Prediction: Coal has fallen. Nuclear is next then Oil.

[mspohr]

AOC and Sanders aim to place public housing at center of Green New Deal

Proposal aims to decarbonize all of nation’s public housing units, with an investment of between $162bn and $234bn over next decade

www.theguardian.com

With a sweeping legislative proposal, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders are attempting to place public housing at the center of the green energy transition, tackling the twin crises of global warming and soaring housing costs. “Public housing should be the gold standard for affordable, environmentally friendly, and safe communities,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an email. “This bill is how we ensure that.”

The Green New Deal for Public Housing aims to decarbonize all of the nation’s public housing units – and build more of them – with an investment of between $162bn and $234bn over the next decade. In doing so, it would avert 5.7m tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of removing 1.26m cars from US roads each year, while creating jobs and public health benefits

Instead of allowing the nation’s public housing stock to wither away, the bill seeks to transform it. Units would not only be repaired and freed of contaminants like lead and mold, but also made efficient and green.

 

[mspohr]

Energy transition slowed in America and experts warn the problem isn't money, it's worse - ECONews

The energy transition in America is seen as an opportunity and has already received the commitment of most public administrations and companies. However,

www.ecoticias.com

The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in the United States has slowed significantly in recent years despite ambitious climate goals set by the Biden administration and many states.

Experts warn the problem is not a lack of funding but rather more systemic issues that impede progress. The high upfront costs of building large-scale renewable energy projects, regulatory barriers, continued subsidies for fossil fuels, lack of transmission infrastructure, and consumer behavior are all contributing factors.

Politics and lobbying efforts by fossil fuel companies also play a role in stalling the transition. This article will examine the key obstacles slowing America’s shift to clean energy and why overcoming them requires more than just throwing money at the problem.

There is a lack of urgency despite the pressing need to decarbonize the energy system to deal with climate change. With comprehensive solutions, the US could speed up the vital transition from polluting energy sources to renewables.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Energy transition slowed in America and experts warn the problem isn't money, it's worse - ECONews

The energy transition in America is seen as an opportunity and has already received the commitment of most public administrations and companies. However,

www.ecoticias.com

The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in the United States has slowed significantly in recent years despite ambitious climate goals set by the Biden administration and many states.

Experts warn the problem is not a lack of funding but rather more systemic issues that impede progress. The high upfront costs of building large-scale renewable energy projects, regulatory barriers, continued subsidies for fossil fuels, lack of transmission infrastructure, and consumer behavior are all contributing factors.

Politics and lobbying efforts by fossil fuel companies also play a role in stalling the transition. This article will examine the key obstacles slowing America’s shift to clean energy and why overcoming them requires more than just throwing money at the problem.

There is a lack of urgency despite the pressing need to decarbonize the energy system to deal with climate change. With comprehensive solutions, the US could speed up the vital transition from polluting energy sources to renewables.

Generally:
(1) Temporary price increases post COVID
(2) Interest rates
(3) Interconnection
(4) Wind: Maintenance costs

PV has a major advantage with small scale installation, especially as battery prices have fallen.

 

[mspohr]

MPs and activists challenge claim North Sea oil and gas supports 200,000 jobs

Government has repeatedly used figure to justify more fossil fuel developments despite climate crisis

www.theguardian.com

Are 200,000 jobs really supported by the oil and gas industry in the North Sea? Campaigners and MPs are questioning the longstanding government claim. Ministers have repeatedly used the 200,000 jobs figure as justification for pushing ahead with more fossil fuel developments despite the escalating climate crisis and widespread opposition from scientists and energy experts. But campaigners say the figure, which includes indirect employment and comes from the oil and gas industry, has not been scrutinised by the government. They point out that the most recent Office for National Statistics data suggests 27,600 people are directly employed

 

[eevee-fan]

 

[eevee-fan]

Thousands of solar panels in Texas destroyed by hailstorm

A solar farm in Fort Bend County has faced extensive damage after baseball-sized hail hit the region.

www.newsweek.com

This is a valid concern. Perhaps TX should import solar power from the eastern or western grid where there are states will less hail risk.

 

[nwdiver]

Thousands of solar panels in Texas destroyed by hailstorm

A solar farm in Fort Bend County has faced extensive damage after baseball-sized hail hit the region.

www.newsweek.com

This is a valid concern. Perhaps TX should import solar power from the eastern or western grid where there are states will less hail risk.

We need a code change that requires better glass in hail prone regions. Many of the panels survived. With 5 or 6mm glass it's likely most of them would have. It's silly to have the same glass thickness in areas that ~never see hail and areas that see 3" hail every 4 years.

