Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[Brian H]

hercdriver wrote:

What makes you believe military bases are exempt from such licensing? Federal property still falls under the EPA and NRC regulations that govern nuclear power plant placement. Only a place specifically designed for nuclear testing or similar use would be regulated differently. You should see what it takes to build a hangar on a base (proving you will capture and properly dispose of every drop of POL is an expensive prospect). The only difference I can see is that a base or piece of federal property large enough wouldn’t need to have state permission to build the plant. Private enterprise also has a lot of hurdles to overcome if placed on federal land. If I were building a new power plant I would look for a sympathetic state and build it on state owned land, not federal land.

Yeah, there’s a category problem here of course; since FF does not fall into any previous model, conforming to regs designed for existing plant is a total PITA.

But the cost advantage pressure presented by FF is sufficient to light a fire under the de-regulators, I think. Bottom line, no one (no state, no jurisdiction) could AFFORD to hold up and hold off FF deployment. It would be handing huge competitive advantage to first-movers.

There’s another possibility, of course. With the rush to write laws and regs favoring ijit “green” projects, it’s possible that FF could qualify for that kind of by-pass, and be home free. The irony would be that its existence would economically obliterate all Greenie alternatives.

An example of the kind of process I’m talking about is the saga of the TeslaMotors Roadster, the first and only highway-capable pure BEV (125 mph, 240 mi. range). Calif. dicked around with its “offset” allowances after the Roadster became a real possibility, apparently under industry pressure not to show up their lame hybrid models too badly. In the end, there is a $7500 federal discount/rebate available for purchasers, and many states have very favorable tax, licensing, parking and other programs, so there’s now competition between jurisdictions. The situation in Europe is even more extreme; in some cases all sales taxes (up to 60% of sticker price) are waived, and pure EVs get free parking and charge access in lots and streets across the country. Other states have lagged and aren’t doing much at all but the pressure is on, big time!

FF, btw, will be a magical match with EV use and cost-of-ownership. Per mile cost is already down around 2¢ (US & Canada) or 5¢ (EU); FF could drop that to under 1¢. (~8 moving parts; maintenance is negligible. Even brakes rarely need replacing because mostly engine braking/energy recovery is used down to about the 5 mph range.) The result is that the upcoming $50K ‘Model S’ (7 passengers, 130 mph, 150-300 mi. range) will carry and operate for about the same monthly cost as a $30,000 gasser. Some are whining that running any significant % of the world’s / country’s autos on electricity would overwhelm the grid. Distributed FF power, anyone? 😆 I can see dedicated FF auto-charging plants sprouting everywhere … Maybe the service staff could do double-duty with BEVs and the generators. Neither requires much manpower or workdays per year per unit. It would be a natural!