ROE

[Asher Kelman]

Yes, James,

Tech Valley appears to be well above the polluting practices of other strip mines in Canada.

There are still a good number of massive Canadian mines that cause great angst for environmentalists for water contamination risks and closing down and dumping perpetual remediation costs on communities.

However, this company you show seems to have done well for Canada, except exporting the ore to China means we have to buy it back!

Asher

 

[James Lemon]

Yes, James,

Tech Valley appears to be well above the polluting practices of other strip mines in Canada.

There are still a good number of massive Canadian mines that cause great angst for environmentalists for water contamination risks and closing down and dumping perpetual remediation costs on communities.

However, this company you show seems to have done well for Canada, except exporting the ore to China means we have to buy it back!

Asher

Imagine what happens when one of those dams breaks ? I does happen and is an environmental catastrophe.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Imagine what happens when one of those dams breaks ? I does happen and is an environmental catastrophe.

What the country needs to do is add the costs of safety and reclamation to the price of the ore to China. Their margins of profit are high at the expense of Canada!

 

[James Lemon]

What the country needs to do is add the costs of safety and reclamation to the price of the ore to China. Their margins of profit are high at the expense of Canada!

Depending on the price of HFO (heavy fuel oil) that is needed to schlep the raw materials across the ocean for a minimal cost savings on labor. We need shorter supply chains and more localized economies. We need to trade for things that we don't have such as cotton, coffee beans, kiwi fruit and other goods. The global economy can only function on cheap oil.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Depending on the price of HFO (heavy fuel oil) that is needed to schlep the raw materials across the ocean for a minimal cost savings on labor. We need shorter supply chains and more localized economies. We need to trade for things that we don't have such as cotton, coffee beans, kiwi fruit and other goods. The global economy can only function on cheap oil.

Is there a compelling reason why Canada and the USA can’t have efficient refining?

At present we send cheap raw materials to China and buy it back 6-13 months later in sheets, bars and pipes while we could be smarter and do it all here, using the shipping cost to offset higher labor in N America. But surely with modern technology, we could use 24/7 robots too!

 

[Asher Kelman]

[BTW, in the fields, the drone try of the pipes and pumps against the landscape, or silhouettes of workers would be treasures.

A book would sell!

Asher]

 

[James Lemon]

Is there a compelling reason why Canada and the USA can’t have efficient refining?

At present we send cheap raw materials to China and buy it back 6-13 months later in sheets, bars and pipes while we could be smarter and do it all here, using the shipping cost to offset higher labor in N America. But surely with modern technology, we could use 24/7 robots too!

Oh yes the world is changing rapidly as the stock markets and Central Bankers wake up and adjust to this new era that we are in. Samsung will be building a semi conductor plant in Texas over the next three years at a cost of 17 billion. Intel is building one in Ohio as well many projects on the horizon in this space. The U.S recently opened its first Silicon Carbide Chip plant in New York.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/intel-plans-new-chip-manufacturing-site-ohio-report-2022-01-21/

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Te...-major-silicon-carbide-chip-plant-in-New-York

https://www.electronicdesign.com/te...-build-17-billion-chip-plant-in-texas-by-2024

 

[Tim Dolan (Longwatcher)]

The typical 1,000 megawatt coal or nuclear plant might sit on a few acres. To generate the same amount of electricity with renewables would require 60,000 acres for a utility-scale wind farm, or about 11,000 acres of photovoltaic cells capturing the sun's light. Digging up more earth to make more solar panels is not a good path. Coal provides half our electricity today. Wind and solar provide less than 1 percent. Where to you plan on getting the rest of your material from? The solar panel industry will sink under the weight of its own trash. Some governments may even regulate it as hazardous waist.

The coal mine and uranium mines to get fuel for those plants take up a bit of space, usually more than a few acres, however, yes they take up overall less area than solar would. That said, you can install solar on roofs, so dual using the roof. We have a LOT of roof space in the USA. And wind farms can be built within farm land that is still useable for farmland. Interestingly a couple of depleted coal mines are being converted into solar industrial arrays. And that is the important part, the coal depletes and once burned to make energy it is gone forever (well give or take several million years). If the fuel for solar goes out, we have more serious problems then worrying about electricity. And as mentioned at least for silicon panels, they are 95% plus recyclable back into solar panels at the end of their useful life, so not a lot of waste. And they are working on improving that towards 100% without ruining the efficiency. Silicone solar panels are mostly aluminum frame with glass covering a different form of silicon.