It's clear the unbroken panels survived a lot of hits.

It's also increasingly clear that vertically mounted solar is significantly more advantageous due to production better matching demand. These should be more resilient to hail damage.

 

[mspohr]

We need a code change that requires better glass in hail prone regions. Many of the panels survived. With 5 or 6mm glass it's likely most of them would have. It's silly to have the same glass thickness in areas that ~never see hail and areas that see 3" hail every 4 years.

It's clear the unbroken panels survived a lot of hits.

It's also increasingly clear that vertically mounted solar is significantly more advantageous due to production better matching demand. These should be more resilient to hail damage.

View attachment 1032514


View attachment 1032515

Those are Enphase 215 inverters. This is a very old installation that should be replaced.
I like the idea of vertical panels. I'm currently installing a vertical array ( for snow load which is a problem here.)

 

[eevee-fan]

We need a code change that requires better glass in hail prone regions. Many of the panels survived. With 5 or 6mm glass it's likely most of them would have. It's silly to have the same glass thickness in areas that ~never see hail and areas that see 3" hail every 4 years.

It's clear the unbroken panels survived a lot of hits.

It's also increasingly clear that vertically mounted solar is significantly more advantageous due to production better matching demand. These should be more resilient to hail damage.

View attachment 1032514


View attachment 1032515

... or they can just 'polarize the hull' as needed. Seems to work on Star Trek. LOL

 

[mspohr]

Surge of new US-led oil and gas activity threatens to wreck Paris climate goals

World’s fossil-fuel producers on track to nearly quadruple output from newly approved projects by decade’s end, report finds

www.theguardian.com

The world’s fossil-fuel producers are on track to nearly quadruple the amount of extracted oil and gas from newly approved projects by the end of this decade, with the US leading the way in a surge of activity that threatens to blow apart agreed climate goals, a new report has found. There can be no new oil and gas infrastructure if the planet is to avoid careering past 1.5C (2.7F) of global heating, above pre-industrial times, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has previously stated. Breaching this warming threshold, agreed to by governments in the Paris climate agreement, will see ever worsening effects such as heatwaves, floods, drought and more, scientists have warned.

 

[mspohr]

The Last Coal-Fired Power Plants in New England Are to Close https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/...p=c&pvid=835a7cfa-87eb-433b-8550-6b00e502e8bc

In a settlement reached on Wednesday with the Sierra Club and the Conservative Law Foundation, Granite Shore Power, the owner of the plants, agreed that Schiller would not run after Dec. 31, 2025 and that Merrimack would cease operations no later than June 2028.

After shutting down, the plants will be converted to solar farms and battery units that can store electricity generated from offshore wind turbines along the Atlantic Coast, the company said.

But the foundation bet that once separated from the transmission business, the owner of the power plants would stop burning coal in favor of other, less expensive sources in order to compete with much cheaper renewable energy, The coal power plants survived “on the backs of ratepayers, despite their inefficiencies,” said Tom Irwin, a vice president at the Conservation Law Foundation. “They are effectively subsidized.”

 

[eevee-fan]

Obviously, the residents of W Virginia do not understand the concept of Freedom Is Not Free. Their sacrifice is necessary to maintain our way of life. Thank you for your service.

 

[mspohr]

The world has set aside $7 trillion to do this for the planet: it turns out we have only accelerated global warming - ECONews

Global warming is costing $7 trillion, and we didn't know it until now: this is what we've been doing and it's only ended up accelerating the problem

www.ecoticias.com

The world spent an estimated $7 trillion subsidizing the production and consumption of fossil fuels in 2022, according to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This represents the highest amount ever spent propping up the fossil fuel industry, more than double the amount spent just 5 years ago. Most of these subsidies take the form of below-market prices, tax breaks, and other incentives provided to fossil fuel producers and consumers by governments around the world. These policies encourage more fossil fuel extraction and consumption, exacerbating global warming and undermining global efforts. The subsidies artificially lower prices for fossil fuels, distorting energy markets in a way that favors carbon-intensive energy sources over renewable alternatives. Worst of all, this figure continues to grow with each Climate Summit (pending final data for 2023, which have not been checked or reviewed by the wall).

 

[mspohr]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/31/climate/climate-change-carbon-capture-ccs.html?unlocked_article_code=1.g00.lS3P.SkaGFHW8jwAX&smid=url-share

Even if more companies do decide to start offsetting their emissions, there are cheaper ways to do so, including by preserving forests and paying for renewable energy. For example, it currently costs between $500 and $1,000 to capture a metric ton of carbon dioxide with direct air capture, compared with just $10 to $30 per ton for most carbon credits today. “It’s very expensive,” said Mr. Robock. “And so it’s not going to be a solution in the short term or the long term.”

