Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Question - When something is already dead and buried, is it economical to dig it up and cremate it?

Some 42% of the world’s coal generators run at a loss

Carbon Tracker has released a report claiming it is cheaper, in many markets, to construct new renewable generation assets instead of running legacy coal-fired power plants. Billions could be saved for customers, while profits in the two-digit billion-dollar range look set to be lost by the coal industry.

In reviewing the data, the report’s authors found around 42% of global coal capacity is operating on unprofitable margins. By 2040, says Carbon Tracker, that figure could rise to 72%. The authors highlight high fuel costs, as well as carbon pricing and air pollution regulations, that are driving up the costs of coal generation.

Carbon Tracker has calculated the potential savings for key markets. It says China could save $389 billion by closing coal plants up to 2030, while the EU could save $89 billion. The potential savings in the U.S. could reach $78 billion, and in Russia, $20 billion.

Martyn1981

Why raise one contentious subject when I can do two at the same time - CCS and bio-mass.

Quick background. CCS was touted as a way to keep on burning FF's, but has proven to be simply too expensive, plus the hope is to capture the CO2 that you are releasing from safely stored FF's. So at the very best you recapture what was already captured.

And bio-mass causes upset as it can result in burning wood / crops that might not be ideal, or transporting (as an example) US wood pellets all the way to the UK.

But, if you combine the two, then you are storing away CO2 from the atmosphere (not FF's), and not just producing less CO2 (as bio-mass is technically carbon free due to the short term carbon cycle), but actually removing atmospheric CO2.

Enough waffle, here's an item from this weeks Carbon Commentary newsletter:

1, BECCS. Capture of the CO2 from burning biomass may be the cheapest way of extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. (The biomass absorbed CO2 as it grew). The UK’s largest power station, Drax, which mostly burns biomass pellets from the US, inaugurated a small experiment to capture a tonne of CO2 a day from the flue gases. This is the first BECCS trial in Europe. The CO2 is captured using a new solvent created by C-Capture, a spin-out from the University of Leeds in northern England. Estimates of the amount of CO2 that might be captured by BECCS in the UK range up to 50 million tonnes a year, or just over 10% of the country's emissions.

michaels

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Why raise one contentious subject when I can do two at the same time - CCS and bio-mass.

Quick background. CCS was touted as a way to keep on burning FF's, but has proven to be simply too expensive, plus the hope is to capture the CO2 that you are releasing from safely stored FF's. So at the very best you recapture what was already captured.

And bio-mass causes upset as it can result in burning wood / crops that might not be ideal, or transporting (as an example) US wood pellets all the way to the UK.

But, if you combine the two, then you are storing away CO2 from the atmosphere (not FF's), and not just producing less CO2 (as bio-mass is technically carbon free due to the short term carbon cycle), but actually removing atmospheric CO2.

Enough waffle, here's an item from this weeks Carbon Commentary newsletter:

So effectively you are using a combined nature/thermal cycle to capture excess co2 from the atmosphere and generating useful energy as a bi-product!

Martyn1981

I've no idea how important this is (or isn't) but I think we should be aware that Koch (pronounced like Coke) money is now being 'invested' in the UK's ...... can I say media(?) These guys are behind the funding of much of the FF promotion in the US, astro-turfing (fake grass roots campaigns against renewables deployments) and campaign funding for climate denying Republicans.

Now they are funding 'Spiked' never heard of them before, but they seem to have some interesting views!

How US billionaires are fuelling the hard-right cause in Britain

Spiked magazine, edited by O’Neill, appears to hate leftwing politics. It inveighs against the welfare state, against regulation, the Occupy movement, anti-capitalists, Jeremy Corbyn, George Soros, #MeToo, “black privilege” and Black Lives Matter. It does so in the name of the “ordinary people”, whom, it claims, are oppressed by the “anti-Trump and anti-Brexit cultural elites”, “feministic elites”, “green elites” and “cosmopolitan politicians”.

Its articles repeatedly defend figures on the hard right or far right: Katie Hopkins, Nigel Farage, Alex Jones, the Democratic Football Lads’ Alliance, Tommy Robinson, Toby Young, Arron Banks, Viktor Orb!n. They are portrayed as victims of “McCarthyites” trying to suppress free speech. It demands the hardest of possible Brexits, insisting that “No deal is nothing to fear”, as it would allow the UK to scrap EU regulations. But what it appears to hate most is environmentalism. It rails against “climate scaremongering”, and has called for fracking and coal production to be ramped up. It blamed the Grenfell Tower disaster on “the moral fervour of the climate change campaign”. It mocks the idea that air pollution is dangerous and has proposed abolishing the planning system. “We need to conquer nature, not bow to it,” it contends. “Let’s make the ‘human footprint’ even bigger.”

