[eltonioni]

I have long thought of setting up a business to produce 'rare bee orchids' and 'great crested newts' for hire to NIMBY protesters to every development.

I wonder can I get lockdown funding for this?

Rob P

Forget hiring them out, what you have there is a business for relocating 'rare bee orchids' and 'great crested newts' which will be much more profitable. Then you can buy an airfield.

[cockney steve]

@eltonioni said 25% of people live in terraced,
25% " " " " flats
33% " " " " housing association
20% " " " " private rented houses
It seems that 102 % of the population live in these categories, making me the only person in the country who not only owns their own house, but lives in it as well ! Have I got it wrong, somewhere? I note many further contributors appear to have unquestioningly accepted these figures.

[nallen]

@eltonioni said 25% of people live in terraced,
25% " " " " flats
33% " " " " housing association
20% " " " " private rented houses
It seems that 102 % of the population live in these categories, making me the only person in the country who not only owns their own house, but lives in it as well ! Have I got it wrong, somewhere? I note many further contributors appear to have unquestioningly accepted these figures.

I just assumed that @eltonioni was silently overlapping categories, i.e. social housing can be terraced houses or flats, etc.

[malcolmfrost]

The majority (it's roughly 60:40) of UK dwellings have off street parking. But it gets better. Those who don't drive cars are over-represented in the dwellings with no car parking. PWC recently estimated that a stunning 84% of UK drivers have access to off-street parking at home

From this blog by PodPoint
https://pod-point.com/electric-car-news/electric-car-no-driveway

[Bill McCarthy]

Plug into a lamp post.

[cockney steve]

Whatever happened to Compressed natural gas? most homes in/close to urban areas have piped-gas. There were compressors available to to pump it into your vehicle . As the gas came from your normal meter. I assume the road tax would have to be uplifted to compensate for the lost fuel-duty revenue.

That same situation also arises with electric cars. LPG road-fuel is taxed and I've tried to compare it with ordinary bottled propane. I conclude the bottled-gas industry is charging the same as road-fuel and making a good profit margin!
Converting big petrol-cars to run on petrol/lpg was quite popular in the 1960's but price of gas rose and it's only a cost-effective conversion for high mileage-users.
I see a huge problem in building crash-worthy Hydrogen vehicles(OK, only a minor problem in Orkney! )

Carbon/kevlar tanks have revolutionised the medical oxygen business, but Hydrogen is a different beast altogether and despite Bill's reassurances, I think the average Joe Public will struggle to safely connect/disconnect the fill apparatus. -therefore, like LPG it will remain a niche market.
Unless battery-prices reduce dramatically, Electric will remain the province of the above -average -income sector. The man on the Clapham omnibus will not be able to afford the capital costs -even on HP, and the present subsidy -regime is unsustainable. I continue to run "bangers" at under 20p a mile, all-in.

[malcolmfrost]

It will be interesting to see what happens August 2022 as the first 3 year Tesla 3 leases start to expire and cars get released into the second hand market.

[nallen]

Whatever happened to Compressed natural gas?

You can buy cars in Italy that run on CNG; many manufacturers offer "metano" as an option there. But whereas an LPG tank is a relatively simple thing, CNG requires a seriously chunky vessel.

[Paul_Sengupta]

Maybe don't bother with compressing it.

[Bill McCarthy]

Orkneys next project is to build an ammonia plant using excess power from wind turbines - ammonia being a rich source of hydrogen. Millions of tons of it are produced every year throughout the world as a fertiliser.

[eltonioni]

The majority (it's roughly 60:40) of UK dwellings have off street parking. But it gets better. Those who don't drive cars are over-represented in the dwellings with no car parking. PWC recently estimated that a stunning 84% of UK drivers have access to off-street parking at home

From this blog by PodPoint
https://pod-point.com/electric-car-news/electric-car-no-driveway

That's a mere six million households which park their average 1.2 vehicles on the street.

Of the rest, off-street parking does not mean private, personal, suitable, affordable, in use or available to use. Battery electric vehicles look like even more of a dead-end (hopefully a stepping-stone) when we put numbers on the problems of charging them.

[stevelup]

Once BEVs can be charged in not much more than the time it takes to fill a car with fossil fuel, and have a range equivalent to that of a fossil car, that will be the end of the problem.

It will come.

[eltonioni]

Once BEVs can be charged in not much more than the time it takes to fill a car with fossil fuel, and have a range equivalent to that of a fossil car, that will be the end of the problem.

It will come.

Technically, quite probably, but Shell won't be doing it for 5p a fill up.

The maths of creating masses of new on-street charging points don't add up to me if we expect current domestic costs. For example, if I requested a new incoming power cable of decent length from a nearby substation I'd expect to pay about £1000 per metre just for digging / refilling the trench, laying a 3 phase cable in it and connecting it at the substation end. No fancy paving, no moving other services (fibre optic.. shudder!!), no charging points every 8 metres , no commissioning, no maintenance, no finance costs, no sinking fund, no payback, no profit!... etc.

[mikehallam]

Orkneys next project is to build an ammonia plant using excess power from wind turbines - ammonia being a rich source of hydrogen. Millions of tons of it are produced every year throughout the world as a fertiliser.

So a simple granules container feeding NH3 to a compact Hydrogen splitter. Waste gas Nitrogen plus water vapour.
Sounds too easy to be true, but avoids expensive high pressure & hazardous gas stores and transfer s.
Tell us more please.

[nallen]

Meantime, Norway's auto-electrification continues apace:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/05/electric-cars-record-market-share-norway