This year’s Greenbird land record attempt is a washout. I didn’t even get to Australia…
The lake is normally dry in September, but this year it’s wet due to uncharacteristic rain fall. There was over 29 mm more rain in July and August this year than 2007. And July had twice its monthly average fall in 2 days at the end of the month. Plus August had its monthly average quota fall over just 12 hours. These unusual and changing weather patterns, typical results of the impact of climate change, have scuppered our record attempt.
We’re pretty disappointed not to have even been able to get the Greenbird out of the starting blocks. And it’s an irony not lost on us while that while Greenbird is intended to show how the world might be getting around when fossil fuels run out – the changes that fossil fuels are causing to our climate right now appears to be the very thing that has stopped us.
In the next twenty years, I firmly believe that wind power will be our main energy source and wind-powered cars will no longer be the stuff of dreams. We’re dedicated to making this a reality, and at the end of this year hope to have our second generation wind powered car on the road here in the UK, an everyday kind of wind powered car. We need to change the world, nothing less will do and for that (amongst other things) we need a transport solution for world post oil. Wind power has the potential to provide this.
Until next year!
Bummer… I was looking forward to hearing more about the attempt…
Well – at least it isn’t just the UK that has developed a monsoon period!
Transport is a serious issue. Cars are a serious problem. Wind-powered cars are not a solution, just the same as biofuel-powered cars are not a solution. We are going to need all the wind power we can get for lots of things, but for transport?
We already have a brilliant way of getting around when the oil runs out – “a transport solution for the world post oil”. It’s called the bike. It’s used by huge populations around the world. You may have ignored it. It happens to be the one of the most efficient machines known to man, and certainly the most efficient in transport terms.
There are plenty of bikes around, so we don’t even really need to build new ones, but when we do, they tend to be a lot less polluting in production than cars of any variety – but especially electric cars – especially whole new design and production systems for whole new cars .
There are also plenty of load-carrying bikes, that I can forgive you more for ignoring. These aren’t so well known, but are certainly a more viable option for out future to invest in than flights to australia to mess around with world records.
The irony of climate change stopping you from this waste of time is clearly lost on you… I find it entirely appropriate: the Climate is making it quite clear that we haven’t got time to mess around with technofixes, especially when solutions lie waiting all around us!
Hi Peter – It would take just 12% more electricity than we currently use in the UK – to power all of our cars (if they were all electric). That’s well within the realms of the possible. The UK has enough wind energy to power the whole grid three to four times over, plenty to spare to run our cars.
I’m not ignoring the bike, it’s a great way to get about – but it’s not for everyone and can’t work in all situations. You have to be realistic about that.
We don’t need to build new cars either, we can retrofit the ones we have. Our second generation wind powered car is exactly that – a car taken off the road, it’s internal combustion gubbins stripped out, electrified and put back on the road. From gas guzzling polluting machine to sustainable and clean.
Pity you think Greenbird is a waste of time, I think anything that gets people’s attention, gets them thinking about these issues and how we’ll have to change the way we live – is more than worthwhile. Cheers.
Peter Pannier,
Evidently you didn’t read Dale’s Post too closely since he clearly states; “it’s an irony not lost on us” that Climate change “appears to be the very thing that has stopped us.”
But I’ll forgive you for ignoring this.
[...] out more at Dales site Zero Carbonista on the attempt or directly at the Greenbird website (PS its a lovely looking website!) greenbird, [...]
Any short term deviation from the norm in the weather is not attributable to ‘climate change’ and it’s frankly bizarre that you link a couple of wet months in Australia with the long term climate of the planet.
Alexis, my understanding of climate change is that we’ll have not only long term changes in our weather but we’ll experience dramatic changes in the short term too – freak, extreme unusual weather – like two months rain in two days in a part of the world that had been ‘dry’ for five years. Fits the description. Climate Change is not some long term gradual thing (only) it’s about in your face short term extremes that are already killing people. Cheers.
Hi Dale
There have always been extremes though. You can’t attribute every weather event to climate change. Would the 1974 cyclone which nearly destroyed Darwin come under the heading of ‘climate change’? It is an extreme after all.
Hi Alexis,
Yes there have always been extremes, but these have usually been localised and individual extremes. What we have now is a world-wide phenomena and ‘Global Warming’ (sounds almost cuddly), and ‘Climate Change’ are not really descriptive enough of what is happening, I prefer the expression ‘Climate Chaos’ as this is surely more accurate and easier understood.
As a former race driver I agree with Dale’s aims and his comment that Greenbird “would get them [people] thinking”. That’s a dangerous thing, getting people’s attention and making them think… that’s when things start to change.
Hi Alexis, I’m with Fr Peter on this one.
Wonder if you heard the ‘Costing the Earth’ Radio 4 programme the other day about EVs and hydrogen. Someone thinks electrolysis machines in peoples homes and internal combustion engines run on hydrogen seem more likely. similar to your retrofitting i guess, but probably cheaper. and they were talking about normal cars not sports cars. you know how i feel about all that, but still. thought i’d pass on a crunched number of theirs.
compared to your 12%, they went with 17%. i think that’s significant.
more importantly, i’m amazed you dismiss 12%, given that you’re still on 30% for your limited number of customers, and stuggling to free yourselves from market prices as a result. (and the UK generally is on what? – less than 5% genuine renewable right).
i’d focus on producing enough electric for what we use now, and trying to get people to reduce it, rather than encouraging them /saying that we as a society can use more! (bottlenecks in planning aside, obviously. i’m thinking about that one too…)
Thanks Peter, didn’t hear of that Radio 4 program, or the hydrogen economy stats.
The figures we’ve seen show that hydrogen cars will do one third of the miles per unit of electricity that pure EVs will do – and that was hydrogen fuel cell cars – the internal combustion version is worse still.
I stand by our 12% and we’ve set out the basis for the calculation – it’s in the open and open to challenge.
Hydrogen cars can’t make sense given the energy efficiency involved.
Regarding our fuel mix, we’re just about to announce that for last year (official figures just in) where we forecast/promised 30% from own green – we delivered in fact 37%…!
We’re pretty pleased with that, coming as it did despite strong growth in customer numbers and therefore being a moving (increasing) target.
For the year we are in now we’re forecasting we’ll hit 50%…….!
Making good progress.
Yep – the UK only has 5% renewables, so much more needs to be done by every one of us.
We can’t ignore the impending oil crisis just because the electricity situation is a mountain to climb though. It’s coming and we need ideas and strategies to deal with it. And we can’t hope to deal with climate change if we don’t deal with cars.
Cheers.
[quote]The figures we’ve seen show that hydrogen cars will do one third of the miles per unit of electricity that pure EVs will do – and that was hydrogen fuel cell cars ..[/quote]
Do you have any data on the buses that are currently tested in major european cities?
I see them frequently but the public transport company doesn’t publish any data except the general PR stuff about only exhausting vapor
Hi Tom, sorry I don’t have any specific bus data, but I suspect the ratios would be the same, that it would require three times as much energy to power via hydrogen than via electricity.
Cheers.