lol-lol

I think you live in one of those luck areas where you pay a few pence per litre less than the UK average. Here is was 143 for Tescos who are the dominant supermarket in Worcester, Sainsburys are still 143 but I suspect they will change soon to align to Tesco within a penny a litre. We have no ASDA and that is why, I think, we do not get cheaper prices though I gather there is some rumour that the ASDA take over by the new owners is not seeing as cheap prices. Treated the new Clio ETECH to Tescos 99 to help with its running in and that was Momentum at only £149.9 which is an OK price I feel, may get a couple more mpg with its higher calorific value and worth it for the extra cleaning properties as well as higher octane rating but it is a non turbo engine so probably will be OK on 95 octane for normal fill ups. Small 39 litre, ie little 8.6 litre tank so never going to be a costly affair. First 50 miles showing 60 mpg but this should climb close to 70 mpg as we get use to driving a full hybrid cat that can spend half or even three quarters of its time on journey in EV mode. Crude is up around 12% in the last 3 months, Saudi is looking to throttle supply to keep prices up and Russia is limited where it can sell so it will be interesting to see where prices go. I would not be surprised to see oil stabilize around $90 a barrel for Brent but as we know it is Excise taxes that have the big effect on pump prices and with the Uk government in such dire straights financially ie paying £200B a year now in interest payments they my look to reverse the 5p a litre concession and do this and more in the November Autumn Statement to try and close the fiscal gap but then an election is only about a year away and many people are alway squeeze by food, mortgage and rent cost increases.

Where there is a will. I would have the EVs fire blanket wrapped as each one is loaded with a blanket that wraps the car up right underneath. Straps then over the wrapped car. As car transporter ships have no segment fire breaks they should adopt better anti fire systems. Needs a reset look at this new paradigm. Stats should EVs are about 20 times less likely to catch fire but chemical fires need more thoughtful solution than just using a 3 inch water hose.

Fuel up in price the most since June 2022. (At least electricity prices are seeing a big fall ie 20% or so) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/08/08/ftse-100-markets-live-news-inflation-interest-rates/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Drivers hit with largest rise in fuel prices for a year - 8 August 2023 • 6:37pm Drivers have been hit with the largest weekly rise in fuel prices in more than a year as the Energy Secretary claimed households are being overcharged. Prices at the pump have risen for three straight weeks as oil production cuts by Russia and Saudi Arabia drive up wholesale prices. Figures published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero show UK forecourts charged an average of 146.2p per litre for petrol and 148.2p per litre for diesel on Monday. Analysis by the PA news agency found this represents the largest weekly increase in petrol prices since June last year at 2.1p per litre. There was a largely uninterrupted fall in average petrol prices from late October 2022 until late June, when prices began to rise.

Needs at least half an hour under the blanket, more like three quarters of an hour seems to be wise, personally I would give it a full hour just to be on the safe side. All fire fighting brigades, and on board car carriers, should have these as well as their BA suits and the whole head to foot clothing as above.

Think they had a fire in Norway too, oops. As to EV fires the fire blanket seems to work well, or foam maybe, not so much water. That what I was taught I recall, red water extinguishers for normal inflatable material, foam or co2 for electrical, fire blankets are good too.

As an ex Merchant Navy Engineer, and in international logistics now I do like to follow these matters. All parts of the revolution in motive power. aerospace is a different matter as no electrical equivalent to jet engines or rockets so that needs a rethink. Back to propellers to replace jet engines as to rockets not seen a solution there other than ion drive.

Interesting solution Chinese are using on EV ships, 700 TEU ie 20 foot container equivalent, is to just drop in a twenty foot 50 MWh container in to the Mega pack bank, container can be charger a few miles a away and then dropped in to the Motorway services and continue to be trickle charged but if get low slot in a fully charged 50 MWh TEU pack as with this Chinese 10,000 ship running up and down the Yellow river, can I call it that, should be Yangtze, or correctly 长江;.

