Guest chuckle by Eric Worrall
The BBC claims the potent greenhouse gas sulfur hexafluoride leaking from EU wind turbines and other renewable electricity infrastructure components produces the global warming equivalent of putting an extra million new cars on the road.
Climate change: Electrical industry’s ‘dirty secret’ boosts warming
By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondentIt’s the most powerful greenhouse gas known to humanity, and emissions have risen rapidly in recent years, the BBC has learned.
Sulphur hexafluoride, or SF6, is widely used in the electrical industry to prevent short circuits and accidents.
But leaks of the little-known gas in the UK and the rest of the EU in 2017 were the equivalent of putting an extra 1.3 million cars on the road.
Levels are rising as an unintended consequence of the green energy boom.
Cheap and non-flammable, SF6 is a colourless, odourless, synthetic gas. It makes a hugely effective insulating material for medium and high-voltage electrical installations.
It is widely used across the industry, from large power stations to wind turbines to electrical sub-stations in towns and cities. It prevents electrical accidents and fires.
However, the significant downside to using the gas is that it has the highest global warming potential of any known substance. It is 23,500 times more warming than carbon dioxide (CO2).
…
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49567197
Sulfur Hexafluoride also contributes to the halon load allegedly destroying our ozone layer.
This is getting funny – how many ways can renewables offend the beliefs of greens before they finally lose patience with their green energy “revolution”?
If the BBC is calling you out for not being Greta enough then you really know your social credit is in big trouble.
Now if I was a nice person I would be offering compassionate sympathy for all those who have invested their time, reputation and our money into the Wind Industry and are now, bit by bit, having their names dragged through the ethically sourced mud.
But… yeah… I am not a nice person 😛
Barry, …Global warming caused by the sun/sunspot/cosmic rays. Nice to see your comment. Last night I finished reading, “The Chilling Stars”. by Henrik Svensmark, reporting the same thing. Pretty convincing stuff, but cosmic rays aren’t taxable and can’t be blamed on “fossil fuels”. The Grantologist’s and other Fraudster’s need to stick with their CO2 as the climate control knob.
Much more interesting than the real properties of Sf6 is the green perception of them . If an industry replaces a supposedly dangerous chemical (PCB) with a substance that is thousands of times more warming than CO2 and that in a time when everybody is supposed to be aware of the gh effect..that seems a much stronger case than the Exxon-knew scam.
“It is 23,500 times more warming than carbon dioxide (CO2).”
And – what is zero times 23,500?
Most of that estimate comes from projected long residency time in the atmosphere, estimated at 3,200 years. Given that it has two extremely narrow absorption peaks in the infrared its contribution in a mixed atmosphere with other IR absorbers is likely overstated.
Here’s its infrared spectrum. Looks like a double peak around 11 micrometers wavelength and a lesser peak at 18 um or so.
molecular weight of 146.55. It will keep irrigation ditches warm.
And here is the spectrum of nitrogen trifluoride.
In my last career as a chemist, I analyzed samples with a mass spectrometer using negative-chemical ionization. I used SF6 to check for vacuum leaks, because it could not detect oxygen in air in that mode. I worked for the US government, and had to report every time I ordered some more of the stuff, since it is a potent greenhouse gas. I’d get it in a small lecture cylinder (a metal cylinder about 6 inches long). I used very small amounts of the stuff —
littlepeaks
Sin is still sin, even if it is only 6 inches long! 🙂
Has many uses including medical such as to cool your eye during surgery.
Given its nice spectral peaks, I’ve released so much SF6 as a tracer gas over the years the green weenies would cry if they knew.
SF6 has been regulated by the USEPA since ~2009 (subpart W). Commonly used in gas insulated switches which replace oil circuit breakers. The gas does not conduct electrical current.
Pretty easy to image with certain cooled IR cameras. Smallest leak found by an electric utility was less than 100 grams per year.
I recall some years ago someone was thinking of dumping large amounts of SF6 in the Martian atmosphere to try to warm the planet. I am somewhat surprised that there is so little SF6 on earth. One would think it would form in places like Iceland where a lot of flourine is ejected.
