When you make a run on Europe’s largest trade show Boat Dusseldorf, you can feel it, and when you just count, you see it: the number of electric outboard engines is way bigger than the fossil ones.
And there is more. the electric engine has so many advantages, that there is plenty more to invent. Here a run through some features.
They work behind our boatsthey work behind our yachtsthey work behind our dinghiesthe design is great and the maintenance is (nearly) nothingThey work as engine when we swimand they work when we want to plane with our body in the waterThey work when we want to surfthey work behind a bigger tenderthey work behind a small speed boatThey work to make us foil on a boardThey give extra speed when we swim or diveor when one goes for a free dive on 30 metersthey do better as a jet skithey do great when you go under water like in a James Bond movieor when you want to speed over the water like in a James Bond movieor when you just love to speed on a board
And, from this year, Yamaha, one of the largest outboard engine companies in the world, is sellling the electric Torqueedo outboards.
Yamaha is the first fossil company who does it. Please understand, for the fossil retail it is very difficult to convert to electric engines, because the maintenance time is 6 times less. That is great for us consumers, but bad for business. But the conversion to electric can not be stopped, because the other advantages are plentyful: the silence, staying free of smells, the growing regulations on fossils, and, last but not least, less pollution and less damage to our next generations.
At the Moss Landing Power Plant in California, on of the largest battery plants, a huge fire broke out.
Did it spread fast? Yes, very fast.
At the Moss Landing Power Plant in California, on of the largest battery plants, a huge fire broke out.
Did it spread fast? Yes, very fast.
How to stop it? It is hardly possible. It will burn till all energy has been burnt away.
Tests
The plant produces generally Lithium Ion batteries.
Let us see what they do when we test even a small battery.
First, you can damage a battery by overcharging it.
or, secondly, you crush it.
these two things typically happen with car batteries. Here two examples from the field (the street, if you want)
1. A small car fire (electric motor)
You see that even when it was extinguished, it pops up again (and again, and again).
2. a bigger EV:
Other batteries
Now check different sorts of batteries, the Lithium polymer, LTO and LFP.
A test:
The LFP doesnot want to flame. But finally somebody managed it to make it create a soft flame by punctioning it.
However, it is self retarding pretty quick.
Fighting battery fires
As shown before, the non LTO, Lithium Polymer and LFP batteries are self retarding. So you just wait.
For the Lithium Ion there are different methods.
The blanket is the simplest:
The blanket is the simplest.
The water (cooling) is a difficult one. You would need to spray about 1 ½ day to get an EV fire extinguished and it would need many thousands of liters.
so now they go for dunking. You submerge the burning EV in a container with water for 48 hours.
Conclusion:
When it gets to firefighting, we allways discuss Lithium Ion. Because it is inherently not safe. It just keeps on igniting, even when you think it is.
Lithium Ferro Phosphate and Lithium Polymer are relatively safe. If you take the source away (the charging current), it stops and is self retarding.
Why not preventing the problems, so what about banning Lithium Ion and go for LFP?
Moored to a dock along the Guadiana river, we saw this yacht, it is weird and simple at the same time.
It is a schooner, but it has no staysails. Why? What is the idea behind it?
We met the skipper. Sebastian said: “You know, I don’t like sailing. I like motoring. But when at sea, one makes a lot of miles and I don’t want to spend all diesel. And this is the simplest rig you can ever get.”
He showed it. You simply roll the sail out en in, like a furling jibb. Next to the halyard, the whole running rig consists of one sheet and one furling line. Easy! When you want to reef, you just furl it in a bit. OK, the shape is shit, but that is a concession. And you can not hoist other sails, but that is the KISS idea: keep it simple, stupid!
The masts stick through the deck and they rotate simply on a bearing on deck. The extra beauty is that there is no weight on deck other than the weight of the mast and sail. This is much much lighter than the compression forces that our shrouds and stays are making.
You pull the sheet while you ease the furling line (the red one) and the sail will roll out. Just above deck you see the housing of the bearing. Easy does it.
With an invention like carbon fiber, Bob’s your uncle.
Now that the future of fossils is coming to an end and the renewables are cheaper, it is just the choices you have to make about lowering your energy consumption – or, even generate energy! The inventions are plenty, and these lead to plenty solutions.
Here is a short summary what you could do. There are options to save heat, and/or get heat, and/or save electricity, and/or generate electricity, and/or getting more comfort in the meanwhile.
Cracks
Closing a c rack is the only no-brainer in the next options. Stop the wind from freely blow into your home. It saves heat and you get comfort.
Wall insulation
You can choose from a variation of options to insulate your walls
spray insulation in the cavity. This is the fastest and cheaper solution with a serious effect on your energy use.
if you have an old house (propably before 1950) with no cavity, or, if you want to insulate more, you have two next options
facade cladding with insulation. Then your windows will become deeper and it costs some sun along the sides (see next paragraph Windows)
insulation on the inside with a wall or cladding.
