Russian invasion of Ukraine

[LongTimeLurker]

3 hours ago, Newbornbairn said:

Russia has just pushed Europe into the open door of sustainable energy production. Whilst cheap gas was around, politicians could drag their feet but now even the most backward climate change sceptic will enthusiastically embrace green options. 

Renewables need gas to back them up given the lack of large scale storage across most of Europe for when the wind stops blowing and sun stops shining (Norway's pump-storage hydro would be the most obvious exception) so it's not that simple. Germany in particular needed vast quantities of cheap Russian gas to reliably back up all their wind turbines after foolishly moving away from having nuclear as stable baseload.

[DiegoDiego]

Renewables need gas to back them up given the lack of large scale storage across most of Europe for when the wind stops blowing and sun stops shining (Norway's pump-storage hydro would be the most obvious exception)

What's the score with tidal energy?

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

3 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

What's the score with tidal energy?

It comes and goes.

[LongTimeLurker]

5 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

What's the score with tidal energy?

More predictable but still need storage to match supply with demand. 

[Moomintroll]

4 minutes ago, Zen Archer (Raconteur) said:

It comes and goes.

Bravo Sir.

[jagfox]

 

 

[Shadow Play]

1 hour ago, Zetterlund said:

For modern houses heat pumps are every bit as good as gas boilers, although that doesn't help the majority of people right now. We're on the right track with the gas boiler ban for new builds from 2025, but heat pumps remain very expensive and the only reason they're an option for many people at all just now is because the government throws money at them to fit one.

Even for well insulated homes, of which there are not too many in Scotland, the radiators have to be larger than standard gas boiler radiators.  This is due to the fact that the water is not heated to such a high temperature with a heat pump as it is with a gas boiler.  This can obviously effect the design of every room and we all know how important small changes in design can be 

[Zetterlund]

26 minutes ago, Shadow Play said:

Even for well insulated homes, of which there are not too many in Scotland, the radiators have to be larger than standard gas boiler radiators.  This is due to the fact that the water is not heated to such a high temperature with a heat pump as it is with a gas boiler.  This can obviously effect the design of every room and we all know how important small changes in design can be 

You are correct of course, I was just sticking up for my livelihood at the claim they're not as good because I'm a heat pump/AC engineer myself 

They get some bad press because they're mis-sold and fitted to houses without the necessary upgrades. But when designed properly there's no reason they can't be a suitable alternative to boilers in many homes. There are actually high-temperature heat pumps which are designed to be a straight swap onto older heating systems, maybe not for every situation but in my experience they do the job well.

(Energy prices thread for this pish maybe)

[LongTimeLurker]

Russian oil refinery mysteriously catches fire after drone spotted in the sky:

and looks like Russia may finally take a large chunk of what's left of Ukrainian controlled Luhansk oblast with a pincer movement that's finally small enough to be doable for them:

 

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by LongTimeLurker

[LongTimeLurker]

11 hours ago, Zetterlund said:

...(Energy prices thread for this pish maybe)

It is what this whole conflict revolves around though to a large extent. People don't seem to grasp that the real reason we are moving towards renewables and technology like heat pumps in the 21st century is that cheap easily exploted fossil fuels are largely tapped out over 200 years on from the invention of the steam engine. Added to that, renewables technology can't fully replace fossil fuels yet in the absence of scalable solutions on storage but instead usually still has to be backed up by them with gas being the easiest way to do that.

Those factors combined mean that there isn't excess production capacity available to easily eliminate Russia from the market if countries like the UK and Netherlands refuse to develop or continue to exploit their onshore natural gas resources to keep environmentalists happy. Having much of the EU going mental on wind turbines before the storage issue is resolved rather than using nuclear for baseload hands a huge amount of leverage to people like Vlad who control large sources of natural gas supply and gets them thinking about reordering the international order in ways that suit themselves rather than the West.

Edited June 22, 2022 by LongTimeLurker

[ICTChris]

Russian forces have advanced in the last 24 hours South of Severodonetsk, which still remains contested.  Looks like the front lines have been breached, although it's possible that Ukrainian forces have retreated/withdrawn.  This development puts Lyschansk at more risk, with Russian forces now very close to the city, with 4 or 5km by some reports.

Ukraine have apparently advanced in the Kherson region and Russia have begun counter attacks/offensives in Kharkiv but the movemet in those areas is pretty minimal.  

In other news, there seems to have been a kamikaze drone attack on a Russian oil refiney in Rostov Oblast, video footage of the incident here

 

Some people are saying that this is a Russian drone - could be an accident or a captured drone or sabotage.  The refinery is a long way from any front lines, helluva big accident if that's what happened.

[LongTimeLurker]

Chat seems to be that it is a Ukrainian reconnaisance drone modified to act in kamikaze mode.

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by LongTimeLurker

[dirty dingus]

Two interesting replays on the drone footage.                                                    As a Russian this would give me proper confidence in the quality of my country's air defence.  Able to launch hypersonic ballistic missiles, but incapable of detecting and shooting down a big drone at walkingspeed.                                                                                                                             As a former navy radar operator i can tell you the speed is their strength. if you set up your radar to display contacts at these speeds, it will saturate your radar with cars driving down the road. Most countries will have this problem, not just russia.                                                So slow motion drones are the way to go but how long would it take to arrive 160km from the front at those slow speeds?

[DiegoDiego]

As a former navy radar operator i can tell you the speed is their strength. if you set up your radar to display contacts at these speeds, it will saturate your radar with cars driving down the road.

If you wouldn't mind educating the ignorant. Would cars not, to coin a phrase, "fly under the radar" or has that issue been solved by Lockheed or whomever?

[dirty dingus]

18 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

If you wouldn't mind educating the ignorant. Would cars not, to coin a phrase, "fly under the radar" or has that issue been solved by Lockheed or whomever?

I've had an interesting life but never been a radar operator, that was a reply to the original post. Had a Google and found that if a drone is 200 ft or lower and using the terrain it can lead to false positives from ground clutter. 

[ICTChris]

On 22/06/2022 at 09:46, ICTChris said:

Russian forces have advanced in the last 24 hours South of Severodonetsk, which still remains contested.  Looks like the front lines have been breached, although it's possible that Ukrainian forces have retreated/withdrawn.  This development puts Lyschansk at more risk, with Russian forces now very close to the city, with 4 or 5km by some reports.

 

Russian forces have 'closed the pocket' around the village of Zolote, South of Severodonetsk.  It's been reported that Urainian forces withdrew avoiding an encirclement.

[welshbairn]

19 hours ago, dirty dingus said:

I've had an interesting life but never been a radar operator, that was a reply to the original post. Had a Google and found that if a drone is 200 ft or lower and using the terrain it can lead to false positives from ground clutter. 

It's possibly an urban myth but a Scottish bobby's speed gun was supposed to have melted due to counter measures when an RAF jet flew low overhead at high speed.

[Detournement]

The US State Department is funding this insanity.

[LongTimeLurker]

Too late for Zolote and Hirske but will be interesting to see how much of a difference HIMARS makes:

 

 

[LongTimeLurker]

1 hour ago, Detournement said:

The US State Department is funding this insanity.

Maybe the Chechen Republic and Tatarstan amongst others should have the same ability to leave the Russian Federation that Scotland has in a UK context?