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Energy Week #494 – 10/20/2022
Minute 0: Introduction
Thursday, October 13
Whitelee wind farm (Rosser1954, CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Minute 2
¶ “Scottish Renewable Energy Output Hits Record Level Amid Soaring Bills” • Scotland produced a record amount of renewable energy at the start of summer this year, a report says. Higher wind speeds, increased rainfall, and additional capacity coming online helped boost the country’s output to 7,358 GWh in April, May, and June, up 36% from 2021. [STV News]
Lake Mead (Carlin Harris, Pexels)
Minute 5
¶ “Biden Administration Outlines Plan To Pay For Colorado River Water Cuts As Crisis Looms” • As concerns grow over the future of the drought-plagued Colorado River system, the Biden administration has announced how it intends to pay farmers, cities and Native American tribes in the Southwest for significant, voluntary water cuts. [CNN]
Audi EV (Audi image)
Minute 8
¶ “Inflation Reduction Act Spurs Changes In US Electric Vehicle Production” • The Inflation Reduction Act is barely 2 months old and already there are news reports galore of battery plants being built in America, new lithium mining agreements, and EV plants being built. Major corporations are adjusting their plans to take advantage of the economic reality. [CleanTechnica]
Friday, October 14
Fawn (Scott Carroll, Unsplash)
Minute 11
¶ “Global Wildlife Populations Have Declined By 69% Since 1970, WWF Report Finds” • The world’s wildlife populations have plummeted by an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018, a dangerous decline resulting from climate change and other human activity, the World Wide Fund for Nature warned in a report Thursday. [CNN]
Liquified natural gas ship in Poland (Maciej Margas, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 13
¶ “Europe Has Enough Energy To Survive The Winter. Next Year Might Be Different” • Russia’s attempt to use its vast energy exports as a weapon against Europe isn’t going to plan. Moscow has greatly reduced gas supplies in retaliation for sanctions by Western countries, but the region has been able to amass enough for the upcoming winter. [CNN]
Gold Coast (City of Gold Coast, Unsplash)
Minute 16
¶ “How Big Is Renewable Energy’s Impact On Property Values?” • Several renewable energy projects across Australia seemed to have a significant impact on property values, a report says. Having one in a local government area (LGA) seemed to have a strong benefit on both property prices and on the overall cost of living. [Your Investment Property Magazine]
Saturday, October 15
EnerVenue nickel hydrogen battery (Courtesy of EnerVenue)
Minute 19
¶ “EnerVenue Backs Its Nickel Hydrogen Batteries With 20-Year, 200,000-Cycle Warranty” • EnerVenue makes nickel hydrogen batteries that have proven themselves in orbital spacecraft by providing reliable electricity for over 200 million cell-hours and over 100,000 charge and discharge cycles. Now, EnerVenue wants to do business on Earth. [CleanTechnica]
BMW (BMW image)
Minute 22
¶ “BMW 100%-Electric Vehicle Sales Up 114.8%” • BMW took a while to put another full-EV model on the market after its BMW i3, but it’s rolling stronger and stronger now in the EV space. In the first 9 months of 2022, BMW Group sold 128,196 fully electric vehicles. That puts them up 114.8% compared to the first 9 months of 2021. [CleanTechnica]
San Diego Bay (@usa.portofsandiego, via Facebook)
Minute 24
¶ “San Diego Ranked The ‘Greenest’ City In America Thanks To Renewable Energy” • A study released this month ranked San Diego as the greenest city in America, thanks to copious amounts of renewable energy and healthful environment. San Diego was followed by Portland and Honolulu in the study by WalletHub, based in Washington, DC. [Times of San Diego]
Sunday, October 16
Solar array (Raphael Cruz, Unsplash)
Minute 27
¶ “Credit Suisse Predicts Renewable Energy That Is ‘Too Cheap To Meter’ By 2025” • Credit Suisse says the Inflation Reduction Act will have such a tremendous impact on renewable energy that the US may see the LCOE from renewable sources fall to less than 1¢/kWh hour by 2025, after all tax and production credits are factored in. [CleanTechnica]
Computer-generated image of Sargasum farm (Seafields image)
Minute 30
