I'm not sure if this is "good" or "bad" news - the return of steam for powering trains?
https://www.railwaygazette.com/uk/class-60-steam-loco-conversion-decision-expected-soon/68337.article?CMID=88A17C323-CMP264CON294-RCP2I48347O32&utm_campaign=RG-RBUK-RSSB%202025-270225-JM&utm_medium=email&utm_source=RGeditorial&utm_content=newsletter

[quote]Using hydrogen fueled boilers and high pressure turbines a claim is made that this will be more efficient and have a longer service life than fuel cells.
Time will tell.

Hah, the British class 60.... There had been efficient, modern electric locos in Britain (class 90) in the past. Train operators retired their electric cargo locos in Britain; and replaced them with Diesel because of insane electricity prices. The decades before they did everything to replace Diesel traction with much more efficient electric locos on al heavily utilized main lines; investing vast amounts (surely also taxpayers money) into overhead lines.

Btw. when did the marine industry replaced heavy or light oil fueled steam generators and steam turbines in all warships with gas turbines (and/or Diesel engines); except for the nuclear boilers in submarines (no oxygen needed) or aircraft carriers (no range limits; fuel logistics)? So, why did they do so? Efficiency and costs.

Instead of thinking about how to again replace modern, efficient Diesel engines (yes, the most efficient thermodynamic machine mankind ever invented), with hydrogen miracles... why don't these stubborn folks think about how to provide a whole, post-modern economy, let alone heavy cargo locomotives, with cheap electricity. The stupidity of this is just unbelievable.

You can also replace the wasteful water showers in public swimming pools and feed them with champagne to save up the precious drinking water. Doesn't need to be a brand name; just the 'cheap' stuff from industrial wine press houses (certified "organic", of course) from the Mediterranean, the Balkans... anyway... imported from somewhere, the cheapest supplier.

In essence, this is the proposal to generate steam with hydrogen. The same applies to steel production in blast furnaces. With hydrogen? Surely, it's possible... like champagne showers in public pools.

Thanks for very good comment there.

The biggest problem in the UK is unbelievably shoddy profiteering house building and the monopoly that is keeping ALL new housing hopelessly inefficient uncomfortably profitable shoddy.

We have a very long lingering proposal to double the power output of our largest pump-storage hydroelectric scheme in Scotland (Cruachan). However... Battery storage is already quickly taking over, at great cost to our Greenbelt land.

... And we still have to overcome the Fossil Fuels lobbying sabotaging the way to cheaper renewables.


All 'just' "business as usual"?

... And our only one world be damned!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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... why don't these stubborn folks think about how to provide a whole, post-modern economy, let alone heavy cargo locomotives, with cheap electricity. The stupidity of this is just unbelievable...

Yes, completely unbelievable...

Until...

You consider business practices for what is actually providing a public service... De-facto monopolies are very profitable in the short term...

That, and an anachronism of taxation, promoted a dash to using a very dirty fuel for the locomotives.


The "advanced steam turbine" might be workable. But using hydrogen there is very inefficient and wasteful. There is better existing clean tech.


Meanwhile, using hydrogen for steel production is a very good idea. But only if the hydrogen is cleanly acquired... (That is, by not burning oil to get that hydrogen.)


All a very dirty 'game' of business...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
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A big problem in the UK is that the "designers" of heatpump installations assume temperature and humidity ranges that only account for "average" temperature and humidity ranges, which are basically spring through to autumn (temperature above 5C, humidity less than ~75%); ignoring that for about 4 months of the year we can expect temperatures regularly below 5C coupled with humidity above ~75%. The result is the external heat exchanger collects vast amounts of frost and stops working,which obviously means there is little or no heating available. One lazy solution is to embed electric heating into the system - need I say more.
It is possible to design a heat exchanger system that will work in the UK, but it is more expensive to produce, is less efficient when it gets hot (if it ever does in the UK...).
Years ago I was involved in a project to utilise heatpump heating and cooling, while the hardware was capable of doing the duty cycle on the bench the control system was far from perfect in the real world. Years of trial and error (more error than success) it was eventually made to work to the client's satisfaction, but the cost over-run would make Martin's eyes water.....

However, in Scandinavia they have designers who understand their climate, and despite enjoying/enduring much lower winter temperatures than the UK they also have a lower humidity, so have less heat-exchanger icing to contend with.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

... And we still have to overcome the Fossil Fuels lobbying sabotaging the way to cheaper renewables.

Cheaper renewables...

We already have overcome our fossil lobby, our domestic lignite and coal ones. These greedy dinosaurs were forced to sold their dirty business either to a Czech billionaire (who took the deal just because he could prevent debitable liabilities for recultivating the ultra-large open pit mines).

The domestic coal lobby separated and transfered their dirty business into a publicly owned foundation (of course transfering all liabilities and perpetual costs (water management; land subsidence) of ~150 years of deep mining (~1,000 meters)). The former dinosaurs are now role-models, all-clean, and heavily invest into (heavily government subsidized) off-shore wind and solar. Market liberalization (separation of generation from transmission) broke up their monopolies but also relieved them from former duties to reliably feed the grid 24/7 which suddenly became the responsibility of our government grid agency.

Clean dinosaurs now are mere 'market participants' who offer their generation capacities at will (if profitable). The (formerly strict regional or national) dinosaurs acquired critical flexible capacities all over Europe, even as far as the British Isles, making them more influential, more powerful as they ever had been in the past (not all-year-round but on these critical days when renewables are 'out of order' due to 'bad weather'). Now it seems, they began to learn it's sometimes even more profitable to shut off a critical number of their continent-wide dispersed flexible generation (unplanned failure, errr... act of nature... sh*t happens) which on days of stressed renewables supply explodes spot prices continent-wide; not far from market failure. Fantastic profits for even lesser expenses (ENRON gamblers could not have dreamed of such leverage). California 2000-2001? We can surpas that, continent-wide... In theory, the European grid will desintegrate into surviving parts, when supply misses to cover demand. So we firmly believe, it will survive, when physical limits are tested... btw. most severly in the continental grids most connected centre (Germany)... Just, go ahead...

Indeed, renewables became the cheapest way to get electricity---but just 'generate', not 'consume'!): multi megawatts wind turbines and cheap Chinese-made solar arrays. But there are a couple of drawbacks the Green lobby is constantly hiding or denying, because of an ocean of disregarded costs which reverses the main argument: renewables are cheap. The opposite is true; if the goal is 'renewables only'.

• not 24/7, instead totally (reliable generation < 0.4% of capacity) inflexible and weather dependent (wind); resp. day/night: 0% (solar).
  
• solar almost useless during two full months (of our) winter; in the remaining months at least astronomically predictable and supplies a reliable minimal daylight output under worst case weather conditions (overcast);
  
• wind suffers from multiple days-long doldrums (2 weeks-long can be found in historic weather logs (~150 years)); especially in summer and winter; which often are not regional, but once in a while continent-wide (e.g. stable high pressure system in summer or winter)
  
• lengthy doldrums occur offshore too
  

Consequences are:

• a renewables dominated grid requires a widely redundant, manifold oversized transmission grid, with investment costs exceeding (in our case) 400 billion euros; even without costs for extending distribution grids (not on pylons but below sidewalks and streets in each city) for more rooftop solar or BEVs.
  
• massive battery storage to provide balancing power (automatic+manual frequency control reserves) and vital inertia to replace rotating masses of former turbo generators)
  
• reliable worst-case (weather) backup capacity for 100% of peak load: (70? gigawatts) hundreds of gas turbines with just few hundred annual operating hours.... which no one would build or operate without full cost compensation (plus reasonable profit) just for maintaining capacities in cold/hot reserve.
  
• sufficient gas/hydrogen storage for up to nine weeks worst-case reserve (btw.should we even think of and calculate costs for the risks of a volcanic winter?); ashes block sunlight for years; temps drop heavily; less winds.
  
• continent-wide transmission capacities for vast (dozens gigawatt) cross-border flows, by far exceeding the original purpose of HVAC transmission grids (generation near consumption hotspots; mutually shared, minimized backup capacities)
  
• even the cheapest renewables (generation) results in the most expensive electricity (supply) to customers 24/7 (due to grid, backup, balancing costs).
  

So, to overcome fossils please don't copy a 100% renewables approach like we still try. We follow our destiny, another "Endsieg" (final victory) is in the making. "Wunderwaffen" (superweapons; this time not the mighty 'V2 missile', but hydrogen) will achieve it. It needs total collapse first, before we will admit: the path we mutually agreed on (due to ideologic bans for thinking) leads to catastrophe, never earlier---a dangerous peculiarity of our nation.

Please, prefer the American approach (open to every tech; markets decide, not politicians; which even can mean: "Drill baby, drill!". CO2 can be separated and disposed reliably in former gas deposits) or the French approach: nuclear is all you need.