"Well, there goes the neighbourhood!"

ed110220

Martyn1981 wrote: »

I've no idea how important this is (or isn't) but I think we should be aware that Koch (pronounced like Coke) money is now being 'invested' in the UK's ...... can I say media(?) These guys are behind the funding of much of the FF promotion in the US, astro-turfing (fake grass roots campaigns against renewables deployments) and campaign funding for climate denying Republicans.

Now they are funding 'Spiked' never heard of them before, but they seem to have some interesting views!

How US billionaires are fuelling the hard-right cause in Britain


"Well, there goes the neighbourhood!"

They were notorious in a minor way during the 1990s (Blair years mainly I think) but then I think the novelty and shock value wore off and people stopped noticing them. A bit like the first "pile of bricks in the Tate" got everyone's attention, but after a while that sort of art didn't shock or interest the public any more.

While it's concerning the Kochs have turned their attention to Britain, I don't think there is much to worry about from this small group of bizarre ex-Trotskyists. Too odd. Too crude. Too juvenile.

Martyn1981

This is a bit scary:

US and Russia ally with Saudi Arabia to water down climate pledge

The US and Russia have thrown climate talks into disarray by allying with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to water down approval of a landmark report on the need to keep global warming below 1.5C.

After a heated two-and-a-half-hour debate on Saturday night, the backwards step by the four major oil producers shocked delegates at the UN climate conference in Katowice as ministers flew in for the final week of high-level discussions.

It has also raised fears among scientists that the US president, Donald Trump, is going from passively withdrawing from climate talks to actively undermining them alongside a coalition of climate deniers.

Fingers crossed that the economical benefits of RE have arrived just in time to head off 'the deniers' and FF interests, but unless folk in the UN, and dare I say the US, take some action, we could be in for a bumpy ride.

Martyn1981

Sorry about this, but it's all getting a bit 'political' at the moment.

Tackle climate or face financial crash, say world's biggest investors

Global investors managing $32tn issued a stark warning to governments at the UN climate summit on Monday, demanding urgent cuts in carbon emissions and the phasing out of all coal burning. Without these, the world faces a financial crash several times worse than the 2008 crisis, they said.

The investors include some of the world’s biggest pension funds, insurers and asset managers and marks the largest such intervention to date. They say fossil fuel subsidies must end and substantial taxes on carbon be introduced.

Investment firm Schroders said there could be $23tn of global economic losses a year in the long term without rapid action. This permanent economic damage would be almost four times the scale of the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis. Standard and Poor’s rating agency also warned leaders: “Climate change has already started to alter the functioning of our world.”

The good news, this reminds me of the Ghandi quote: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

I'd suggest we are well into the fight stage, and the opposition is struggling as they lose the economic argument, the jobs argument, and support from non-FF companies and finance.

GreatApe

michaels wrote: »

So effectively you are using a combined nature/thermal cycle to capture excess co2 from the atmosphere and generating useful energy as a bi-product!

But why build the infrastructure to do this when the capital can be used to build out more wind/pv instead? Even if it is a good idea it is not a good idea for at least the next 20 years

And if humans really are the primary driver of CO2 increases then once we electrify the grid heating and transport then CO2 levels should naturally go down again assuming humans current ff use is the primary reason for CO2 equilibrium shift

Plus once this episode is over I doubt you will find anyone who actually supports humans actively trying to drive down FF concentration in the atmosphere. It is a huge risk not worth taking. A warming world is better than an ice age by an unimaginable amount.

Coastalwatch

Collaboration working for the benefit of Academies and the planet!

Campbell & Kennedy completes 500kW school solar installs in multi-million-pound academy trust scheme.

The installs, completed on eight schools owned by the two trusts, total around 1,800 panels and have a combined capacity of more than 500KWp.

Both trusts were spending around £2.7 million each year on energy, while a £1 million, five-year lighting replacement programme was also required. This resulted in a wide-scale energy efficiency programme designed specifically to address the lighting replacement, but also reduce energy bills and CO2 emissions.

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/list

Coastalwatch

Second life car batteries being put to good use. Wouldn't mind a few of those in my garage!

Water utility Northumbrian Water is to pilot the use of battery storage units at a number of its sites under a new partnership with developer Argonaut Power.

The terms of the agreement will see Argonaut oversee the installation of second-life Renault EV batteries, with all engineering work conducted by Connected Energy.

“We believe we have created something unique and innovative through a combination of technical and financial engineering. As far as we know, we’re the only fully-funded solution offering 30-year storage installations to C&I customers under a revenue sharing agreement, boosting site profitability.”

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/northumbrian_water_to_pilot_battery_storage_under_argonaut_power_deal