cranes offer precise control, safety features, and optimal lifting capacity. Customization Options: Tailored to specific industry requirements, OTC Power can provide customized lifting solutions to meet your unique needs. Reliable Support: With a strong network of service centers across Africa, OTC Power offers comprehensive after-sales support and maintenance services.

OTC Power is excited to establish a significant presence in Sharjah, UAE, as well as several key African countries: Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Africa. By strategically expanding our operations, we aim to provide unparalleled access to our lifting solutions and support to businesses in these regions.

As OTC Power continues to grow and evolve, we remain dedicated to delivering exceptional value to our customers. Our lifting cranes are more than just equipment; they are tools that empower industries, drive economic growth, and contribute to the development of Africa.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.30

534 – The second and final edition of the Code of Justinian comes into effect in the Byzantine Empire. 999 – Battle of Glenmama: The combined forces of Munster and Meath under king Brian Boru inflict a crushing defeat on the allied armies of Leinster and Dublin near Lyons Hill in Ireland. 1066 – Granada massacre: A Muslim mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city. 1419 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of La Rochelle. 1460 – Wars of the Roses: Lancastrians kill the 3rd Duke of York and win the Battle of Wakefield. 1702 – Queen Anne's War: James Moore, Governor of the Province of Carolina, abandons the Siege of St. Augustine. 1813 – War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York. 1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is proclaimed. 1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is proclaimed. 1853 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest. 1890 – Following the Wounded Knee Massacre, the United States Army and Lakota warriors face off in the Drexel Mission Fight. 1896 – Filipino patriot and reform advocate José Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila. 1896 – Canadian ice hockey player Ernie McLea scores the first hat-trick in Stanley Cup play, and the Cup-winning goal as the Montreal Victorias defeat the Winnipeg Victorias 6–5. 1897 – The British Colony of Natal annexes Zululand. 1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 605. 1905 – Former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated at the front gate of his home in Caldwell. 1906 – The All-India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India (later Dhaka, Bangladesh). 1916 – Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was murdered by a loyalist group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was discovered in a Moscow river three days later. 1916 – The last coronation in Hungary is performed for King Charles IV and Queen Zita. 1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed. 1927 – The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan. 1935 – The Italian Air Force bombs a Swedish Red Cross hospital during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. 1936 – The Flint sit-down strike hits General Motors. 1943 – Subhas Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair. 1944 – King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant. 1947 – Cold War: King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania. 1952 – An RAF Avro Lancaster bomber crashed in Luqa, Malta after an engine failure, killing three crew members and a civilian on the ground. 1958 – The Guatemalan Air Force sinks several Mexican fishing boats alleged to have breached maritime borders, killing three and sparking international tension. 1972 – Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker II ends. 1993 – Israel establishes diplomatic relations with Vatican City and also upgrades to full diplomatic relations with Ireland. 1996 – Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel. 1997 – In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people from four villages are killed. 2000 – Rizal Day bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a period of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred. 2004 – A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194. 2005 – Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin. 2006 – Madrid–Barajas Airport is bombed. 2006 – The Indonesian passenger ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sinks in a storm, resulting in at least 400 deaths. 2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed. 2009 – A segment of the Lanzhou–Zhengzhou–Changsha pipeline ruptures in Shaanxi, China, and approximately 150,000 l (40,000 US gal) of diesel oil flows down the Wei River before finally reaching the Yellow River. 2009 – A suicide bomber kills nine people at Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan. 2013 – More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[ihatefffgg]

The Great Irish Climate Con

There have been many cons in Ireland in vein attempts to sway the Irish people into doing what the Government want but the one that comes to mind right now is the climate initiative that  has been sweeping across the country.

At this time the green party are in power and they agreed to go into government on the premise that they would get their climate initiatives done. The reality is that in the grand scheme of things there is not much support for these initiatives which has the effect of creating anger with the Irish people. It has also developed a cultish attitude that is forcing the initiatives on the people of Ireland. When we look at the demographic and for this I will refer to politico, only about 3 to 5 pc of the Irish population actually support these incentives.

Adding t this is the darker underside which consists of a strong propaganda which is being led by the media. Ireland is one of the places in the world where the free media is no longer free and is being bought behind peoples backs. This is backed up by the fact that the so called green initiatives being pushed are not actually green at all. This to my knowledge has never been publish by the Irish media due to the government agenda and is either completely ignored by the green party in Ireland or strongly rebuked as nonsense even though some of it is heart breaking and extremely concerning.