A facade cladding with solar panels. So you get energy from your walls, instead of losing it. Effective especially in the higher latitudes of the world, where the sun rays have a flat angle.
On the office building and on your house, solar panels can be put on everywhere.
Please write an email if you want to learn how to calculate it all
Windows: multiple glazing and/or with solar
Changing you windows to any sort of energy saving glass, is always good. But, what glass?
Historically, it started with double glazing, and then triple glazing. In between is dry air, so there is no condense possible.
The double glazing starts nowadays with the HR+. The glazings have a special coating that insulates well, and there is noble gas between it, which is less conducting then dry air, so also contributing to the insulation.
The HR++ glazing has coating that insulates better.
If you take triple in stead of double glazing, you have even better insulation. But, 150% extra layers, doesnot mean you save 150% better. Because the double glazing can hold already that well, that a third laying could not be very effective anymore. So first make some calculations. Unless you want to insulate a sauna on the North Pole, then the triple glazing HR++ is obvious.
Windows with solar power
There are already windows with solar cells on it. The good thing is, that you still can look through it from the inside out. Other good thing is, that it doesnot get hot inside when the sun fully shines on it. So it tempers the heat when you don’t need it. And, last but not least, you can reduce about 5 to 10% of you energy use.
Now, the Dutch invented a glazing that delivers 25% more than the solar covered glazing. It consists of double-sided crystalline silicon solar cells on the first glazing. Behind the two glazes are built-in blinds. When the blinds are down, they reflect sunlight to the back of the solar cells, generating more energy. It offers three positions. The first is when the blinds are stored in the top box (no boost), the second with the blinds down and horizontal (partial boost), the third with the blinds down but then vertically so that all sunlight is blocked (max boost). Users can automatically adjust the blinds to generate more energy or to control the temperature and light in the room.
When the blinds between the glazings are up (1st picture) the sunrays shine on the single glaze solar cells. When the blinds are down (3th picture) they act as a reflector and the sunlight is redirected to the back of the double-sided cells. This generates 25% more, but there is hardly any sunlight coming through, into the builiding. So in between you can regulate a “partial boost” position (2nd picture), regulating the amount of light inside versus the solar energy yield.
Choices, choices
no, if you consider to re-energize your house, boat or company energy, you have plenty options. You could choos to just squeeze the engery bills a bit, or you can even make a small power plant from it. Choices, choices.
Inge goes to her favorite clothing shop. Dress for a party! She loves to buy here, because it is without compromising the future of mankind, without contributing to bad labor circumstances, without the extra transport, CO2 and everything. And by the way, it costs a little compared to new. Believe it or not, every cloth or shoe in this movie comes from… dumpsters!
Mariska runs the shop. With success, because she knows what to pick for her customers.
Inge attended a lecture by Professor Cees Buisman on the future of water and the water usage in the world, specificallly the water we drink. He showed two images that particularly drew her attention. The first is that compared to the earth’s mass, there is relatively little water on our Mother Earth. And that water is mainly salt water.
The quantity of sea water is shown with the big drop. It is enormous compared to the fresh water, like from rivers and lakes, which is the little drop. Now look well, but under that little drop is a pinpoint little drop. That is our drinking water.
Buisman made a basic calculation about the drinking water. With 9 billion people on this world, we could use up to some 2200 liter potable water per inhabitant per year. That seems like a lot. But, is it?
Dutch consumption of water
Most people know how much drinking water we Dutchmen use. It is about 120 liter per person per day. But, that is only our direct consumption (most of it for washing water and toilet flushes). But indirectly, a Dutchman uses, like most Europeans, a lot more: 4000 liter per day!
Check out the graphics here, and see what we use all water for.
The big chuncks of the water use are for meat and dairy food production.
As you see, the water consumption of Western people is like the fossil fuel consumption: way too far out of proportion to share Mother Earth with other people born in poorer regions.
“Eat like a lion”
So, must we all become vegans now?
Professor Buijsman says: “Eat like a lion!” On average, a lion eats meat for 4 days and then 6 six no meat.
Buismans words in English: Create the world you want to live in
How did people ever come into Polynesia?and where dit they come from?
If you look at the currents and the winds on the Pacific Ocean, they mainly go from East to West. Only when you get south of the 60 degees, the winds become from the west. But on these latitudes it is cold and the winds are hard, with names like ‘the Screaming Sixties’ and the ‘Furious Fifties’.
The prevailing winds and currents in the Pacific Ocean, and the route of Heyerdahl
So it is not strange that in the sixties the antropologist Thor Heyerdahl assumed that the Pacific islands were settled by the South Americans. He and his crew tried to sail on a balsa wood raft from Peru to one of the islands. They ended up on an island of the Tuamotus. It convinced Heyerdahl and many others that the Polynesian islands got their first settlers from South America.
Heyerdahls self made balsa raft Kon-Tiki, where he and his fellow researchers sailed from Peru to the Tuamotu’s.
And, let’s be fair: it is really difficult to believe that these people came all the way from Asisa, thousands and thousands of miles against the winds and currents. Even with the current Western boats and sailors, considered being superior, it would be really a hard job. And, the old Polynesians did not have charts, not even a compass to support the navigation.
