At the Wednesday, March 8, meeting of the Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC), the Club welcomed members Brad Melrose and Bud Dooley back for another interesting and informative talk. This time it was on aspects of climate change, primarily about the current emphasis on replacing reliance on petroleum-based fuels with other “more Green” alternatives.
They noted that they were not experts on the subject, and it was their own opinion based on research of numerous sources which they cannot vouch for 100% validity. Primarily their presentation was intended to provide food for thought regarding the current Green Agenda policies.
Brad has worked in the Information Technology (IT) field in Canada for 30 plus years and Bud has a similar number of years’ experience in designing, managing & securing state-of-the-art information technology infrastructures.
First up was Brad discussing Electric Vehicles (EV) which have their benefits and drawbacks. For benefits, he mentioned that they: (1) are quieter than fossil fueled vehicles (also a disadvantage as you can’t hear them coming); (2) have significantly more torque delivered to the wheels; (3) are much more efficient in urban areas of slow / stop & go traffic; and (4) produce no CO2 when running on battery.
For disadvantages, he mentioned various issues with their lithium batteries (the same type but a much larger used in mobile phones). Unlike pumping fuel into a tank, it takes much more time to charge an EV’s battery. He noted there were generally two types of plugs used. Type 1 is the standard for America and Asia which takes approximately 8 hours on average. Type 2 is the one most used by charging stations, but is also available for home use. Depending on the charging power of your car and grid capability it takes approximately 1-2 hours average using this type of plug. He also pointed out that although the EV may not emit CO2, that cannot be said for the source of the electricity used to charge their batteries.
He then mentioned other issues with EV lithium batteries noting that they sometimes catch on fire without much warning, burn rapidly, and are not easily extinguished. He showed a couple of short videos that demonstrate this problem. Also, outside temperature can have an effect on performance with it being less power in extreme cold or hot weather; noting that his research showed temperatures of 21 to 40 centigrade being optimum for providing 100% of power. Also, lithium batteries do wear out and can be very expensive to replace.
Bud then took the stage to discuss power generation and what to expect from the so called Green agenda. He explained that crude oil not only provides power such as electricity generation and fuel for most vehicles in use today, but it also provides a vast number of products in everyday use including medicine, cosmetics, plastic, synthetic rubber, cleaning products and asphalt. Thus, there is a heavy reliance on it in the world today and cannot be easily replaced.
He then described alternative means of power generation being pushed to replace crude oil including solar, wind, hydrogen, nuclear, hydro, thermal, and tidal noting the positive and negative aspects for each. The negative for most being expense and volume. Further, he pointed out that no other energy sources such as Cold Fusion are likely to help for the next 50 to 100 years.
MC George Wilson than conducted the Open Forum portion of the meeting where the audience comment and ask questions about Expat living in Thailand. To learn more about the PCEC, visit their website at: https://pcec.club. To view Brad and Bud’s presentation, visit the PCEC YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vclf7T7lYWg.