The first initiative I will cover is electric vehicles:  https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/force-new-forecourts-to-have-more-electric-vehicle-charging-points-than-petrol-and-diesel-pumps-green-td-41859319.html

Now there are alot of issues with electric vehicles and the first is that we simply dont have the charging infrastructure for these, not to mention the fast charging. This means forcing people to evs is not actually sustainable. The second issue is that they cost considerably more than a standard car which means that it is out of reach for most. This is a pattern that continues through out the green policies, people cant afford it.

The most concerning thing is what they are not telling people and the media are also not publishing it either in Ireland because it is not in the governments favour and that is the battery components and their origin. 80 pc of the worlds batteries are made from materials taken from the Congo in Africa which include lithium and cobalt. There are a number os issues with this as there are very little safety measures put in place for this resulting in radiation exposure during the mining process. This results in deformities and poisonings of the population who work in these mines. Additionally its not just adults who do these jobs but children as well and they are either paid very little or not at all. 

These cars are number one, simply not sustainable as there is not enough for future processing and there are strong ethical reasons not to peruse this avenue as they are not ethically sourced. This is not the only example where the motor industry is exploiting children. The Hyundai motor company which is a huge player was also found to be using child labour in one of its subsidiaries.

The combination of the openly radioactive components at source along with the mining practises and the obvious manufacture of the vehicles would seem to me as completely unethical and green washing.

Another element of the green revolution is the wind turbine. It is sold to the public as the go to for renewable energy but yet again the irish media seem to be hiding more facts such as a large portion of the components in these wear out within a few years and actually cant be recycled.

Again we have another green washing situation here and this is a huge problem in the future such as the blades that are a plastic composite and cant break down. Because they are composite, they cant be recycled either. Again the Irish media have not reported this because it does not fit into the green party agenda.

The last thing I will cover is solar panels, now they have been around now for quite some time and were seen as another go to solution for renewable energy. People are installing in existing a new new houses thinking they are doing a good thing but what if I told you that solar panels are actually manufactured and contain arsenic. Yes that Victorian substance that was used to kill people.

In reality the green party in Ireland are pushing initiatives that are not at all green and are going to lead to a worse problem that we already have. They are lying to the Irish public and they are getting the media to lie through propaganda.

They are even getting the farmers to reduce their herds to minimise c02 and methane but have not told the public that the loss will be replaced by Brazilian meat which was negotiated by the EU resulting in more rain forest being cut down and the same emissions existing somewhere else.

These are not solutions which makes the green initiative a complete lie and we need to find better solutions.

Its not change that needs to stop, its the lies and propaganda that needs to stop.

[yooper-steve]

This is an excellent breakdown.

Batteries, they do not make electricity – they store electricity produced elsewhere, primarily by coal, uranium, natural gas-powered plants, or diesel-fueled generators. So, to say an EV is a zero-emission vehicle is not at all valid.

Also, since forty percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. is from coal-fired plants, it follows that forty percent of the EVs on the road are coal-powered, do you see?"

Einstein's formula, E=MC2, tells us it takes the same amount of energy to move a five-thousand-pound gasoline-driven automobile a mile as it does an electric one. The only question again is what produces the power? To reiterate, it does not come from the battery; the battery is only the storage device, like a gas tank in a car.

There are two orders of batteries, rechargeable, and single-use. The most common single-use batteries are A, AA, AAA, C, D. 9V, and lantern types. Those dry-cell species use zinc, manganese, lithium, silver oxide, or zinc and carbon to store electricity chemically. Please note they all contain toxic, heavy metals.

Rechargeable batteries only differ in their internal materials, usually lithium-ion, nickel-metal oxide, and nickel-cadmium. The United States uses three billion of these two battery types a year, and most are not recycled; they end up in landfills. California is the only state which requires all batteries be recycled. If you throw your small, used batteries in the trash, here is what happens to them.

All batteries are self-discharging. That means even when not in use, they leak tiny amounts of energy. You have likely ruined a flashlight or two from an old, ruptured battery. When a battery runs down and can no longer power a toy or light, you think of it as dead; well, it is not. It continues to leak small amounts of electricity. As the chemicals inside it run out, pressure builds inside the battery's metal casing, and eventually, it cracks. The metals left inside then ooze out. The ooze in your ruined flashlight is toxic, and so is the ooze that will inevitably leak from every battery in a landfill. All batteries eventually rupture; it just takes rechargeable batteries longer to end up in the landfill.

In addition to dry cell batteries, there are also wet cell ones used in automobiles, boats, and motorcycles. The good thing about those is, ninety percent of them are recycled. Unfortunately, we do not yet know how to recycle single-use ones properly.

But that is not half of it. For those of you excited about electric cars and a green revolution, I want you to take a closer look at batteries and also windmills and solar panels. These three technologies share what we call environmentally destructive production costs.

