Technology, Science and the Environment.

[davieG]

[davieG]

5 hours ago, davieG said:

Wouldn't work well here as people park over the kerbs even if the road is wide enough or they have a driveway

[Trav Le Bleu]

So, we need to drill, drill, drill to protect our energy security do we?

 

Cost of balancing Great Britain’s power grid reaches nearly £50m a day | Energy industry | The Guardian

 

https://share.google/Tb0L4NTMNiyh7jum0

 

Turns out we often have more than enough renewables, but our infrastructure can't cope with getting the power where it needs to be.

 

So, instead of spending money on drilling, how about upgrading the infrastructure?

 

Or is that too difficult?

[MC Prussian]

Anyone seen the demonstration of Tesla's flying car?

 

I like the idea and the nod to Back to the Future, but how are you doing to certify that? It's neither a true car nor an airplane.

And you'd have to create "air highways", too. How would that work out?

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

So, we need to drill, drill, drill to protect our energy security do we?

 

Cost of balancing Great Britain’s power grid reaches nearly £50m a day | Energy industry | The Guardian

 

https://share.google/Tb0L4NTMNiyh7jum0

 

Turns out we often have more than enough renewables, but our infrastructure can't cope with getting the power where it needs to be.

 

So, instead of spending money on drilling, how about upgrading the infrastructure?

 

Or is that too difficult?

According to the oil and gas lobby, it appears to be. Funny, that. 

 

3 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

Anyone seen the demonstration of Tesla's flying car?

 

I like the idea and the nod to Back to the Future, but how are you doing to certify that? It's neither a true car nor an airplane.

And you'd have to create "air highways", too. How would that work out?

Yeah, this is definitely one thing where the theory is cool but the practice is... not quite so much. 

[Grebfromgrebland]

Just seen the video for the Tesla roadster and it does look pretty amazing.

 

It really is the closest thing we have to Knightrider. 

 

 

 

[CornwallFox]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

So, we need to drill, drill, drill to protect our energy security do we?

 

Cost of balancing Great Britain’s power grid reaches nearly £50m a day | Energy industry | The Guardian

 

https://share.google/Tb0L4NTMNiyh7jum0

 

Turns out we often have more than enough renewables, but our infrastructure can't cope with getting the power where it needs to be.

 

So, instead of spending money on drilling, how about upgrading the infrastructure?

 

Or is that too difficult?

BBC News - GB Grid: Andy Burnham says public body will invest in electricity grid - BBC News

BBC News - GB Grid: Andy Burnham says public body will invest in electricity grid - BBC News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqn4k9nypxjro?app-referrer=deep-link

👍🏻

[leicsmac]

Musk really does become more of a Ted Faro caricature every day. 

 

Just glad that it's 30 years too early in terms of tech development. 

[Zear0]

Not sure I want to be sitting in a car with a pointless ultra high pressure gas system during an accident.

[Samilktray]

Tesla's really are quite ugly imho 

[MC Prussian]

53 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Not sure I want to be sitting in a car with a pointless ultra high pressure gas system during an accident.

The vast majority won't be able to afford one, anyway. Just like with the Cybertruck, this car will be a niche option.

[davieG]

Engineering Facts  ·

Follow

 

In Carrington, England, engineers at Highview Power are building one of the world’s largest non-chemical grid storage plants using an resource that surrounds us everywhere: ordinary ambient air.

Whenever wind turbines generate more electricity than Britain’s grid can use, the CryoBattery sucks in outside air, filters it, and chills it down to a bone-freezing -196°C (-320°F) until the air condenses into a dense pale-blue liquid.

Because liquid air takes up 700 times less volume than gaseous air, massive amounts of energy can be stored at low pressure inside standard insulated industrial steel tanks for weeks without degrading.

When evening electricity demand spikes, the liquid air is pumped out and warmed back up. It instantly flashes back into high-pressure gas, expanding 700-fold to drive a powerful turbine and feed 300 megawatt-hours of clean electricity back into the grid.

Built entirely from standard steel, compressors, and turbines with zero lithium, cobalt, or fire risk, cryogenic air storage can last over 40 years anywhere on Earth.

#EngineeringFacts #UK #EnergyStorage #CryogenicEngineering #CleanTech #GridInnovation

 

[Zear0]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

Engineering Facts  ·

Follow

 

In Carrington, England, engineers at Highview Power are building one of the world’s largest non-chemical grid storage plants using an resource that surrounds us everywhere: ordinary ambient air.

Whenever wind turbines generate more electricity than Britain’s grid can use, the CryoBattery sucks in outside air, filters it, and chills it down to a bone-freezing -196°C (-320°F) until the air condenses into a dense pale-blue liquid.

