Energy Week #361: 3/5/2020

Visitors Please Note: This blog is maintained to assist in developing a TV show, Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell. The post is put up in incomplete form, and is updated with news until it is completed, usually on Wednesday. The source is geoharvey.com.

Within a few days of the last update, the show may be seen, along with older shows, at this link on the BCTV website: Energy Week Series.

Energy Week #361: 3/5/2020

Thursday, February 27

Wind and hydro production

• “Wind Surpassed Hydro As Top Renewable Electricity Generation Source In US” • In 2019, US annual wind generation exceeded hydroelectric generation for the first time, according to data in the Energy Information Administration’s “Electric Power Monthly.” Wind is now the top renewable source of electricity generation in the country. [Renewables Now]
• “Moss Landing Battery Storage Project Approved” • The PG&E-backed Elkhorn Battery Storage Facility in Moss Landing, California, was unanimously approved by the Monterey County Planning Commission. It is the second element of what would be one of the largest energy storage projects in the world. The total capacity will be 1,930 MWh. [Monterey Herald]

Drax plant (Anna Gowthorpe | PA)

• “Drax Power Plant To Stop Burning Coal, With Loss Of 230 Jobs” • The Drax power plant in Yorkshire will end all use of coal next year after almost five decades as one of western Europe’s most polluting power plants. Drax Group will stop burning coal the plant in March 2021, four years ahead of the government’s ban on coal-fired electricity. [The Guardian]

Friday, February 28

• “Shell Consortium Eyes 10-GW Offshore Wind-Hydrogen Giant” • Shell, Gasunie, and Groningen Seaports have launched the NortH2 project. NortH2 will entail the construction of a purpose-built offshore wind farm of up to 10 GW. It will supply electricity for industrial-scale production of green hydrogen in the Netherlands. [reNEWS]

Emissions free Hydroflex train (University of Birmingham)

• “Next Stop, Hydrogen-Powered Trains” • The UK’s rail system is 42% powered by electricity. One line running to London from Hampshire runs entirely on solar power. However, 58% of UK track is not yet electrified, and on them, diesel engines still keep trains running. One test system may show how to replace diesel, as it is powered by hydrogen. [BBC]
• “China May Send Ducks To Battle Pakistan’s Locust Swarms” • China could deploy 100,000 ducks to neighboring Pakistan to help tackle swarms of crop-eating locusts, reports say. Pakistan declared an emergency saying locust numbers were the worst in more than two decades. An agricultural expert says ducks can be more effective than pesticides. [BBC]

Saturday, February 29

Glouchester, saving money with aggregation (Robert Laliberte via Flickr)

• “Municipal Aggregation Savings ‘Shattering Expectations’ In Massachusetts” • The growing number of Massachusetts cities and towns that have negotiated community-wide rates for green energy have saved millions of dollars while also shrinking carbon footprints, according to a report released by the Green Energy Consumers Alliance. [Energy News Network]
• “Research Identifies Climate Change Fingerprints And Emitters’ Liability” • We have methods to quantify how much of an extreme weather event can be attributed to human-caused climate change and how to allocate costs of losses, based on work by an international team of scientists and economists. Emitters can be held responsible. [Phys.Org]

Cable laying ship (Nsandel, Wikimedia Commons)

• “It Might Sound Insane, But Australia Could Soon Export Sunshine To Asia, Via A Cable” • The proposed Sun Cable project envisions a 10-GW solar farm, along with about 22 GWh of battery storage, in the Northern Territory. Power generated will supply Darwin and be exported to Singapore via a 3,800 km (2,360 mi) cable slung across the seafloor. [Inverse]

Sunday, March 1

• “JPMorgan Chase Announces End To Financing New Oil And Gas Drilling In Arctic” • After a similar move by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase announced an end to financing all new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Chase is the largest bank in the US to release such an updated energy policy. [NationofChange]

Wind turbines (Getty Images)

• “US Coal-Fired Power Plants Just Had Their Worst Year Since The 1970s” • In 2007, the US generated a record amount of coal-fired electricity, at an estimated 2,016 TWh, data compiled by the US Energy Information Administration shows. Last year, coal generated less than half that, as natural gas, nuclear, wind, and solar all set records. [Motley Fool]
• “Dam The North Sea! Hey, It Could Happen” • Who says scientists don’t have a sense of humor? Two of them published a proposal to build two dams, one from Scotland to Norway and another from England to France, to maintain water levels in the North Sea. The interesting thing is that it would be cheaper than allowing sea levels to rise. [CleanTechnica]

Monday, March 2

eDumper, currently the largest EV (Image: © eMining AG)

