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.
This edition of Energy Week covers two weeks.
Energy Week #378: 7/9/2020
Thursday, June 25
Earth (NASA Johnson Space Center)
¶ “Facebook Creates Fact-Checking Exemption For Climate Deniers” • Facebook is “aiding and abetting the spread of climate misinformation,” said environmental sociologist Robert Brulle. “They have become the vehicle for climate misinformation, and thus should be held partially responsible for a lack of action on climate change.” [PR Watch]
EV Investments – China vs Europe
¶ “Nineteen times More Invested In EVs & EV Batteries In Europe Last Year Than In 2018” • According to a Transport & Environment report, Europe poured €60 billion into EV production and EV battery production in 2019, 19 times as much as it did in 2018. Some of the results are clear. EV market share has been skyrocketing in Europe. [CleanTechnica]
Friday, June 26
Wind farm in Oklahoma (US Dept of Agriculture image)
¶ “US Renewables Produce 27% More Power Than Coal, Outpace Nuclear Over Four Months” • In the US, renewable energy sources produced significantly more electricity than coal during the first four months of 2020 and topped nuclear power as well, the SUN DAY Campaign shows, based on data from the Energy Information Administration. [Renewables Now]
Saturday, June 27
Building a wind turbine (Tucson Electric Power image)
¶ “Arizona Utility Plots 2.5-GW Renewables Revolution” • Arizona utility Tucson Electric Power filed its 2020 integrated resource plan with the Arizona Corporation Commission. It includes 2457 MW of new wind and solar capacity by 2035. About 457MW of wind and solar is planned to come online in the next 12 months. [reNEWS]
Connecticut shore (Credit: Spencer Platt | Getty Images)
¶ “Fading Winters, Hotter Summers Make The Northeast America’s Fastest Warming Region” • Washington Post analysis also found that the New York City area, including counties in Long Island, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, was among about half a dozen hot spots nationally where warming has already exceeded 2°C. [InsideClimate News]
Sunday, June 28
2005 Corvette engine (Stephen Foskett, Wikimedia Commons)
¶ “Is GM’s ICE Business Worthless? Adam Jonas Seems To Say So” • Morgan Stanley auto analyst Adam Jonas says GM’s EV business is worth $100 billion. Jonas’s price target of $43 per share puts GM’s total value at $60 billion. Doesn’t that mean that GM’s internal combustion engine business is worth less than nothing? [CleanTechnica]
Monday, June 29
Oil and gas workers (Ralph Wilson | AP)
¶ “Chesapeake Energy, Fracking Pioneer, Files For Bankruptcy Owing $9 Billion” • Chesapeake Energy, a leader in the fracking boom, has filed for bankruptcy protection. The company said its debts of $9 billion were unmanageable, and it entered a plan with lenders to cut $7 billion of them. It will continue operating as usual during the bankruptcy process. [The Guardian]
Puente Nuevo power plant in Córdoba (Paco Puentes)
¶ “Spain To Close Half Its Coal-Fired Power Stations” • Seven out of the fifteen coal-fired power stations still working in Spain will cease operations on June 30, after their owners – the electricity companies – decided that it does not make financial sense to adapt them to European regulations. And four more are getting ready to shut down soon. [EL PAÍS in English]
Tuesday, June 30
Nodding donkey
¶ “BP Is Getting Out Of Petrochemicals With $5 Billion Sale” • BP has agreed to sell its petrochemicals business to Ineos for $5 billion. The UK oil company is selling assets worth $15 billion as it reels from the oil price crash and pivots toward renewable energy. It has already sold its business in Alaska and offloaded legacy gas assets elsewhere in the US. [CNN]
Wednesday, July 1
Coal-fired power station
¶ “Global Transition From Coal To Clean Energy Has Reached A Financial Tipping Point” • A report from the Sierra Club, the Carbon Tracker Initiative, and the Rocky Mountain Institute concluded that replacing the entire global fleet of coal plants with clean energy plus battery storage could be done at a net annual savings as early as 2022. [RenewEconomy]
Thursday, July 2
RAV4 Prime (Toyota image)
¶ “Toyota Suspends Production Of RAV4 Prime After 3 Weeks” • Just three weeks after the start of production for the RAV4 Prime, Toyota announced it won’t build any more for a while. It seems orders for the car have far exceeded Toyota’s plan to make 4,000 RAV4 Primes. Reports are that Toyota failed to line up enough batteries for more than that. [CleanTechnica]