Meanwhile, using hydrogen for steel production is a very good idea. But only if the hydrogen is cleanly acquired... (That is, by not burning oil to get that hydrogen.)

I doubt that, especially if it's clean hydrogen.

• volumes: there will be not sufficient renewable energy in Europe to generate the required masses of hydrogen
  
• import: from Africa (solar) (supposedly ignoring CO2 of sea shipping)...
  
• domestic: you have to industrialize the remaining uninhabited lands (unspoiled nature?) with wind and solar...
  
• costs: hydrogen made steel is many times more expensive; not competitive;
  

So you have to ban (dirty) steel imports; dictate a domestic 'green steel' market; that is: go ahead into a government planned economy where bridges will collapse because building new ones becomes financially infeasible.

Economists or engineers can't demonstrate (reliable calculations instead of propaganda) how such 'plans' for hydrogen as energy storage or for steel production can ever be successful, that's is "competitive" or at least that there's a prospect for competitiveness after a decades-long subsidized development of an hydrogen industry.

We have no autocratic world government to force renewables+hydrogen onto other countries (taking their competitive advantage; resp. forcing e.g. China to iternalize CO2 costs).

A last thought: mutual coordination of coal and steel production capacities was the initial cause to form the "European Coal and Steel Community" in 1950, later "Europ. Economic Community", now "European Union"; not because convinced Europeans were willing to cooperate for the common good; but out of deep distrust of 'German huns' to control this strategic capabilities which is vital for any arms-buildup and warfare. The eternal Russia is also part of this continent (with plenty coal and iron ore).

It seems to me, much of nowadays 'green' transformation plans (e.g. hydrogen pipelines, offshore wind, subsea cables) to save the climate takes a reliable and lasting peace for granted. That's no longer the case.

After our government's record breaking reelection the push is on to become greener.

Labor's home battery subsidy kicks off "strong demand".

Slashing the price for home batteries was one of Labor's flagship policies during the election campaign.

With the election now in the rear-view mirror after an overwhelming win for the Albanese government, many Australians want to know more about the Cheaper Home Batteries Program.

We unpack how much it can save, when it starts, and how it can benefit Australians with and without solar systems on their rooftops.......

Renewables advocates seek swift progress on offshore wind projects after Labor election win.

The re-elected federal government is being urged to get on with establishing Australia's offshore wind industry, with the election result hailed as an endorsement of the renewables rollout.

In the lead-up to the election, opposing Labor's energy plan was a key platform of the Coalition, including a promise to scrap four of the six declared offshore wind zones.

Coalition leadership made rare incursions into Labor's NSW heartland to stoke community opposition to the technology.......

I'm certainly up for a big battery to go with my big solar setup so that I can make more use of its 2nd circuit which ATM only works on very overcast days while turning my place into a big UPS.

The Welsh government has been producing a map of old coal mines as part of an investigation into mine waste/flood water as a source of energy for heating:
https://datamap.gov.wales/maps/mine-water-heat-opportunity-map-for-wales/view#/
South Wales has lots of old abandoned mines, many of which are flooded with slightly warm water. Normally this water runs out through drains and has to be cleaned before being released into surface water courses, using heat pumps it is possible to harvest energy for heating local premises.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Before Australians begin to transform their power grid to green, they should first build power lines. Lots of them. Everywhere. Very long ones. Offshore. Subsea. To all neighbors within a 1,000 km radius.

Without our TWELVE ELEVEN electrical neighbors with approximately 20 GW of import capacity, we in Germany would have long since returned to the Stone Age.

Ohh. Australia only has two close neighbors: Papua New Guinea... and Indonesia... (okay, two and a half... Timor L'Este). The close neighboring islands don't seem to be population centers; helpful generation capacity? Not really.

Australia has a very different problem to those of us living the Europe - small population spread over a vast land area. To give you an idea of the population of Australia is about the same as that of London, but that is spread over a landmass just a little bit less than the whole of Europe. Most of that population lives a handful of fairly large cities which are spread around the edge, and the distance between each is not trivial. Given this the fairly localised electric generation makes sense, particularly out in the outback where your nearest neighbour can be well over 100km away.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

A large number of the population of PNG is living near stone age. Think thatched roof. Only 19% of the population has electricity, 47% water and 25% sanitation.
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/papua-new-guinea/

A large number of the population of PNG is living near stone age. Think thatched roof. Only 19% of the population has electricity, 47% water and 25% sanitation.
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/papua-new-guinea/

Don't despise a thatched roof. The most expensive houses on our island of Sylt (Germany's 'Martha's Vineyard') have thatched roofs...

