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Energy Week #448: 12/9/2021
Minute 0: Introduction
Thursday, December 2
Hoover Dam in 2017 (Mariordo, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 2
¶ “How California Hydropower Plants Navigate Intense Drought” • Although drought conditions in California reduced the water supply, hydroelectric generation during the period from April to September 2021 still increased. This was because hydro ramped up generating in response to higher average hourly electricity prices in the late afternoon. [CleanTechnica]
Changing costs (Institute of New Economic Thinking image)
Minute 5
¶ “Renewable Energy Is Even Cheaper Than Previously Thought” • Researchers at Oxford showed that early models consistently underestimated both how quickly the costs of renewable energy would fall and the benefits of a rapid switch to clean energy. Costs of renewables are falling far faster than expected, even as costs of energy from coal and nuclear rise. [GreenBiz]
Prague, representative EU city (Anthony Delanoix, Unspash)
Minute 8
¶ “Europe Unveils Its $340 Billion Answer To China’s Belt And Road Infrastructure Initiative” • The EU unveiled a €300 billion ($340 billion) alternative to China’s Belt and Road initiative. The EU claims their program will create “links, not dependencies.” The Global Gateway is aimed at helping the global recovery by mobilizing investments. [CNN]
Friday, December 3
Oil platform in the North Sea (Richard Child, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Minute 11
¶ “Shell Scraps Plans To Develop Cambo North Sea Oilfield” • Royal Dutch Shell announced that it had scrapped plans to develop the Cambo oilfield in the British North Sea. The oilfield had become a lightning rod for climate activists seeking to halt the development of new oil and gas resources. But Shell cited economic reasons to stop development. [CNN]
Solar farm (American Public Power Association, Unsplash)
Minute 13
¶ “The Magic Math Of Solar Plus Storage” • “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” seems to be the perfect description for the magic math for storage plus solar. The effective load-carrying capability (ELCC) of solar with storage is actually higher than the ELCC of solar plus the ELCC of storage. But it’s not magic – it’s the way the numbers add up. [CleanTechnica]
Pipeline work (Amar Preciado, Pexels)
Minute 16
¶ “Fossil Fuel Plant Outages Pose Main Threat To Summer Power Supply As Renewables Bolster Grid” • The addition of almost 5 GW of renewable energy capacity will improve the resilience of Australia’s main electricity grid this summer, with outages from fossil fuel plants the main threat to supplies, the Australian Energy Market Operator says. [The Guardian]
Saturday, December 4
Carbon Engineering pilot plant (Carbon Engineering image)
Minute 19
¶ “New Canadian Facility To Produce Renewable Fuel From Air” • In British Columbia, Canadian clean energy company Huron Clean Energy and its partner Carbon Engineering Ltd have plans to create a revolutionary fuel for cars, airplanes, and ships. They are engineering a commercial facility that they say will produce usable fuel out of air. [EcoWatch]
Wind turbines (Charl Folscher, Unsplash)
Minute 22
¶ “IEA Forecast On Renewable Electricity Capacity” • Renewables are set to account for almost 95% of the increase in global power capacity through 2026. Global renewable electricity capacity is forecast to rise over 60% from 2020 levels to over 4,800 GW by then, equivalent to the current global power capacity of fossil fuels and nuclear combined. [GreentechLead]
Tesla Model S (Jp Valery, Unsplash)
Minute 24
¶ “Drag Race: Tesla Model S Plaid Crushes Fossil Fuel Powered Competitors (Video)” • Here is a drag race with a 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing, a 2022 BMW M5 CS, and a 2022 Tesla Model S Plaid. The sedans with internal combustion engines may have been among the fastest in their class, but in a drag race against the Plaid S, both were left far behind. [CleanTechnica]
Sunday, December 5
Ocean life (Shaun Low, Unsplash)
Minute 27
¶ “Renewable Wind Energy Can Help Save The Planet And The Ocean’s Marine Life” • The ocean’s winds are about to play two new historical roles: helping to save us from fossil fuels and making habitats safe for marine life. As offshore wind turbines generate electricity, they also bring fish and shellfish and even crustaceans back to the seas. [EVWind.es]
Wind turbines (Jason Blackeye, Unsplash)
Minute 30
¶ “Renewable Energy And Sustainability: Stakeholders And Consumer Trends” • Reports released by Norwegian clean energy firm ECOHZ and US utility NRG Energy highlight the value of clean capacity. According to the report by ECOHZ, sustainability strategies are pushing large companies to embrace renewable energy. [Power Engineering International]
