History of transportation and energy

Via email to discussion group on website: allaboutenergy.net

Transportation and Energy Eric Jelinski July 3, 2021 Once upon a time there were no trains, cars, trucks, and not even wheels, not even wooden wheels, eg. before Roman chariots, everybody walked, or rode on a horse or oxen.

Farmers on Island of Chiloe in Chile still use solid wooden wheels.

Along the way, when it rained, what used to be a dry mud trail became slippery, treacherous, and may not be passable. Romans, and others-built roads using stone paving blocks that can still be seen today.

Ancient Roman stone road.

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A stone paved road or corduroy road was still a very bumpy uncomfortable ride. Wagon wheels and chariots would fall apart. Horses needed constant feeding and watering.

Enter the wood or coal powered steam engine, running along on smooth rails, a huge step forward in efficiency, speed and comfort for travellers. Eventually Diesel technology replaced coal and steam, and a Diesel engine turning electric motors on train wheels through transistor control would be capable of shifting mega-tons of mass of a 100 cars on rails.

Coal-steam and diesel-electric freight trains.

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While railways were better, and connected major cities, local travel had to find a way. Enter the car/truck in the early 1900’s and mud roads were gradually paved for a smoother ride. And trucks got bigger and eventually mostly out compete rail because point to point service became possible using a network of paved roads as we know today.

The other major factor in this brief history of transportation is “energy density”. Except for commuter trains powered by a third rail, all mass of goods that need to be moved, also need to carry the fuel energy between points A and B. The densest and most convenient fuels today are gasoline and Diesel, and never mind coal because it is dirty.

A role for the low energy density renewables? Not a chance. Not a chance that you might cover transport trucks with solar panels. Not a chance that you cover a 100-car long train with solar panels and move that train. Not a chance given that there have been no condo, office, or housing developments with built in solar panels from the getgo. Every solar panel that has been installed anywhere in the world has been installed aftermarket and using a subsidy, ie NOT by demonstrated mainstream inclusion.

Wind power for ships had its day again until coal and Diesel took over. Wind power at best is for hobbyists using a subsidy to install but is not a sustainable technology due to low density and non-dependability. Using wind turbines to generate electricity, and then hydrogen via electrolysis for hythanation/augmentation of natural gas, NOT a chance. This has been given lot of study in recent years. “Anything can be made do-able with enough dollars to push it.” With the $ being metaphorically like the head of water on a river dammed up.

Some laws of physics: · · · ·

Conservation of mass Conservation of momentum Conservation of energy Conservation of nucleons

And of course, in designing a system, the energy output needs to be greater than the energy input for the system to be worthwhile. Using any amount of $ of subsidy to balance this equation, means that the process is not sustainable.

The only renewable energy considering the sun’s energy on a time scale of billions of years is the growing of food by photosynthesis, for people and animals, and what is left over decays, turns to compost, and enriches the soil.

A close second source of energy that may be for now considered as renewable in that it has a long time frame calculated by some to be ~3000 years. This is the energy that may be released by fast neutron fissioning of all spent fuel stored at nuclear reactor sites today. In fact IAEA reports show nuclear becoming unsustainable unless we move in this direction.

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Stored spent nuclear fuel at a nuclear power plant.

Nothing else matters. Unless discussion about a field of corn, discussion about renewables is spin to siphon money from the economy under the guise of creating jobs. The Ontario Green Energy and Economy Act of 2009, we know now 10 years later is just another failed green experiment.

Promoting renewables to solve a climate problem is likewise also spin because the sun ultimately controls the climate, and yes, while climate is changing depending on wind, or absence of wind, moisture in the air, or absence of moisture in the air, vegetation especially forests, vs absence of vegetation due to desert or farmland left without cover crop. The media hype is all too much about single data points, lacking scientific interpretation, and of course we see the respect for science unfortunately going into the toilet by ‘Big Tech’ and social media censoring and shadow banning articles/websites not consistent with their narrative.

Yours truly, Eric Eric Jelinski M. Eng. P. Eng. Stayner, Ontario eric_jelinski@sympatico.ca https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-jelinski-5157a212/?originalSubdomain=ca “Knowing is easy; it is the doing that is difficult. The critical issue is not what we know but what we do with what we know. The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.” Admiral Hyman Rickover 4