Unnecessary bridge (Screenshot: Jake Cook | Flickr)
¶ “More Utilities Bypassing Natural Gas Bridge And Going Straight To Renewables” • Utilities moving away from coal are starting to view the natural gas “bridge” to renewable energy as an unnecessary step. Utilities in Arizona, Colorado, and Florida have announced plans to close coal plants without adding any gas-fired generation. [pv magazine International]
Friday, July 3
Agrivoltaics in Vermont (Green Lantern via Global Newswire)
¶ “Plot Brewing To Blanket US In Solar Panels And Pollinator-Friendly Plants” • A change is under way. Solar arrays that once sat on barren ground are now festooned with plants that attract bees, birds, and butterflies. Even the DOE is getting into the act. Here is a look at four new solar power plants built to benefit our pollinators. [CleanTechnica]
Ferry on Puget Sound (Vigor image)
¶ “Vigor Chooses ABB Battery Electric Power For New Ferries In Washington” • Washington State operates the one of the largest ferry fleets in world. It burns about 20 million gallons of diesel fuel a year, making it a major polluter. Three of its biggest ferry boats, each burning about 5 million gallons, are being converted by Vigor Shipyards to run on electricity. [CleanTechnica]
Saturday, July 4
Bucket wheel digging for coal (Martin Meissner | AP file photo)
¶ “Germany Is First Major Economy To Phase Out Coal And Nuclear” • German lawmakers have finalized the country’s long-awaited phase-out of coal as an energy source, backing a plan that environmental groups say isn’t ambitious enough and free marketeers criticize as a waste of taxpayers’ money. The last coal-fired power plant will close by 2038. [Sumter Item]
Sunday, July 5
Noctilucent clouds (Gofororbit, Wikimedia Commons)
¶ “US Opposition’s Big Climate Plan Includes Studying The Risky Idea Of Blocking Out The Sun” • Democrats on the US House Select Committee for the Climate Crisis put out their big old climate plan. One thing the plan includes is geoengineering. Controversially, that could mean using tiny particles to reflect sunlight back into space. [Gizmodo UK]
Monday, July 6
Thames Barrier, protecting London (Credit: Alamy)
¶ “How Humans Are Altering The Tides Of The Oceans” • Over the course of decades, engineers have dredged parts of the Ems River, on the Dutch-German border, so ships could navigate it from a shipyard upriver. Now, the tidal range has quintupled from what it was in 1900. Changing tidal patterns add complexity to the problems of rising sea levels. [BBC]
Satellite image of the Wudongde Dam (Bloomberg)
¶ “China’s Mega-Dams Are Giving Way To Cheaper Renewable Energy” • China Three Gorges Corp turned on the first set of generators at the massive Wudongde hydropower plant. And Baihetan, the last of the massive hydro projects, is scheduled to go into operation next year. But with low-cost renewable energy, no more are coming. [Aljazeera.com]
Tuesday, July 7
Dakota Access Pipeline (Tony Webster, Wikimedia Commons)
¶ “Judge Orders Temporary Shutdown Of Controversial Dakota Access Pipeline” • The Dakota Access Pipeline must shut down by August 5 as an in-depth environmental review is carried on for the controversial project, a district court ruled Monday. The pipeline will remain closed during the review, which will take about thirteen months. [CNN]
(Other reports say they did not explain why Keystone XL was excluded and there was no noted dissent.)
¶ “Supreme Court Deals Major Blow To Keystone XL Project” • On Monday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for several pipeline projects to proceed under a fast-track permitting process that allow projects to go ahead while the environmental reviews are done, but it excluded the Keystone XL expansion from the ruling, forcing major delays. [CNN]
Wednesday, July 8
Building a wind farm (EDPR image)
¶ “Global Utilities ‘Failing Climate Test’” • Only four of the fifty most influential utilities in the world have defined a clear target to provide green energy aligned to the Paris Agreement, the World Benchmarking Alliance’s second “Climate and Energy Benchmark” says. The four are Ørsted, Enel, EDP, and the US utility AES Corporation. [reNEWS]
Energy Week #378: 7/9/2020
Energy, renewable energy, wind power, Solar, batteries, Nuclear, coal, oil, gas, Climate Change
Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell 