Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is a real risk for future generations including my own children. It’s a risk I’ve personally taken seriously, and have taken personal action against, since the late 1980s when I was in university. And while we’ve seen some extremely positive developments in the past 30 years such as the creation of new industries […]
Author: spitfireresearch
What Are the Energy Solutions?
Oh Paul, you’re so critical! You just crap on other people’s “green solutions”, telling us why they won’t work in your opinion! Where are YOUR solutions? Put up or shut up! First Premises First, what are we trying to solve, exactly? Anthropogenic global warming https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/global-warming-risk-arises-from-three-facts-paul-martin/ (Any denialist posts to this article will be deleted. Want to argue […]
So: Exactly How Much Electricity Does it Take to Make a Gallon of Gasoline?
First, why do I care what the answer is? And why should you care? A little history may help you understand. My son Jacob and I took on a project a little over three years ago, to convert my 1975 Triumph Spitfire roadster into a fully electric vehicle, which we call the E-Fire. The project flowed from […]
Hydrogen From Renewable Energy- Our Future?
Image credit: https://www.rolandberger.com/zh/Publications/European-cities-bet-on-hydrogen-fuel-cells-to-help-meet-emission-targets.html Is the image I’ve used, and credited above, a fair representation of our future? Hydrogen proponents, particularly those who want to sell us on the superiority of hydrogen as a transport fuel for fuelcell electric vehicles, would like us to believe it. But what would it take to make such a dream- the […]
Ammonia Pneumonia
Few in our society realize just how dependent we all are on a poison gas. Ammonia has literally permitted about half the humans on earth today to exist at all. The vast majority of our food calories, and especially those of our food animals, are totally dependent on ammonia as the source of nitrogen fertilizer. […]
The E-Fire – Electric Triumph Spitfire
A number of LinkedIn readers wanted more detail about my conversion of my 1975 Triumph Spitfire to a fully electric vehicle, so I thought I’d put together a LinkedIn version of an article I wrote for my local Toronto Triumph Club magazine, “Ragtop”. (E-Fire, with its fuel pipeline in the background) I bought my 1975 […]
Home Heating-Electrification?
Warning: this article contains a lot of numbers. Numbers that tell a story. If you don’t like numbers, stop reading and spare yourself arithmetic anxiety. It should not be news to you that people in Canada need to heat their homes. Some of us also need air conditioning if we want to be able to […]
Hydrogen to Replace Natural Gas- By the Numbers
Hydrogen to Replace Natural Gas- By the Numbers UPDATED: April 6, 2023 There’s been a lot of talk recently about hydrogen as a replacement for natural gas. The scheme is to gradually add H2 to the natural gas grid, with the H2 being made from water using “excess” renewable electricity when it’s available. But ultimately, […]
What is #hopium?
First of all, #hopium isn’t my original idea. I would attribute the use of the term to the person who I first heard use it, but sadly I’ve forgotten. The moment I heard it, I knew this was the ideal description of a problem I’d been seeing in numerous areas of our attempt to decarbonize […]
Distilled Thoughts On Hydrogen
All my concerns about hydrogen #hopium, in one convenient place! Hydrogen is being sold as if it were the “Swiss Army knife” of the energy transition. Useful for every energy purpose under the sun. Sadly, hydrogen is rather like THIS Swiss Army knife, the Wenger 16999 Giant. It costs $1400, weighs 7 pounds, and is […]