Because liquid air takes up 700 times less volume than gaseous air, massive amounts of energy can be stored at low pressure inside standard insulated industrial steel tanks for weeks without degrading.

When evening electricity demand spikes, the liquid air is pumped out and warmed back up. It instantly flashes back into high-pressure gas, expanding 700-fold to drive a powerful turbine and feed 300 megawatt-hours of clean electricity back into the grid.

Built entirely from standard steel, compressors, and turbines with zero lithium, cobalt, or fire risk, cryogenic air storage can last over 40 years anywhere on Earth.

#EngineeringFacts #UK #EnergyStorage #CryogenicEngineering #CleanTech #GridInnovation

 

Cogeneration systems based and 2nd order efficiency make any engineer go weak at the knees...

[leicsmac]

A little bit of celestial perspective:

 

 

[Grebfromgrebland]

Depends on how many universes you think there are and whether this death is the end or not.

[kenny]

On 16/10/2026 at 11:51, davieG said:

Engineering Facts  ·

Follow

 

In Carrington, England, engineers at Highview Power are building one of the world’s largest non-chemical grid storage plants using an resource that surrounds us everywhere: ordinary ambient air.

Whenever wind turbines generate more electricity than Britain’s grid can use, the CryoBattery sucks in outside air, filters it, and chills it down to a bone-freezing -196°C (-320°F) until the air condenses into a dense pale-blue liquid.

Because liquid air takes up 700 times less volume than gaseous air, massive amounts of energy can be stored at low pressure inside standard insulated industrial steel tanks for weeks without degrading.

When evening electricity demand spikes, the liquid air is pumped out and warmed back up. It instantly flashes back into high-pressure gas, expanding 700-fold to drive a powerful turbine and feed 300 megawatt-hours of clean electricity back into the grid.

Built entirely from standard steel, compressors, and turbines with zero lithium, cobalt, or fire risk, cryogenic air storage can last over 40 years anywhere on Earth.

#EngineeringFacts #UK #EnergyStorage #CryogenicEngineering #CleanTech #GridInnovation

 

Invented by a guy in his garage. Was largely ignored for a long time as its less effcient than Lithium batteries but I suspect will be replicated for the reasons described.

 

Its the modern version of Dinorwig Power Station.

[String fellow]

Talking about what will happen to the last surviving stars in 120 trillion years time is meaningless, because years will cease to exist when Earth ceases to exist, which will be in about 5 to 8 billion year's time, when it'll be consumed by the Sun.  

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, String fellow said:

Talking about what will happen to the last surviving stars in 120 trillion years time is meaningless, because years will cease to exist when Earth ceases to exist, which will be in about 5 to 8 billion year's time, when it'll be consumed by the Sun.  

It's true that the current system of measuring time is based on Earth orbital cycles. 

 

That being said, what other base unit can be used for measuring time on such a scale where what you mention (the elimination of the factor by which the unit of time is measured) isn't a factor?

[Zear0]

15 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

It's true that the current system of measuring time is based on Earth orbital cycles. 

 

That being said, what other base unit can be used for measuring time on such a scale where what you mention (the elimination of the factor by which the unit of time is measured) isn't a factor?

Not sure we'll get the answer to that one here

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Not sure we'll get the answer to that one here

Agreed. 

 

I'm not even sure such an answering example exists in a way that humans can comprehend at all. 

Edited yesterday at 11:42 by leicsmac

[String fellow]

3 hours ago, Zear0 said:

Not sure we'll get the answer to that one here

By defining 1 second as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation occurring between 2 hyperfine ground-state levels of caesium 133 at rest at 0 deg K, the whole basis of time measurement is dis-associated from terrestrial considerations. 

[Grebfromgrebland]

4 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Agreed. 

 

I'm not even sure such an answering example exists in a way that humans can comprehend at all. 

We could move it the Hindu system which would cover the life of this universe.

[leicsmac]

29 minutes ago, String fellow said:

By defining 1 second as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation occurring between 2 hyperfine ground-state levels of caesium 133 at rest at 0 deg K, the whole basis of time measurement is dis-associated from terrestrial considerations. 

Which would work as long as the caesium-133 isotope exists. 

 

Which, over the timeline discussed, it wouldn't... so you end up with the same question, just rather much later on. 

 

And I'm not really sure what definition would. 

 

12 minutes ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

We could move it the Hindu system which would cover the life of this universe.

Can you elaborate? 

Edited yesterday at 16:05 by leicsmac

[Grebfromgrebland]

My knowledge on this very basic at best but here's a Wikipedia link

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time

 

[CornwallFox]

My dog says we could simply measure the period between snack times. Those times remain absolute whether or not humans, the earth, or matter itself exist, apparently.