So far I have watched episodes one and two that deal with the Texas power grid and Enron respectively.
While these were interesting... to be perfectly frank I thought Robert's previous documentary "Juice: How Electricity Explains The World" was much more informative and engaging. In this new series I find the soundtrack too long and distracting, and there seem to be many visual scenes that don't appear to have anything to do with the narration. In any event this doesn't change my opinion of Robert who I think is fantastic and is a tremendous resource. Furthermore, this latest video series is an admirable effort to try and educate the public who will be more informed after watching this documentary. I also highly recommend going back and watching the previous documentary that I mentioned earlier in this comment.
Robert after a series of interruptions, I was able to sit and watch the full series. Gotta say the first three were pretty good, but frankly you dogged attitude toward natural gas kind of pissed me off. I certainly don't argue that nuclear base load is the way to go. That 50 to 70% of the load that is always there is best served with nuclear. However the units that cycle on and off, or cycle up and down to follow load aren't a good fit for nukes. Certainly the Navy has shown you can load follow with a reactor, but thermal cycling a 1200MW machine puts huge thermal stresses on the hot sections. There are just some things a gas turbine does better, cycling on and off, and fast ramping are two of them. Your nuclear campaign is good, but tossing gas under the bus misses the mark broadly.
Wow this is incredible and so needed in Australia where we are trying to counter extreme ideology driving (Labor) the reckless rollout of renewables destroying our environment & economy plus a handy ban on nuclear. It’s subsidised heaven in OZ for greenwashed renewables. Can you please make a documentary down under before we go under?
Putting solar at the front of the electrical energy line is like hiring an employee and giving him lifetime job protection with the knowledge that he is an alcoholic drug user and extraordinary unreliable. We then ask more competent , reliable and less expensive people to commit to being on standby for when our alcoholic drug user fails to perform.
Admiral Rickover endowed this nation with the knowledge and discipline to design and operate nuclear reactors in the most demanding conditions. By comparison , the safe operation of conventional nuclear powered electrical generating plants is far easier. The fatal flaw of large scale nuclear plants is that they are designed , owned and operated by private firms.
As Solyndra and many other "green energy " projects have shown there's a large role to be played by those who trade in government favors...... government guaranteed loans, tax credits and depreciation which are valued by the very wealthy . There's few better examples than the Ivanpaugh Solar Farm where taxpayers have a worthless property in which they have invested more than a billion of bad loans PLUS generated massive tax credits and deductions for the select group of wealthy, well connected investors.
We have Hillary selling a substantial amount of the nation's Uranium supply to the Russians while democrats have blocked spent fuel storage and reprocessing
Biden has sold about 45% of the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve putting the nation at further risk .
In addition to all of these shortfalls our grid is highly interdependent on the transmission of energy from one area to another . However, this system is also very vulnerable to both terrorists and very primitive nuclear attack using an explosion high above the country to disable the electrical grid across a vast area. It does not require precision targeting or even reentry vehicles.
There's also the threat from natural events, earthquakes, storms, low level terrorist attacks on key transformers. All of these are well documented and have been for a couple of decades but largely hidden so as to not interfere with the green agenda.
With Governor Newsom mandating electrical 18 wheelers in the near future folks ought to start with some thinking the basics. In a typical city there's about 1 week supply of food in the stores. If the trucks do not arrive there is no food. If there is no electricity there are no functional electric trucks .
I am so happy that the blight on the Osage land will be destroyed!!
I am all for nuclear. As Juice points out, the ignorance of the real cost of wind and solar is all too common. The manufacturing and operating costs to the environment are substantial. One current cost is the heartbreaking killing of the whales occurring off the East Coast. Hoping we can get that windmill blight destroyed, too.
Thank you for this really well done, enlightening, and forward looking series. Makes me feel that we could have a positive outcome if our politicians can overcome money and bias!
Superb. Should be in every classroom in the world.
So far I have watched episodes one and two that deal with the Texas power grid and Enron respectively.