• “Battle For Title Of World’s Largest Electric Vehicle” • The world’s largest EV is eDumper, a 45-tonne mining dump truck, but it may soon have to give up its title. There’s a much bigger EV coming, a hybrid vehicle that is powered by both battery and hydrogen. The new 290-ton EV will do its test runs at a metal mine in South Africa this year. [CleanTechnica]
• “EVs Are Taking Over The World” • EVs are taking over the world, and if you need proof of this, just look at the numbers of sales. Since 2015, sales of EVs have been growing at a rate around 41% annually. In 2014, there were just over 60,000 EVs sold in China, but in 2018, the number sold in that country had grown above a million. [CleanTechnica]

Climate disasters

• “Oxfam: Every 2 Seconds Climate Change Forces A Person From Their Home” • Every 2 seconds, climate change forces someone from their homes, according to data from Oxfam International. Climate-fueled disasters are the number one cause of internal displacement globally, and they have increased “five-fold over the last decade.” [CleanTechnica]

Tuesday, March 3

• “Neoen Says Hornsdale Tesla Battery Exceeded Expectations” • The Engineering consultant Aurecon Group said the Hornsdale battery installed in South Austrialia has exceeded expectations for the way it has stabilized the grid and lowered grid related costs. It reduced the cost of regulating the South Australian electrical grid by 91%. [CleanTechnica]

ESCO Pacific solar project

• “CIM Begins Construction On Proposed 2.7-GW Westlands Solar Park” • The CIM Group is advancing development of Westlands Solar Park, one of the largest permitted solar parks in the world, it announced. The project will be in California’s San Joaquin Valley. It could grow to over 2,700 MW at full buildout, powering over 1,200,000 homes. [Saurenergy]
• “UK Government Lifts Block On New Onshore Windfarm Subsidies” • The UK abandoned its opposition to subsidizing new onshore windfarms, four years after ministers scrapped support for them. The government will remove a block against onshore wind projects by allowing schemes to compete for subsidies with other renewable developments. [The Guardian]

Wednesday, March 4

Warren Buffett (Nati Harnik | AP file photo)

• “Warren Buffett’s Secret To Cheap Electricity” • In his latest letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Warren Buffett touted its low electricity bills for customers. “The extraordinary differential between our rates and theirs is largely the result of our huge accomplishments in converting wind into electricity,” Buffett explained. [Forbes]
• “Fossil Fuels For Power At Turning Point As Renewables Surged In 2019” • The use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil for generating electricity fell in 2019 in the US, the EU, and India. At the same time overall power output rose, a turning point for the global energy mix. The declines suggest the end of the fossil fuel era could be on the horizon. [msnNOW]

Musselroe wind farm, Tasmania

• “Tasmania Sets World-Leading Target Of 200% Renewables By 2040” • While Australia’s federal Coalition refuses to accept the notion that Australia can reach 50% renewables without sorcery or total economic destruction, Tasmania’s Liberal government has just announced a possible world-first: A renewable energy target of 200% by 2040. [RenewEconomy]

 

Energy Week #361: 3/5/2020

Energy, renewable energy, wind power, Solar, batteries, Nuclear, coal, oil, gas, Climate Change

Energy Week #360: 2/27/2020

Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell can be seen on the BCTV website: Energy Week Series.

Energy Week #360: 2/27/2020

Thursday, February 20

Tidal Basin (Andrew Bossi | Wikimedia Commons)

• “Climate Crisis Is Coming For The Tidal Basin In DC” • The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC overlooks the Tidal Basin, a man-made body of water surrounded by cherry trees. Visitors who stroll along the water’s edge, gazing up at the stately monument, are forced off parts of the path by water. The land is sinking, but the seas are rising, too. [EcoWatch]
• “Bushfire Royal Commission To Look At Mitigation But Not Climate Change” • Prime Minister Scott Morrison released letters patent establishing a national inquiry into bushfires. It is to examine powers of Australia’s government to call out the military, national standards for hazard reduction, and disaster mitigation, but not climate change. [The Guardian]

Coral reef (Emily Irving-Swift | AFP | Getty Images)

• “Climate Change Could Kill All Of Earth’s Coral Reefs By 2100, Scientists Warn” • Climate change could destroy almost all of Earth’s coral reef habitats by 2100, University of Hawaii Manoa reported. And about 70-90% of all coral reefs are expected to disappear in the next 20 years due to warming oceans, acidic water, and pollution. [CNN]

Friday, February 21

• “FERC Excludes Clean Energy From NY’s Capacity Market” • A decision applying buyer-side mitigation to state-supported resources that participate in New York’s wholesale capacity market is the latest attempt by a hyper-politicized Trump FERC to try and pose barriers to deployment of clean energy resources by the states. [Natural Resources Defense Council]

