Sacramento International Airport working toward greener future that includes electric planes
SACRAMENTO — California's capital city has some of the worst air quality in the nation, and efforts are underway at Sacramento International Airport (SMF) to help cut back on pollution emissions.
And a diesel generator that's big enough to power a supertanker has to be fired up to run the generator to power the charger.
The CA power grid is never going to have that much excess capacity, neither in unused generation capacity nor in the power line delivery capacity. So the only question is which quick-start fossil fuel engine will you use to power the generator - light fuel oil and a diesel engine or natural gas and a turbine engine?
If Sac has bad air its because of the voluminous wind bags of political filth. Also, because the place sits in the SJ Valley. The valley is a bowl with tall mountains on four sides, except for the cut at the Golden Gate. If the geography were not that, even the large amount of ag ops in the valley wouldn't affect the air quality as much.
But they don't tell you that. Because the subject is electrifying everything and how its going to save the world and each of us with our very own pet unicorn. Ooo, I tingle just to think about it.
You forgot about the main cause of the San Joaquin Valley's pollution - the Altamont Pass is a wide open gate for the fucking Bay Area's smog. I used to work right at the base of the Altamont and would watch the smog just roll in through the pass. Every county in the Valley had strict emissions control through smog checks, yet the fucking Bay Area didn't have smog checks because their air is so clean. Yeah, that's because all their smog was blowing into the Valley!
Blodgett Forest, a research forest above Georgetown, which is east of Auburn and Placerville, has done studies on the effects of the 'urban plume' on conifer forests in the Sierra.
Want to guess what the 'urban plume' is and where it originates from?
I consider that pass as part of the Golden Gate. Basically the entire area between Mt Tam to Mt Diablo. The prevailing NW winds blow everything into the valley. Then there is the advection (Tule) fog which acts to accrete the airborne particulates. For most of the winter, that smog reaches to 4,000 above sea level. That's without an inversion layer. It can go higher.
I liked that area around Tracy. Haven't been for 20 years or so. Calm and peaceful on a summer evening.
Sacremento Airport has shit for brains. Can I say that? They are displacing their pollution to somewhere else. The electric for the jet ways is coming from somewhere. The new batteries and busses are being mined/built from somewhere. The charger infrastructure is all new and mined/built from somewhere. The solar panels are new and mined/built from somewhere. They probably do not have the maintenance of cleaning and repairing taken into account for the panels. The solar panels a raising the heat of the planet from being black and capturing all that sun. Solar panels displaced plants that could be filtering the air and cooling the temperature. And so on...
Nobody with the IQ of a soap bubble would entrust their fate to a machine that runs in batteries to drag your ass up to 30,000 feet then catch fire, lose it's charge or fail in some other fashion. EV technology is not a rousing success on the ground. The challenges of flight will increase the complexity and opportunities for failures several fold.
I read earlier today how an electric plane took twelve days to fly from Vermont to Florida. The Pony Express only took ten days to travel from St Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento.
Current planes need to be a lot lighter when landing, with considerable reduction in the combustibles on board compared with take off. They cannot safely land with their take off load. For that reason they can jettison fuel if an emergency occurs soon after take off. Imagine, if you will, that you are on a battery powered plane, battery fully charged, when just after take off there is an emergency requiring immediate landing. No point circling to use up charge, because a discharged battery weighs the same as a fully charged battery, and is just as inflamable. Maybe the plane can be designed with bomb doors so that all lovely lithium can be dumped on the environment below. Count me out.
Yes, they are that stupid....
ReplyDeleteNot gonna happen unless the weight of the batt pack is reduced significantly and that pesky spontaneous combusting is eliminated altogether.
ReplyDeleteChutes Magoo
Can't wait to see a B-787 Dreamliner pluged in for a quick turnaround.
ReplyDeleteAnd a diesel generator that's big enough to power a supertanker has to be fired up to run the generator to power the charger.
DeleteThe CA power grid is never going to have that much excess capacity, neither in unused generation capacity nor in the power line delivery capacity. So the only question is which quick-start fossil fuel engine will you use to power the generator - light fuel oil and a diesel engine or natural gas and a turbine engine?
Getting rid of the POC’s would be a big step.
ReplyDeleteIf Sac has bad air its because of the voluminous wind bags of political filth. Also, because the place sits in the SJ Valley. The valley is a bowl with tall mountains on four sides, except for the cut at the Golden Gate. If the geography were not that, even the large amount of ag ops in the valley wouldn't affect the air quality as much.
ReplyDeleteBut they don't tell you that. Because the subject is electrifying everything and how its going to save the world and each of us with our very own pet unicorn. Ooo, I tingle just to think about it.
You forgot about the main cause of the San Joaquin Valley's pollution - the Altamont Pass is a wide open gate for the fucking Bay Area's smog.
DeleteI used to work right at the base of the Altamont and would watch the smog just roll in through the pass.
Every county in the Valley had strict emissions control through smog checks, yet the fucking Bay Area didn't have smog checks because their air is so clean. Yeah, that's because all their smog was blowing into the Valley!
Blodgett Forest, a research forest above Georgetown, which is east of Auburn and Placerville, has done studies on the effects of the 'urban plume' on conifer forests in the Sierra.
DeleteWant to guess what the 'urban plume' is and where it originates from?
Yeah. You guessed it.
I consider that pass as part of the Golden Gate. Basically the entire area between Mt Tam to Mt Diablo. The prevailing NW winds blow everything into the valley. Then there is the advection (Tule) fog which acts to accrete the airborne particulates. For most of the winter, that smog reaches to 4,000 above sea level. That's without an inversion layer. It can go higher.
DeleteI liked that area around Tracy. Haven't been for 20 years or so. Calm and peaceful on a summer evening.
Sacremento Airport has shit for brains. Can I say that? They are displacing their pollution to somewhere else. The electric for the jet ways is coming from somewhere. The new batteries and busses are being mined/built from somewhere. The charger infrastructure is all new and mined/built from somewhere. The solar panels are new and mined/built from somewhere. They probably do not have the maintenance of cleaning and repairing taken into account for the panels. The solar panels a raising the heat of the planet from being black and capturing all that sun. Solar panels displaced plants that could be filtering the air and cooling the temperature. And so on...
ReplyDeleteNobody with the IQ of a soap bubble would entrust their fate to a machine that runs in batteries to drag your ass up to 30,000 feet then catch fire, lose it's charge or fail in some other fashion. EV technology is not a rousing success on the ground. The challenges of flight will increase the complexity and opportunities for failures several fold.
ReplyDeleteLast time I checked, all LI batteries are shipped by ground. Imagine a battery shipment in thermal runaway in the Flight Levels.
DeleteI will never fly commercial ever again.
ReplyDeleteI read earlier today how an electric plane took twelve days to fly from Vermont to Florida. The Pony Express only took ten days to travel from St Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento.
ReplyDeletethe unspoken agenda is you will stay home and eat ze bugs.
ReplyDeleteCurrent planes need to be a lot lighter, with a considerable reduction in combustibles when they land
ReplyDeleteCurrent planes need to be a lot lighter when landing, with considerable reduction in the combustibles on board compared with take off. They cannot safely land with their take off load.
ReplyDeleteFor that reason they can jettison fuel if an emergency occurs soon after take off.
Imagine, if you will, that you are on a battery powered plane, battery fully charged, when just after take off there is an emergency requiring immediate landing. No point circling to use up charge, because a discharged battery weighs the same as a fully charged battery, and is just as inflamable.
Maybe the plane can be designed with bomb doors so that all lovely lithium can be dumped on the environment below.
Count me out.