Meanwhile, on the same week that the Climate Plan was announced, the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar travelled to Brussels to obtain a €350 million loan from the European Investment Bank for investment in Dublin Airport - to facilitate European and global travel in the future.
It is perhaps one of the most astonishing cases of cognitive dissonance in Irish political history. Or it indicates that the European Union and the Irish government are not actually concerned about (or believe in) climate change except when it suits their own agendas.
This government is so idiotic it does not know what is doing or saying.At the same time as it wants to introduce a carbon tax in Ireland. To reduce emissions. Its renewable energy policies are helping the UK significantly reduce their emissions. We are now in a situation where circa 33% of wind generation is being exported to the UK. With negative prices higher than -€100 per MGWh. We are also exporting some fossil generation to the UK increasing our carbon emissions.. As the emissions stay where they are generated.It is not surprising that air travel is not impacted.Technically it is impossible to generate 70% wind based electricity to supply the internal market. Effectively Denmark tells us that as you increase interconnection capacity all you do is enable most of you wind generation to be exported.A large percentage supplied at negative prices.So it is unlikely that any carbon tax enforced will make a blind bit of difference to our emissions.We certainly have an extraordinary collection of Walter Mitty type characters currently in Dail Eireann.
ReplyDelete1. Jet Setting Leo certainly appears to have made air travel a main priority issue.
ReplyDeleteOne wonders if Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) will be issuing Taoiseach Leo Vradakar with a Free Air Travel pass?
Note the token, virtue signalling, Climate Change mitigation measure in the electrification of the airport vehicle fleet.
Electric Vehicles are unsustainable and will increase carbon emissions.
The Lithium Ion batteries also add weight to vehicles and take up more space.
Lithium Ion battery technology is unstable and may spontaneously auto combust/explode.
There are currently zero internationally recognised safety standards, fire suppression, fire extinguishing standards for electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/8913953/tesla-model-s-erupting-ball-fire-china/
'Safety concerns are now growing even more with the emergence of large format batteries such as battery electric vehicle batteries and grid scale energy storage solutions.'
https://li-cycle.com/2018/06/01/lithium-ion-battery-thermal-runaway-whats-the-risk/
Will the airport electric vehicle fleet be powered via high carbon footprint Lithium Ion Battery Energy Storage System Bombs?
https://www.abc15.com/news/region-west-valley/surprise/fd-four-firefighters-injured-in-surprise-hazmat-incident
How does electrifying the airport vehicle fleet square with prohibiting Lithium Ion batteries in checked in luggage for safety reasons?!
'Prohibited items in a checked bag
Lithium-ion battery operated vehicles (including segways & hoverboards) other than wheechair/mobility equipment that comply with Ryanair's regulations on mobility equipment
Lithium-ion powered Personal Electronic Device (PED) e.g. IPAD/Tablet/mobile phone'
https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful-info/baggage/permitted-and-restricted-items
ReplyDelete2. 'In their study, the authors criticize the fact that EU legislation allows electric vehicles to be included in calculations for fleet emissions with a value of “zero” CO2 emissions, as this suggests that electric vehicles do not generate any such emissions. The reality is that, in addition to the CO2 emissions generated in the production of electric vehicles, almost all EU countries generate significant CO2 emissions from charging the vehicles’ batteries using their national energy production mixes.' (17/4/2019)
https://www.ifo.de/en/node/37982
https://www.euractiv.com/section/batteries/news/uk-scientists-warn-raw-material-output-must-surge-to-hit-ev-growth/
'..... to meet UK electric car targets for 2050 we would need to produce just under two times the current total annual world cobalt production, nearly the entire world production of neodymium, three quarters the world’s lithium production and at least half of the world’s copper production.
A 20% increase in UK-generated electricity would be required to charge the current 252.5 billion miles to be driven by UK cars.'
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/press-office/press-releases/leading-scientists-set-out-resource-challenge-of-meeting-net-zer.html
https://www.euronews.com/amp/2019/03/21/electric-car-batteries-damaging-to-environment-amnesty-international
https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0321/1037645-amnesty_evs/
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/my-articles/congos-miners-dying-to-feed-worlds-hunger-for-electric-cars-jcrvj37vr
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/11/industry-giants-fail-to-tackle-child-labour-allegations-in-cobalt-battery-supply-chains/
3. Has any comprehensive analysis been undertaken into the costs, the possible reduced vehicle performance and the increased safety issues of electrifying the airport vehicle fleet and how will the added electric vehicle fleet safety issues impact on airport insurance cover?
ReplyDeleteWhat are the total costs of electrifying the entire airport vehicle fleet including the required supporting energy infrastructure?
Does the 20yr €350m EIB transport loan to DAA cover the cost of just one airport vehicle fleet or several replacement fleets over 20yrs?
Does that loan of €350m seem a little on the high side for the stated 'upgrade' airport works to be carried out? How is DAA revenue going to be increased in order to pay back the €350m EIB loan keeping in mind that the next budget fiscal space may be limited to €600m?
'In his summer economic statement, Mr Donohoe looks set to adhere to a €2.8bn increase in spending for next year. However, €2.2bn of that is already committed, leaving just €600m to be allocated in the pessimistic scenario.'
https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/tds-to-be-warned-debt-levels-mean-ireland-is-very-exposed-to-the-next-crash-932797.html
Leo worries about incurring the wrath of Merkel and Macron who are lame duck leaders but may soon have to meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is less polished. They just have enough intelligence to realize an airplane must have fossil fuel to fly and if it stops flying it will crash. He believes electric cars will abate carbon, they won't and that wind farms will reduce the amount of fuel being burned, it won't. The one thing he can be sure of is the Irish voters are as ignorant as himself so that only extreme fuel poverty will bring them to their senses. Its a pity the rest of us must grin a bear it while anther economic burst takes shape. My dossier of the insolvency of Irish wind farms is now available. E-mail valamhic@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteSince this blog was posted the Dublin Airport Authority have published this press release on their website.
ReplyDelete“We are focused on sustainability across both airports and are introducing more LEV's.....,” Mr Philips added. At Dublin Airport, a pilot solar farm was opened last year which provides more than half the energy to power its reservoir control system and two further solar farms are planned at the airport.'
https://www.daa.ie/dublin-and-cork-airports-commit-to-achieve-net-zero-emissions-by-2050/
LEV's are Low Emission Vehicles including Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV's) and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV's).
We can take it from the following statement that by introducing more LEV's Mr.Philips means Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV's).
'....conversion of the airport’s vehicle fleet to be entirely electric.'
http://merrionstreet.ie/en/News-Room/News/An_Taoiseach_to_visit_European_Investment_Bank_and_welcomes_EUR_350m_Dublin_Airport_investment.html
Note that the United States of America National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) classes solar panels and the batteries in electric vehicles and in Energy Storage Systems as 'High Risk Hazards'
https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Resources/Emergency-Responders/High-risk-hazards
So just how wise is it in terms of the practicalities, cost and above all safety to be electrifying the airport vehicle fleet?
How safe is it for example to have electric vehicles loading up luggage into the cargo hold of fully fuelled aircraft?
And just how many solar panels would be required to fully power the airport vehicle fleet? And what happens on the overcast days? How many charging points would be required? And how many man hours would be wasted in fully charging up the airport electric vehicle fleet?