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Old 01-02-2018, 07:57 AM   #684 (permalink)
sendler
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Join Date: May 2011
Location: Syracuse, NY USA
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Honda CBR250R FI Single - '11 Honda CBR250R
90 day: 105.14 mpg (US)

2001 Honda Insight stick - '01 Honda Insight manual
90 day: 60.68 mpg (US)

2009 Honda Fit auto - '09 Honda Fit Auto
90 day: 38.51 mpg (US)

PCX153 - '13 Honda PCX150
90 day: 104.48 mpg (US)

2015 Yamaha R3 - '15 Yamaha R3
90 day: 80.94 mpg (US)

Ninja650 - '19 Kawasaki Ninja 650
90 day: 72.57 mpg (US)
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Pictures are worth a thousand words. Germany has been the world leader in RE build out. But it needs at least another 10X solar and 3X wind. Solar pv is so intermittent in the winter in Northern Latitudes. Narrow spikes. There is so little area under the graph making energy. No conceivable amount of batteries will flatten that out. And the wind didn't blow for ten days in a row. Distributed solar pv in winter plus batteries will be better than nothing to provide very basic needs for a very thrifty house (if it uses radiant heat from biomass), but it cannot power a civilization. Not this one. The USA is at 1% electrical uptake from solar. Keep in mind that is showing only electricity consumption. We will eventually need to replace all fossil energy which will be seasonally 3-5X that amount. Plus another 30% growth in 30 years. And develope effective liquid fuel conversion to power farm and mining machinery.
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All of this technology works fine if the population was 1/5th and people grew most of their own food/ biomass heat. And could stay home from work when there is a shortage of energy/ migrate in winter. And could share wealth more evenly. We have to find a de-growth economy that works while most "jobs" shift to energy transformation and sustainable food production without artificial fertilizers.