But just 19% with electricity means PNG faces more fundamental challenges than electricity trading or shared backup capacities.

So, I think with todays HVAC/HVDC tech there's no country Australia can build an interconnector to; in order to increase its grid reliability.

this is PNG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_qvqghoTUM

Australia has a very different problem to those of us living the Europe - small population spread over a vast land area. To give you an idea of the population of Australia is about the same as that of London, but that is spread over a landmass just a little bit less than the whole of Europe. Most of that population lives a handful of fairly large cities which are spread around the edge, and the distance between each is not trivial. Given this the fairly localised electric generation makes sense, particularly out in the outback where your nearest neighbour can be well over 100km away.

You also have to take in the fact that 80% of our population lives within an hour's drive of the coast from Cairns to Adelaide, the rest are small pockets dotted around the rest of the coastline or wherever a good source of water can be had as we are the 2nd driest continent in the world and 1 of the sunniest. This results in a power grid that looks like this.

An overview of Australia's electricity transmission networks.

But more is required to better distribute all that new green power.

AEMO maps 10,000km of high-voltage transmission lines that need to be built across Australia.

Before Australians begin to transform their power grid to green, they should first build power lines. Lots of them. Everywhere. Very long ones. Offshore. Subsea. To all neighbors within a 1,000 km radius.

Without our TWELVE ELEVEN electrical neighbors with approximately 20 GW of import capacity, we in Germany would have long since returned to the Stone Age.

Ohh. Australia only has two close neighbors: Papua New Guinea... and Indonesia... (okay, two and a half... Timor L'Este). The close neighboring islands don't seem to be population centers; helpful generation capacity? Not really.

Yes we could get power to PNG, but where does it go from there? There are very few roads there and they don't go far which is why transport by water or air are the major way to move about that country other than walking. Have you seen films about the Kokoda Track? Well most of the country is just like that if not worse. But there is this in the planning for another country.

World's biggest clean energy project to power Singapore from Australia.

These days with solar panels being so cheap and batteries getting cheaper all the time many people around here are going totally off grid these days with new builds. Government rebates these days make it even cheaper to do that. On a bad day like today my solar system generated a 30Kw day while on a sunny summer's day that can go up to a 60Kw day. A big battery is next on my list in about 18mths time to take care of my night time drain off of the grid.

We should soon have gravity batteries working to make our power grid more green base load reliable instead of relying on chemical ones. A prototype is now under going testing down in Woollongong.

Australian start-up eyes disused mine shafts for giga-scale gravity energy storage.

This results in a power grid that looks like this.

An overview of Australia's electricity transmission networks.

Wow... I do know that north of Perth it's more or less 'Outback' except for a few coastal towns... but south of Perth looks quite developed... I didn't know that Perth, resp. whole of Western Australia and Northern Territories is not connected to a nationwide grid.

But more is required to better distribute all that new green power.

That's an issue. But my argument was about the hours or days when there's not sufficient green power. Thousands of kilometers of new grid don't change anything. It's chepeast to balance intermittent renewables with vast import capacities from neighboring countries for nighttime hours, resp. days without wind.

AEMO maps 10,000km of high-voltage transmission lines that need to be built across Australia.

I think our German grid development plans states far less than 10,000 km. Ours is ultra expensive (n * 100B euros). So, how can a far smaller society of just 27M people achieve (pay for) such a vast construction effort; credit costs, refinancing; continuous maintenance? Do you think that Australian grid projects are planned, resp. controlled by competent economists? If so, please hint their contact addresses. Our headhunters will offer them a contract they won't reject.

Yes we could get power to PNG, [...]. But there is this in the planning for another country.

You can... But you can't import significantly FROM PNG to help balance renewables.

Singapore seems promising; but a distance of 5,000 km (3,000 mi) is excessive even for HVDC. Investment costs of $22B... pheww.... Current insulated HVDC cables had less than half the lifetime of ordinary HVAC conductors (just ~25 years for e.g. KONTEK (DK-DE) HVDC cable (paper insulated, oil cooled); at least half of costs is for cables. Until breakeven... 'lots of water will go down the Rhine river'...

These days with solar panels being so cheap and batteries getting cheaper all the time many people around here are going totally off grid these days with new builds. [...]

I've never seen a credible realistic cost calculation over the whole expected lifetime of solar+battery for Germany; it's a green feeling of 'good deed', so I doubt that.

BUT, I do believe it will be profitable (compared to grid and increasing prices due to CO2 compensation for fossils) in Australia where sun is almost in zenith at Christmas and no pronounced winter darkness.

We should soon have gravity batteries working to make our power grid more green base load reliable instead of relying on chemical ones. [...]

Evolution of Lithium batteries took almost three decades. There's no grid-scale gravity battery anywhere on earth, just experiments, research projects. Each new tech passes many development phases before it eventually evolves fit for its intended purpose. Gravity battery means lots of mechnical stuff to maintain; things will wear, needs regular replacement or will break down. Cost calculation? Nobody knows.

I do believe in pumped hydro gravity, proven tech since a century; Unfortunately: '[Australia is] the 2nd driest continent'.

It looks like Europe may have to source canola seeds from somewhere else for their bio-fuels as we plan to jump onto the bandwagon.

Plan to manufacture aviation fuel from Australian canola well underway.

Australian farmers could soon be fuelling jets with a low-carbon liquid fuel made from canola.

Aviation accounts for about 2.5 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions and is difficult to decarbonise.

A push to replace fossil fuel with sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) is raising the prospect of a new market for the Australian-grown oilseed.

Canola, known for its pretty yellow flowers, is harvested in grain-growing regions around the country, with the majority exported to Europe for biofuel production.....

It looks like Europe may have to source canola seeds from somewhere else for their bio-fuels as we plan to jump onto the bandwagon.

Canola, known for its pretty yellow flowers, is harvested in grain-growing regions around the country, with the majority exported to Europe for biofuel production.....

I always suspected that they import all these biofuels from distant continents since our government ordered a mandatory biofuel component of 5% in petrol, up to 7% in Diesel fuel and introduced the additional petrol flavour "Super E10" (95 with 10% biofuels) for all gas stations. The "E10" flavour in the beginning endangered older cars (some specific Audi models just three years old...), as this is an aggressive mix of ethanol and petrol that damaged gaskets and rubber tubes unsuitable for this fuel. We had compatibility lists to check if a type of car and year of production was fit for E10.

We should stop this idiocy. Better to save fuel, drive less, take the bike or improve train services than transporting biofuels across the globe from Australia...

How can this be?...!


How SOLAR PARKS are fixing up abandoned COAL MINES
wrote:

Communities all over the world have been badly affected by the closure of coal mines in recent years. Those abandoned mines also continue to leak toxins into local waterways and emit thousands of tonnes of methane into the atmosphere. But their proximity to grid connections and infrastructure make them ideal sites...

WOW! The numbers are quite a surprise...

"Coal-to-Solar" is a very real thing and is one big leap to help our planet for the better. This is well under way already. That is, now.

And as is all too often with the corrupt Western financial ways: The West falls way behind as China leads the way to save our planet for themselves!

Really?!

See for yourself.

Can someone somehow explain this to Trump?...


All on our only one planet.
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
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A beautiful way to go:


This New York City island was once a military base. Now it’s becoming a climate solutions hub – in pictures
wrote:

Governors Island, a 172-acre island in New York Harbor only accessible by ferry, attracts nearly a million visitors each year. More recently, it has evolved into an educational hub and incubator for solutions to facing the city’s climate and environmental challenges...

How to spread the good healthy ways further?...

All on our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

China leads the way forwards, in ALL respects!


China makes landmark pledge to cut its climate emissions
wrote:

China, the world's biggest source of planet-warming gases, has for the first time committed to an absolute target to cut its emissions...

... China would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions across the economy by 7-10% by 2035, while "striving to do better"...

... "These targets represent China's best efforts based on the requirements of the Paris agreement," President Xi said.

It also covers all greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide, and will be measured "from peak levels" of emissions...

... He added China would:

• expand wind and solar power capacity to more than six times 2020 levels
  
  
• increase forest stocks to more than 24bn cubic metres
  
  
• make "new energy vehicles" the mainstream in new vehicle sales...
  

... What gives some observers hope is that China has a track record of exceeding many of its international climate commitments.

It had, for example, pledged to reach a capacity of 1,200 gigawatts for wind and solar power by 2030. It smashed through that goal in 2024 – six years early...

... "There is also mounting evidence that the country's emissions are plateauing, with this year's levels expected to be lower than in 2024,"...

Who would have guessed for such a rapid turn-around?

Hopefully...

For our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)