From the West, despite the prevailing winds?
Nevertheless, not every scientist agreed with Heyerdahl. There were cultural and genetic indications pointing the other way, to the West. Check the tattoos for example. It was wide spread in Polynesia, even up to New Zealand. But there was no tattoo culture in Peru.
A Maori tattoo and a Marquesian tattoo. There are variations for shure, but they have many characteristics that they would be from the same origin
.
The scepsis on Heyerdahls theory, although proven in a physical way, remained. In 1976 scientists and Polynesian have built a classical Polynesian sailing craft. Two canoos are put together with a platform, like a catamaran, and was rigged with two sails the Polynesian way. It is called a wa’a kaulua.
The Polynesian navigated by reading the waves patterns. Where we Western sailors distinghuish only two or three wave directions, the Polynesians had built up this skill to such a high level of refinement, they could see already for 100 miles in what direction islands would be and they could even predict the weather with reading the waves.
DNA shows the truth, and the great Polynesian navigation skills.
In the current century the DNA research developed. Also a big survey was made on Polynesians from various islands and island groups. In 2021 a report showed that there are strong relations between Polynesians, including the Maori in New Zealand.
This is how the Polynesians spread over the Pacific Ocean. The DNA relation of the Maori (NZ) and the Polynesians is strong.
So, yes, when we Westerns only sailed the coasts of Europe, the Polynesians were already that developed, that they navigated with their boats over the complete Pacific Ocean, from New Zealand and Melanesia, all the way up to the Marquesas, Gambier and Hawaii.
Right now, there are even indications that they sailed all the way to the West coast of North America (near San Francisco). But that is for later.
Before even thinking of a means of transport, it is best to first think in advance whether you have to go somewhere, and can combine it. Because the unused energy is the most sustainable energy.
Sustainable Yacht
Sailing is a fossil-free activity anyway. But if you sail sustainably, so without fossil fuels, including cooking and living on the yacht, then you are by far doing the best.
Bicycle
Did you know that cycling costs even less energy than walking? It is only the product itself. Somewhere in the late eighties of the last century there was a German study that showed that the wear on tires and chains was even less than the wear on shoes. In the meantime, we are all so rich that we buy a new bike every time. So, the most polluting thing is the purchase.
What helps is to prevent yourself being influenced by the ‘silent’ methods of commercial (social?) media. you could also take a Swapfiets.
This is a Swapfiets, a Swap Bike. You pay a monthly fee of about 15 Euro and the company garantees you have a bike, and when it is broken they fix it or give you a spare bike instead.
Walking
Transport by your feet comes in at number 3. The advantage is, just like cycling, that you move more, so you don’t have to go to the gym as much (by car?).
Electric bicycle
This is slightly more polluting than the bicycle because it has more parts that have a shorter lifespan. In terms of time, the lifespan is also shorter – not in terms of kilometers. Just like with the bicycle, the sustainability problem is the rapid replacement. For example, because it is out of fashion. Take the racing bike, which is bought in an enthusiastic mood, but is cycled less and less but is out of fashion because they are now 150 grams lighter.
Train
Dutch trains run on green energy. Because they last for decades and are designed for good maintenance, they last a long time. It looks excellent.
The only disadvantage, which formally falls under ‘green’ is also the wood burning, so there is still pollution from sulphur and nitrogen compounds, among other things. What the train cannot do is get close to home, but here the metro does its job.
Electric bus
The bus does that part that the train can no longer do: the small and remote parts.
The resistance of rolling tires on the road is considerably higher than the resistance of the train wheels on the nice smooth rails, so driving costs a lot more energy. The air resistance is also much higher. No matter how green it is, it costs more wind and solar panels (and wood burning) than the train.
Moped and scooter
The moped often still has a type of combustion engine (two-stroke, on mixed lubrication) that is quite polluting.
However, the emissions from the small engine are much smaller than those of the car.
The scooter of today does better, because it often has a four-stroke engine, just like a car. The electric scooter is ranked by the (electric) bicycle, in terms of sustainability.
Electric car
If you charge the electric car exclusively on green energy, only few fossil emissions are created (only from the wood burning part).
Such a car needs very little maintenance, because unlike fossil cars, there are almost no moving parts. They last a long time. Only the batteries need to be replaced after five or ten years, but these are becoming increasingly durable.
Fossil car
The fossil car converts 30 to 40 percent of fossil energy into power for propulsion. The remaining 60-70% is emitted through heat, carbon dioxide, sulphur compounds and nitrogen compounds.
Airplane
The jet plane is the biggest polluter, even if you calculate per kilometre. An example: flying from Europe to the Marquesas has the same environmental impact as an average yacht in a year.
The propeller plane still has some efficiency in consumption, but it is quite slow. We can expect the first electric planes from this. If you are going to vote in Europe, vote for the party that taxes the emissions of at least flying. Then we will at least reduce the worst polluters.