We just need to bring a sense of balance into play here. It is the BBC reporting this guff, so do what you should normally do when the BBC says something,…just ignore it. That is what most sane and sensible observers do with BBC reports.
They seem to have to forgotten to mention that it is also part of the waste stream of solar panel production.
Very clever and dastardly strategy: pretend to save the environment by destroying it, then human race collapses, then the real problem (in the minds of Club of Rome cultists) is solved.
This constant harping on greenhouse gases “X thousand times stronger than CO2” is getting ridiculous.
A few points:
1. All gases with molecules of three or more atoms, or two atoms of different elements are greenhouse gases.
2. All greenhouse gases are highly effective when present in very small quantities, but decrease rapidly in effectiveness as the absorption bands are saturated
3. Hence essentially all greenhouse gases are much stronger than the extremely saturated CO2. Even CO2 would be “thousands of times stronger” if it was as rare as SF6 in the atmosphere (about 10 parts per trillion)
4. The popularity of SF6 is largely due to the prohibition of PCB as filling for oil-filled high voltage devices. There really isn’t a lot of thermally stable strong dielectrics to choose from.
At last somebody with some sense, the Global Warming Potential of SF6 in a bit of HV switchgear is zero.
The leakage is monitored to ensure the equipment operates without fault, the gas pressure must be stable or the gear cannot be used.
What struck me in the Matt McGrath alarmist story is that the gaseous emissions of human civilisation are so harmless.
CO2 and Methane are naturally occurring trace gases that vary in concentration due to lots of natural processes and are harmless or beneficial to life on earth.
For all those that mention how SF6 is so harmless, remember that when you have an electric discharge though that insulating gas you produce another compound S2F10 which is the evil stepsister of SF6. It is HIGHLY poisonous (worse than phosgene) and a known cancer causer. So just remember that chemistry produces both the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. SO as long as you have no arc overs your equipment is fine, but as soon as it deteriorates you have a real monster on your hands.
However SF6 is largely “self-healing”, it recombines into SF6, the yield of S2F10 is low.
And as a matter of fact S2F10 by itself is non toxic. It however decomposes into SF6, which is harmless, and SF4, which is not.
The Amazon is a net “greenhouse” gas emitter.
#TreeMethaneKills #ChopDownAllTrees #ForTheChildren
42.7 Tg CH4 annually (Pangala, et al) = 3.6 billion tons CO2 equivalent (convert to ton, multiply x 84)
http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/123683/3/Pangala%20et%20al_nature%202017_revision_final_weqns.pdf
Amazon uptake = 2.2 billion ton uptake of CO2, annually (NASA, Espirito Santo)
3.6-2.2 = 1.4 billion ton CO2 equivalent net release!
https://e360.yale.edu/features/scientists-probe-the-surprising-role-of-trees-in-methane-emissions
Re. the good, the bad, and the ugly of chemistry, then think of the change in
life expectation from the 1950 tees to the present day.
When in the 1940 tees I thought about life, it was accepted that a man retired a
at 65, and in most cases was dead by 66, women lasted a few years longer.
From the governments point of view this was good, you worked, an paid your
taxes till you retired, then you died, no long term problem with Treasury trying to
finding the money for your pension payments.
So today most people in the Western countries can look forward to a mostly
trouble free retirement till about 80, with women usually having another
10 years.
So what has happened ?, we are told by the Greenies that since at least
the 1950 tees we have been doing all the wrong things, so how come we
are enjoying a much longer life span, myself at 92.
This seems to me of being a case of sour grapes thinking by the Greenies,
their dream of a sort of World Government paradise, with them being the
boss of course is fading fast.
Yes its not a perfect world, but the solution is not to make the West
bankrupt We need to be far richer, then we can within sensible limits, to b e
able to help others , both at home , and in the so called Third World.
MJE VK5ELL
Indeed.
There’s a cartoon with one cave dweller asking another “We’ve been doing [list of eco things] but we aren’t living any longer. Why?”
I thought you all believed that BBC only gave FAKE news? But you then believe this!?
Are you now worried by a GHG. But I thought AGW was FAKE? So no problem here!