¶ “Can An Enormous Seaweed Farm Help To Curb Climate Change?” • Imagine a seaweed farm the size of Croatia floating in the South Atlantic. Spinning in a natural ocean eddy, it sucks a billion tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere every year and sinks it to the ocean floor out of harm’s way. A UK businessman plans to have this up and running by 2026. [BBC]
Fire Island wind farm (tjpeters, free for use)
Minute 32
¶ “CIRI Looks To Triple Power At Fire Island Wind Farm” • An Alaska Native corporation is looking at expanding its Fire Island Wind Project, adding perhaps a dozen turbines and tripling the power output from the island in Cook Inlet, five miles west of Anchorage. With 11 big turbines, it is already the second-largest wind farm in Alaska. [Anchorage Daily News]
Monday, October 17
Chevrolet Equinox EV in the 2024 model year (GM Image)
Minute 35
¶ “Recent Battery Deals Could Indicate Manufacturers Are Up To The Task Congress Gave Them” • China has 100% control over battery-grade synthetic graphite, 73% control of cobalt, 68% control of nickel, and 59% control over lithium. US car makers, however, are showing they are up to the task of finding new sources of materials. [CleanTechnica]
Wind farm in Queensland (Lepidlizard, public domain)
Minute 38
¶ “Renewable Energy Plants Could Boost Property Prices” • According to PRD’s, Renewable Energy In the Property Market, local government areas that built either a wind or solar energy plant in 2017, have seen average property prices increase 41% over the past five years. The value of a home can also be increased by installing solar panels. [Elite Agent]
USCGC Bertholf in the Arctic Ocean (US Coast Guard, public domain)
Minute 40
¶ “Climate Change Exposes Lack Of US Preparedness In Defending Arctic Ocean Interests, Senator Says” • Climate change is unlocking a new crossroads and potential center of conflict: the Arctic. But one key lawmaker, Maine Senator Angus King, warns the US has lagged behind in securing the region, as other powers move in. [CNN]
Tuesday, October 18
Supercell over Oklahoma (Raychel Sanner, Unsplash, cropped)
Minute 43
¶ “Say “Climate Pollution” Instead Of “Greenhouse Gases” – The Difference In Impact Is Huge” • Climate activists are altering the language they employ to describe our quickly warming world, and the term “climate pollution” has started to shift the way that the public ascribes responsibility for the existential crisis that surrounds us. [CleanTechnica]
Solar power plant (Zbynek Burival, Unsplash)
Minute 46
¶ “Renewable Investments Could Outstrip Upstream Oil And Gas In 2022” • High spot electricity prices, particularly in Europe, are changing narrative for the utility wind and solar investment. Potential payback periods of under one year could start a race to develop renewable assets purely based on project economics, Rystad Energy research shows. [Oil Price]
Tomatoes (Meg MacDonald, Unsplash)
Minute 48
¶ “California’s Tomato Farmers Are Getting Squeezed By Water Crisis As Growing Costs Continue To Rise” • This year, fewer tomatoes were grown as rising interest rates, inflation, and the crushing drought squeezed farmers who saw their margins sliced and diced. While the cost of growing tomatoes continues to rise, it ultimately hits consumers. [CNN]
Wednesday, October 19
Battery production (Image courtesy of CATL)
Minute 51
¶ “$1.2 Billion Gemini Solar+Storage Project To Use 100% CATL Batteries” • The giant 690-MWac Gemini solar power project planned for Las Vegas will include 1,416 MWh of energy storage capacity. This will be one of the largest solar+storage projects in the US, or the world for that matter. The $1.2 billion project’s developer is Primergy Solar LLC. [CleanTechnica]
Canoo (Image courtesy of Canoo)
Minute 54
¶ “Canoo Gets Orders For 3000 EVs From Zeeba And 9300 From Kingbee” • Earlier this year, Canoo hinted it might not have funds to begin production. Then Walmart stepped in with an order for 4500 delivery vans. Now Zeeba, a national fleet leasing company, has ordered 5,450, and Kingbee, a national van rental provider, ordered 9,300. [CleanTechnica]
Offshore wind farm (CGP Grey, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Minute 56
¶ “Biden moves one step closer to making giant Pacific Ocean wind turbines a reality” • The Department of Interior announced it will hold a lease sale for wind energy off the coast of Central and Northern California, bringing the Biden administration’s dream of a massive West Coast wind farm one step closer to reality. [CNN]
Minute 59: Finis
Notes: Energy Week #494 – 10/20/2022
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 