Some say it is little more than a ploy by oil and gas companies to prolong the very industries that are responsible for creating global warming. They point to the extensive evidence that fossil fuel interests for years worked to play down public awareness of climate change, and the fact that some of the captured carbon will be used for additional oil production. Those concerns were magnified when Vicki Hollub, Occidental’s chief executive, last year said direct air capture could “preserve our industry.” She added, “This gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed.”

“This is a new wave of denial, deception and delay,” said Lili Fuhr, director of the fossil economy program at the Center for International Environmental Law. “You have the fossil fuel industry trying to say we can engineer our way out of this without any major changes to business as usual.” A related line of reasoning holds that the enormous amounts of clean energy needed to power direct air capture plants would be better used powering homes and businesses, thereby displacing fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal that still provide much of the world’s electricity.

 

[eevee-fan]

 

[mspohr]

Salt, air and bricks: could this be the future of energy storage?

Start-ups turn to heat over batteries and are aiming to industrialise the practice

www.theguardian.com

Heat provides more than half the total energy demanded by industry, but IMEchE says electric batteries and hydrogen have hogged the limelight, to the neglect of simple systems storing heat. One featured technology at the meeting will be the Heatcube, developed by a Norwegian firm, Kyoto Group. It comes in the form of tanks filled with salt, installed at the site where the heat is needed. Heatcube’s vertical salt tanks are charged by electricity during periods of low cost. Molten salt is particularly good at holding heat at temperatures up to 500C.

Indeed, a California firm, Rondo, claims that its heat battery made from a pile of bricks can store energy at half the cost of green hydrogen and chemical batteries. Its system collects renewable energy and turns it into heat using electrical elements similar to those used in toasters. The firm says these bricks can be heated to 1,500C and are capable of storing energy for days with less than a 1% loss per day.

 

[DanCar]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1775440160538194424

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1775440160538194424

So, nothing to do with the large-scale export of energy-intensive heavy industry from western countries?

 

[mspohr]

Nuclear energy cannot lead the global energy transition

With nuclear energy, when things go wrong, they go very, very wrong.

www.aljazeera.com

All of these developments go against growing evidence that nuclear energy is not an efficient and safe option for the energy transition away from fossil fuels.

Despite advancements in waste-storage technology, no foolproof method for handling nuclear waste has been devised and implemented yet. As nuclear power plants continue to create radioactive waste, the potential for leakage, accidents, and diversion to nuclear weapons still presents significant environmental, public health, and security risks.

Nuclear power is also the slowest low-carbon energy to deploy, is very costly and has the least impact in the short, medium and long term on decarbonising the energy mix. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report pointed out that nuclear energy’s potential and cost-effectiveness of emission reduction by 2030 was much smaller than that of solar and wind energy.
In addition to that, according to a report released by Greenpeace in 2023, even in the most favourable scenario and with an equal investment amount, by 2050, the installation of a wind and solar power infrastructure would produce three times more cumulative electricity and emit four times less cumulative CO2 compared to a water nuclear reactor in the same period.

 

[mspohr]

This California city is trading an old gas plant for a giant grid…

Calpine’s billion-dollar, 680-megawatt project in Menifee will be one of the biggest batteries in the U.S. when it comes online this summer.

www.canarymedia.com

When it comes online this summer, developer Calpine’s Nova power bank will store more electricity than all but one battery plant currently operating in the U.S. The billion-dollar project, with 680 megawatts and 2,720 megawatt-hours, will help California shift its nation-leading solar generation into the critical evening and nighttime hours, bolstering the grid against the heat waves that have pushed it to the brink multiple times in recent years. The facility embodies the clean energy transition in multiple ways. The power plant itself will shift from an 800-megawatt combined cycle plant, installed by GE in 2008 as a model of efficiency, only to languish when its 12-hour startup time made it a poor fit for the era of cheap gas and weather-dependent renewable production.

Federal analysts predict 2024 will be the biggest-ever year for grid battery installations across the U.S., and they highlighted Calpine’s project as one of the single largest projects. The 620 megawatts the company plans to energize this year represent more than 4% of the industry’s total expected new additions.

“Given the fact that this plant was retiring and there was all of this existing infrastructure on this site, batteries really helped with grid reliability in the face of all of these intermittent renewables,” she said. “They are instantaneous ramping, you can start and stop them whenever you need to, and it just made a whole lot of sense.”