Wind plant in Pakistan (Asian Development Bank, CC BY-SA 3.0)

• “Renewable Energy Could Power The World By 2050” • By mid-century, virtually all the world’s demand for electricity could be met by renewable energy. This is the consensus of 47 peer-reviewed research papers from 13 independent groups with a total of 91 authors that have been brought together by Stanford University in California. [Eco-Business]
• “Seasonal Pumped Hydropower Storage Could Solve The Renewable Energy Storage Challenge” • Seasonal pumped hydropower storage, an established technology, could be an affordable and sustainable solution to store energy and water on an annual scale, according to IIASA research published in the journal Nature Communications. [SciTechDaily]

Saturday, February 22

Drilling ice cores (Vasilii Petrenko | University of Rochester)

• “To Combat Climate Change, Human Activities More Important Than Natural Feedbacks” • Scientists at the University of Rochester studied methane emissions from a period in Earth’s history partly analogous to the warming of Earth today. Their research, published in Science, suggests human caused emissions are of greatest concern. [University of Rochester]
• “Climate Change Is Drying Up The Colorado River, Putting Millions At Risk Of ‘Severe Water Shortages'” • The Colorado River – which provides water to more than 40 million people from Denver to Los Angeles – has seen its flow dwindle by 20% compared to the last century, and scientists have found that climate change is mainly to blame. [CNN]

Campbell Island Teal (Stomac, Wikimedia Commons)

• “Climate Change May Doom 1 In 3 Species Of Plants And Animals In The Next 50 Years” • Using data from surveys that studied 538 animals, insects and plants from 581 sites across the globe, researchers from the University of Arizona found that approximately one in three plant, insect, and animal species could face extinction by 2070. [CNN]

Sunday, February 23

• “USA Braces For Tsunami Of Microgrids As Defense Dept Wades In – CleanTechnica Interview” • The US Department of Defense has been exploring new microgrid technology for at least ten years or so, and it is finally tired of pussyfooting around. Last week it decided on a step that could bring microgrids to scores of DoD facilities. [CleanTechnica]

Solar array (Dennis Schroeder | NREL)

• “Family Farms Try To Raise A New Cash Cow: Solar Power” • The Kominek family farm in northern Colorado has had yields decline over recent years, and the farm began losing money. In Boulder County, land-use codes made it hard to use the land for anything but farming. So the Komineks found a compromise: a solar array with plants growing beneath. [WIRED]
• “Revealed: Quarter Of All Tweets About Climate Crisis Produced By Bots” • The social media conversation over the climate crisis is being reshaped by an army of automated Twitter bots, with a new analysis finding that a quarter of all tweets about climate on an average day are produced by bots, the Guardian can reveal. [The Guardian]

Monday, February 24

Supercapacitor (University College London image)

• “Super Duper Supercapacitors Could Accelerate Electric Car Revolution” • Scientists at University College London and the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they developed a graphene-based supercapacitor that can safely charge at high speed, hold a record amount of energy, and store it for a long time. Their paper appeared in Nature Energy. [CleanTechnica]
• “Radical Hydrogen-Boron Reactor Leapfrogs Current Nuclear Fusion Tech” • HB11 Energy, a spin-out company from the University of New South Wales, claims to have developed a completely new form of fusion. “We are sidestepping all of the scientific challenges that have held fusion energy back for more than half a century,” its director said. [Daily Times]

Coal (Getty Images)

• “Morgan Stanley Says 47 GW Of US Coal Capacity Could Be Uneconomic By 2024” • Investment bank Morgan Stanley published a report claiming that nearly 50 GW of US coal-fired power capacity will be unable to compete against renewables by 2024. It advises utilities to replace coal plants with cheaper renewable projects. [RenewEconomy]

Tuesday, February 25

• “Solar And Wind Power Are Pushing Down Electricity Prices In New England” • Renewable energy is beginning to have an impact where it counts, in the cost of electricity, as companies that generate it pledge to sell power to the New England grid at prices that keep falling and will be down more than 70% over four years to 2023. [Press Herald]

Bushfire smoke (Sardaka, Wikimedia Commons)

• “Those Horrific Wildfires in Australia Destroyed a Fifth of The Continent’s Forests” • The bushfires in Australia were “globally unprecedented,” as they destroyed over a fifth of the country’s forests. The fires follow a years-long drought linked to climate change, researchers said. Australia’s annual average forest loss to wild fires is well below 2%. [ScienceAlert]
• “Woodmac: Energy Storage To Accelerate Global Energy Transition In 2020s” • Global storage deployments are set to grow from about 4 GW in 2019 to more than 15 GW in 2024, according to Wood Mackenzie. Costs have fallen, incentives and clean energy targets are growing, and providers are starting to see the potential of energy storage. [EnerCom Inc]

