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Energy Week #518 – 4/13/2023
Minute 0: Introduction
Thursday, April 6
Electric van (Courtesy of GM/Brightdrop and Ryder)
Minute 2
¶ “Several Good News Items From GM” • GM has recently announced several good things for its EV efforts. Bolt EV and EUV sales are doing well, Brightdrop (its electric cargo van division) scored some important partnerships, among which is a really good deal it struck with Ryder. Here we take a good look at each of them. [CleanTechnica]
Drax power station (StaraBlazkova, CC-BY-SA 3.0, cropped)
Minute 5
¶ “UK’s Biggest ‘Renewable’ Power Station Could Lose Its Funding Over Alleged ‘Greenwashing’” • Drax produced 11% of the UK’s electricity in 2019. Now it is under scrutiny by Ofgem, the energy regulator, following allegations that it was burning wood from ancient forests to generate electricity. It could lose up to £800 million per year in funding. [iNews]
Tornado (Randy Milanovic, Unsplash)
Minute 8
¶ “Tornadoes And Climate Change: How A Warming World May Affect Tornado Season” • Climate change seems to be shifting the concentration and range of tornadoes, pushing them into more vulnerable areas. In addition, evidence suggests there will be a more favorable environment for severe weather – and probably tornadoes – in a warmer future. [CBS News]
Friday, April 7
Studying underground water (Maxime Bouffard, Unsplash)
Minute 10
¶ “Underground Water Could Be A Great Source Of Renewable Energy” • A study published in the journal Applied Energy shows that use of underground water to store thermal energy could reduce natural gas and electricity consumption by 40% in the US heating and cooling sector. Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage is being studied around the world. [Earth.com]
Franz Josef Glacier (Francesco Veronesi, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Minute 13
¶ “‘Shocked’ By The Loss: Scientists Sound The Alarm On New Zealand’s Melting Glaciers” • Every year New Zealand scientists fly over some of the country’s most iconic glaciers – ancient “rivers” of ice that descend from the Southern Alps, a spine of mountains that extend along the South Island. And almost every year, they find them shrinking. [CNN]
Dodge Ram 1500 REV (Image by Ram)
Minute 16
¶ “Ram 1500 REV Electric Pickup Truck Will Feature A 229 KWh Battery And 500 Mile Range” • Dodge Ram REV electric pickup truck is to come in 2025. Its specs are truly astounding. It will be available with two batteries. One is rated at 168 kWh with a range estimated to be 350 miles. The other is rated at 229 kWh with an estimated range of 500 miles. [CleanTechnica]
Saturday, April 8
Beaver pond (Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Minute 19
¶ “How Beavers Could Help The Colorado River Survive Future Droughts” • Beavers are natural engineers, instinctively building dams and canals. A growing movement of nonprofits, experts, and government agencies see a potential to take learn beavers’ natural engineering prowess to capture more water for the places that desperately need it. [ABC News]
Airplane (Emanuel, Unsplash)
Minute 22
¶ “Polluting Planes And Ships Get Green Investment Label From EU” • Planes and ships that run on fossil fuels could be given ‘green’ investment status as the EU Commission published its updated list of sustainable investments. Investments in more ‘efficient’ planes and ships would qualify as green, regardless of their use of fossil fuels. [CleanTechnica]
Tesla Model 3 (Vlad Tchompalov, Unsplash)
Minute 24
¶ “Tesla Cuts US Prices For Fifth Time Since January” • Tesla cut prices in the US between 2% and nearly 6%, its website showed on Thursday, as the company extends a discount drive on its EVs that analysts caution could hurt profitability. The company has cut the price of its base Model 3 by a cumulative 11% since the start of the year. [CNN]
Sunday, April 9
Home run (Hudson Graves, Unsplash)
Minute 27
¶ “Why MLB Players Could Be Hitting Hundreds Of More Home Runs Each Season By The End Of The Century” • Whether it’s a change in the baseballs, better analytics, or more robust training, many have wondered about what could be behind the increase in Major League Baseball home runs in recent years. But research raised another possibility: climate change. [CNN]
Rye (Kai Pilger, Unsplash)
Minute 30
