Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

JKenH

ABrass wrote: »

Groupthink is always possible, then again it's possible to be paranoid and have enemies. Having said all that, this thread was just sneaking back on topic again, 7 year old studies don't count as news.

If everybody has the same enemy (GA) then that does still point to Groupthink.

You are quite right about paranoia. Mart has been making posts about me knocking him and running a campaign against him and others have remarked he is getting paranoid but GA who is reviled by the in-group takes it on the chin and doesn’t show any hint of paranoia.

The 7 year old study (if it was the one about wind farm degradation you were referring to) was actually posted on a different thread, not in news.

pile-o-stone

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/08/20/this-ev-is-huge-bright-green-never-needs-recharging/

"The beauty of this beast is that it is an electric vehicle that never has to be recharged. As it descends from the top of quarry near Biel, Switzerland with a its 65 ton load of rocks, it produces more electricity from regenerative braking than it uses to ascend to the top once again.

On a recent trip, the eDumper reached the top of the quarry with an 80% state of charge. When it was done with the journey, the state of charge was 88%. The electric truck makes 20 trips a day and creates more than 200 kWh of surplus energy every day or 77 megawatt-hours a year, according to Green Car Reports. By contrast, an equivalent dump truck powered by a diesel engine would consume up to 22,000 gallons of diesel fuel and spew 196 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year."

pile-o-stone

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/08/20/meet-planted-the-startup-making-plant-based-chicken-from-pea-protein/

"Swiss company Planted has concocted a plant-based chicken that, well, tastes like chicken. The startup is part of a growing movement to create plant-based alternatives to meat, joining the likes of Impossible Burger, Beyond Meat, and various other companies offering plant-based beef products. But for Planted, chicken was first on the list to tackle.

Planted makes its “chicken” with just four ingredients: pea protein, pea fibers, sunflower oil, and water. Co-founders Pascal Bieri, Lukas Böni, and Eric Stirnemann aim to keep the ingredient list as simple as possible, while still being able to recreate the texture and flavor of real meat. Ultimately, they’d like to entice meat-eaters to consume less meat, offering up planted.chicken as a tasty, healthy and cruelty-free alternative."

pile-o-stone

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/08/20/zeroavia-testing-hydrogen-powered-electric-airplanes/

"ZeroAvia, based in Hollister, California, announced this week it is developing short range electric airplanes powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Its plan is to build airplanes that can carry 10 to 20 passengers on flights of no more than 500 miles. ZeroAvia claims its airplanes will be cheaper to manufacture and operate than conventional aircraft."

pile-o-stone

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/08/19/onshore-wind-in-europe-could-meet-100-of-global-energy-needs/

"Researchers at the University of Sussex in the UK and Aarhus University in Denmark say Europe has the capacity to produce more than 100 times more renewable energy from onshore wind farms than it does today. Their study was published recently in the journal Energy Policy. It analyzes all the sites in Europe that are suitable for onshore wind farms and finds Europe has the potential to supply enough energy — 52.5 terawatts of nameplate capacity — for the whole world until 2050."

pile-o-stone

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/08/19/old-wind-farm-has-a-secret-weapon-up-its-turbine-towers/

"New wind farm projects tend to get a lot of attention, but older arrays are due for their 15 minutes of fame in the renewable energy revolution, too. That’s because on top of those aged wind turbine towers sits a signifianct opportunity to squeeze many more megawatts out of the same site, as demonstrated by PacifiCorp’s new wind farm repowering project in Wyoming.

The Portland-based energy company PacifiCorp (a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway) has been making preparations to upgrade its older wind resources for a while now. Last week it completed one of the last big pieces of the wind puzzle by acquiring full ownership of Foote Creek I, a 41.4-megawatt wind farm located, somewhat ironically, in a Wyoming county that goes by the name of Carbon.

First commissioned back in 1999 as a demonstration project after years of planning, Foote Creek belongs to an early generation of utility-scale wind projects in the US. Its 68 turbine towers still sport their original 600-kilowatt Mitsubishi generators.

Though the turbines are aging, PacifiCorp is not shy about crediting Foote Creek with sparking the company’s early-adopter, vanguard status as a wind energy investor over the past 20 years:

“The success of the facility and ongoing technological advancements led PacifiCorp to invest billions of dollars in low-cost wind energy, create associated tax revenue benefits and new wind energy jobs in rural communities in Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon. PacifiCorp is today the largest regulated utility owner of wind assets in the West.”

If all goes according to plan with the repowering project, the Foote Creek upgrade could also motivate other wind asset owners to go ahead and take advantage of improvements in turbine technology.

Pacificorp is looking at an increase of 60% in overall energy output for the facility while maintaining its peak output capability, even though the number of wind turbine towers will plummet from 68 to just 13."

JKenH

pile-o-stone wrote: »

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/08/20/this-ev-is-huge-bright-green-never-needs-recharging/

"The beauty of this beast is that it is an electric vehicle that never has to be recharged. As it descends from the top of quarry near Biel, Switzerland with a its 65 ton load of rocks, it produces more electricity from regenerative braking than it uses to ascend to the top once again.