Value of second hand Zoe's seems to be stable now but that is an absolute bargain in some cases. EVM buying a ZE22 for £4.4k, very tidy and battery life still very good but only 80 miles or so range but mega for a cheap commuter car for someone. ZE40 are hard to find and I think owners are holding on to them as a car with that 160 mile or so range for 10k or less, negligible running costs. It is the ZE50s like mine which we £30-34k cars 18 months ago and now are valued around £13k is a bit massive. But then it is too easy to forget that many of us got massive government subsidies, thousands for the car and £500 for the charging point plus Renault and dealers were giving thousands discounts and finance terms were good. Also when running the car one can be claiming 45p per mile whist it actual probably costs less than 10p per miles with energy, servicing and tyre costs quite low. Just have to accept it, Zoe will cease production in March 2024 after about a third of a million having been made to make way for Renault 5 and 4 and Dacia Spring. If they all help clean up our air and slow down climate change then that is a win and values are nominal but I would be worried for Renault getting back numerous Zoes back from PCP which are worth thousands less than the balloon payment, not good for their balance sheet.

In addition to it being something "sensinsible" to smooth out demand spike it also makes incredibly good sense for EV charging providers to add the mega-battery packs so the charge station operator can get lecky from the grid at a few pence per kWh and then sell it to punters at tens of pence per kWh, what a business model. Good to see Gridserve, who some regard as the pioneers with their EV charging stations with 30 plus charging points plus facilities, they not only put these on motorways but A roads as well and now we have the one in Cornwall at the Cornwall Service with 1 MWh battery and solar canopy. Additional battery packs presumably can be added as cars with higher charge rates use the 350kw chargers and not only the AC charge points. 3 other charge points for LEAF connections making 15 in all. https://www.cornwall-services.com/gridserve/ GRIDSERVE ACCELERATES HIGH POWER EV CHARGING AT CORNWALL SERVICES WITH UK-FIRST BATTERY AND SOLAR POWER INNOVATION Innovative solution, which includes solar canopy and 1MW battery, delivers EV charging years ahead of new grid connection availability GRIDSERVE Technologies software optimises available grid and solar energy to maximise charging speeds with dynamic load sharing Planning permission submitted for adjacent 1 MWp solar farm to deliver zero carbon energy from the sun directly into electric vehicles GRIDSERVE, the technology market leader in EV (Electric Vehicle) charging, has delivered another UK first at Cornwall Services with a new solution that combines the latest innovations in batteries and solar energy to supplement the existing grid connection to deliver ten times the charging power. Thanks to this innovation, GRIDSERVE and Cornwall Services have been able to open a 12 charger Electric Super Hub on the A30, complete with a state-of-the-art solar canopy. Six High Power 350kW-capable chargers provide a quick top up for people passing through on their journeys, along with six Low Power AC chargers for overnight guests at the onsite hotel.

You should see Schiphol..........

In Devon we call people from Somerset Northerners. We are all Westcountry, we even include Gloucestershire as well as Dorset and Wiltshire. Let us hope rising sea levels does not vastly reduce the size of Somerset. Let us hope we stall Climate change before it takes about a fifth of Somerset. Much of Somerset may be eventually recovered by the sea. Building the M5 they knew this and built much of it as elevated section so it may be that only the bit that are well above current sea level that might survive, still quite a size of territory but quite different to what Somerset is today and more like it was in the 16th century when Dutch settlers helped reclaim the 250 square miles or so. Hopefully not places like where the new EV battery factory is going to be. One daughter lives on the Gwent levels, similar to the Somerset levels so can be a bit of a worry. Let us hope we do not get another Bristol Channel / Severn surge like they have in 1607 which was biblical in its scale... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1607_Bristol_Channel_floods More EV charging will help postpone the sea rises, energy straight from Hinkley Point nuclear power station in to EVs, homes and industry. Government paper..... The Levels are one of the lowest areas in the UK; 18% of Somerset lies below average tide level. Much of the area lies below the high-water mark of spring tides. The area extends to over 60,000 hectares and is very flat. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/somerset-levels-and-moors-reducing-the-risk-of-flooding/somerset-levels-and-moors-reducing-the-risk-of-flooding#:~:text=The Levels are one of,hectares and is very flat.

Only if born in Cornwall and Devon or after 21 years of cumilative local residency.

High public charging price is a factor of the high capital cost of the equipment and VAT being at 20% rather than 5% I reckon. Cost for a long journey in an EV, for many, is the full EV battery one leaves home and then just a lecky equvalent of a splash and dash. In our 14k miles in the Zoe I reckon it has been about 4.3 MWh of home charge, 0.1 MWh of destination charging free of charge at work and client and the 10 kW of Octopus/Shell garage/Osprey charge which would have been £8 but I had £10 of free Octopus charge credit so still got £2 of credit still to spend. Never pay retail.

