Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

GreatApe

JKenH wrote: »

What follows is not in any way intended to be political so not having a go at Labour or the Guardian for reporting this.

I was surprised that the savings quoted would be only up to £200 so that led me to look into what is a zero carbon home and it is not what most of the general public would expect.
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At least on an annual basis it should be possible to make new build houses almost net zero

Solar panels on both sides of the roof could allow 10KWp and generation of about 6MWh a year which can just about provide for heating and electricity needs. Especially with an air to air heat pump providing some efficient base load heat to be supplemented by resistance heaters

Still it won't be a huge saving for the household as they would export a lot of this energy for 3-5p a unit and import grid electricity for 15p a unit due to the feast and famine nature of solar output and no way to store it's seasonal variation. So the monetary saving would be small

Also of course to install 10KWp of solar wouldn't come cheap as a guess you're looking at no less than £8 for a builder to add this and that £££ is likely to be passed onto the buyer so over a 25 year mortgage that will add about £450/year to the mortgage


I wonder if it's actually worthwhile
With the grid more or less solved over the 2020 period any electricity only house is only consuming clean grid electricity anyway. Probably okay to have regulations to make buildings highly insulated but probably not productive to force solar onto them certainly not for both sides. However what I'd like is that builders should be forced to allow the option for a customer to add 5KWp of solar for £4k as an additional extra. A good number will go for it even if it isn't economical.

ABrass

JKenH wrote: »

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/01/extinction-rebellion-protester-cleared-criminal-damage-arguing/

An Extinction Rebellion protester has been cleared of criminal damage for spray-painting a council building after successfully arguing she was acting to defend her property.

Ms Ditchfield, from King's Hedges Cambridge, argued she had a legal excuse to commit the vandalism as she believed there was an immediate threat to her property from climate disaster, a defence that can be used in minor cases of criminal damage.



Comment witheld.

The silly end of the XR stuff is sadly edging onto the counter productive scale. Like the twit who blocked a tube train into Canary Wharf. They've generally managed fairly well to keep the pain on point and keep people on side. Hopefully that'll continue and less sillyness, but I'm not holding my breath.

ABrass

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/11/02/utility-adds-2-5-mw-of-demand-response-capabilities-with-very-unusual-batteries/

The company has spent years optimizing an algorithm that takes into account typical hot water usage, so as to maximize the positive outcome and still supply hot water when needed. Here in Hawaii, peak demand time (about 5–9 PM on weekdays) is a time when the grid is strained, and when the most dirty energy is being used. So, by shifting the time a water heater kicks on and warms up to times when there is excess solar on the grid, the technology can help reduce the peak demand, and therefore, the amount of dirty, expensive energy that is used during that time.

Demand shifting in action!

Solarchaser

500l at 5 bar and 170c.

Wouldn't want to be the guy having a shower when your 3 bar of 10c cold water is trying to fight against 5 bar of 170c water to provide 40c, plus the fact it will come through as steam lol

Be interesting trying to fill that tank with 3 bar of mains, while its pushing out 5bar

silverwhistle

ABrass wrote: »

Demand shifting in action!

Which of course individuals with solar have been practising for years!

GreatApe

Solarchaser wrote: »

500l at 5 bar and 170c.

Wouldn't want to be the guy having a shower when your 3 bar of 10c cold water is trying to fight against 5 bar of 170c water to provide 40c, plus the fact it will come through as steam lol

Be interesting trying to fill that tank with 3 bar of mains, while its pushing out 5bar

Pressure reducing valves exist
Plus I wasn't suggesting you draw the hot water directly it would be via a heat exchanger likewise the central heating would be via a heat exchanger

The central heating would be 1-2 bar
The hot water whatever the mains is at 1.5-3 bar
Inside the tank anywhere from 1 bar to 10 bar depending on the temperature of the tank

The water in the tank would be filled once and never used it's just a thermal store

Martyn1981

I was shocked at this news, but further down the article (should have been at the top I think) we discover this isn't thermal coal, but for coking and steel production.

Government under fire for approval of new coalmine in Cumbria

Martyn1981

Chris Goodall is back with his Carbon Commentary newsletter, and here are a number of items he listed that are all related around the use of renewables, storage & hydrogen:

1, 'Flexing' nuclear. Rising PV penetration poses problems for grids with large amounts nuclear power. High solar output at midday combined with inflexible nuclear implies periods of excess supply. A new US research programme will add electrolysers to power stations to make hydrogen at these times. The hydrogen from these experiments will be used for transport fuel, reduction of iron ore and other commercial uses. At one nuclear plant, the largest in the US, a ‘reverse electrolyser’ will be installed that can operate either to generate hydrogen or to turn it back to electricity in a fuel cell when electricity supplies are short.

