Tony Seba

Not really a YouTuber, but he is on YouTube. Must watch.

https://youtu.be/z7vhMcKvHo8

As a comparison: chatGPT is like Tesla FSD years ago. Mind-blowingly awesome when and where it works, but frustrating in it's limitations, and a very long way to go before it's autonomous.

Consider letting it go. If he's at the university, you would think he's old enough to make those decisions on his own

Support him taking courses that he's interested in.

This cannot be buried. Utilities are moving to renewable and battery already.

It will happen. Look up Tony Seba on YouTube.

The only comment on your statement is "new cars" will be EV. We cannot replace all vehicles, certainly not globally. That will take another 20 years. Planes are a bit harder too.

But new vehicles in most wealthy countries will be predominantly EV by 2030. Coastal/CARB states of the US, including FL and TX, Western Europe, Australia.

Loon?

That's the steam punk version of satellite internet :-)

Balloons instead of satellites!

Humans go there with Balloons, too.

https://www.ucf.edu/pegasus/why-alan-eustace-jumped/

Alan wondered

>Is it possible to build a scuba diving system for stratospheric exploration?

Or SpinLaunch. Even crazier!

You cannot launch a rocket with steam, but you could actually power a spin launch with enough, and big enough steam engines.

Jules Verne was close with the Baltimore Gun Club.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Earth_to_the_Moon

Or maybe it is just so much fun to drive an EV but the buyer has to rationalize the purchase :-)

But then for one study, online panel participants didn't actually drive, they just watched a 1 minute video, and some were told it's an EV others told it's an ICE. (The photo on OP is from Getty, it was an ID.4)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494422001529

Study 1 Study 1 set out to test the effects of vehicle test drives on vehicle perceptions and adoption intent for EVs as compared to non-electric vehicles (i.e., conventional vehicles). To reduce the risks of confounds and selection bias, and allow for comparison to a control condition, the study used an experimental design whereby individuals from an online panel participated in a virtual test drive.

Study 2 Study 2 set out to test the effects of EV exposure on EV perceptions and adoption intent in a real-life environment with relatively more salient identity cues and high ecological validity—a real EV test drive. This field study ensured all participants had real exposure to an EV within a similar setting and for a similar amount of time.

Fuels is a big part of weight, and any Mars bound craft will not carry it's fuel up from Earth. It will get to orbit (or be assembled there) and other ships will bring up fuel to orbit and transfer to the Mars bound craft. Then those other ships will go back down to get more fuel and supplies.

SpaceX is changing the economics of rockets drastically. Starship has so much capacity and power at low cost that it opens up more flexibility. Spaceship is lifted off earth on a booster. Then gets refuled by more Starships. But it is designed to take off from Mars or Moon on it's own (after refueling). There is a graph here:

https://www.spacex.com/human-spaceflight/mars/

One big topic for discussion is whether we should go to the Moon first, and then from there to Mars, or straight to Mars. If we could lift fuel from the Moon, it might be more efficient. But with Starship, that discussion is less critical. We can do both :-)

Rocket Science has never been more interesting. Your daughter gets it :-)

Yes, Floridians get what they voted for. I doubt FPL actually has to bribe anyone to get what they want.

Californians, surprisingly, are about to get a raw deal, too. It boggles the mind how PGE and CPUC can hurt consumers.

How do they price out solar on a home?

Those outsized profit margins will suffer. They still will continue to profit from the hardcore ICE drivers who never drive electric, but those will die out.

They control oil, tankers, and raffineries, but they cannot control electricity. Neither can utilities, really.

There will be other large corporations though. Utilities want to be the new oil, of course.

But it's up to the people to steer this. Home solar is under attak on California. And heavily regulated in Florida, too.

This is r/Futurology.

It's not about today, or even 2025.

We are at the beginning of an S-curve transition. It could take 10 years, or 20. But most here will be alive to see it.