Save us from Emmetts and Grockels.

That's Somerset but I certainly know what you mean on the way to Lyonesse.

And with the Dacia Spring going on sale soon plus hundreds of thousands of EV's with 50 kWh batteries or less good public network is essential. I think Shell is getting it and maybe BP, not so sure, but it needs all their sites that have the space to wack in half a dozen to a dozen DC chargers to make journeys in many EVs viable. Hopefully Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries so they can be wacked up to 100% charge quickly with that lass 20% not taking eternity. At a non extortionate price ie 50 per kWh would be nice too.

I think these BESS storage sites are coming on line and it is possible to set this up in as little as 90 days as seen in Australia when Must took up a challenge, many times faster than making a carbon burning power station..... https://megawattmosaic.com/europes-biggest-bess-netted-nearly-us3-million-revenues-in-q1-2023/ As well as all this UK grid connected battery storage, and difficult to estimate is the amount of domestic/home storage which I would not be surprised is several KWh by many hundreds of thousands of home if not in to the million plus, hopefully powering EV charging, heat pump heating and all electrical device powering. As a side note very glad to see Octopus drop my day time rate for 40p to less than 30p per kWh though night time rate is popping up from 7.5p to 9.5p per kWh, standing charge up an incredible 5p a day from 47p to 52p per day. Gas down from 10p to 7.5p per kWh so I can expect much lower energy bills this autumn and winter. Well done Octopus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Europe’s biggest battery storage system in megawatt-hour (MWh) terms earned £2.3 million (US$2.85 million) revenues during its first full quarter in commercial operation. UK-based investment fund Harmony Energy Income Trust said recently that its Pillswood Battery Energy Storage System (Pillswood BESS) in northern England was one of the best-performing battery storage assets in Britain in the first quarter of 2023. Chinese multinational corporation Envision Energy has agreed on a partnership with Harmony Energy Income Trust to provide battery energy storage systems (BESS) for projects in the UK. Envision Energy will develop liquid-cooled energy storage systems which are capable of providing energy time-shifting, capacity services and frequency regulation services. Harmony Energy Income Trust invests within the battery energy storage sector and currently operates 109MW/218MWh of BESS in the UK with a further 286.4MW/572.8MWh under construction. Wormald Green and Hawthorn Pit, the BESS projects Envision is contracted for, are set to commence in Q2 2023, both anticipated to be fully completed and connected to the grid in Q1 2024. Wormald Green has a storage capacity of 33MW/66MWh whereas Hawthorn Pit has a slightly higher storage capacity of 49.9MW/99.8Mh. According to Envision, its expertise lies in full-stack technical capabilities ranging from battery technologies to energy storage systems. This has also seen it support the deliverance of two-hour duration BESS. This could strengthen Harmony Energy’s vision with the company also exploring two-hour duration BESS projects. As of the end of the first year since the company’s incorporation, it had six two-hour duration BESS projects totalling 312.5MW/625MWh.

Plymouth, next to the Cornish border, has quite a lot of EV chargers and we are awaiting the full Gridserve 32 or so chargers dedicated facility which has planning permission at Home Park Plymouth but Gridserve, usually notable for their motorway charging points, and since Cornwall and Devon have only a little motorway ie M5 and the A30 and A38 are the main trunk roads but two weeks ago Gridserve "opened"their facility at end of Bodmin bypass ie the so called Cornwall Services. Teething issues reported but once sorted should be the "go to" place with its 1 MWh on site mega-battery to help keep power outputs It is on the A30, which most use for Cornwall rather than the A38 which I tend to use as a Janner ie Plymouth/Devon person but a very welcome facility especially to us Zoe owners who can use either CCS DC or the AC outlets which their are half a dozen of either plus 3 LEAF connectors, when they are all sorted out after these teething problems. Good nosh stop there too. Not an issue for me as going from Plymouth to Lands End and back is do-able in the Zoe.ZE50. https://www.cornwall-services.com/gridserve/

Can stop at Buckfastleigh now, if one use A38 rather than A30, lots of new and well priced charges so it is not just Exeter services now. Well done Plymouth beating Huddersfield 3 to 1 in new division.