While these were interesting... to be perfectly frank I thought Robert's previous documentary "Juice: How Electricity Explains The World" was much more informative and engaging. In this new series I find the soundtrack too long and distracting, and there seem to be many visual scenes that don't appear to have anything to do with the narration. In any event this doesn't change my opinion of Robert who I think is fantastic and is a tremendous resource. Furthermore, this latest video series is an admirable effort to try and educate the public who will be more informed after watching this documentary. I also highly recommend going back and watching the previous documentary that I mentioned earlier in this comment.
Robert after a series of interruptions, I was able to sit and watch the full series. Gotta say the first three were pretty good, but frankly you dogged attitude toward natural gas kind of pissed me off. I certainly don't argue that nuclear base load is the way to go. That 50 to 70% of the load that is always there is best served with nuclear. However the units that cycle on and off, or cycle up and down to follow load aren't a good fit for nukes. Certainly the Navy has shown you can load follow with a reactor, but thermal cycling a 1200MW machine puts huge thermal stresses on the hot sections. There are just some things a gas turbine does better, cycling on and off, and fast ramping are two of them. Your nuclear campaign is good, but tossing gas under the bus misses the mark broadly.
Wow this is incredible and so needed in Australia where we are trying to counter extreme ideology driving (Labor) the reckless rollout of renewables destroying our environment & economy plus a handy ban on nuclear. It’s subsidised heaven in OZ for greenwashed renewables. Can you please make a documentary down under before we go under?
Sorry, can't watch part 5. The demonization of Russia is ridiculous.
PS- There is no man made climate change.
Excellent information.
I will continue to educate myself on this topic.
Thanks
Maybe you'll follow-up this presentation with an assessment of nuclear energy's regulatory environment.
Excellent. Well Presented
This series is absolutely excellent!
Putting solar at the front of the electrical energy line is like hiring an employee and giving him lifetime job protection with the knowledge that he is an alcoholic drug user and extraordinary unreliable. We then ask more competent , reliable and less expensive people to commit to being on standby for when our alcoholic drug user fails to perform.
Admiral Rickover endowed this nation with the knowledge and discipline to design and operate nuclear reactors in the most demanding conditions. By comparison , the safe operation of conventional nuclear powered electrical generating plants is far easier. The fatal flaw of large scale nuclear plants is that they are designed , owned and operated by private firms.
As Solyndra and many other "green energy " projects have shown there's a large role to be played by those who trade in government favors...... government guaranteed loans, tax credits and depreciation which are valued by the very wealthy . There's few better examples than the Ivanpaugh Solar Farm where taxpayers have a worthless property in which they have invested more than a billion of bad loans PLUS generated massive tax credits and deductions for the select group of wealthy, well connected investors.
We have Hillary selling a substantial amount of the nation's Uranium supply to the Russians while democrats have blocked spent fuel storage and reprocessing
Biden has sold about 45% of the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve putting the nation at further risk .
In addition to all of these shortfalls our grid is highly interdependent on the transmission of energy from one area to another . However, this system is also very vulnerable to both terrorists and very primitive nuclear attack using an explosion high above the country to disable the electrical grid across a vast area. It does not require precision targeting or even reentry vehicles.
There's also the threat from natural events, earthquakes, storms, low level terrorist attacks on key transformers. All of these are well documented and have been for a couple of decades but largely hidden so as to not interfere with the green agenda.
With Governor Newsom mandating electrical 18 wheelers in the near future folks ought to start with some thinking the basics. In a typical city there's about 1 week supply of food in the stores. If the trucks do not arrive there is no food. If there is no electricity there are no functional electric trucks .
“A grid designed by lawyers” sums it up for me. You have my vote.
This is a really comprehensive and important project. It is hard to imagine a more important thing to discuss as a country, as many countries.
I am so happy that the blight on the Osage land will be destroyed!!
I am all for nuclear. As Juice points out, the ignorance of the real cost of wind and solar is all too common. The manufacturing and operating costs to the environment are substantial. One current cost is the heartbreaking killing of the whales occurring off the East Coast. Hoping we can get that windmill blight destroyed, too.
Thank you for this really well done, enlightening, and forward looking series. Makes me feel that we could have a positive outcome if our politicians can overcome money and bias!
Then there's LIPA: https://vimeo.com/908333635
Great and very informative docuseries. Thank you for the effort
True public service from Robert Bryce. Thank you sir