Most capacity coming online in the US is renewable. Who would finance an expensive fossil fuel plant these days that will never make their investments back. They can't compete with sun or wind so they run only when it's dark and not windy.

It's already cheaper to build new renewable capacity than run existing fossil plants. Tesla Electric already flattens peak demand in Texas. More people will buy house batteries to avoid peak charges for gas plants, and many will actively arbitrage and/or sell their own solar at peak.

The rest of the world will follow, at different speeds. Those that still build fossil plants today will be slower, spend more money, and have more pollution.

They see the writing on the wall and are getting desperate. They have become like the dinosaurs they are selling.

Their problem is that it won't be trivial. Only if we let them can they succeed in keeping control of energy.

Their problem is that many people can charge at home/work/school/etc. There is no need to go to a station (except on road trips).

Even people who park on the street will have many options beyond "the station "

(Apartments dwellers will fit the most part charge in their spots, too)

We are at the cusp of an energy disruption with unlimited, cheap, clean energy (solar/wind/battery). It's only our own minds that are holding us back.

https://cleantechnica.com/2021/08/05/tony-seba-strikes-again/

Just to add some napkin physics....

A human is producing ~100 watts of power at rest. Water's specific heat capacity is 4.186J/g. Humans consist of much water. Heating a 75kg bag of water 1 degree C using 100W takes 52 minutes.

https://www.google.com/search?q=4.184+joules%2Fg+*+75kg+%2F+100+watt

Normal body temperature is ~37C, life threatening is ~40C. ~41C starts irreversible protein denaturation. So give or take 4 hours to serious damage.

Sure. Hydrogen is one use for cheap electricity. It's also wasteful.

For almost all cases it's much better to use cheap solar electricity directly (cars, trucks, heating, industry) instead of making, storing, transporting, burning hydrogen.

And that is just a stage 1 reuse. SpaceX already works on Stage 2 reuse (Starship). Europe will have to use American and maybe Asian rockets going forward if they want to achieve their space goals (satellites, and a rover on Mars).

"Ministers gathered at the Grand Palais Éphémère (GPE) in Paris are sure therefore to focus their investments in the programmes expected to generate the biggest economic returns."

And that's the problem. Everyone is trying to get funds for their own existing industries selling old technology and their toy projects.

Unless Europe wants to rely on SpaceX, they need to massively increase their launch capacity and get cost down. They will fall behind in space if they cannot launch cheaper and at a much larger scale.

Getting a single rover to Mars had been done years ago. It's not moving us forward. Not when the US is actively planning manned colonies on the Moon and Mars.

https://www.tesla.com/findus/location/supercharger/firebaughsupercharger

Has 56 stalls. Middle of nowhere.

Harris Ranch may go to almost 100.

Baker, CA has CCS right next to it.

Every new supercharger has been V3 for a while. V4 is coming out soon.

We don't need those in residential areas where people charge at home and slowly. It's not like the residential gas station that people feel up now for their weekly driving. We need those a long major traffic routes. Maybe in some areas with lots of apartments.

Most new houses in the US had 200 amps at 240V for years. That is some 40 kilowatts.

You have to look for industrial sized electricity. Not residential. This is an industrial hookup.

But we do in most places where people would charge :-) we have plenty of chargers that can charge cars at many MW combined. Some have battery backup. 10MW+ is not a problem. Charging 50 cars is not a problem.

And we will deploy more where we need more.

Maybe capacitors play a role some when, somewhere, but it's not required.

Right now a simple 250kW+ charger will have to slow down because of the car battery heating up....

Tesla V3 could charge at 300kW, and there are dozens per location. They limit to 250kW because of the car. And they are 400V. There are 800V stations that can easily do more.

The limit is on the EV battery side. How much can it take...

There are plenty of locations in the middle of nowhere, e.g. along I-5 or in Baker, CA with tens (50+) of 250kW-350kW stations. Truck charging standards go into the MW. Of course it requires a plan, but it's not hard.