As an interesting side note, while we are basically at around 25% efficiency at the moment, in the labs they have panels that are the equivalent of over 100% efficient. Note the word equivalent, as they are multi-layer technology, each layer only does 15-25%, but with four or five layers they can combined come in over 100% of potential solar energy, namely because each is using a different part of the spectrum. Technically it is 100% plus of current solar technology.

Oh and currently wind makes up 9.2% of electricity and solar 2.8% of USA electricity and both 9.8% of global energy (as of Feb 2022 based on 2021 data)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

www.eia.gov

 

[Asher Kelman]

I don’t mind nuclear energy in the mix as long as it’s an interim solution for say 30 years until replaced by fusion.

It just needs to be self healing or sealing if there’s an earthquake or bomb with enough redundant safety measures.

Asher

 

[Tim Dolan (Longwatcher)]

Just a recent related side note, I found out that a lithium mine in Canada is using hydro-electric power to charge electric mining machines, so not using gas or diesel to power the mining extraction. One of the few actual lithium 'mines' in the world as most use brine extraction. Electricity can be used for the entire process, thus in theory renewable sources can fuel the entire process, the fact someone is actually doing the mining part using renewable is what I learned this week. Knew it could be done, didn't know someone was actually doing it. Correction, they will be doing it, the articles I read earlier made it seem they already were. And they may be small scale at this point.

Snow Lake Lithium mine

 

[Asher Kelman]

Wonderful, Tim!

Proof of concept is so important! There likely are already be University departments somewhere that specialize in this essential green industrial transformation!

 

[TimTom42]

If one looks at stocks, the different entities of one commodity class tend to follow a similar pattern, just lower or higher. https://eldfall-chronicles.com/product/2x-gargoyles/

Why is your pattern of use of energy so different from your neighbors? It seems to reflect a major difference either in way of life or else you are better insulated, protected from the sun or subject to environmental cooling from neighboring trees! tojiro knives

It's interesting to observe the patterns of energy use in different households and neighborhoods. The variations could indeed be influenced by factors such as lifestyle, insulation, sun exposure, and environmental conditions like the presence of trees.

 

[Asher Kelman]

It's interesting to observe the patterns of energy use in different households and neighborhoods. The variations could indeed be influenced by factors such as lifestyle, insulation, sun exposure, and environmental conditions like the presence of trees.

Beautiful syntax TimTom42: I think you are a Chat GPT writer or BOT,

 

[stepphiesecret]

Imagine what happens when one of those dams breaks ? https://piktid.com/ I does happen and is an environmental catastrophe. japanese chef knives

I agree

 

[Tim Dolan (Longwatcher)]

Just a quick update, well past the 15 year mark MY solar panels are still working great in the 90-95% range of original production (hard to tell outside of that range, too many weather variables).
Still have not had to clean them, thank you rain with occasional snow.

Again fully Paid off.

And since Last I posted in this thread panel efficiency has climbed quite a bit. My panels at 270 watts were in the 18-21% solar efficiency range, common current panels are in the 27-30% range with a 450 watt being common for same size panels as mine are. Only a few years ago they were in the 310 to 350 watt range, so now being 400-450 range being common shows the progression. Cost in 2009 when I got my panels was $1200 retail. These days those 450 watt panels are in the $250-$300 range retail. The common panel was actually down to $200 each a few years ago, but have come up because of Tariffs and inflation.

And for trivia, there was a huge hail storm took out an industrial scale solar farm in either Florida or Texas (of note, baseball size hail). Mine have taken nickel and quarter size hail with no problem.
But the important note is they recycled over 90% of the solar panels that were damaged and it was back fully on line within 3 months. So recycling does happen with Solar panels in the USA. Further I have learned there are at least TWO recycle centers for solar in the USA, more in Europe.