A typical EV battery weighs one thousand pounds, about the size of a travel trunk. It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.

It should concern you that all those toxic components come from mining. For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth's crust for just - one - battery."

Sixty-eight percent of the world's cobalt, a significant part of a battery, comes from the Congo. Their mines have no pollution controls, and they employ children who die from handling this toxic material. Should we factor in these diseased kids as part of the cost of driving an electric car?"

I'd like to leave you with these thoughts. California is building the largest battery in the world near San Francisco, and they intend to power it from solar panels and windmills. They claim this is the ultimate in being 'green,' but it is not. This construction project is creating an environmental disaster. Let me tell you why.

The main problem with solar arrays is the chemicals needed to process silicate into the silicon used in the panels. To make pure enough silicon requires processing it with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, trichloroethane, and acetone. In addition, they also need gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium- diselenide, and cadmium-telluride, which also are highly toxic. Silicon dust is a hazard to the workers, and the panels cannot be recycled.

Windmills are the ultimate in embedded costs and environmental destruction. Each weighs 1688 tons (the equivalent of 23 houses) and contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass, and the hard to extract rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium. Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and will last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We cannot recycle used blades.

There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look beyond the myth of zero emissions.

"Going Green" may sound like the Utopian ideal but when you look at the hidden and embedded costs realistically with an open mind, you can see that Going Green is more destructive to the Earth's environment than meets the eye, for sure. 🇺🇸

[the-breakfast-chub]

How ‘green’ are electric cars?

With the ban of new petrol and diesel cars in place in the UK by 2030, sales of electric cars are expected to surge. Plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles accounted for more than 1 in 10 vehicle registrations in 2020, up from 1 in 30 in 2019, according to data published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2030, 125 million electric vehicles will be owned around the world and the UK government aims for almost every car and van on the road to be zero emission by 2050.

But just how green are they? 

Electric cars are undoubtedly cleaner than fossil fuel run cars. Although more energy is required to make electric vehicles than petrol, you still save more energy in the long run. The deficit is paid off quickly and even, when with no alternative, the electricity used to charge the vehicles is driven by fossil fuels, they are still greener.

However, it is important to address the huge implications for our natural resources not only to produce green technologies like electric cars, but to keep them charged.

Challenges

For every car on our roads to be zero emission by 2050, just under double the current total annual world cobalt production, 75% of the world’s lithium production and at least 50% of the world’s copper production would be required.

Currently, electric cars rely on lithium and cobalt batteries to run, which, whilst undoubtedly better for the environment than carbon, aren’t entirely clean.

Cobalt mining

Cobalt is a key ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars, because it enables the energy density required in batteries intended to last for hundreds of miles per charge.

However, the mining of cobalt is fraught with political issues. 60% of cobalt comes from the Dominican Republic of Congo where children as young as 7 years old are mining it. The mining process also causes terrible pollution in local rivers.

Lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars and other consumer electronics account for about half of all cobalt demand, and the demand for these batteries is projected to more than quadruple over the next decade.

Lithium mining

Lithium is currently produced far from the UK — In 2019, Australia was responsible for more than half of global lithium supply, with the bulk of the rest supplied by Chile, China and Argentina. Lithium deposits are also located near some of the most sensitive ecosystems in the world – The Amur River, on the border of Russia and China, the Andes Mountains (Chile) and the Salt Flats in Bolivia. Deforestation, water shortages and toxic leaks are unfortunately a devastating consequence of lithium mining. Lithium extraction in salt flats in Bolivia uses millions of litres of water. The Sales de Jujuy plant produced 14,000 tonnes of lithium in 2018, using up to 420 million litres of water – the equivalent of 168 olympic sized pools.

Prof. Richard Herrington, Head of Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum said: “Society needs to understand that there is a raw material cost of going green and that both new research and investment is urgently needed for us to evaluate new ways to source these. This may include potentially considering sources much closer to where the metals are to be used.”

Recycling

Research in Australia found that only 2% of the country’s 3,300 tonnes of lithium-ion waste was recycled. Because lithium cathodes degrade over time, they can’t simply be placed into new batteries. “That’s the problem with recycling any form of battery that has electrochemistry – you don’t know what point it is at in its life,” says Stephen Voller, CEO and founder of ZapGo. “That’s why recycling most mobile phones is not cost effective. You get this sort of soup.”

At present, there are low volumes of electric-vehicle batteries that require recycling. As these volumes increase dramatically, there are questions concerning the economies (and diseconomies) of scale in relation to recycling operations.

Charging inefficiency

One of the biggest challenges, not just for the UK, but around the world is the installation of charging points. We need more, faster, more reliable charge points for people to be persuaded to take the plunge and purchase electric. Cars also need to be charged at smart times of day to avoid unnecessary costs for energy networks (and ultimately the consumers who pay for them).