¶ “New Ways To Protect Food Crops From Climate Change And Other Disruptions” • As climate and security crises destabilise our food sources, researchers are taking a critical look not just at how we produce food, but at the entire systems behind our food supplies. In this case, the systems behind the seeds that produce our food crops. [Partner Science Norway]
Winter Storm Elliot (NOAA image)
Minute 32
¶ “Gas Generators Get Caught With Their Plants Down” • Gas power plant owners are facing performance penalties levied by the grid operator PJM, which they are attacking for enforcing the rules. An added irony is that the penalties, over $1 billion, are meant to pay incentives to the plants that over-performed their obligations, including wind farms. [CleanTechnica]
Monday, April 10
Shanghai (Edward He, Unsplash, cropped)
Minute 35
¶ “Tesla To Build New Megapack Battery Factory In China” • Tesla is planning to expand its business in China with a new battery factory to be built in Shanghai. The new facility is to produce 10,000 Megapacks annually, with a total capacity equivalent to 40 GWh. The batteries produced in Shanghai will be sold globally. [Oil Price]
BYD Qin Plus EV
Minute 38
¶ “The 2023 BYD Qin Plus EV Shows How Far BEVs Have Come Over The Last Decade” • In some cases, battery EVs are priced lower than comparable ICE cars. Let’s look at the world’s largest auto market, focusing on one of the traditional leaders in the sedan market, the Toyota Corolla, and compare it with a similar BEV sedan, the BYD Qin Plus EV. [CleanTechnica]
Charging Tesla (alex, Unsplash)
Minute 40
¶ “EPA Preparing To Release Strict Vehicle Emissions Rules” • The US EPA is preparing to release strict new proposed federal emissions standards for light-duty vehicles that would move the US car market decisively toward EVs over the next decade. The rules would ensure that 64% to 67% of all new-car sales in the US would be EVs by 2032. [CNN]
Tuesday, April 11
PVs on trackers (Pixy.org, CC0)
Minute 43
¶ “75 Terawatts Of World Solar PV Are Needed By 2050 – Action Is Needed Now!” • The increasing acceptance of PV technology has prompted the experts to suggest that about 75 TW (75,000 GW) or more of globally deployed PV will be needed by 2050 to meet decarbonization goals. “Time is of the essence.” A great effort is needed now. [CleanTechnica]
Next generation Prius (Toyota image)
Minute 46
¶ “Toyota Planning To Add Plug-In Hybrids With Over 200 Km Of Battery Range” • Toyota recently announced that it will expand its current lineup by releasing ten new battery-electric models by 2026. For plugin hybrids, Toyota announced that it is developing next generation plug-in hybrids with an all-electric driving range beyond 200 km (124 miles). [CleanTechnica]
Igiugig village (Photo from Igiugig Village Council)
Minute 48
¶ “An Alaskan Village’s Journey Back to the Future” • The largest oil field in the US was discovered northern Alaska in the 1960’s. That brought fuel, gasoline-powered vehicles, and oil heating to Igiugig. But fuel costs have risen so much that residents struggle to afford heat for their homes and schools shuttered. Remote villages are turning to renewable energy. [NREL]
Wednesday, April 12
Liddell plant in 2006 (Webaware, public domain)
Minute 51
¶ “Coal Power Station Closes As State Transitions To Renewable Energy” • The Liddell Power Station in New South Wales, a coal-fired power station which first came online in 1971, has been shut down. The facility proved unreliable, having to be restarted 335 times in 2022, and it consistently failed to produce its maximum amount of power. [Utility Magazine]
Kariba Dam (Image from ZRA)
Minute 54
¶ “Proposed 1,200 MW Floating Solar PV Plant In Zimbabwe Could Increase Generation By 44%” • China Energy Engineering Group has proposed to construct a 1,200 MW DC floating solar PV plant on Lake Kariba to help with Zimbabwe’s unprecedented power crisis. The floating solar plant would cover 25 km² (about 1.34%) of the reservoir’s area. [CleanTechnica]
Ft Lauderdale (Daniel Halseth, Unsplash, cropped)
Minute 56
¶ “Sea Level Rise: Scientists Find ‘Unprecedented’ Rates Along Some US Coasts” • A study published in Nature Communications found that since 2010, sea level rise along the nation’s Southeast and Gulf coasts has increased dramatically. Scientists at Tulane University found that sea levels in those regions have increased by about half an inch every year. [Vigour Times]
Minute 59: Finis
Notes: Energy Week #518 – 4/13/2023
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 