Monthly Archives: January 2017

The Final Madness of a Dying Industry

Blog, Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, Oil

I read today a news item coming out of Davos (the World Forum for people invested in the status quo), Major Hydrogen Investment Mooted as OEMs and Energy Companies Form Hydrogen Council:

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, carmakers and energy companies have announced the foundation of the Hydrogen Council to lay the foundations for major investment in hydrogen.
Bringing together oil giants such as Royal Dutch Shell and Total and car manufacturers such as Toyota, Daimler, BMW and Hyundai, the global initiative is the first of its kind and aims to drive forward the hydrogen fuel cell industry, as well as hydrogen in the power, industrial and residential sectors. It will also act as a voice to further this vision.

 

Essentially it shows the oil industry and the car industry joining in an initiative to develop fuel cell technology. This is not a bad technology, but there is no end of well researched information highlighting that it is not the best way to go. For example Zachary Shahan’s post Why Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars are Not Competitive.

My opinion is simple. This is an initiative for the fossil fuel industry to try and bring itself back to relevancy as the world is tipping away towards renewables.

Of course fuel cells can burn on hydrogen created by renewables, but equally the oil and gas industry can create them directly from fossil fuels. In addition, the complexity and cost of the infrastructure required to deliver hydrogen safely makes it a wrong decision designed to help a particular industry rather than further the needs of our world.

Beware of wealthy industrialists bearing gifts!

eMotor feeding (Image: T. Heale)

Pod Point Home Charger Installation

Blog, Charging, Electric Cars, Hyundai, IONIQ Electric, POD Point

[Friday 13th January] This post is about gratitude.

Thank you to the following organisations for covering the cost of my POD Point Home Charging Station – UK Government for the OLEV Grant and Hyundai for the balance.

A special heartfelt thank you to POD Point Installation Engineer Leighton for his fast, professional installation in such unpleasant circumstances.

This was the scene when Leighton arrived this morning (Image: T. Heale)
This was the scene when Leighton arrived this morning (Image: T. Heale)
Leighton running cable to new trip (Isolation) switch in meter cupboard (Image: T. Heale)
Leighton running cable to new trip (Isolation) switch in meter cupboard (Image: T. Heale)

The snow had eased off considerably by the time the next picture was taken.

It was still remarkably cold. I mean brass monkey cold. Trust me, I know cold. I’m a man in shorts all year round*

And here was this stranger disembowelling** my house.

POD Point installed (Image: T. Heale)
POD Point installed (Image: T. Heale)

Just over an hour after arriving and two coffees later the charger was in and I’d had a thorough briefing on using it. A very positive (no pun) experience from a professional company.

eMotor feeding (Image: T. Heale)
eMotor feeding (Image: T. Heale)

Thank you to all involved.

I have just heard from Hyundai Bletchley that my Owners Manual will be here soon. When It  arrives I’ll post about the Ioniq’s charge timer function to use Economy 7 electricity.

BTW – The Ioniq eMotor? It is a fantastic machine. Pure pleasure to drive.

Bye for now. I’ll be in touch.

* Picture half a walnut
** Gralloching for you country types

Follow this link to Pod Points website for details:

http://charge.pod-point.com/homecharge/

Renault ZOE Z.E.40

Buy a long range Renault ZOE – 2017 Prices

Blog, Electric Cars, Renault, ZOE, ZOE Z.E. 40

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