I found it easy to leave California. After all, I've done it 4 or 5 times. If the latest events there convince the voters to get the state back on the right track, and I complete my retirement rollovers to a Roth I may come back.
Major Fire at California Power Plant (world largest Lithium grid back up) Firefighters say best choice "Let it burn"
- Thread starter alarmguy
- Start date
I realize nukes need lots of water for cooling. That’s why they’re built on lakes and sea shores.
But these battery facilities should be built elsewhere. Build them where the wind and solar is, in desert areas. Should one burn down like Moss Landing at least you’re only polluting the air, not both the air and ocean.
Scott
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Personally, I think we should be hitting pause on the batteries until we are building ones that we know aren't going to self-immolate. There are other battery chemistry options, like iron air, sodium ion...etc that, while not as energy dense, may last longer and aren't prone to thermal runaway. Since space isn't really a huge issue for batteries when we are talking about solar farms that take up literally thousands of acres, the energy density doesn't really matter like it does for EV's and other compact devices where weight and space matter.
The problem is that lithium-based batteries have benefited massively from the EV and consumer space and so there's already a supply chain and industry built around them. As I mentioned earlier, due to their association with the wind and solar collective, they seem to be able to avoid the scrutiny they should rightfully be subject to, given the appalling number of grid-scale battery fires relative to the number of installations.
A small town refuge from the Silicon Valley machine...
I ain't going nowhere. They will take me outta Los Gatos in a box.
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I don't blame you. Sue and I spent a large portion of our lives in Los Gatos. And hopefully you're taken out in a box from your own home!
Scott
Agreed.
I have delivered special order parts to electrians at the new construction at Proxima Solar Farm.
It is located near Patterson CA in the valley, south of Modesto.
1,100 acres. 200 mega watts. Rolling hills. Better location.
I like nuclear and natural gas myself. Common sense isn't so common.
I'm old enough to remember when natural gas was considered the "clean alternative" (and it wasn't that long ago). There used to be television commercials hailing the benefits of natural gas.
Scott
Bet that’s going to taste great on all the crops downwind of it
Yes Scott, I did the Highway 50 from Ely to Tahoe 2 years ago with my son. Vast doesn’t begin to make the actual landscape match the scale of anything in your mind.
The pic you have here is a perfect example- the top edge of the pic, while clearly in view, will still not be close enough to touch in 20 minutes, even though you can easily be going a mile and a half per minute.
The only thing I’ve ever encountered in my life that felt so big, and correspondingly made you feel less than insignificant, was the blackness of a moonless transit in the middle of the Atlantic. Highway 50 is on the same scale. Absolutely recommend, and sooner rather than later!
What an outstanding description. @SubieRubyRoo!Yes Scott, I did the Highway 50 from Ely to Tahoe 2 years ago with my son. Vast doesn’t begin to make the actual landscape match the scale of anything in your mind.
The pic you have here is a perfect example- the top edge of the pic, while clearly in view, will still not be close enough to touch in 20 minutes, even though you can easily be going a mile and a half per minute.
The only thing I’ve ever encountered in my life that felt so big, and correspondingly made you feel less than insignificant, was the blackness of a moonless transit in the middle of the Atlantic. Highway 50 is on the same scale. Absolutely recommend, and sooner rather than later!
And I love your "going a mile and a half per minute" comment. Without question Sue and I will be doing that.
Scott
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
They won’t fare well when the other inmates hear the storyI was thinking of visiting San Jose.
Maybe I go somewhere else…. ?
Hopefully these suspicious fires can be contained.
They’ve arrested some people starting fires. Very sad someone would do that.
And she's unattainable for most of us. Lol.
I could move to California anytime I want. Even have a house. I left in 1986 for a reason and I am not going back.
@Pablo, I totally understand. Sue and I have either been blessed or fortunate (take your pick) to spend most of our lives in the the most beautiful areas of California. I love California but there are areas I consider undesirable, if not unlivable.
Scott
The area is quite nice, but so many people pretty much anywhere you go. So crowded everywhere. Makes me itch.
I think you'd love Cali's North Coast. Areas between, let's say, Point Reyes to the Medocino area is like going back in time.
Scott
Those areas are very nice.
Don’t know yet where we will end up during the condo years
Getting back to previous part of the convo, I drove the E90 out to the California Valley area where the massive solar farms are. I've been making driving sorties out here before the solar farms came.
Anyway, a few pictures from today. Sunny and a warm 60 degrees, nobody on the road - like nooobody, and dry as a bone. This entire region of the state is dry, all the way to the coast too. Dead dry.
Scott
Pictures are about my driving tour because we were talking about it. I'm not trying to be controversial.
I love driving out there. Roads are fantastic for an afternoon sortie. Understand too, what you see here is probably 50 miles from the coast.
The is the "California Valley Solar Ranch". Their acreage is on the south east end of the valley.
This is looking west over what I presume are CVSR panels. The picture does a dismal job of capturing the scale of things. This is a very large are you see covered, and it's just one of a patchwork of many.
This is looking south over I presume CVSR acreage. This picture is super cropped to zoom it in. What you see is a very, very large area.
Now I'm in the northwest area.
This are all panels of in the far distance. The viewpoint you see is many miles wide and far off into the distance.
They do a nice job of walling the panels off. The way they do it blends in pretty well I think. The wall goes on for miles and there are other walled off areas that are part of a larger patchwork of panels.
The "residential" part of California Valley. Out in the middle of nowhere.
Anyway, a few pictures from today. Sunny and a warm 60 degrees, nobody on the road - like nooobody, and dry as a bone. This entire region of the state is dry, all the way to the coast too. Dead dry.
Scott
Pictures are about my driving tour because we were talking about it. I'm not trying to be controversial.
I love driving out there. Roads are fantastic for an afternoon sortie. Understand too, what you see here is probably 50 miles from the coast.
The is the "California Valley Solar Ranch". Their acreage is on the south east end of the valley.
This is looking west over what I presume are CVSR panels. The picture does a dismal job of capturing the scale of things. This is a very large are you see covered, and it's just one of a patchwork of many.
This is looking south over I presume CVSR acreage. This picture is super cropped to zoom it in. What you see is a very, very large area.
Now I'm in the northwest area.
This are all panels of in the far distance. The viewpoint you see is many miles wide and far off into the distance.
They do a nice job of walling the panels off. The way they do it blends in pretty well I think. The wall goes on for miles and there are other walled off areas that are part of a larger patchwork of panels.
The "residential" part of California Valley. Out in the middle of nowhere.
That's a lot less obtrusive than those giant windmills they've put up everywhere on the east side of Washington.