Post AvNeVuEng5NK4wvchc by saxnot@chaos.social
(DIR) More posts by saxnot@chaos.social
(DIR) Post #AvNc999BsXQBkdKACW by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2025-06-22T06:18:13Z
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Thinking about the threads I posted about energy the other day. I knew that electric engines were far more efficient than even the latest combustion engines. But until I read Thorn's article on rewired.nz, I'd never joined the dots that this means we don't need the same number of calories of renewable energy to replace fossil fuel energy.(1/?)#energy #RenewableEnergy #fossilfuels #FacileFuels
(DIR) Post #AvNcyH9pr7UnMc0RJQ by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2025-06-22T06:27:26Z
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This is huge! We need to start quoting energy stats with this factored in.Eg instead of talking about *total* calories (or whatever the metric) an energy source supplies, we need to talk about the calories of *work* supplied.(2/?)
(DIR) Post #AvNdLciFsdoIsOErM8 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2025-06-22T06:31:41Z
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Making up a random example, let's say combustion engines in Aotearoa used just shy of a million calories of fossil fuel energy last year. Let's be generous, and divide it by a third instead of quartering it. So that's 333,333 calories of work supplied. It helps the facile fuel industry to say that we need a million calories to replace their fuels. Instead, we report the calories of work done by electricity that year. The number is lower, but higher proportionately, and more accurate. (3/?)
(DIR) Post #AvNdofJ1JokPJfHdZ2 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2025-06-22T06:36:53Z
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Then, we also report the calories of work done by renewable electricity that year. The number is a bit lower than for total calories supplied, which might seem like it's underselling it. But when you put it side by side with the number for the work supplied by fossil fuels, it's a higher proportion, and much closer to comparing apples with apples. (4/?)
(DIR) Post #AvNeVuEng5NK4wvchc by saxnot@chaos.social
2025-06-22T06:44:06Z
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@strypey hm I never read an article that measures fossil fuel in calories. Especially not comparing it to massively more efficent alternatives.
(DIR) Post #AvNeY5m7kjFIROYdt2 by saxnot@chaos.social
2025-06-22T06:45:05Z
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@strypey yeah most of the gasoline just makes the motor go hot
(DIR) Post #AvNekqehHMIrJQANd2 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2025-06-22T06:47:28Z
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Take this piece of industry-funded reputation laundering for example;"40% of our energy comes from renewable sources ... 60% of our energy still comes from fossil fuels."https://www.energymix.co.nz/our-consumption/new-zealands-consumption/Total energy supplied, yes. But let's look at total work done.(5/?)
(DIR) Post #AvNfIzRn66rcQRPSvQ by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2025-06-22T06:53:37Z
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That industry-funded page also says that total energy use in Aotearoa consumes 599PJ (petajoules) a year. So that's roughly 360PJ of fossil energy. Divide that by 3, now it's 120PJ supplied.I'm don't know exactly what the losses are on that 240PJ from renewables. But again, let's be generous and chop a third off, so 160PJ supplied.See how that changes the picture? Now we see that renewables are actually more than half of our energy mix. A bit of good news in these trying times.(6/6)
(DIR) Post #AvNh9reotH3NZGHR0y by futuresprog@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2025-06-22T07:14:15Z
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Also, don’t forget the incredible journey that fossil fuels go on to get from the drill hole to your vehicle.If we take into account the energy costs of cracking, distilling, chilling, piping, fueling, transporting by ship, decanting, transporting by truck, and then putting into your car it’s a similarly large percentage.If we stopped using fossil fuels some huge percentage, maybe 30%, maybe more than half, of all shipping would stop. No longer needed. And the trucks on our roads.@strypey
(DIR) Post #AvNkgBM3UWtjmrba2C by clanger9@mastodon.online
2025-06-22T07:53:21Z
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@strypey You’ve got it! Electrified transport needs 3-5x less input energy for the same result (kilometres driven, or whatever). Electrified heating with a heat pump needs 3-5x less input energy for the same result (a warm home). We don’t need to replace ALL of our current energy use with renewables. Just some of it. Which is cheaper, cleaner and better for everyone that isn’t in the business of selling fossil fuels…
(DIR) Post #AvOhNeKHRlydQxCqQK by futuresprog@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2025-06-22T18:51:27Z
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Bloomberg, Maritime Traffic, Vessel Finder, and others have a breakdown of vessels by type. Without fossil fuels we need exactly 0 crude oil tankers.Similarly for coal shipping although not sure how to tell coal apart from gravel and grains and other bulk. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264024/number-of-merchant-ships-worldwide-by-type/@strypey