Solutions

Sourcing locally

Luckily, lithium is relatively abundant, and could in theory be generated from seawater across the globe in the future.

In Britain, there are exciting developments in the lithium industry. Researchers working on ways to source lithium, a critical component of the batteries used in electric vehicles, have produced a chemical known as lithium carbonate from rocks found in Cornwall and Scotland.

Cornwall has a world-class mineral quality, which has stood idle for decades. The battery revolution provides the opportunity to explore raw materials which are vital to modern technologies such as electric cars. Cornish Lithium believes that the extraction of lithium has the potential to rejuvenate the economy of Cornwall and to provide much needed high value employment.

While the UK may not be a global player, to be able to produce what it needs would place it at a serious advantage over non-lithium- producing countries. It’s an exciting step forward which sets Britain on a good course to create its own EV supply chain in the next five years, which is especially important since the UK left the European Union.

Under the terms of the new free trade agreement with the EU, for goods sold in the EU to qualify as tariff free they must have components produced under localised sourcing. UK-based car makers need to have developed their own local battery supply chain by 2026 in order to avoid these charges.

Alternative resources

As mentioned above, resources like Cobalt aren’t infinite, and the environmental issues associated are prominent. We ideally need to shift to batteries that use less cobalt, or none at all. Elon Musk’s car firm Tesla will make electric vehicle batteries with cobalt-free cathodes, it announced during its Battery Day event in Autumn last year, but there is no set timeline on this yet.

For short-range cars made and sold in China, Reuters says Tesla will instead use lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, which are much cheaper and don’t have the same environmental problems as those needing cobalt. The disadvantage is that these batteries tend to have a lower energy density, reducing how far a car can drive without needing to charge.

Lithium-iron-phosphate batteries are already widely used by other Chinese firms, including BYD, the world’s biggest electric car manufacturer. If other electric car manufacturers follow internationally, we may be able to reduce our dependency on a dwindling mineral resource.

Recycling research

At the University of Birmingham, research funded by the government’s £246m Faraday Challenge for battery research is trying to find new ways of recycling lithium-ion. Researchers, led by the Birmingham Energy Institute are using robotics technology developed for nuclear power plants to find ways to safely remove and dismantle potentially explosive lithium-ion cells from electric vehicles.

A number of improvements could make the recycling processes economically more efficient, such as better sorting technologies, a method for separating electrode materials, greater process flexibility, design for recycling, and greater manufacturer standardization of batteries.

Battery swap shops

China, with electric vehicle sales of more than one million a year, is demonstrating how the charging issues can be addressed with battery ‘swap shops’ in which owners can drive into forecourts and swap batteries quickly. NIO, the Shanghai-based car manufacturer, claims a three-minute swap time at these stations.

This also addresses the high cost of EVs currently. By using the swap concept, the battery could be rented, with part of the swap cost being a fee for rental. This could reduce the purchase cost and incentivise more people to purchase electric. The swap batteries could also be charged using surplus renewable electricity, which is a real plus for the environment.

Electric alternatives

It’s the electric vehicles that have taken off in the world of green automotives. However, there is another player in the field – hydrogen. Hydrogen cars are powered by a chemical reaction. Hydrogen enters the fuel cell from a tank and mixes with oxygen to create H2O, which generates electricity that is used to power the motors that drive the wheels.

Hydrogen tanks are refuelled in a process that’s pretty much the same as with a petrol or diesel car. You could fill your car up just like fossil fuel, but instead of greenhouse gases being emitted, the exhaust would just be pure water vapour. Compared to waiting around for an EV’s battery to recharge, hydrogen appeared to be the much more convenient option.

The challenge is that hydrogen is very energy intensive to create as converting the electricity to hydrogen via electrolysis is only 75% efficient. Then the gas has to be compressed, chilled and transported, which loses another 10%. The fuel cell process of converting hydrogen back to electricity is only 60% efficient, after which you have the same 5% loss from driving the vehicle motor as for a BEV. The grand total is a 62% loss in energy – more than three times as much as an electric car.

Nevertheless, hydrogen still has niches where its main strengths – lightness and quick refuelling – give it a clear advantage. While you can fit your personal driving lifestyle around strategic battery charging stops, this is not ideal for commercial vehicles such as trains that need to run for very long periods and distances with only short waits to refuel. The weight of batteries for eight hours of continual usage would also be prohibitive for these vehicles. Therefore, hydrogen could be a viable option, despite the inefficiency.

The post How ‘green’ are electric cars? appeared first on Renewable Energy World.

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