Cloud formation caused by jet stream (Justin Withers, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 32
¶ “Stuck Jet Stream, La Nina Causing Weird Weather” • America’s winter wonderland is starting out this season as anything but traditional. Umbrellas, if not arks, are needed in the Pacific Northwest, while in the Rockies snow shovels are gathering cobwebs. Meanwhile, there is a blizzard warning on Hawaii’s Big Island summits. [AP News]
Monday, December 6
PV-covered Stadium of World Game 2009, Kaohsiung (Peellden, CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Minute 35
¶ “Explaining The Exponential Growth Of Renewable Energy” • Understanding the exponential growth of renewable energy gives us reason to be more optimistic about how fast it can ramp up to meet climate goals. This article explains the reasons behind solar and wind’s growth, how much progress has already been made and what’s needed to go even further. [GreenBiz]
Lithium ions in a graphite anode (ANL image)
Minute 38
¶ “Scientists Discover Another Reason Why EV Batteries Can’t Charge In A Few Minutes” • At Argonne National Laboratory, scientists discovered that when lithium-ion batteries are charged too quickly, the lithium ions cover on the surface of the graphite anode, plating it, instead of inserting themselves into the anode’s graphite. This reduces battery life. [CleanTechnica]
Hell’s Kitchen geothermal plant (Controlled Thermal Resources)
Minute 40
¶ “Lithium Brine Bummer Could Turn Into Bonanza Soon” • Geothermal power plants at the Salton Sea in California produce brine that is so extraordinarily high in lithium that the US could become to a leading producer of lithium for EV batteries. There are technical issues in the way, but it appears that the issues can be overcome. [CleanTechnica]
Tuesday, December 7
Hydrogen generating station (Siemens Gamesa image)
Minute 43
¶ “Siemens Gamesa Partners On Offshore Wind-To-Hydrogen” • Siemens Gamesa signed a memorandum of understanding with Strohm to collaboratively develop offshore wind-to-hydrogen infrastructure. They will focus on a decentralized concept, with each turbine generating green hydrogen and sending it to shore through a submarine pipe. [reNews]
Solar Charging station (Electrify America image)
Minute 46
¶ “Electrify America Adds 30 MWh Of Battery Storage To 140 EV Charging Sites” • Electrify America has been installing large behind-the-meter storage batteries from Tesla to 140 of its fast charging facilities, 90 of them in California. To date, the total installed battery capacity is 30 MWh and growing. It is the largest such system in North America. [CleanTechnica]
Offshore wind turbines (Nicholas Doherty, Unsplash)
Minute 48
¶ “Con Edison Plans 2.4-GW Offshore Link To New Jersey” • Con Edison Transmission is proposing a grid network link to deliver electricity from offshore wind farms to New Jersey. The plans for the Clean Link New Jersey project would look to connect 2.4 GW of future offshore wind capacity to the grid’s high-voltage onshore network. [reNews]
Wednesday, December 8
Refuse truck (Courtesy of BYD)
Minute 51
¶ “Jersey City Receives Its Five BYD Battery-Electric Refuse Trucks” • Jersey City is taking delivery of its five battery-electric refuse trucks. BYD said they are the first battery-electric refuse trucks deployed in New Jersey and this is the largest deployment of them in the US to date. Delivery is expected to be completed by the end of this year. [CleanTechnica]
Coal-burning plant with ash ponds (Antony-22, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 54
¶ “Investigating Coal Ash Sites Near You” • Coal ash is one of the most important types of industrial waste in the US. Hundreds of coal ash ponds, filled with various solids from burning coal, dot the country, as shown by data federal regulations require pond operators to publish. The data was compiled by Earthjustice, an environmental nonprofit. [CNN]
Aquon One (Fraser Yachts image)
Minute 56
¶ “This New 64-Foot Hydrogen-Powered Catamaran Uses Renewable Energy To Supply Unlimited Range” • Fraser Yachts has just unveiled a new catamaran powered by hydrogen. Aquon One combines innovative green technologies for sustainable cruising without noise and emissions but with modern comforts. It is set for delivery in 2023. [Robb Report]
Minute 59: Finis
Notes: Energy Week #448: 12/9/2021
George Harvey, blogger, author, and journalist for Green Energy Times and CleanTechnica, computer engineer
Tom Finnell, electrical engineer, transmission grid expert, world traveler, philanthropist, and philosopher
Energy, Renewable Energy, Wind Power, Solar, Batteries, Nuclear, Coal, Oil, Gas, Climate Change
Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell 