Daily Archives: February 8, 2022
The Early Bird . . .
Jan and I were on our way this afternoon about 12:45 with our first stop at the Lowe’s over on FM646 to pick up a Rubbermaid white shelf board for a project we’re working on in the rig. Then it was on up to Webster to get my X-rays done in prep for my 3 month evaluation with my Neurosurgeon, or more likely his P.A., Alexandria.
We always try to get at our doctor’s appointment about 15 minutes early, even though we’re probably just going to sit there for 15-20 minutes after our appointment. But today, the Early Bird got the . . . early appointment. After I signed in at the receptionist’s window I turned to walk over to the chairs, but just then the door opened and the X-ray was calling my name. I was surprised, since no one had even had a chance to see that I had signed in.
So I was in and out in about 10 minutes and we were leaving the parking lot even before our 2pm appointment.
Nice.
Because our next stop was right up the road at Pho Barr once again. And once again I asked about when the new Pho Barr down in our area was going to open. And once again I was told ‘next month’. But when I reminded him that last month he told us ‘next month’, he just shrugged.
Oh, well.
And after our delicious lunch we stopped by the office for a few minutes before heading home.
Food For Thought:
Recently I reading an article about the Electric Vehicle revolution, and came across some surprising facts that foreshadow a lot of problems.
With an Executive Order and an associated Action Plan, the administration recently called for 50% of all new vehicles sold in America by 2030 to be EVs.
That means an additional 50 million new EVs on the road in the next nine years. And the administration calls for 500,000 new charger stations to be built as well.
All fine and good, I guess.
But what’s missing in all this is where to power to charge all the new EV vehicles is going to come from.
It seems that the average EV uses 3000 kWh per year. So for 50 million new EV’s we’ll need an additional 150 Billion kWh of generating capacity.
Think that solar and wind farms might save the day?
Well, the largest solar farm in the country generates about 1.3 billion kWh per year, and the largest wind farm generates about 6.6 billion kWh of useable electricity per year.
Even the average fossil fueled power plant only generates about 7.7 billion kWh of useable electricity in one year.
So we’re looking at building 20 new fossil fuel plants or almost 50 solar/wind farms in the next 8 years. But there’s a problem.
Due to environmental objections, permitting, and other evaluations, it can take 5 years before you can even think about starting to build a new plant of any type. And even then it can take 10 years before a new plant comes online.
So where’s all this electricity going to come from?
And even if you have the power, will you be able to charge your EV.
Apparently people are stripping the charging stations of their cables to sell the copper, leaving this when you pull in to charge.
Tesla gets all its Supercharger cables stolen at brand new station
That’s reassuring.
Thought For The Day:
Apparently Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, so there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.
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