Wednesday, February 26

Kelp (Bennilover | Flickr)

• “Scientists Warn Climate Change Is Destroying California Kelp Forests” • Kelp forests off the West Coast are being reduced at an alarming rate by marine heat waves linked to climate change, according to seven top marine scientists. They have written an open letter about the problem and had it published in Science magazine. [Public News Service]
• “How Cutting Your Food Waste Can Help The Climate” • All food generates greenhouse gases to reach our plates, but then nearly a third of it is thrown away or wasted. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that if food waste was a country, it would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China. [BBC]

London United BYD double-decker bus (Courtesy BYD)

• “London’s Route 94 Gets An Upgrade With 29 New Electric Double-Decker Buses From BYD” • An arterial bus route in West London is going fully electric. London United, a subsidiary of transit operator RATP Dev, took delivery of 29 fully electric BYD double-decker buses. They were built by BYD partner Alexander Dennis Limited. [CleanTechnica]

Energy Week #360: 2/27/2020

 

Energy, renewable energy, wind power, Solar, batteries, Nuclear, coal, oil, gas, Climate Change

Energy Week #359: 2/20/2020

Visitors Please Note: This blog is maintained to assist in developing a TV show, Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell. The post is put up in incomplete form, and is updated with news until it is completed, usually on Wednesday. The source is geoharvey.com.

Within a few days of the last update, the show may be seen, along with older shows, at this link on the BCTV website: Energy Week Series.

Energy Week #359: 2/20/2020

Thursday, February 13

Exxon plant burning (Image: KDH via Twitter)

• “The Exxon Plant Near My House Caught Fire” •The Exxon plant here in Baton Rouge has caught fire. Even though officials say there wasn’t an explosion, several witnesses reported hearing one. I also heard what seemed like an explosion, and I live just about 5 miles away. They also say the fire is out and no one was hurt. [CleanTechnica]
• “New $1 Billion Mine Looks To Solar, Wind, Batteries For 80% Of Power Needs” • Australian mining company Oz Minerals plans to power its proposed $1 billion West Musgrave copper nickel mine with up to 80% renewables. A study shows the deposit has the potential to produce 28,000 tonnes of copper and 22,000 tonnes of nickel a year for 26 years. [RenewEconomy]

Smog (Drew Angerer | Getty Images)

• “Study Shows Air Pollution Can Cross State Lines, And With Deadly Consequences” • A study shows that air pollution can contribute to serious health issues hundreds of miles away. The study, published in the journal Nature, found that around half of the pollution-related early deaths in the US occur outside the borders of the state where the toxic air originated. [CNN]

Friday, February 14

• “As Groundwater Depletes, Arid American West Is Moving East” • Even under modest climate warming scenarios, the continental United States faces a significant loss of groundwater – about 119 million cubic meters, or roughly enough to fill Lake Powell four times or one quarter of Lake Erie, a first-of-its-kind study has shown. [EurekAlert]

Skiing in Ruhpolding, Germany (Christof Stache | AFP | Getty Images)

• “Love Skiing? Enjoy It While It Lasts” • A report from the International Olympic Committee examines the impact of climate change on future winter games. It forecasts that an increase of 1°C (1.8°F) would push the snowline up by 150 meters. “The ski season may start up to a month later and finish up to three months earlier,” the committee said. [CNN]
• “Calculating The True Cost Of A Society Based On Automobiles” • Researchers at the Harvard Kennedy School set out to find out just how much money the state of Massachusetts and its citizens spend each year to maintain a transportation system based on private car ownership. The answer, they said, is a staggering $64.1 billion. [CleanTechnica]

Saturday, February 15

Relief from fire (NSW Rural Fire Service)

• “Australia Weather: How Much Rain Did It Take To Put Out NSW Fires?” • Since July there have been fires – sometimes hundreds at once – burning across New South Wales. Things finally changed though when rain arrived in NSW last weekend. It was a massive dump of water – more than 400 mm (15.7 in) in some places. [BBC]
• “A Third Of Fossil Fuel Assets May Soon Be Stranded” • Fossil fuel companies hold vast oil, gas and coal riches that they frequently tout to the investing universe to help elevate their market values. Few, if any, have ever told investors that a large chunk of these assets could be doomed to forever remain buried in the ground. [OilPrice.com]

Desert locust swarm (Magnus Ullman, Wikimedia Commons)