On a recent trip, the eDumper reached the top of the quarry with an 80% state of charge. When it was done with the journey, the state of charge was 88%. The electric truck makes 20 trips a day and creates more than 200 kWh of surplus energy every day or 77 megawatt-hours a year, according to Green Car Reports. By contrast, an equivalent dump truck powered by a diesel engine would consume up to 22,000 gallons of diesel fuel and spew 196 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year."

That is amazing. I had always been sceptical about commercial vehicles being powered by electricity at least with current battery technology but there must be loads of situations worldwide where this could work.

ABrass

pile-o-stone wrote: »

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/08/19/old-wind-farm-has-a-secret-weapon-up-its-turbine-towers/

"New wind farm projects tend to get a lot of attention, but older arrays are due for their 15 minutes of fame in the renewable energy revolution, too. That’s because on top of those aged wind turbine towers sits a signifianct opportunity to squeeze many more megawatts out of the same site, as demonstrated by PacifiCorp’s new wind farm repowering project in Wyoming.

The Portland-based energy company PacifiCorp (a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway) has been making preparations to upgrade its older wind resources for a while now. Last week it completed one of the last big pieces of the wind puzzle by acquiring full ownership of Foote Creek I, a 41.4-megawatt wind farm located, somewhat ironically, in a Wyoming county that goes by the name of Carbon.

First commissioned back in 1999 as a demonstration project after years of planning, Foote Creek belongs to an early generation of utility-scale wind projects in the US. Its 68 turbine towers still sport their original 600-kilowatt Mitsubishi generators.

Though the turbines are aging, PacifiCorp is not shy about crediting Foote Creek with sparking the company’s early-adopter, vanguard status as a wind energy investor over the past 20 years:

“The success of the facility and ongoing technological advancements led PacifiCorp to invest billions of dollars in low-cost wind energy, create associated tax revenue benefits and new wind energy jobs in rural communities in Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon. PacifiCorp is today the largest regulated utility owner of wind assets in the West.”

If all goes according to plan with the repowering project, the Foote Creek upgrade could also motivate other wind asset owners to go ahead and take advantage of improvements in turbine technology.

Pacificorp is looking at an increase of 60% in overall energy output for the facility while maintaining its peak output capability, even though the number of wind turbine towers will plummet from 68 to just 13."

This story is interesting, although the spin in the article is odd, they aren't refurbing or replacing the turbines, they're ripping out the old farm and putting a new one in. The old turbines can then be recycled for all the lovely metals to use in more turbines.

Older farms have smaller, weaker, turbines. However once you've got the grid connections you can rebuild the farm with larger more capable turbines with a lot less fuss.

pile-o-stone

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/08/16/health-benefits-of-renewable-energy-far-outweigh-the-costs-say-mit-researchers/

"There is a lot of hoopla and hyperventilating in the press about how expensive renewable energy will be. “Redesigning the electrical grid to interface efficiently with distributed renewables will cost a lot of money,” the gloomsters (who are paid by the fossil fuel industry) all say. Yes, progress costs money. The interstate highway system was expensive but it unlocked a massive increase in economic productivity that far outweighed its cost.

Researchers at MIT have published a new study that claims the economic value of the health benefits realized by meeting the renewable portfolio standards already in place in several states will exceed the cost of meeting those standards by a wide margin.

What is interesting about the MIT study is that it has nothing to do with global warming or rising carbon dioxide levels. Burning fossil fuels — any fossil fuels — creates pollutants known as fine particulate matter. These tiny particles of soot less than 2.5 microns in size can transfer directly into the bloodstream in the lungs.

Once absorbed into the body, they promote heart and lung disease, making us sick and in some cases shortening our lives. The illnesses attributed to fine particulate matter have economic consequences such as medical bills, lost income, and reduced productivity. Lowering the amount of fine particulates would have what economists call “health co-benefits.”

According to MIT associate professor Noelle Selin, those health co-benefits add up to a lot of money — so much, in fact, that the benefits more than pay for the wind and solar systems needed to meet the renewable portfolio standards already in place in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.

Those states were chosen because they tend to get more of their electricity from coal-fired generating stations than other US states. As a group, their renewable energy targets are quite modest, averaging just 13% renewables by 2030. The research was published this month in the journal Environmental Research Letters."

pile-o-stone

ABrass wrote: »

This story is interesting, although the spin in the article is odd, they aren't refurbing or replacing the turbines, they're ripping out the old farm and putting a new one in. The old turbines can then be recycled for all the lovely metals to use in more turbines.

Older farms have smaller, weaker, turbines. However once you've got the grid connections you can rebuild the farm with larger more capable turbines with a lot less fuss.

And with a lot less turbines. 68 old turbines replaced by 13 modern ones. Or you can fit 68 new turbines and generate five times the amount of energy.