You have the Ad Blu system on Euro6 wiesel cars and as well as all the sub system of that, I gather Ad Blu is fed in to the exhaust system to try and bring down the NOX so there is both the install cost of the system plus on going cost of topping it up I gather typical consumption is about 2% of the volume of diesel fuel but can be between 1% and 6% I read. Shame car makers did not adapt to use human urine so one could recycle one's own urine in to the Ad Blu system, bit of a cost saving plus saving the packaging and distribution costs of getting Ad Blu to garages etc. Can see petrol hybrids, with strong battery components replaces diesel in all road transport scenarios, including 44 tonne trucks, so that only ships and trains, that are not already electric, being EV or hybrid by the end of this decade for economic reasons not just law enforcement to achieve climate change objectives.

Meet up with my Director boss during the week and he has taken the plunge, as he is based at Heathrow ie inside the new ULEZ zone, should not have been surprised at all really, as he is a BMW fan boy, and he has gone for the ubiquitous 530-e, as do many a senior manager not wanting to get too whacked for tax. Got rid of his 2015 Euro 5 diesel which he would have been paying the £12.50 a day ULEZ charge upon. Reminded myself of the spec ie 290-ish hp, 0-62 in less than 6 seconds, 20 to 30 miles on electric. PHEV with a 12 kwh battery since 2020 or so. Like the etch Clio I am picking up today I suppose it is self charging some of the time. I expect many 530e and 545e drivers do not plug it in at every opportunity, just to much faff to save less than a fiver's worth of gas. Whilst it appears that fully electric cars continue to increase their percentage of cars over both PHEVs and pure petrol cars. BMW little X1 is the only BMW EV in the top 20. Sales of petrol only cars still the biggest section but diesels have now fallen behind pure electric...... https://www.acea.auto/pc-registrations/new-car-registrations-17-8-in-june-battery-electric-15-1-market-share/#:~:text=In the first half of,21% lower compared to 2019. New car registrations: +17.8% in June, battery electric 15.1% market share Fuel types of new cars In June, the battery-electric car market share surged from 10.7% to 15.1%, overtaking diesel share for the first time. Hybrid-electric cars remained the second-most popular choice among new car buyers, representing 24.3% of the market. However, petrol cars retained the largest share, accounting for 36.3%. In June, the EU petrol car market grew 11%, totalling 379,067 units. However, the market share decreased to 36.3% from 38.5% in June 2022. The growth was primarily driven by solid gains in the four largest EU markets, particularly Germany (+19.8%) and Spain (+11.9%). Over 2 million petrol cars were sold in the EU in the first half of the year, a notable 15.9% increase compared to 2022. In contrast, the EU market for diesel cars continued to decline (-9.4%) last month, despite growth in Germany (+10.3%) and Central European markets, particularly Romania (+22.4%). Diesel cars now represent a market share of 13.4%, down from 17.4% in June last year.

There is a new bunch of EV charges at Tothill on the A34 just south of Newbury. Couple of weeks ago did Worcester to Southampton to pickup a LNG powered cruise ship, did that leg using less than half the battery. After cruise did a just over 10 minute DC charge at Tothill and got home with tens of miles still left. An absolute pleasure. More EV charging points than petrol/diesel pumps now at Tothill Services. Octopus van there and I used my free £10 Octopus, well £8 of it, and then went on my way. Better the Tescos vouchers for a few quid of fuel.

Best Discount is the Early Bird discounts they do in some of their car parks. £3 an hour normally but if one arrives by 8 am then it is £7 for ten hours, great deal.

Don't understand why your Masters is an Arts Masters degree rather than a Science Master degree, why is that ? Do you think the UK is going to need to add the sort of storm solutions ie ability to shift massive amounts of rainfall from tropical storm events it is looking like the UK is increasingly starting to experience as Climate change becomes increasingly severe ???? Is it even possible, at any sort of do-able expense to convert our old construction type of most cities to cope with such biblical tropical rain storms ?? Like LA River with it storm capacity......... https://www.google.com/search?q=space+shuttle+landing+in+LA+storm+channel&source=lmns&tbm=vid&bih=572&biw=1229&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB942GB942&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiU-OfjgsGAAxVnnCcCHSAwAQwQ0pQJKAN6BAgBEAg&safe=active&ssui=on#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:4798031e,vid:r4G6H0C7aYw