• “A plague of locusts has descended on East Africa. Climate change may be to blame” • A plague of locusts is spreading across East Africa, threatening the food supply of tens of millions of people. Desert locusts thrive following periods of heavy rainfall that trigger blooms of vegetation, such as a series of cyclones in the last two years. [National Geographic]

Sunday, February 16

Boring tunnel (Credit: The Boring Company)

• “The Boring Company Completes First Tunnel For Las Vegas Loop Project” • The Boring Company has completed the first of two tunnels it is building for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The tunnel’s electric trains will take about a minute to cover a route that would take a car on surface streets about 15 times that. [CleanTechnica]
• “How Solar Works On Cloudy And Rainy Days May Surprise You” • “Renewables are the dole bludgers of the energy system; they only turn up to work when they want to,” said Australia’s ex-federal resources minister Matt Canavan recently. I decided to crunch numbers about solar production on rainy days. The result was a pleasant surprise. [Daily Examiner]

Flooding (Shannon Honey | EyeEm | Getty Images)

• “Sea Levels Around The US Aren’t Just Rising, They’re Accelerating Year On Year” • The worst case scenario for sea level rise in the US is more than just a dim possibility. It’s getting more likely. An annual “report card” for the US coastline shows sea levels are speeding up in most places measured. The acceleration is fueled by climate change. [ScienceAlert]

Monday, February 17

• “One Of My Favorite Political Commenters Bombs On 21st Century Energy” • In a video segment and column, “Bernie Sanders’ magical thinking on climate,” Fareed Zakaria of CNN communicates several falsehoods and misleading claims. His talking points definitely stem from energy industry propaganda sources, not good science. [CleanTechnica]

Desalinization plant (Image: GivePower)

• “GivePower Solar Desalinization Plant Brings Clean Water To Desperate People” • Non-profit GivePower was spun off from SolarCity in 2016. Its mission is to bring solar power to areas of the world without access to electricity, but seeing a great need for water, it developed a desalinization plant that could fit in a shipping container. [CleanTechnica]
• “Wind, Solar Generating Capacity Rising” • The share of US grid electricity generated by natural gas will be relatively steady from 2019 through 2021, at 37% in 2019, 38% in 2020, and then falling back to 37% in 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration. Meanwhile, the share generated by renewables will rise from 17% to 21%. [Kallanish Energy]

Tuesday, February 18

Jeff Bezos set to inaugurate a wind turbine in 2017

• “Jeff Bezos Commits $10 Billion To Fight Climate Change” • Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced a new fund, called the Bezos Earth Fund, to back scientists, activists and organizations working to mitigate the impact of climate change. Bezos will commit $10 billion “to start,” he said. The initiative will begin giving out grants this summer. [CNN]
• “Good News: USA Had Largest CO₂ Reduction In The World In 2019” • There is a bit of good news to share that might have slipped under your nose. The USA had the largest CO₂ reduction in the world in 2019 on a country basis. (The entire EU, in total, did slightly better.) This news comes from data gathered by the International Energy Agency. [CleanTechnica]

Louisville (Adobe Stock image)

• “Louisville 160th City To Pass 100% Renewable-Energy Resolution” • In Kentucky, the Louisville Metro Council voted to commit to 100% renewable energy use for city’s operations within the next two decades. The city will work to shift public transit and other operations to run on clean energy, such as electricity and solar power. [Public News Service]

Wednesday, February 19

Vassar Collage (Photo: Vassar Collage)

• “Vassar College to buy renewable energy” • In Poughkeepsie, New York, Vassar College has announced an agreement with its energy provider to purchase electricity generated solely by renewable sources. The new contract with the energy supplier, EDF Energy, is effective in July 2021. Vassar’s goal us to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. [Mid-Hudson News]
• “Senators Consider Requiring Utilities To Buy More Local Renewables” • A proposal discussed by the Vermont Senate Finance Committee, S 267, would require utilities to buy 100% renewable electricity by 2030. And 20% of that would have to come from smaller, in-state sources – double the amount currently required by law. [vtdigger.org]

Tesla battery cell production (Tesla image)

• “Tesla Shanghai Model 3 May Go Cobalt-Free Using CATL’s LFP Cells – Diving Deeper” • Tesla is in talks with battery producer CATL to supply lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cells for the Shanghai-made Tesla Model 3, Reuters reported. LFP cells are relatively cheap, simple to package, and require no scarce minerals (cobalt and nickel). [CleanTechnica]

Energy Week #359: 2/20/2020

Energy, renewable energy, wind power, Solar, batteries, Nuclear, coal, oil, gas, Climate Change