2, Low carbon fuels for sea transport. Not before time, the world shipping industry is beginning to think about the transition away from the nasty fossil fuels it currently uses. Maersk, the largest shipping container company, says that it will have its first full carbon-neutral deep-sea vessel by 2030 and its research suggests the possible fuels are biomethane, alcohols such as ethanol, or ammonia. Dry bulk specialist Oldendorff carried out similar research, this time ruling out biofuels and focusing on ammonia. The shipping industry faces difficulties with the potential toxicity of ammonia, but it is increasingly looking like the energy source of choice for long-distance routes.

3, Wind to hydrogen. This is a truly exemplary project. The German government announced the funding for a wind-to-hydrogen project in the windy north west of the country. The project organiser is the operator of an oil refinery that uses hydrogen. A 30 MW system will provide the initial experimental data – and enough H2 for the refinery’s own needs – by 2025, with the intention to expand up to 700 MW. (These numbers put the project into the top rank of renewable hydrogen schemes worldwide). A dedicated offshore wind farm will produce hydrogen for conversion into renewable aviation fuel. The oxygen from the electrolyser will go to a cement plant. There, 100% oxygen will mean that the exhaust gas from the works will be pure CO2, decreasing the cost of carbon capture. The heat from the electrolyser will flow into a district heating scheme.


5, Fuel cell heavy trucks. Although Japanese and Korean car manufacturers still believe fuel cell private cars have a good chance of beating battery vehicles, I’m deeply sceptical. The steep cost reductions we continue to see in batteries make it very difficult for fuel cells to compete. Charging times will fall as cars become capable of accepting more than 50 kilowatts. It is a different story for heavy long-distance trucks. I haven’t checked the data but I’m told that a truck with ten tonne capacity might have two tonnes of batteries on board, significantly curtailing its cargo carrying capability. Fuel cells might work well, and we’re seeing rapidly increasing interest from the global manufacturers. Cummins showed an impressive concept vehicle at the main North American show. Hyundai did the same, focusing on the potential design advantages of hydrogen vehicles, including more space for driver amenities, such as a shower and cooking facilities.


9, Adding large amount of renewables to the UK grid. In another recent blog post, I argued for what I call ‘massive overbuilding’ of renewables as the cheapest route to full and rapid decarbonisation across the economy. I used data from the UK in September to estimate that if the country multiplied its use of grid-connected wind by six times, it would have supplied sufficient electricity to cover total power needs (not all energy, just electricity). The key conclusion is that if temporary surpluses had been converted to hydrogen, then used in power plants to match periods of wind deficit, the overall cost would have been equivalent to using combined cycle gas turbines equipped with carbon capture. These calculations were based on recent auction prices for UK North Sea wind farms, combined with UK government figures for the cost of gas with carbon capture. This work is at an early stage and critical comments are very welcome.

10, Small scale synthetic fuels. This is my favourite project from the eight months I been away from this newsletter. A trial installation at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany is producing 10 litres of fully carbon-free aviation fuel a day. This happens in a shipping container that captures CO2 from the air and contains an electrolyser to make hydrogen from hydrogen* and then combines them in a Fischer Tropsch process to make long chain hydrocarbons. The plan is to expand up to a couple of thousand litres a day in a pre-commercial version. One of the most impressive features of this technology is that it will work at small scale, so microgrids seeking to store energy will be able to use single shipping containers. Equally importantly, Karlsruhe promised what seem very high levels of energy conversion efficiency, estimating that 60% of the electricity going to the plant will come out in the energy of liquid fuels.

* I assume that should be 'water'.

Here is a link for anyone wishing to subscribe to the newsletter.

Martyn1981

Growing pressure, this time from charities and the CBI, to accelerate UK government action on the climate crisis:

Charities say next UK government must bring forward climate targets

The next government must bring forward the target for reaching net-zero carbon emissions by five years to 2045, phase out diesel and petrol cars by 2030 instead of 2040, and start devoting at least 5% of all government spending to the climate and the restoration of the UK’s natural environment, a broad coalition of civil society groups has demanded.

They have written to the leaders of all the UK’s main political parties, citing the UK’s hosting of next year’s UN conference on the climate, known as COP26, as the catalyst for strengthening existing goals in line with scientific advice.

“[Next year] will be crucial for the future of our planet and presents opportunities for the UK to enhance its reputation as a global leader on these issues,” they wrote, on 17 October, before the general election was called. “Global leadership will depend on strong evidence of domestic delivery.”

Separately, the UK’s largest business organisation, the CBI, called on the next government to “kick off a decade of climate change action”, demanding tougher regulations to make buildings more energy efficient, clear policies to drive the uptake of electric vehicles, a new post-Brexit carbon pricing regime for businesses, and a new strategy for carbon capture and storage.

“We are asking the government to turn 2020 into a year of action,” said Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI. “We have the deadline of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow next November, so let’s use it to kickstart the UK’s net-zero plans and see how much we can achieve in the next 12 months.”

ABrass

Bristol are banning diesels from the city center in 2021.

The city council voted on Tuesday, following a public consultation, to impose a total ban on all privately owned diesel vehicles during the day in the city centre. The scheme, which still needs government approval, is due to start in 2021.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/05/bristol-becomes-first-uk-city-ban-diesel-cars